zwischendrin.com

description

MightyTiles is a 3D Studio Max (2008 - 2013) plugin that procedurally creates realistic looking tile-based textures, like brick walls, tile floors, parquet, cobblestone pavements, and many more! These tiles are created from photos of single bricks, cobblestones, etc. Just select a set of tiles and MightyTiles creates a high resolution texture for you! During render time MightyTiles sticks them together alternating each tile by a set of adjustable random parameters. This saves you a lot of memory and lets you create huge high resolution textures made of millions of tiles! Forget about tiling artifacts (there are none) and mip-mapping (there is no need of them)!

MightyTiles demo & tutorial

Download our demo version for free and try MightyTiles before you buy it. The MightyTiles demo has a watermark on the texture and access to randomization parameters is restricted. You can download MightyTiles demo here. You can easily get started with MightyTiles using this small MightyTiles tutorial in our blog on zwischendrin.com, showing you how to begin by creating a wall textured with a tile set included in MightyTiles: MightyTiles tutorial

key features

Procedural texture generation based on real photos
The procedural approach in combination with real photos enables a maximum of flexibility (variable arrangement, color variations, pattern variations etc.) and realism (detailed photos of real bricks, cobblestones etc.).

Memory efficient
The memory usage is independent from the amount of tiles in the final texture. It only depends on the tile sets used. This enables arbitrary huge textures at an almost constant cost of memory.

Highly detailed
Due to the usage of detailed tile bitmaps, large textures can be created. Even scaled tiles look great.

Forget about mip-maps
MightyTiles textures are created camera-dependent during render time, making mip-maps needless. Different texture resolutions for different camera settings are redundant as MightyTiles always creates the optimal texture for the current camera settings.

MightyTiles TileDesigner
The TileDesigner lets you create your own set of tiles for every purpose you need. You can also alter the provided tile sets to fit your needs best.

Random arrangement
The arrangement of tiles in the texture is controlled by pseudo random numbers. By choosing different seeds you can change the arrangement only, everything else stays untouched! And remember: same seed numbers always create the same arrangement.

Random transformation
MightyTiles lets you randomly modify the position, rotation, size, and even inclination (via displacement and bump mapping) of each tile.

Random color
The color of each tile can be changed tile by tile via pseudo random numbers providing more variations for your texture.

Pattern variations
MightyTiles comes with a set of predefined patterns (bond patterns). By keeping all other settings you can switch between 15 different patterns - more to come! You can also break up strict tile arrangements as seen on the very image in the example on the left hand side.

Presets (Texture-Packs)
MightyTiles comes with a basic texture set. This includes bitmaps as well as parameter settings. All together combined in materials for the VRay and Scanline renderer. With all these settings you have full control over your tile-based texture.

requirements

• Autodesk 3D Studio Max (Design) 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 (x32/x64)

changelog

• [v1.0.2]
  • fixed the "mortar destroys pattern" problem
  • demo version: workaround for the disabled ui in the demo version
  • demo version: material library included
• [v1.0.1]
  • fixed a problem when saving scene with an unregistered version
• [v1.0.0]
  • first MightyTiles version

installation

Download and run the MightyTiles installer. You will then find the MightyTiles-texture in your 3D Studio Max material editor.

licences

After purchasing the plugin, you will have to activate it on the machine you want to use it on. If you would like to acquire multiple licenses at once, without having to purchase them separately, please contact us via email and we might offer you a special bulk discount.

settings

Header
This rollup is the MightyTiles' header. Here you can change the global settings by clicking the ‘Settings‘ button.

Info
The ‘Info‘ rollup displays the total amount of memory the current MightyTiles texture is using and its number of tiles.

Common
You can set the ‘Aspect Ratio‘ of your MightyTiles texture here. For best results it should match the aspect ratio of the object's texture. In a future version of MightyTiles this parameter will automatically adapt to the underlying geometry. The parameter ‘Rows‘ lets you set the number of rows for the current texture. With ‘Random Seed‘ you change the random seed for all randomization settings.

Bond Patterns
The ‘Bond Pattern‘ parameter lets you choose among 15 different patterns for arranging the tiles. To break up the strict arrangement use the ‘Jitter Amount‘. In the example image ‘random transformation‘ the pattern used is ‘Gothic Bond‘ and the ‘Jitter Amount‘ equals ‘0.035‘. The image ‘pattern variations‘ shows three different bond patterns.

Common Mortar (Mortar / Gaps)
‘Horiz. Thick.‘ and ‘Vert. Thick.‘ change the mortar's (gap's) thickness. Both values set to 0, procedural mortal will be used. ‘Mortar Spec. Color‘ lets you select either a rgb color or another texture. ‘Mortar Reflectivity‘ controls the amount of reflection. With the alpha map supplied, you can use either the bitmap or procedural mortar. ‘Blend Mortar‘ blends between the bitmap and procedural mortar. With one or both thickness parameters set, the space between two adjacent tiles is filled with procedural mortar. A value of 0 will use the bitmap mortar causing hard edges. A value between 0.0 and 1.0 results in a smooth transition between both mortars. A value of 1.0 completely removes the bitmap mortar and replaces it by procedural mortar only.

Original Mortar (Mortar / Gaps)
Modify the color of the ‘Original Mortar‘ (the bitmap tile mortar) with the parameter ‘HSV Modifierlsquo;. You can also adjust bump and displacement values of the Original Mortar with ‘Mortar Bump / Disp. A value of 0.0 results in no bump or displacement. Bigger values will increase bump and displacement.

Procedural Mortar (Mortar / Gaps)
The ‘Procedural Mortar‘ provides an artificial mortar based on Perlin-noise. ‘Persistence‘ and ‘Noise Level Start‘ let you control the Perlin-noise. Select either a rgb color or a texture with ‘Mortar Color‘. The two values of ‘Color Value Range‘ let you determine the color's value range. E.g. consider a gray only mortar with ‘0.2‘ and ‘1.0‘ only color values lighter than 0.2 but less than 1.0 shall be used. ‘0.8‘ and ‘1.0‘ will result in a very light mortar. The ‘Color Value Range‘ influences both mortar color and texture. ‘Mortar Bump / Disp.‘ works the same way as in the original mortar settings.

Tiles
The ‘Tiles‘ rollup is where you select your desired set of tile bitmaps for the texture. With the button you add a new tile set. To remove a tile set simply click on the button. The ‘Load‘ button lets you load a predefined tile set from your tile set library. To modify a tile set click on the button displaying the tile bitmap or showing the label ‘Tile / Tile Preview‘ to open the TileDesigner.

Bump (Surface)
The surface of each MightyTiles texture can be modified via random parameters for three categories: bump mapping, displacement, and reflection. In the ‘Bump‘ box you specify the bumpiness of the texture. Each tile has its own bump map bitmap. You can open the TileDesigner and check the bump map for each tile. ‘Max. Bump Value‘ controls the global bump amount for the entire texture. ‘Bump Variance‘ controls the deviation from the ‘Max. Bump Value‘, e.g. when ‘Max. Bump Value‘ is set to 4.0 and ‘Bump Variance‘ to 0.4 the bump value for each tile varies between 2.4 and 4.0. With ‘Tilt Tile‘ the inclination of a tile varies in x- and y-direction. ‘Global Add‘ adds an offset to the bump value. ‘Random Add‘ adds a random value between 0 and the value chosen to each tile.

Displacement (Surface)
Each tile has its own displacement map bitmap. Open the TileDesigner to check the displacement map for each tile. ‘Max. Disp. Value‘ controls the maximum amount of displacement for the entire texture. ‘Disp. Variance‘ controls the deviation of the ‘Max. Disp. Value‘, e.g. when ‘Max. Disp. Value‘ is set to 3.0 and ‘Bump Variance‘ to 0.5, the displacement value for each tile varies between 1.5 and 3.0. With ‘Tilt Tile‘ the inclination of a tile varies in x- and y-direction. ‘Global Add‘ adds an offset to the displacement value. ‘Random Add‘ adds a random value between 0 and the value chosen to each tile.

Reflection (Surface)
The ‘Reflection‘ box lets you control the reflection behaviours of every single tile and the entire texture. Each tile has its own reflection map bitmap. Have a look at the tile's reflection map in the TileDesigner. ‘Max. Refl. Value‘ controls the global amount of reflection for the entire texture. ‘Refl. Variance‘ controls the random deviation from the ‘Max. Refl. Value‘ for each tile, e.g. when ‘Max. Refl. Value‘ is set to 1.0 and ‘Refl. Variance‘ to 0.5 the reflection value for each tile varies between 0.5 and 1.0. With ‘UV Flow‘ the reflections flow for a tile varies in x- and y-direction. ‘Global Add‘ adds an offset to the reflection value. ‘Random Add‘ adds a random value between 0.0 and the value chosen to each tile.

Mirror Tiles (Randomization)
These parameters modify a tile's transformation and color. The first parameter ‘Mirror Tiles‘ tells MightyTiles to randomly flip the tiles along the x- and y-axis.

Transformation (Randomization)
Applicable when mortar thicknesses are > 0. ‘Position‘ varies the position of a tile along its x- and y-axis in the range of the mortar's thicknesses. Ex.: mortar thickness set to 0.4, ‘Position‘ set to 0.5: position can alter from -0.1 to +.01 of the origin along the x- and y-axis. ‘Rotation‘ rotates each tile randomly. Attention: if you choose a value too high (like 60°), the rotated tile will be clipped by its surrounding tiles! ‘Scale‘ randomly changes the tile's size, works like ‘Position‘. See these values in action: random transformation.

Color Control (Randomization)
‘Hue‘ alters the hue up (positive value) or down (negative value). ‘Saturation‘ modifies the saturation. High negative values will result in greyscale tiles, while high positive values will cause color clipping.‘Value‘ allows to darken or lighten the tile's colors. The tiles in section ‘random color‘ were modified with Color Control.

Image Based Color Control (Randomization)
With the ‘Image Based Color Control‘ you can decide exactly which tiles will be modified and how they will change their color. The flag ‘Use Image Based Color Control‘ enables or disables these settings.
Choose a texture for image based color control with ‘Map‘. This can be a bitmap or a procedural texture or whatever you want. Each pixel in the map will influence the colors of each pixel on each tile. ‘Opacity‘ lets you choose the strength of influence. 0.0 does nothing and 1.0 will completely override the tiles colors. 0,.5 will be a mixture of 50% tile color and 50% image color. If you select ‘Mosaic‘ the average color of the pixels covered by a single tile will be used to modify the tile's color. Else each pixel of the tile will be modified by the map's pixel color value. ‘Map Sample Size‘ lets you control the map's resolution in pixels along x- and y-axis. A value of 64 will create a map with 64x64 pixels in size.

Plugin Settings
At ‘Library Path‘ you choose the location of your MightyTiles tile set library.
‘Tile Group‘ affects the column showing all tiles in a tile set in the TileDesigner window. It lets you decide whether this column will be show or hidden by default. This is the very right column of the TileDesigner window.
If ‘Bitmap paths‘ is activated MightyTiles saves all bitmaps residing in the library with relative paths. This has the advantage that you are able to move the entire library to what ever location you want. If disabled, MightyTiles saves the absolute path of every bitmap. ‘ini file‘ only concerns render node installations. You can configure the library path for the render nodes in a workstation installation, save these settings to the ini file and copy it to your render node installation. The ini file path is: ‘<3ds Max>\plugins\MightyTiles\MightyTilesRN_cfg.ini‘.

TileDesigner
The TileDesigner lets you modify existing tile sets or create new ones. Each tile set can also be saved as a preset for your tile set library. MightyTiles comes already with a small library of tile sets. You can extend or modify it as you like.
Creating a new tile set: to create a new tile set click the button. In the ‘Tiles‘ rollup, click on the ‘Tile / Tile Preview‘ button to bring up the TileDesigner window. Give your tile set a name by filling out ‘Group name‘, it will also appear in the ‘Tiles‘ rollup.
Add a tile and its bitmaps: to add a tile, click the bottom right ‘Add‘ button. An new entry will appear in the list of tiles in the column on the right hand side. To add the tile's diffuse bitmap click on the ‘load diffuse bitmap‘ button. There you can add following maps: alpha, bump, reflection, and displacement. To change the bitmap for any map, just click on it. To delete a map click on button with the red cross. Note: diffuse maps cannot be deleted, though you can choose a new one by clicking on it. You can rename every tile by filling out the ‘Tile name‘ field.
Adapt a tile's frequency within the set: You can change the frequency of appereance of each tile separately with the ‘Frequency‘ parameter.
Example: consider you have three tiles:
1st case: if every tile should appear with the same frequency just set ‘Frequency‘ for each tile to 1.0.
2nd case: you want the ratio of appereance of the first tile to be at 50%, the second at 25% and the third at 25%. Set the ‘Frequency‘ therefore to 2.0, 1.0, and 1.0. You can scale these values as desired: 4.0 , 2.0 and 2.0 for the last tile. Summary: the first tile will be two times more frequent than the second and the third, the second one will be as frequent as the third one.
Saving your tile set:
There are three different ways to save your tile texture:
1. save your tile set to the scene only: if you click the ‘Ok‘ button your tile set will be saved to the scene only! You can only access it from inside your scene.
2. work within the same preset: by clicking the ‘Save preset‘ button your tile set will be saved to the library in case it originates from the library, else you will be asked to give it a new name. Attention: all new bitmaps will be copied to the folder where your recent preset is located!
3. save a new preset: when you click ‘Save preset as...‘ you will be asked to choose a folder and file name for your new preset. Attention: all bitmaps will be copied to this new location!

additional information

You find more information about MightyTiles on the website of the developer Dr.-Ing. Dieter Finkenzeller.

Buy now for €180 only! (workstation licence and free render nodes, minor version updates included!)