UVPackmaster 4 for Blender is out
Developer Łukasz Czyż has released UVPackmaster 4 for Blender, the latest version of the popular GPU-accelerated UV packing plugin.
The update adds a new Dynamic Tiles option to maximize packing efficiency, a new group layout mode for working with texture atlases, and new options for managing texel density.
A fast, efficient GPU-accelerated UV packing tool
First released in 2018, UVPackmaster is a fast, efficient UV packing plugin.
It enables users to adjust the results on a per-UV-island or per-group basis, and supports tiled UV layouts, including UDIMs, and non-square layouts. See a summary of its features here.
The software is GPU-accelerated: originally only on NVIDIA GPUs, but with the introduction of support for the Vulkan API in UVPackmaster 3.3, also on AMD GPUs and Macs.
UVPackmaster 4 for Blender: a major structural update
Under the hood, UVPackmaster 4 is a major update, refactoring the software’s code to make it possible to add more complex features in future.
According to the online FAQs, “it became clear that the UVPM 3 architecture had grown outdated and was no longer suitable for some of the advanced features on our roadmap”.
UVPackmaster 4’s Dynamic Tiles option optimizes the efficiency of packing to tiled UV layouts.
Dynamic Tiles and new texel density controls
However, the update also brings new features, including a new Dynamic Tiles option, which automatically determines the best number of UV tiles to use to optimize packing.
The texel density system introduced in the 3.x releases gets new controls, including the option to set texel density automatically before packing on a per-island basis.
It is also possible to assign UV islands to texel density ‘tiers’, making it possible to update the texel density for all of the islands in a tier at once.
Other changes include a new Group Layout Mode for workflows based around texture atlases.
There are also more options for customizing the UI, including the option to define individually where every UI panel is displayed.
Price and system requirements
UVPackmaster 4.0 is available for Blender 2.83+, running on Windows 10+, glibc 2.29+ Linux and macOS 11.3+.
A new single-user licence costs $53, up $9 from the previous release. Multi-user Studio licences start at $199, up $40.
Read a full list of new features in UVPackmaster 4 for Blender in the online changelog
Read more about UVPackmaster for Blender on the product website
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