Lscm Vs Abf

Lscm Vs Abf

Which do you prefer and why? Thanks I am interested in knowing the difference.

From Cheetah 3D news:
Today sees the release of Cheetah 6.2. The biggest change in v6.2 is, without a doubt, the addition of ABF unwrapping (Angle Based Flattening). This new unwrapping algorithm offers considerably improved results (less stretching and overlap) compared to LSCM unwrapping, which Cheetah3D has traditionally used. However, the old LSCM unwrapping algorithm has also been considerably improved and now offers higher numerical accuracy. Cheetah3D 6.2 therefore now supports the two most popular UV-unwrapping algorithms.

higher numerical accuracy??? What does this mean? Why have two types?

Here is some confusing info from the Blender wiki http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Source/Textures/UV/Unwrapping

Thanks for playing...:smile:

I don't know much about unwrapping, but I was curious last night about this exact thing. From what I gathered LSCM is the older of the two. It's usually preferred for hard edged mechanical type stuff. Apparently (and I'm just going by what I've read) that the ABF is more suited to organic models. People that know more than me could probably give a better answer than I have. I will certainly like to see any other answers regarding this though.

They're both just algorithms to take a 2d* mesh that is folded in 3d and "spread it out" — i.e. map it — onto a 2d surface with different constraints, but both with the same objective — to create the least distortion of the mapped texture (e.g. imagine if you are using a fabric texture — you don't want the patterns to stretch and distort any more than necessary).

From looking at the abstract of the ABF paper (and contrary to what the Blender docs suggest), ABF's chief virtues is not quality, but better performance with large meshes without loss of quality. Which one is "better" will vary from model to model since both methods are using quite sensible methods to reduce distortion.

*2d as in 2d _manifold_, not 2d as in planar. E.g. a piece of paper approximates a 2d manifold, whether it's flat on a table, or scrunched into a ball.