QuickTiles plug-in help (English)

Common information

Release notes

The update now works with interactive rendering enabled
Fixed interface with 4K monitors
Three new channels have been added – AO, Metallness and Opacity – which expands the possibilities for creating fully adjusted presets
Added a version for 3d max 25
A unique automatic algorithm has been added to optimize the size of textures depending on the pixel density per centimeter – work with large final textures has accelerated tenfold.
The update at the start of the scene now begins only after the scene is fully loaded
Added auto-save of finished materials to Temp and the ability to disable it.
The script for creating the material structure has been changed – new nodes have been added, old versions of the Corona (6 and earlier) are supported by default

Added the ability to switch the options for mixing flat colors when working with seams
Added the ability to adjust the hue saturation and brightness of images on the substrate when working with seams
Added the ability to invert the color of any channel when working with seams
In the texture generation scroll, the patch height is now equal to the specified width by default
Optimized the mechanism for setting the size of the sides of the created texture with non-square patches
The texture generation scroll now displays the file name after saving to temp
The Herringbone function now resets the current layout only as long as it is enabled, and also turns off automatically after opening the Pattern Editor
Fixed a bug with incorrect normals and the automatic switching of the Crop/Stretch mechanism for individual tiles when the base tile is a perfect square
The update window now displays the name of the texture and the temp of the file to which it is linked. In case of problems, you can determine exactly which of the textures cause them
Added dynamic display of the list of randomizations depending on the texture channels used
Added a button to go to the Help from the plugin
Added the ability to buy a license from the plugin
Added a notification about the Internet disconnection
Minor improvements to the interface design
The restrictions on the width of the procedural seam have been removed
Added a QT lister opening icon in the texture generation scroll
Fixed crisp edge interpolation when working with procedural seams
Fixed: the name of the sets was not visible when using the 3d max light interface
Fixed: the roughness channel in the seams was created black by default.
Redesigned icons and labels to match the new QuickTiles style

It is now possible to change the size of icons in four versions – small, standard, large and huge.
It is now possible to view the full size of the icon (Ctrl+Click). For our library, this is 1200 px in height
It is now possible to add materials to Favorites
A category of new items has appeared. It will display several recent materials that we have added to the library
The type of loaded materials has been changed. They are now displayed in color with a download icon in the corner, for easy viewing
It is now possible to assign and easily select a texture color
All icons have been updated to capture a larger part of the texture
Fixed the color of the presets. The previous version was lost in the light scheme of the 3d max

Added the ability to automatically set the direction for selected tiles (Direction Tool, RMB)
Added the ability to adjust the transparency of an flat color on the channel in the slicer
Added the ability to switch the options for mixing a smooth color with a texture (color icon, RMB)
Added the ability to invert the color of any channel (inside HSV)
Added a mechanism for tracking texture updates in the library – sometimes we refine textures in the library and replace them on the server. Now the plugin will mark such materials as not uploaded
Fixed: when auto-slicing a large number of tiles, the operation interruption warning disappeared

Added interface translation into Russian and Chinese
The interface has been slightly changed. Unnecessary buttons have been removed and the organization of parameters has been streamlined
Added the ability to add Noise wherever you can choose a plain color
Added dynamic channels in the procedural gap and bitmap randomization sections. Now only the channels added in the slicer are displayed and processed there.
The large preview is no longer lost when panning or zooming
Added shortcut to open a large Preview - Ctrl+Shift+P
Added shortcut for switching preview channels - Ctrl+Shift+PageUp/PageDown
Added the "Download All" button to the preset library
In the slicer, paneling with the wheel no longer resets the selection of tiles
Added shortcut in the slicer to select all tiles - Ctrl+A
Fixed a serious deep bug that led to accidental crashes. The plugin now works much more stable.
Improved work with old projects with QuickTiles
The Pattern mask channel is now also saved as plain bitmap

Significantly improved stability and performance
Additional optimization of tools and processes has been carried out
The algorithm of the Orientation tool has been significantly improved
The Presets library has been modified for the new algorithm of the Orientation tool
Disabling preview auto-update is now instantaneous
Improved the search algorithm in Presets, Slicer and Pattern Editor
Fixed all known crashes
Increased stability when working with large circular layouts in the younger versions of 3ds max

Slicer:
Fixed an issue with tiles flipped 180 degrees upside down
The HSV window in the slicer is now scaled to fit the screen resolution
Added a crosshair through the middle of a tile in the slicer
Improved algorithm for moving the selected tile to the foreground in the slicer
Fixed missing and inability to select tiles in the slicer and PE after copying

Pattern Editor:
Added a "Set tiling box" button that sets the repeat zone within the PE

General fixes and improvements:
Depth of displacement edge generation made more uniform
Improved shape smoothing algorithm during displacement generation
Improved opening of old scenes
Improved work with Orientation in complex cases
Removed center generation in circular layouts
Scale of Plain texture in tiles is no longer resolution dependent
Scale of Edge distortion effect is no longer resolution dependent
Improvements to interface update in 24 3dsmax when switching between nodes

Feature added common:
Version for 3d max 2024
QuickTiles Lister - a general list of all QT nodes in the scene + batch processing capability
Added a library of ready-made presets with all material settings.
The displacement is now processed in 16 bits. This makes possible to work with three-dimensional smooth surfaces without artifacts, even in reflections.
The algorithm for generating rounding on the edges of tiles has been completely redesigned. It is now possible to procedurally create the volume of tiles of any shape.
The ability to disable auto-update previews. This greatly speeds up the setup of the material.
In the large preview, the ability to switch between channels and update the preview and material has been added. Functions are called with a right mouse click.
Added tooltips to all parameters in Russian and English

Small improvements:
At the opening of the scene, the materials are now updated in turn. This speeds up the download and increases stability.
When editing the diffuse channel in the slicer (HSV) - the color of the icon in the main interface will also change
The sizes in the Result size fields do not disappear and change only when you click Update or when you open a large preview
When renaming a QT node, the name is now saved after the scene is reloaded
In the About zone, the exact license period is now displayed (when it is less than 30 days)
A tip for enabling Store to temp has been added to the Update window
Added a warning when deleting sets in slicer and PE
Removed artifact micro seams when setting all seams to 0
The plugin no longer crushes 3d max, due to the lack of Internet

Improved:
Significantly improved operation stability
Significantly increased the speed of material generation
Significantly increased the speed of the Store function
Significantly increased the speed of HSV in the slicer (added multithreading)
Sliced tiles and material are no longer saved in the scene. Now QT does not affect its size
Increased recognition accuracy by disabling map reduction. Now you adjust the size of the bitmaps yourself and can slice them quickly, or slower, but as accurately as possible

Feature added:
Store to temp function – after activation, the material loads faster and can be rendered without a license
Store to scene function – the material is saved to the scene and can be transferred to another computer without additional actions, as well as rendered without a license
Result size is now always displayed in Store modes
Ability to move the library and temp files to another location during installation
Function of quickly reducing maps in the Slicer – now you can use smaller sources, while significantly speeding up the work. No additional disk space is required for these files
Search for source textures in case of loss. Now the plugin searches for them in the libs folder, as well as in the project folder, next to the max file and the maps folder

Compatibility

Installation and activation

Simple material creation

The input textures are entered in the Input maps zone (1). You need to select the Diffuse channel, and the other channels are recognized and loaded automatically. After that, you can mark up the tiles manually, or recognize them automatically (for more information, see the section Slice editor). We will show a more convenient path now and make recognition based on the Mask channel. Set the value of Gaps (2) to about 0.7 — this will indicate to the recognition module the approximate error when gluing the seams. And click Autoslice (3). Recognition by mask is almost instantaneous.

In fact, our texture is ready. Now we can make various settings in the internal interface, set randomizations, etc. For reference, we have added a light preview of the texture.

When everything is ready, you can set the size (1) and resolution (2) of the output texture piece. We recommend testing the settings on a small size (2x2 meters, 2048 px).

After that, click the Update button (3). At this point, the finished texture is built and written to temp. All changes in the material and on the render will appear only after clicking the Update button. The process of creating a texture can take 2-3 seconds on small resolutions, and 3-7 minutes on top sizes of 16-32K

After completing the process, click the Create material button. The plugin automatically recognizes your render engine (Vray, Corona, or Fstorm), and creates the appropriate material, with the correct configuration. Texture channels will be added according to the source texture.

Other render engines will be added later.
The algorithm for working with Fstorm is different from working with Vray and Corona. See Compatibility/ working with Fstorm

Generated texture settings

Ready-made Presets library

QuickTiles lister

Distributed rendering

Tile set parameters

Slice Editor

Usually we need to slice a texture where the original tiles are not under each other, but are offset by a certain distance. For example, bricks are often laid off by 50% every second row, and laminate, with an offset of every second row by 1/3, and every third row by 2/3. The Row offset and N row offset functions allow you to create a grid for such layouts. If you set the offset to 66 and the row number to 2, you will get a grid like in the example. Every second row from the original row will be shifted by 66%, and every first row will be shifted by half of this distance.