Detailed information about the QuickTiles plugin. Version 1.3.0.1
Updating to version 1.4.0.0

RU

Slice Editor

The entire process of working in QuickTiles can be divided into three parts: the first — adding the original textures, the second — creating a new layout pattern, and the third — setting up the details and randomizations of the layout.

Slice editor (SE) is a small additional module in which the first stage of work is carried out — adding the original textures and cutting them into separate tiles. Here you can add or change sources, save or extract sets from the library, recognize individual tiles automatically or specify them manually, as well as edit the cutting. It is also possible to import or export the finished slicing

The SE consists of three sections. On the left, in the red zone, there is a library of cuts. Here you can see all the saved and imported cuts by the user, as well as the cuts supplied with the plugin.

In the center, in the yellow zone, is the viewport window, where the selected texture channel and the created slicing are displayed.

On the right, in the blue area, there are settings for slicing and the source texture displayed. Let's see the composition of all the elements in more detail.

Slicing Library

 — search by name and tags

Category — select the cut category

Create set from texture — create a new slicing from a solid texture. Resets the interface and all settings.

Create set from individual tiles — creating the cutting of already pre-cut tiles.

 Icon of the finished cut saved in the library.

Double-click on the icon - loads the slicing and all settings to SE. A right-click will open the context menu.

Duplicate — duplicates a set in the library

Rename — rename a set in a library

Delete — deleting a set

Save to file — export set (when you exporting the slice, the source bitmaps are written to the file, so you do not need to transfer them separately)

Set custom preview — set a custom icon for the selected set. You can use images of any format, the plugin will reduce it and trim to a square.

Set default preview — resets the custom icon to the standard one.

 Slicing and source texture settings

Import tile set — import the ready slicing from a file. When importing, the source bitmaps saved in the slicing file will be unzipped into a folder C:\Users\your_user\QuickTiles\libs

Save (to library) — saving the slicing with the settings to the library. When saving to the library, the original bitmaps are not duplicated, and are loaded from the place where they were originally. Therefore, do not delete or move the original bitmaps used to create the slicing, otherwise the slicing will load empty.

You cannot save or change the source files of the library.

 — tools for creating and editing slicing

 — slicing creation and editing modes


 — Mode 1, the generation of the grid. In this mode, you can create a grid of lines that will be slice a texture and move it away from the edges. Tools and manual editing are not available here.

Preset — choosing a grid pattern — standard or herringbone

Vertical — количество вертикальных линеек

Horizontal — number of vertical lines

Row offset — the distance by which the row is shifted

N row offset — number of offset rows

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.

Cropping — grid offset from the edges

Top — top edge offset

Bottom — bottom edge offset

Left — left edge offset

Right — right edge offset

 — The second mode is manual editing mode of the grid. In this mode, you can manually shift the slicing lines, adjusting to the imperfections of the texture. Some of the tools are available here.

 — Move tool. Shifts the horizontal rulers along the entire length of the grid, and the vertical ones in the limits of the two closest horizontal ones.

 — Erase tool. Deletes rulers. The horizontal lines are removed along the entire length of the grid, leaving the ones above as vertical lines.

 — Cut tool. Adds a new line. To create a horizontal slice, hover over the nearest vertical ruler and you will see a preview. To create a vertical slice, hover over the existing horizontal one.

Functions Preset, Vertical, Horizontal, Row offset, N row offset and Cropping are blocked in the second and third mode.

Returning to the previous mode from the previous ones will cancel all the changes made.

 — In the third mode you can edit individual tiles manually. Move the finished tiles, rotate them, remove , cut , etc. All the tools are available here.

Context menu of the tools:

Select smaller — selects all tiles of a much smaller size. Useful when cleaning after autoslice.

Select same aspect — selects all tiles with the same aspect ratio

Select same ID — selects all tiles in the same ID

Mark all — disable all tiles (only for the erase tool)

Unmark all — enable all tiles (only for the erase tool)

 — Move tool. Offset the tiles. To select multiple tiles, use Ctrl. You can also use the keyboard arrows to move tiles.

 — Rotate tool. Rotates the tiles around the center.

 — Scale tool. Stretches the tile by the selected side. The rotated tiles will stretch in local coordinates.

 — Erase tool. Turns off the tiles by marking them black. These tiles will not be used in the layout. They can be turned on at any time. Erase+Shift — complete removal of tiles. You can also delete a tile by pressing Delete.

 — Cut tool. Cuts the tile vertically. Cut+Ctrl - cuts horizontally.

 — Create tool. Creates a new tile.

In this mode, copying tiles via Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V works, as well as steps back via Ctrl+Z.

 — Set orient tool. Allows you to set a custom tile orientation.

By default, the orientation of the tiles is set perpendicular to the long side of the container. When you click on the tile once, an arrow will appear showing the default direction.

To change the direction, move the mouse cursor with the left button pressed, just as if you wanted to rotate the tile. At the same time, the direction arrow will rotate in increments of 45 degrees.

To rotate at an arbitrary angle, hold down the Shift.

To align the arrow perpendicular to any face of the container — Alt+Click

To align the arrow in the direction of the specified vertex — Ctrl+Shift+Click

To align the arrow vertically — Ctrl+Click

To reset the direction to default, and remove the arrow — double Click

This function is useful when placing tiles of complex, asymmetrical shape, as well as in cases when it is necessary to observe a certain direction of the tile pattern.

The direction set in the Slicer will correspond to the direction set in the Pattern editor.

Orient tool contex menu

Reset selected — resets the direction of all selected tiles to the default one. The arrow is hidden.

Set selected to vertical — sets the direction of all selected tiles to strictly vertical.

Set selected to long side — sets the direction of all selected tiles at 90 degrees to the long side of the container

Set selected to short side — sets the direction of all selected tiles at 90 degrees to the short side of the container

Rotate all selected — rotates the direction of all tiles to a specified angle

*When using the function, it is often necessary to disable random reflection of tiles and switch to Stretch mode in the Bitmap-in-container section.

**After using the Rotate tool, you need to re-set the tile direction.



In the third mode, the drop-down menu works (right mouse button)

Copy - copy the selected tiles. You can copy from one set to another

Paste - paste the copied tiles

Outline - expand or reduce the selected tiles evenly from all sides

Select all - select all tiles

Invert selected - invert selection

Select smaller - select all tiles significantly smaller in size than the current one

Select same ID - select all tiles in the same ID as the current one (same function - double click on the tile)

Select same aspect - select all tiles in the same aspect as the current one

IMPORTANT: create tiles so that the blue area overlaps the tile surface and does not go into the seam.

The following parameters are not dependent on the slicing mode.

Texture placement

Vertical offset — vertical offset of the texture

Horizontal offset — horizontal offset of the texture

Rotate — texture rotation

Plain texture — enable this option if you want to randomly distribute a texture inside the containers that initially has no seams, such as marble or granite slabs, concrete, stone, wood, etc.Other slicing settings are not required in this case and will be blocked.

Tiling vertical — indicates that the texture is seamless vertically

Tiling horizontal — indicates that the texture is seamless horizontally

Setup ID — here you can set the tile ID directly in the slicer. This is convenient for distributing complex sets with tiles of various shapes, colors and sizes, such as Origami, Trapeze or Tiara.

Double-click on a tile will select all tiles in the same ID

Base tile

Since version 1.3.0.0, QuickTiles has the ability to select a base tile in the Slicer and set its width. It is the width of the tile, located horizontally, that is taken into account, since you see it on the monitor. This activates the automatic optimization mechanism for the size of the sliced tiles.

For example, you have an initial texture in which each tile is approximately 500 px wide. You use it to create a texture in which there are 40 tiles in each row. At the same time, you set the resolution, 4K. That is, each tile in the final texture will be 4096/40 = 102 px in size, which is 5 times smaller than the source! In total, without optimization, the plugin will work with the full size, and only at the very end it will reduce the final texture. And with optimization, it will reduce it in advance, and the speed of operations will increase significantly.


Texture scaling

Reduces the original texture to 12%, 25% or 50%.

Often, a large size of the original texture is not required, and only slows down the plugin. This function allows you to reduce the size of the source files in the process of work, and does not require saving and storing separate sets of smaller textures.

Options

Gaps — specifies the width of the gripped seams. Set this value so that the red area of the tile slightly overlap the neighboring one, or less if you want to reduce the original seam.

In Mode 1 and 2, Gaps adjusts the width of the rulers. When switching to mode 3, gaps between tiles appear in the area captured by the rulers.

View alpha — setting the transparency of the preview of the finished tiles.

Numbering — puts a number on each tile. Helps to find and modify certain tiles in the final layout.

IMPORTANT: For the best construction of the final texture, QuickTiles uses mixing the seams of the source. The Gaps parameter controls the width of the captured seam, and at the same time the depth of the tiles overlapping each other. Therefore, it is very important to set the value of this parameter correctly. For more information, see the description of the Gap blend parameter, in the Pattern parameters.

Autoslice button — opens the automatic tile recognition window. Read more about this below.

Clear grid button — resets the grid settings in slicing mode 1 and 2.

Input maps

1. Names of the slots for adding a source of texture (drag-and-drop copying works)

Diffuse — a slot for adding diffuse texture.

Reflect — a slot for the reflection texture.

Roughness — slot for textures of glossiness or roughness of reflections.

Displacement — a slot for the height texture.

32bit .exr or .tif textures are recognized, but the plugin outputs 16bit anyway

Bump — a slot for black-and-white textures of small bump.

Normal — a slot for the Normal bump texture. In this slot, you should not install anything other than normal maps, since the plugin uses a very specific algorithm to work with normals.

Mask — a slot for the black-and-white mask channel. Tiles should always be white, seams — black. The texture from this slot is not passed directly to the material, but is used for automatic tile recognition, as well as for correct randomization of tiles inside QuickTiles, or for replacing the seam texture.

AO — Ambient Occlusion, dirt map. It is often present in sets of source textures, but not mandatory for use. The impact force can be adjusted by adding brightness to the HSV

Opacity — transparency map. Use this slot to add a transparency channel in perforated material

Metallness — Metallicity map. It is convenient for setting up mixed textures, where both metal and non-metal are present on the same map. For example, ceramic tiles with metal inserts, or mosaics.

2. Slots for adding a source of texture (drag-and-drop copying works)

To remove a texture from a slot, use right-click on the slot and select Clear

3. In the color picker to the right of the texture name, you can choose any color if you do not need a texture on this channel

4. On the right side of the color square, you can set up additional noise that will be imposed on the color or texture of this channel

By clicking on the right mouse button on this square, you can configure the blending option of the color and texture of the channel. This will help to tint or completely change the color of the original texture. We decided not to limit users, and added all the blending options we know, dividing them into basic and more rarely used ones.

5. In the next spinner, you can adjust the transparency of the main texture relative to a flat color background from 100 (the texture completely overlaps the color) to 0 (the texture is completely hidden, only the color is visible)

6. The eye, the symbol of the channel displayed in the viewport.

7. And when you click on the pencil, the texture color editing window opens.

By clicking on the pencil, in the Normal channel, you can adjust the angle of rotation of the normals, as well as invert the channels.

For example: you will need to invert the green channel if the original normals are made in OpenGL format. For more information, see Normals workflow.

Note 1. When adding a texture to the Diffuse slot, the plugin recognizes and automatically loads the other channels, if the textures are in the same folder, and have the same name as diffuse, and the corresponding channel label. For example: brick137_diffuse, brick137_glossiness, brick137_heigth.

Note 2. After the initial channel recognition, you can remove or replace any of the textures (even diffuse), re-recognition will not occur. To re-recognize the channels, clear all the slots except diffuse manually and add the texture to diffuse again

HSV window

In the Slicer, you have the option to adjust the texture color for each channel. If a Mask has been added to a set of textures, editing will take place using the mask. You can separately change the hue, saturation, brightness and contrast of tiles and seams, as well as invert them.

The Use mask checkbox allows you to disable the effect of the mask on a specific channel or editable area.

Search — Slice library search options

Category — material category

Tags — any words associated with the stored slicing

Done button — accepting the slicing result and closing the slice editor window WITHOUT saving the slicing to the library. The slicing will be saved locally in this material. You can return to editing it at any time by clicking on its icon in the Tile set parameters section.

After pressing the Done button, the original texture is sliced, and the tiles are saved in RAM. The larger the source textures, the longer it can take. If you changed the original textures (for example, color, or brightness), in order for the changes to appear in QuickTiles, you need to open the settings of this set again in the Slice editor and click Done.

Cancel button — cancels the settings made. If you accidentally opened SE and did not make any changes, click Cancel. Then the window will close and the previous slicing will remain unchanged. This will be much faster than if you click the Done button.

Tiles auto-recognition

If there is a mask channel in the texture set, then when you click on the Autoslice button, the plugin will automatically cut the texture, without unnecessary questions.

By default, it will try to recognize the rotation of individual tiles. However, with square tiles it turns out badly.

If you don't like the result of slicing, press the Autoslice button while holding down Shift. The texture will be cut without taking into account the rotation of the tiles.

If there is no mask channel in the set, the plugin will try to create it from the channel in the viewport. In this case, it will offer you an additional window.

For gluing tiles that go beyond the edges, an error factor is used. It is installed in the Gaps spinner. The larger the texture and seams, the larger the value should be. All auto-recognition settings are saved, so if the extreme tiles are not properly glued together the first time, change the coefficient and try again. After recognition, adjust the Gaps parameter to match the width of the original seam.

In this window, a black-and-white mask is generated based on the selected channel. The tiles should be white, the seams black. The mask should be as neat as possible in the area of the seams, but there may be some black spots inside the tiles, this will not affect the quality. As a result, the user's task is to bring the mask as close as possible to the state shown in the image.

Details — the level to which the texture details are smoothed. The lower the value, the less anti-aliasing, and the more original details remain.

Threshold — the brightness of the gray point in which all the brighter colors of the original texture will become white, and darker-black.

H offset and V offset - edge trimming. If the edge in the image is solid white, without gaps, this can cause a significant increase in the autoslice time. In this case, it is recommended to trim the borders to the seams.

Invert — inverting white and black. If the tiles are black and the seams are white, no recognition will occur. The tiles should always be white

R, G, B, RGB — when trying to recognize a colored texture, you can select a separate Red, Green, or Blue channel, or an RGB composite. When trying to recognize from the Normal Bump channel, it is best to select the Blue channel

Find rotate — an experimental function that forces recognition to find rotation of the tile. It is still under development and presented in the interface for tests.

IMPORTANT: Intersecting tiles are not recognized in this version of the plugin.

Tip: For maximum recognition quality, offset the texture so that there are no too small pieces of tiles on the edges. In the example above, the texture on the left shows small parts of the bricks sticking out in the left part of the viewport. To improve recognition, move the texture to the right so that the bricks are roughly divided in half.

Adding sets of individual tiles

In QuickTiles version 1.1.0.0, the function of adding sets of pre-cut tiles is greatly simplified. This feature will be especially relevant for interior visualization, where sets of individual floorboards are often used.

To add a set of pre-cut tiles, follow three simple steps:
1. Click on the Create set from individual tiles button or switch Preset to Individual tiles
2. Add the first tile of your set to the Diffuse channel
3. Add or drag the first tiles of the corresponding channels to the other channels

To correctly recognize the tiles of the set, two conditions must be met.

First: the files of each channel should be put in a separate folder. The plugin will lay out in one channel all the files that it finds in the specified folder.

Secondly: the beginning of the channel file names of the same tile should match, and the number should be at the end, for example BrickRed_dif_1 and BrickRed_bump_1, etc.

Viewport window

1 — name of the slice field. If you call slicing from the library, the name of the slicing will appear here with a different sequence number. This is done in order not to accidentally overwrite the slices saved in the library. If you want to save the slicing over the existing one in the library, just specify an identical name.

2 — number of tiles created

3 — the number of resulting aspect groups

4 — number of selected tiles

5 — texture size

6 — bitmap parameters

7 — the borders of the tile in which it will be placed in the container, ID1

8 — the borders of the tile in which it will be placed in the container, ID2

9 — disabled tiles are indicated in black