Rhino’s Mapping Channels feature allows for the creation of multiple mapping “variants” for the same object. These variants may contain different ways to unwrap the textures, variations in the positioning of the textures, or their scale.
The UV Channel/Set functionality in V-Ray for Rhino allows the user to take advantage of the built-in Mapping Channels feature in Rhino and have greater control over the UV mapping of an object:
As for the UV Channel/Set functionality in V-Ray, it allows the user to easily switch between those variants for their renders:
Workflow & Example
In this guide, a very simple example of this workflow will be shown in the form of a cube with two variants - each having a different texture scale.
First, the cube will be created:
And Box Mapping from Rhino’s Texture Mapping tools will be applied while having the “Use multiple mapping channels” checkbox enabled:
When applying the Box Mapping, the user will be asked if they want it “Capped” (choose “Yes”) and then, a prompt will be shown asking if this mapping should be applied to channel <1>. Press “Enter”:
Repeating the same process will generate a second Box Mapping channel, this time under number <2>. Once both channels are created, they should be named appropriately. For the purpose of this example, channel <1> will be left as it is (default values) and channel <2>’s UVW repeat parameter will be adjusted to 3.000 for all three values:
With this, the two Mapping Channels have been created. Next, a material will be applied to the box.
Now the material’s UV Channel/Set parameter in Texture Placement rollout in the V-Ray Asset Editor can be adjusted - switching between channels “1” and “2” will generate different render results for that object:
Channel <1>
Channel <2>
