Auto UVs SOP

Auto UVs have been the missing piece of the procedural modelling workflow, until now. 

With this SOP we introduce 2 different techniques for automatically generating UVs, one based on shortest path and one on clustering. 

You can download this node from the SideFX Games Development Toolset Github Page and as always feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments! 

Houdini 16.5 Update

This video covers some updates to the Auto UV SOP as well as some more info on its capabilities.



DOWNLOAD

COMMENTS

  • SaOk 7 years, 2 months ago  | 

    Extreme handy. Thanks for sharing. :)

  • Grimwolf 7 years, 2 months ago  | 

    Wait, do we have to download a full branch version of Houdini to access this?

    • lkruel 7 years, 2 months ago  | 

      It's just a few OTLs, only a few megs, not a whole branch of Houdini.

  • hsolomon 7 years, 2 months ago  | 

    All your UV tools and related efforts are awesome Luiz. Thanks a lot for your efforts and God bless you man :). I am glad SideFX is putting some "serious" efforts in to this labor intensive UVing boredom.
    Manual = Maya & other DCCs ( here = means "the way it is").
    Auto(Procedrual Awesomeness) = Houdini ( here = means "SHOULD BE" and "WILL BE").

    As we can see the whole of UVing challenge is to procedurally design the path/seams/serially-connected-edges encompassing low curvature pelts.
    In your work, I would like to see blending in of multiple procedural options/techniques in designing the UV seams. Some times manual("Artistic") is needed and OK too.
    1.Picking two points(manually/procedurally) in the mesh and connecting them with a path travelling on the shortest & highest curvature edges. Our PolyBevel SOP does this. I would like to see the high-curvature edges gleaned out and used in here for complex cases.
    2.Also in the column example I want to see perfect seam running vertically right on the four corners(Say by giving them "geometric Weights") and then other organic based seams say delineating the Vase-base-relief on the column's flat sides can be mixed in.

    sideNOTE: My longtime wish is currently we can workaround by tagging edges as a primitive and do some stuff with it. I wish sideFX makes "Edges" also as first class citizens meaning edges should be given sequence of numbers like points, vertices and Faces and can be sequentially numbered and displayed in the Geometry Spreadsheet with a special tab and also an ecosystem of SOP nodes to manipulate say a series connected Edges as unique curves/Polyline Primitives segments. There would be lot of FX possibilities if we could procedurally generate and manipulate curves.

    I know I have blabbered a lot BUT I hope you should have got the idea after reading this. Thanks again for your efforts in making us sweat less.

  • spiraloid 6 years, 12 months ago  | 

    This is awesome. does it work for 16.5 yet?

    • lkruel 6 years, 12 months ago  | 

      Hey spiraloid

      We have a 16.5 branch where we're doing some final testing and adding new features. I'm hoping to push it out to the Development Branch sometime on Monday.

  • lkruel 6 years, 12 months ago  | 

    Hey there.

    Thanks for your comments, for a more manual/artistic approach check out the Mark Seams SOP
    https://www.sidefx.com/tutorials/mark-seams-sop/

  • spiraloid 6 years, 12 months ago  | 

    dur.. obviously. very nice. should be in the default install.

  • takashisakai 6 years, 11 months ago  | 

    I am experimenting with intel cpu + gtx 970 H 16.5.
    openCL ERROR occurs when using autouv There is also such a story in the forum.

    How do I setup the openCL part?

    • eyeclick 6 years, 10 months ago  | 

      I'm also getting the same OpenCL error and a crash. Intel i7, gtx 1060 H 16.5

    • parth patel 6 years, 8 months ago  | 

      I also having the same error. Is there a way to fix it?
      Thanks,

    • lkruel 6 years, 8 months ago  | 

      Hmm, that's odd, you can try adding this environment variable

      HOUDINI_OCL_DEVICETYPE=“CPU” to use the CPU version, I'm using an attribute Blur sop which is openCL based.

      • parth patel 6 years, 8 months ago  | 

        Thanks for the reply.
        After changing it to CPU, its still showing same error.

  • tamte 6 years, 8 months ago  | 

    what resolution is island padding based on? that can be pretty important

    • lkruel 6 years, 8 months ago  | 

      Currently, 1024, but I'm exposing that up as a parameter for you

  • Viktor Greksa 6 years, 7 months ago  | 

    Hi,

    I am using Houdini Apprentice 16,5.405 with the 1.9 Stable version of the GameDev Tools installed and every time I want to use this node Houdini flat out crashes. No matter how simple or complex my test geometry is the program crashes as soon as I connect the geometry and turn on the display flag for the Auto UV node. (I get similar result with version 1.8 too).

    I would appreciate any help!

    Thanks,
    Viktor.

  • atnreg 6 years, 6 months ago  | 

    I can't get the AutoUV to show up. I have tried to unzip the whole zip into documents\houdini 16.5, also tried to unzip the contents of the gamedevelopmenttools folder into that folder, also tried the method 2 and unzipped it to another folder and updated the houdini.env to point to that folder.

    But still there is no AutoUV anywhere :(

    Please help!

    Antti

    • atnreg 6 years, 6 months ago  | 

      the shelf works, the icons show up but AutoUV is not found even from TAB menu

      • atnreg 6 years, 6 months ago  | 

        oh, it only works for imported geometry, not Houdini objects like grid? Will Houdini create UV for all its own objects then? I am VERY new to Houdini so this may sound stupid but any comments are welcome :)

        • atnreg 6 years, 6 months ago  | 

          now I got it, I tried to add the AutoUV in object level, now it works. Thank you and sorry for stupid questions :)

    • mpderry 6 years, 6 months ago  | 

      Install hda manually: Assets>install asset library, point to c:\Users\user\Documents\houdini16.5\otls\sop_autouv.hda
      In menu Install library to: change to "Scanned Asset Library Directories"

      Cheers.
      Martin

  • Matt Vitalone 6 years, 2 months ago  | 

    This tool generates awesome UVs, but I find it too slow to use in a production environment for most models. Any tips on anything I can do to speed it up, or hints at speed increases coming in the future?

  • robitv 5 years, 1 month ago  | 

    Hi, Does it work on Houdini 17.5 ?

    • lkruel 5 years, 1 month ago  | 

      Hey Rob, it should. If it's not can you email support@sidefx.com?

  • robitv 5 years, 1 month ago  | 

    WOW, that was quick :D
    Thanks!

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