[h1]AVOID THIS LIKE THE PLAGUE[/h1]
(until the dev(s) fix it, if they can be bothered).
[b]My system specs:[/b] Windows 7 64bit Pro SP1, Intel i7-4770 @ 3.40 GHz, 16GB RAM, Nvidia GTX-760 2GB VRAM.
[b]Model details used to test software:[/b] FBX 7.4 binary, 8,756 Tris, 261 KB, created in Blender.
I had done chunk of research into this software before purchasing, so I was aware others were having issues with it and that the developer seemed to have vanished despite their enthusiasm in the early days of the IPackThat (IPT) software. Still, there was a demo on Steam, so it couldn't hurt to try that.
Downloaded the demo version, and it worked amazingly, I mean … this was like magic — in 11 minutes, IPT had reduced 81.09% wasted space on a very dense cluster of UV islands down to 19.17% wasted space (retested this a few times, but it consistently achieved this reduction). Unbelievable results and £49.99 was nothing to pay for the full, Indy version, especially considering such UV packing would have taken hours/days by hand, and I'm not sure I could have matched the software's UV density.
Purchased the Indy version, waited a few minutes for the 180 MB install to complete, and fired up the same FBX model with exactly the same settings (made a note of them from the demo beforehand), and clicked the 'Start Packing' button. Within a few seconds the software analysed the mesh, decided there was 100.1% wasted space, and then proceeded to have a go at solving this mathematical impossibility.
Twenty'ish minutes later, it had made not a single iota of progress. There was still 100.1% wasted space, that progress bar kept creeping to the right only for it to reset a few pixels' of movement later, and at this point all those negative Steam / forum reviews — that I had dismissed earlier as the rantings of noobs or people with weak PC setups — suddenly sounded a lot more like the truth.
I tweaked the UI, retested, with the same ridiculous results. I restarted the software, tweaked, retested and was greeted by the same idiotic results. I went through the imported mesh (again) in Blender to make sure I wasn't at fault, re-exported the FBX anyway, retested, and nope full-priced IPT still thought that not only was the UV space in the FBX empty but that I had also, somehow, taken emptiness to a whole new level of impossibility.
So, yes, people — I gave the £49.99 version of IPT 25 minutes of my time, and that is all it deserves, especially considering that the DEMO version CONSISTENTLY solved the imported mesh moreorless PERFECTLY (80.83%) in 11 minutes EVERY SINGLE TIME. And, for anyone thinking I should have tweaked this or that or something else — in the demo, you load in your model, click the 'Start Packing' button, and it just works; you [i]can[/i] tweak the hell out of everything, but you can, if you so desire, just click a button, and the demo software works. It just friggin' works. But, no, not the version that costs money; that'd be just too friggin' easy, wouldn't it, [PB]Snoelk?
Who's / what's [PB]Snoelk? This is the developer who introduced IPT to the world on the PolyCount forums ([url=http://polycount.com/discussion/145328/uv-packer-ipackthat]Forum Link[/url]). So, from one coder to another: Snoelk, fix your code, mate. It's knackered. Worst case scenario, just revert the release code to the demo code and give us all something that works. Or, enable the save button in the demo and return the event code (assuming you removed it). Job done. Everyone's a winner. Until then, it's refunds all-round, though I'll happily re-purchase this software after you've taken a few minutes to fix it.
Until it's fixed (please, fix the software!), just download the demo version, use it to create a super UV layout, and then copy this by hand. Yes, it will be a major pain (especially if you've got lots of tiny islands), but IPT has created the best arrangement of the islands for you; all you've got to do is copy / rotate / scale.
And, thankfully, this story has a happy ending: it took Steam a mere 1 hour, 23 minutes to agree to a refund after my refund request (thank you, Steam).
