MaPZone (freeware)

[Tami]

[url=\"http://www.mapzoneeditor.com/\"]MaPZone[/url] is simply the most advanced texturing tool ever. MaPZone is only intended to be used for producing high quality textures, and this is what it does best. Based on a unique and patented technology called the FX Maps, MaPZone is the only procedural tool giving you that much control over your creation.

As texture construction paradigm, MaPZone is based on a compositing graph to build up and mix textures step by step. It's like using Photoshop, but where you could visualize each step and the links between steps, and where you would never loose anything in the in-between. No more history losses.

No other tool clearly focuses on maps, although maps are the core components of any texture... So maps are the main focus of MaPZone. And your diffuse, specular and normal maps created with MaPZone match perfectly. And because it is non linear and all related to each other, if you modify the diffuse, all the other maps will sync up automatically!

All the maps you will produce with MaPZone will automatically tile. It's a natural benefit of procedural textures, but that's only an option, so you can get non tiling textures if you prefer. The maps will be resolution independent too . Another classic benefit of procedural techniques. So work at a decent resolution, resize when you're done, you've got a higher resolution texture in a snap.

Fine tune your texture: you don't like the position of that knot in your wood texture? Grab it and move it, resize it, stretch it, etc. All this fine local editing will be echoed organically within the texture. No need to repaint, fake, hide. MaPZone is the only tool allowing you to locally edit procedural textures.

To see what you mean, MaPZone comes with a highly versatile real-time 3D previewer: load your own 3D object and directly see your maps feeding a parallax mapping shader applied onto it. This looks generally more than real, no need to make any tedious rendering here: it's real time. Don't like our shaders? Load your own. Visualize, don't wait!

A huge library of preset textures comes with MaPZone for free, so go ahead, browse them, use them, use only parts of them in your compositions. They are the chemical elements necessary to the apparition of life.