FREE Graphics Utils
Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2007 1:08 pm
I've made a few posts in Off-Topic about FREE graphics utils and thought I'd collect them all here. I'm sure there are many more so please add to the list and maybe we'll end up with a categorised directory?
Seamless Textures
Water Caustics - http://www.lysator.liu.se/~kand/caustics/
- creates animated seamless textures of water caustics for texture or bump maps.
Bricks - http://www.brick.com/md/md2.swf
- creates seamless brick walls. You can add different horizontal courses, change individual bricks, etc.
Bricks 'n' Tiles - http://www.3d-rekonstruktionen.de/bricksntiles/
- another great seamless brick generator, this time from photo reference (thanks to kizo for this one)
Seamless checker - http://www.texturemaker.com/download.php (Texture Discovery, half way down)
- browse a directory and click on a file to see it fill the screen to check whether it's a non-repeating pattern.
Mosaic tiles - http://www.modwalls.com/blender/modWalls_blender.html (suggested by andrebaros, thanks)
- great online utils for creating multicoloured mosaic tile sheets
Texture viewer - http://www.texturemaker.com/download.php
- another one from the guys at TextureMaker. Part of the full program (which is free for non-commercial use) allows you to view your texture (either one created in TextureMaker or any image on your hard drive) as it would be mapped on an object. Left drag rotates this small scene, right click moves the light source and you can pick from sphere, cube, cylinder, etc.! Check whether it repeats with the above util then see how it looks with this one - great!

Wood Workshop - http://www.spiralgraphics.biz/ww_overview.htm
- a seamless wood texture maker (thanks, hdesbois)
MaPZone - http://www.mapzoneeditor.com/
- a node based procedural texture maker, complete with 3D viewer (thanks numerobis)
Bump / Normal Maps
3D OpenGL bump map viewer - can't find the download page but was part of MaP|Zone (FREE) from http://www.allegorithmic.dreamhosters.c ... E=PRODUCTS
- this was a great bump map viewer plugin for Photoshop. Juct click on the filter and view your image as a bump map. Left drag rotates the small plane and height and size sliders alter the amount / scale of bump. This image shows what I mean. If any can track it down pm me, thanks.

[looks like it may be back - see MaPZone above]
Normal map creator from nVidia - http://developer.nvidia.com/object/phot ... ugins.html
- another plugin for Photoshop that will create a normal map from your image.
Seamless Textures
Water Caustics - http://www.lysator.liu.se/~kand/caustics/
- creates animated seamless textures of water caustics for texture or bump maps.
Bricks - http://www.brick.com/md/md2.swf
- creates seamless brick walls. You can add different horizontal courses, change individual bricks, etc.
Bricks 'n' Tiles - http://www.3d-rekonstruktionen.de/bricksntiles/
- another great seamless brick generator, this time from photo reference (thanks to kizo for this one)
Seamless checker - http://www.texturemaker.com/download.php (Texture Discovery, half way down)
- browse a directory and click on a file to see it fill the screen to check whether it's a non-repeating pattern.
Mosaic tiles - http://www.modwalls.com/blender/modWalls_blender.html (suggested by andrebaros, thanks)
- great online utils for creating multicoloured mosaic tile sheets
Texture viewer - http://www.texturemaker.com/download.php
- another one from the guys at TextureMaker. Part of the full program (which is free for non-commercial use) allows you to view your texture (either one created in TextureMaker or any image on your hard drive) as it would be mapped on an object. Left drag rotates this small scene, right click moves the light source and you can pick from sphere, cube, cylinder, etc.! Check whether it repeats with the above util then see how it looks with this one - great!

Wood Workshop - http://www.spiralgraphics.biz/ww_overview.htm
- a seamless wood texture maker (thanks, hdesbois)
MaPZone - http://www.mapzoneeditor.com/
- a node based procedural texture maker, complete with 3D viewer (thanks numerobis)
Bump / Normal Maps
3D OpenGL bump map viewer - can't find the download page but was part of MaP|Zone (FREE) from http://www.allegorithmic.dreamhosters.c ... E=PRODUCTS
- this was a great bump map viewer plugin for Photoshop. Juct click on the filter and view your image as a bump map. Left drag rotates the small plane and height and size sliders alter the amount / scale of bump. This image shows what I mean. If any can track it down pm me, thanks.

[looks like it may be back - see MaPZone above]
Normal map creator from nVidia - http://developer.nvidia.com/object/phot ... ugins.html
- another plugin for Photoshop that will create a normal map from your image.