What do You Use for "V WRAP"?

[Danny D]

Hi guys...

I have a designer question that I've often wondered about. When creating a path mapping, there are 2 boxes. "U WRAP" and "V WRAP"...

What do you put in the "V WRAP" column, and why?

TIA,

Dan

[EJ55]

Hi Dan,

I usually put 10 in the v-wrap but have put less and can use more depending on the alpha channel. I've always used roughly that number and felt it worked.

The way I remember it is a texture basically takes up 16 foot square by default the v-wrap is a ten you're seeing more of the blend in a shorter span assuming it's not a consistent gradient blur type blend as an alpha TGA..



Since we're on the subject he U-wrap can be used to adjust the blend up or down within the path.

Hopefully I can explain this well enough to understand for those that may want to use it. Say we have a 50/50 blend type texture but someone may have use that would require 70% of one side 30% of the other side of the texture .70 or .30 in the U-wrap would adjust that blend.

[Duck Hook]

I always put 7 in the v wrap for no other reason that It was suggested by Mike Jones in one of his tutorials on creating bunker lips many, many years ago. I find this produces the right results for me so have never bothered to experiment with the setting.

That is interesting about the u wrap as I had no idea what it was for, lol. That could be very handy, thanks...

Cheers
T

[Ian Wells]

Hopefully I can explain this well enough to understand for those that may want to use it. Say we have a 50/50 blend type texture but someone may have use that would require 70% of one side 30% of the other side of the texture .70 or .30 in the U-wrap would adjust that blend.

You have just exploded my last remaining brain cell.

I use 10 for the V rap for a reason I can't remember, but after Todd stated he uses 7 for the bunkers I will certainly look to see if I can notice any difference.

I don't believe I have ever used a U rap other than 1.

What settings do you use Dan?

Ian

[Adelade]

Personally using V 10 about 98% of the time - because most of the time when I use path mappings it is simply for standard seamblends. A rare few times Ive had "special" situations with unusual alphas, textures and/or terrain shapes where I experimented with both U and V wrappings to get more desirable results, so it can certainly help to play around with it sometimes.

Dan, are you possibly asking about when using path mappings aside from seamblending?

[Danny D]

Hi guys. Thanks for your input.

Adelade, I was referring to programming seam blends.

When I first started, I think I saw in one of Les' videos that he used 10. So ever since I started I've been using 10. However, I've put some thought into this recently and I think I may have stumbled upon something. I wanted to get some thoughts from other designers before I bring it up.

I'll describe what I think MIGHT be happening. I've never actually seen this in an instruction manual, so this is just a guess on my part. Don't take it as factual.

It appears to me as if the V WRAP might be a planar setting for the seam blend textures and the alpha. I'll try to explain.

I noticed when I created a path mapping and entered the number for the V WRAP, that half of the path mapping was distorted. For example, if I were blending rough to teebox and set the V on 10, you can easily see that half of the path is the teebox texture, and the other half is the rough. Assuming all of my textures are using the same planar size as default, then their "Uniform Scale" sizes would all be 16.

I am starting to think that the V WRAP should be set to 16, which is the same size as the "UNIFORM SCALE" size of your textures. I also think it straightens out the "ALPHA" planar size. I have noticed in past work that sometimes those blends can look a bit distorted, or at least the alpha does.

Here are 3 examples of the differences in the V WRAP settings. One is set to 4, another at 10, and another at 16.

blend4.jpg (1.74 MiB) Viewed 3583 times

blend10.jpg (1.71 MiB) Viewed 3583 times

blend16.jpg (1.71 MiB) Viewed 3583 times

You may need to download these to get a close-up view, but look at the differences in the alpha in this blend. The 16 (which matches the planars "uniform scale" is not distorted like the 4 and the 10.

Any thoughts on this theory?

Dan

[linkster]

Hi Danny D!

I think what you are describing is an extension of what Eddie is talking about. The default planar size of 16 covers a square of 16ft x 16ft. A path mapping with a v wrap size of 16 maps the alpha to 16ft long until it starts again and repeats. Changing the v wrap to 4 or 10 would repeat the path mapped alpha every 4 ft and 10 ft which is squished compared to 16ft. This is the way I think about path mapping.

I never messed around with the u wrap settings but it is neat that it can offset the path mapping. Thanks Eddie!

I used all 512x512 alpha's for Augusta and the simple blur seam blends were v wrapped at 8. The inside bunker edge seam blend was a v wrap of 6 to produce a more evenly repeated jagged looked.

[EJ55]

Hi Danny D!

I think what you are describing is an extension of what Eddie is talking about. The default planar size of 16 covers a square of 16ft x 16ft. A path mapping with a v wrap size of 16 maps the alpha to 16ft long until it starts again and repeats. Changing the v wrap to 4 or 10 would repeat the path mapped alpha every 4 ft and 10 ft which is squished compared to 16ft. This is the way I think about path mapping.

I never messed around with the u wrap settings but it is neat that it can offset the path mapping. Thanks Eddie!

I used all 512x512 alpha's for Augusta and the simple blur seam blends were v wrapped at 8. The inside bunker edge seam blend was a v wrap of 6 to produce a more evenly repeated jagged looked.

Yeah, after given it much thought I'll state the obvious, I don't believe it's a one size fits all. There are blends that will look better at the longer distances than tighter, then there are some like the gradient blends that don't matter the numerical value on the V-wrap.

Glad to have helped with information on the U-wrap, friends!

[Danny D]

I want to thank you guys for your input. I've been using a 16 for the past several days for all of my seam blends because all of my textures are 1024x1024, and so far they look good. It would make sense to use 8 for a 512 texture. I've never found much use for the U wrap. I have played around with it a few times, but have never been able to actually make use of it. It seems to shift everything to the side which leaves one side badly distorted.

Thanks again guys.

Dan