How to Control Material IDs and UVWs

RailClone provides a powerful set of tools to control the UVW mapping and Material IDs of segments. Not only is RailClone able to Randomise material IDs and adjust the position, rotation and scale of existing UVW coordinates, but it is also possible to generate new box mapped UVWs automatically that follow the source path. This is ideal for situations where you need the texture to bridge multiple adjacent segments and create the illusion of a seamless unified surface.

Randomising and Sequencing Mat IDs​

RailClone includes a Material operator that allows you to select a material ID and randomise or sequence it between a minimum and maximum value. To use it, all you need to do is wire a new Material node between a segment and the generator, choose the material ID to randomise using the Replace Material ID value, and set the Range using From and To values:

Exercise: Randomising Shirt Colours​

To see how this works in practice we will edit a style to randomise the colour of t-shirts between 4 colours. To see the existing style, open chapter_4_randomise_ids_start.max from the downloads for this tutorial. This style uses two segments: the t-shirt on the hanger, and a separate hook.

When randomising IDs it's important that the source geometry and materials are set up correctly. You'll need to know the material IDs of the elements you wish to randomise and also the range of IDs in the multi/sub object material that you intend randomise between. In the following example the T-Shirt has separate ID's for the logo colour and the sleeves.

The material is created so that each colour is divided into two blocks of 4 colours, with the logo between ID 4 and ID 7 and the sleeves between ID 8 and ID 11

With that information, we can update the style to randomise the colour of the sleeves.

1. There are two shirt styles already in the scene, select rc_shirts_1 (we'll use the other one for the next exercise).
2. Open the Style Editor.

1. Create a new Material operator and wire it between the existing Randomise operator and the Generator.

   

2. Select the Material node and go to the properties panel. The sleeves use Material ID 8 to enter this value for Replace Material ID.

3. To set the range enter 8 is the "From" value and 11 in the To value.

   

The sleeves are now randomised between 4 colours!

Randomising multiple IDs​

As you can see, the Material operator can only randomise or sequence one ID at a time. If you would like to randomise multiple IDs then this can be easily achieved by wiring together a sequence of material operators as shown below.

Exercise: Randomising the logo colour​

In the T-Shirt example we have randomised the sleeves but not the logo. To randomise this as well, follow these steps.

1. Wire a second Material operator between the existing Material node and the generator.

   

2. Change the new Material operator's Replace Material ID value to 4. Set the "From" value to 4 and the To value to 7. The logo and the sleeves are now randomised!

   

Randomising by RailClone object, spline, spline section or segment​

In the clothes example you will notice that the sleeves and the logos are randomised separately so the colours often do not match. If you need to synchronise the colour of different material IDs on the same segment then you will have to set up the two Material operators slightly differently. Instead of using the From and To values to set the randomised range, you can export the values and wire them to a Random number node.

The Random Number node is useful for those parameters that do not already have a randomisation feature, or if you want more control over when a new random number is generated. For example Segment and Transform nodes already have parameters to randomise the translation, rotation and scale of a segment, but they generate a new number for every segment. What if you wanted to generate a new value only at the start or for each spline, section, or y evenly row? For this you can use the Randomise node to precisely

control when a new random number is generated, and because the value is exposed it can be wired to multiple nodes so that values can be synchronised or offset using arithmetic operations.

Exercise: Matching the sleeves and logo colour​

In the shirt example we have 2 block of material ids: The logo IDs are between 4 and 7, and by adding 4 to these values we get the corresponding sleeve colours, between 8 and 11. To make sure they are always in sync we need only create a single Random number node that picks a number between 3 and 7 for the logo and then wire this to an arithmetic node that adds 4 to get the corresponding sleeve colour:

To test this, select the second RailClone object, open the style editor and then follow these steps:

1. Wire a new Material operator between the existing Randomise node and the Generator.

2. Set the Replace Material ID value to 4.

3. Right-click on the Material node and export From and To.

   

4. Create a new Random number node and connect it to the Material node's From and To inputs.

5. From the Properties panel, set Random number node's Min value to 4 and Max value to 7.

6. Set the Random Node's Generator On node to Segment. The logos should now be randomised.

   

7. To randomise the sleeves, wire a second new Material operator between the existing Material node and the generator, then right-click on the new Material node and export From and To.

8. Create an Arithmetic node and wire the output to the new Material node's From and To inputs. Leave the arithmetic node set to its default Addition node.

9. Wire the Random Number node to the Arithmetic node's first input.

10. Create a new Constant node and set its value to 4. Wire this to the Arithmetic node's second input.

11. You will now have a style with randomised colours, but this time the logo and sleeve colours match!

    

Exercise: Randomising by spline and spline section​

In a second example, the Randomise operator is used to add different colours to curtains to add some variety to an exterior view. As you can see the same problem has arisen where each individual curtain takes a different random colour.

It is unlikely that somebody would use different coloured curtains in the same window, so let's fix this using the technique demonstrated in the t-shirts exercise above. We'll then look at how we can ensure the curtains are the same in every room as well as every window.

1. Open chapter_4_curtains_start.max from the downloads for this tutorial.
2. Select the Curtains RailClone object and open the Style Editor.

1. Right-click on the Material node and export From and To.

   

2. Create a new Random number node and connect it to the Material node's From and To inputs.

3. This time there are 10 materials in the multi-sub object material for the curtains so go to the Properties Panel, set the Random number node's Min value to 1 and Max value to 10.

   

4. Set the Random Node's Generator On node to X Spline Section.

   

5. Because the curtain in each window are on the same spline section they will now match.

   

   This looks better, but it is likely that several of those windows are shared by a single room.

   For the sake of this exercise, let's assume that each balcony marks a single room. This file has been set up so that each balcony and set of windows and curtains is using its own spline segment. Therefore, to ensure all the curtains within the same room are the same we can simply change the Randomise operators Generate On value to X Spline Start.

   

6. Each room now shares curtains of the same colour. You can use the Randomise operator in this way for any Parameter in RailClone. In this example we have used it to control when to randomise Material IDs, but you could also use it for transforms, Selector > index, and anything else with an exportable parameter.

   

Exercise: Using the Randomise operator to create a sequence of material IDs​

A less well-known feature of the Material operator is the ability to cycle through a sequence of material IDs. In this exercise we'll create a pattern on a hot air balloon using this feature. The RailClone hot air balloon uses 3 generators: An A2S generator for the balloon itself with the shape generated using two spline, an L1S generator to create a skirt around the bottom, and finally another A2S to position the basket. Click on the image below to see a larger view of the node tree.

The balloon has a material applied with 5 striped patters in material ID slots 1 - 5. The texture is the same for each material but has been vertically offset by a fifth each time it is used. By creating a sequence of these 5 materials we'll add a pattern to the balloon.

Here's how the balloon looks before we apply the material operator.

To create the pattern:

1. Open chaper_4_balloons_start.max from the downloads for this guide.

2. Select rc_balloon_1 and open the Style Editor.

3. The topmost A2S generator is responsible for creating the Balloon. Create a new Material operator and wire it between the Transform operator and the Generator's Default input.

4. Select the Material node and change the Mode to Sequence.

   

5. Enter 1 for the "From" value and 5 for the To value.

   

By sequencing the IDs in this way you should now have a pattern of 5 offset textures on the balloon.

We'll return to the balloons in the next section which looks at UVW XForm, another powerful modifier that enable you to adjust existing UVW coordinates on segments.

UVW XForm Operator​

The UVW XForm operator allows you to easily edit and randomise the offset, tiling and rotation of existing UVW coordinates. It's particularly useful when you need a lot of texture variation, but you don't want to have to create time-consuming Multi/Sub-Object materials and randomise material IDs. (Of course for even more variation - both techniques can be used together!)

Editing existing UVWs​

To help illustrate how the operator works, in the following gifs the texture shown above has been applied to a simple tile mesh. A single tile has been mapped before adding it to the RailClone style so that only one of the 256 coloured alphanumeric tiles are displayed.

You can choose to edit any Map Channel, or if you'd prefer to affect all the channels, turn on Apply to All Channels. if you want to adjust a limited selection of channels, for example map channels 1 and 3, you can use multiple UVW XForm operators wired together in series.

The Fixed group allows you to edit the Tiling, Offset, and Rotation if the existing mapping. There are independent controls for each of the U,V and W axes.

In the following short exercises we'll return to our balloon models and use the UVW XForm operator to edit the patterns. In all these examples we use only a single texture instead of the 5 required to create the pattern in the previous exercise.

Exercise: Editing UVW Tiling​

1. Open chaper_4_balloons_start.max from the downloads for this guide.

2. Select rc_balloon_2 and open the Style Editor.

3. Wire a new UVW XForm operator between the Transform operator and the Generator's Default input.

4. Select the UVW XForm node and set the Fixed > Tile > Y value to 3

   

   

Exercise: Editing UVW Offset​

In this example we use the sequence operator in conjunction with UVW Xform to create the pattern

1. Select rc_balloon_3 and open the Style Editor.

2. Wire a new Sequence operator between the Transform operator and the Generator's Default input.

3. Create a new UVW XForm operator and wire it to the Sequence operator's second input. Wire the Transform operator to the UVW Xform node's input.

   

4. Select the UVW XForm node and set the Fixed > Offset > Y value to 0.005m.

   

   

Exercise: Using Expressions with UVW Offset​

The last example was straight forward but what if we needed to offset the pattern many times. Rather than create and edit a lot UVW Xform nodes we can use just one with an expression.

1. Select rc_balloon_4 and open the Style Editor.

2. Wire a new UVW XForm operator between the Transform operator and the Generator's Default input.

3. Right-click on the UVW XForm node and export Fixed > Fixed Offset > Y.

4. Create a new Arithmetic operator and wire it to the UVW XForm node's Y Fixed Offset input.

   

5. Select Arithmetic node and change the Operation to Expression.

6. Click Edit Expression to open the editor window.

7. From the list of options on the left, find and double-click on SegmentXCounter. This will return the number of the current segment.

8. After this enter 0.25 to the finished expression reads

   SegmentXCounter 0.25

   This expression will offset the UVWs by 0.25 for every segment to create the pattern.

9. Click OK to close the Expression editor.

   

Exercise: Editing UVW rotation​

In this exercise we use the technique from the previous example, plus UVW rotation to create the spiralling pattern

1. Select rc_balloon_5 and open the Style Editor.

2. Wire a new UVW XForm operator between the Transform operator and the Generator's Default input.

3. Right-click on the UVW XForm node and export Fixed > Fixed Offset > Y.

4. Create a new Arithmetic operator and wire it to the UVW XForm node's Y Fixed Offset input.

   

5. Select the Arithmetic node and change the Operation to Expression.

6. Click Edit Expression to open the editor window.

7. Enter the expression SegmentXCounter\*0.2.

8. Select the UVW XForm operator and enter 12 in the Rotation property.

   

Randomising existing UVWs​

The UVW XForm operator also includes powerful randomising features. Using these you can create a tremendous amount of variation from a single map. There are separate controls to randomise the tiling, offset and rotation. All you need to do is click the checkbox and set a minimum of maximum value.

For an example of this technique in action, let's take a look at a cladding style.

1. Open chapter_4_wood_facade_start.max from the download for the tutorial. The wooden parts of the facade are using the texture show below.

   

2. The box segment has been mapped prior to importing into RailClone so that only a small portion (a single plank) is displayed.

   

3. Here's how this looks on a façade, as you can see the texture repetition is obvious. Let's fix it...

   

4. This scene actually has two RailClone objects, one nested inside the other. The wooden cladding is its own RailClone object, called rc_wood. This is so that each plank can be randomised individually. Rc_wood is added as a segment inside rc_facade to combine it with the windows. In this example we want to edit the wooden part of the facade so select rc_wood and open the Style Editor.

5. Add a new UVW XForm operator between the existing Transform node and the generator's Default input.

6. Go to the UVW XForm node's properties and click the Random tab to open the settings

7. Activate the Offset checkbox and enter - 0.01m for the U and V minimum values and 0.01m for the maximum values.

8. Each plank's UVWs will now be randomly offset, making it much harder to spot texture repetition.

   

To randomise UVWs using stepped increments​

As well as selecting any value from within a set range, you can also constrain the UVW XForm operator to randomise using only increments of a given step value. For example, you could set the rotation range from 0 to 360 degrees, then by using a step increment of 90, you ensure it only returns values of 0,90,180, and 270. You can do the same thing for Offset, and tile.

Let's take a look at a typical usage. In this example I have a single tile segment and one texture with 25 tiles in a 5 x 5 grid. Using the old workflow we'd have had to slice this texture up and create a multi sub object material with 25 material IDs. Using this operator we now only need 1 material.

As in the previous examples. You should already have edited the UVs on the segment's source geometry so that only one tile is displayed. Then, to randomise between all 25 tiles.

1. Open chapter_4_stepped_uvw_start.max from the downloads for this guide.
2. Select the RailClone object and open the Style Editor
3. Wire a new UVW XForm operator between the existing Randomise node and the Generator's Default input.
4. Go to the Random tab and activate Offset. Add a Start value of -10mm and an End value of 10mm to define the U and V ranges (assuming the scene units are set to centimetres, and the display units are in millimetres).
5. Enter a Step Increment value, this should be the UV space divide by the number of tiles along a side. In this case that's a UV space of 1 divided by 5 tiles, so we need to enter 0.2. The random values returned by the operator will be multiples of this figure.
6. We can add further variation by randomising the Rotation. Enter a Start value of 0 and End value of 360.
7. Next enter a Step Increment value of 90 degrees.

After applying this operator the textures displayed on each segment will now be one of 25 tiles, with 4 possible rotation angles.

Automatically Box Mapping Segments​

RailClone uses regular repeating segments to build objects, but this can result in obvious repetition of textures. To help alleviate this, RailClone allows you to automatically create UVWs that span several adjacent segments. To do this it uses a box mapping algorithm that is able to follow the path so if your segments deform to follow a curve - so will your box mapping! The diagram below illustrate before and after box mapping a balustrade. You can see in the first example the texture is repeated on each segment, but in the second example the texture continues seamlessly across all the segments

RailClone mapping

Exercise: Adding Box mapping to segments​

In this exercise we'll box map a simple curved wall. Without box mapping you can very clearly see the texture repetition.

To fix this, follow these steps.

1. Open chapter_4_box_mapping_start.max and select the RailClone object called rc_wall.

2. Open the Style Editor and select the Segment. From the Properties panel, choose the Deform tab and find Mapping.

3. Turn on Apply Box Mapping. You can either set the size of the box map using the Length. Width and Height settings, or if you are using materials with real world map size settings simply turn this option On. In this case we'll set a value of 400cm for the Length. 300cm for Width and 300cm for the Height.

   

4. You can also use the Rotation parameter to align the map correctly on the segment and set the UVW channels you wish to map. In this case we don't need to change the settings and the wall is now mapped. Texture repetition is dramatically reduced.

Related Tutorials​