New free texture pack

[GQ1]

Beautiful textures!
And you can render them at 3000 by 3000, very nice :)

Thank you!

[ha-dou-ken]

OMG you rule!! Thank you for your kindness!:bounce:Bless you...every single one of you.

[AmericanXer0]

What programs can you use these textures for?

[requiem2d]

Thank you :)

[elis]

a lot of amazing texture!
thanks AR Atlas. :applause:
very nice!

[CaptainBarbosa]

What programs can you use these textures for?It's one of the first things you see after clicking the link, dude...Textures are provided in a procedural format that can be fully edited in the powerful material studio Genetica (http://www.spiralgraphics.biz/genetica.htm), or rendered and converted into standard images using the free Genetica Viewer (http://www.spiralgraphics.biz/viewer/index.htm).

[Artbot]

Why does CGTalk allow these kind of "loss-leader" packages to be posted? They are nothing more than a way to get you to install some kind of questionable tool or viewer on your computer. If they weren't, they'd be in a usable format already. This is one (small) step away from advertising/spamming.

[romi]

c'mon Richard, give these guys a break! think about how big the market is on texture creation tools. i doubt they're making the megabucks. they're trying to promote their flagship product with these free textures & viewer tool. i dont see anything wrong with it. Darksim's Dark Tree does the same with their Simbiont plugins. dont install if you're not interested.

cheers,

[Artbot]

I have no problem with anyone making and selling this sort of thing. Perhaps their subject header should have added "...when you install our viewer/editor". I was simply saying that I don't think the CG News forum is an appropriate place to be promoting it as a "free" product, especially when there is so much truly free content out there.

Perhaps I am wrong - are people (companies) allowed to promote their wares here? I can't seem to locate the forum rules regarding this.

[L33tace]

so the textures are free if you have already purchased a copy of Genetica standard or pro?

[AR Atlas]

so the textures are free if you have already purchased a copy of Genetica standard or pro?
The textures are free regardless. 512 x 512 JPEGs are provides for each texture that you can download straight away. Alternatively, you can download the free Genetica Viewer (http://www.spiralgraphics.biz/viewer/index.htm) if you want them at higher resolution. Genetica (http://www.spiralgraphics.biz/gen2tour/index.htm) will give you the ability to fully edit each texture, but that is by no means a requirement.

[L33tace]

The textures are free regardless. 512 x 512 JPEGs are provides for each texture that you can download straight away. Alternatively, you can download the free Genetica Viewer (http://www.spiralgraphics.biz/viewer/index.htm) if you want them at higher resolution. Genetica (http://www.spiralgraphics.biz/gen2tour/index.htm) will give you the ability to fully edit each texture, but that is by no means a requirement.
i was using the demo and not the viewer :blush:
thanks! :)

[AR Atlas]

I was simply saying that I don't think the CG News forum is an appropriate place to be promoting it as a "free" product, especially when there is so much truly free content out there.
The Genetica Texture Packs are a truly free product. The fact that a free viewer is optionally offered with them may cause some suspicion, but the rationale behind that move might not be what you expect. There is a ton of value in the procedural version of the textures that is lost the second you render it as a bitmap. Let me give you a few examples:

1. Take as an example the "Crystal Caves" texture that you will find in the 9th position of the Rough Crystal (http://www.spiralgraphics.biz/packs/crystal_rough/index.htm) category. Depending on your project, you may need the texture to repeat more or less often. By opening Crystal Caves in the free viewer, you can render it at your own zoom level. The following illustration shows a few examples of where I have scaled the texture in and out. The viewer not only lets you zoom textures in and out, it will make sure that the result is still fully seamless after you've done this.

http://www.spiralgraphics.biz/offsite_images/viewer_zoom.jpg


2. Now say you want to add some special effects to the crystals in an external application, and for that you need a mask. In the following illustration I show how a mask for the crystals was automatically rendered, which can then be imported into a photo application for editing. Again, this was done with the free viewer, after the texture was zoomed out.

http://www.spiralgraphics.biz/offsite_images/viewer_mask.jpg


3. In this next example I opened the "Beryl" texture, which is the 5th entry in the Cut Crystal (http://www.spiralgraphics.biz/packs/crystal_cut/index.htm) category. The top left version is the original texture that is also available as a 512 x 512 JPEG on the site. However, the viewer let me randomize the texture to create the alternative versions that you see below. I think this is great value to artists who like a texture in our free packs, but want a unique rendering of it that will look different than anything anyone else has.

http://www.spiralgraphics.biz/offsite_images/viewer_random.jpg


So in my opinion, the presence of the optional viewer doesn't decrease the free-ness of the textures. If anything, I believe that it presents significant additional value, that you won't find in too many other places. And this extra value is also given away completely free, without a single popup, nag screen, or request to buy Genetica.

A more complete list of why we chose to give away a procedural texture format with a free viewer instead of just static bitmap images can be found here: www.spiralgraphics.biz/viewer/about_gtx.htm (http://www.spiralgraphics.biz/viewer/about_gtx.htm)

Thanks everyone for the kind words and support! A ton of work went into making these textures and I'm happy to see people enjoying them!

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