u|v cow
u|v cow was developed as response to lack of suitable UV editing tool that would at same time enable ease of use with integration into trueSpace as all needed functionality. It all started about a year ago when creation of historical artifacts to be use in virtual museum hit the obstacle with texture mapping. First version of u|v cow was born a few days later having the basic functionality required to carry on the task. Almost everything has changed since - the interface was made easier to use, the functionality has greatly improved, but all with simple idea to make UV mapping easier to use. u|v cow is intended for all people who need better control over UV mapping inside trueSpace. This goes from game content creators, visualizations, and all other artists.
Following text illustrates some of the features of u|v cow. Please also visit other sections of this site to get better impression of what and how u|v cow works.
Edit modes
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u|v cow has three edit modes. The highest level allows to manipulate with groups of of faces called partitions. Image on the left shows interface with two partitions. Right partition is selected and contains manipulation handles. Drag started on circle rotates the partition, dragging any of eight small boxes on the bounding box of partition enables sizing. Dragging anywhere else translates the partition. |
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Selecting faces is possible in another mode. Note that face selection can be also done in tS (tS5 and higher). Face selection can be modified with Shift/Control/Alt augmented mouse drags. Image on the left shows face selection. The selected faces in u|v cows interface show also selected in tS. |
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The lowest level of editing UV map is editing vertices directly. Multiple vertices can be selected and moved simultaneously. Image on left shows just that.
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Underlying textures
 The object and texturing in
image on the left is work of Milos
Radosavljevic . |
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For precise UV manipulation or just for better control the texture can be displayed under UV mesh. u|v cow reads material information from edited object and loads according textures without user intervention. Version for tS5 can also display shaded materials. |
Interface
As you might have noticed the interface contains no flashy bitmap buttons. The commands and mouse functionality has been optimized for workflow and not for looks. All commands are available in trough the buttons in the top. Some of them execute immediately and some of them display the pop up menus with further options. Images on the left and right shows panel with partition information and settings respectively. This panels are usually closed to gain editing space.
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trueSpace integration
u|v cow is tightly integrated into trueSpace. All changes can be seen in real-time, selections can be made in u|v cow as in tS and finally you can use all per face projections and other UV editing tools natively available in tS without even closing u|v cow.
Download
Download, full version, 1.46Mb
Download, demo version (limited to objects with maximum 128 vertices), 1.43Mb