Rizom Lab has released RizomUV 2025, the latest version of its standalone UV unwrapping software. The main addition is GPU-based packing, available only on Windows with CUDA-capable NVIDIA GPUs.

The new algorithm produces UV layouts 2–4% more efficient in tile coverage compared to CPU packing. More importantly, Rizom Lab reports typical speed increases of three to four times. The gains apply to both single-tile and multi-tile (UDIM) workflows. GPU packing does not extend to macOS or Linux. Users on those systems remain limited to CPU packing.

Packing Gets Choices

The release introduces four selectable packing “strategies”. Each prioritises a different outcome: faster speed, maximum coverage, minimised artifacts, or a mode tailored to pixel-art pipelines. These strategies work on both CPU and GPU packing. Packing to tiles in UDIM workflows has also been improved. Objects grouped together can now be automatically distributed across tiles.

Scene Outliner and UI Tweaks

A new scene outliner displays a hierarchical view of objects, with controls for visibility and isolation. This should improve navigation in complex assets. “Align UV to 3D” has been reworked. The tool now interprets the original 3D orientation more accurately, ignoring irrelevant surface noise. Users can align islands along specific directions (+U, –U, +V, –V) with fallback axes. Workflow settings can be saved as defaults across sessions. These include UI preferences, UV set resolution, scene units and packing padding. The update also extends support for vertex, edge and polygon selections, including border selection.

Editions, Pricing and Platforms

RizomUV is available in two editions. The Virtual Spaces (VS) edition targets game and VFX workflows with normalised UV space. The Real Space (RS) edition is intended for product and industrial design with non-normalised UVs. Pricing for VS: perpetual licence €149.90, or rent-to-own at €14.90/month. The Pro version is rental only at €34.90/month. Pricing for RS: perpetual licence €299.90, or rent-to-own at €29.90/month. The Pro version is €59.90/month rental. Supported platforms are Windows 10+, macOS 11.0+, and RHEL 8.6+ Linux. GPU packing requires Windows and an NVIDIA GPU with CUDA support.

Caution Before Deployment

RizomUV 2025 promises real benefits for Windows users with NVIDIA GPUs, especially when handling dense models or many islands. On other platforms, the gains are more incremental. As with any new feature set, studios should test GPU packing performance and reliability on in-house hardware before deploying the update in production.

The post RizomUV 2025: Faster Packing, But Only If You’re on Windows with CUDA first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

The plugin UVPackmaster version 3.4 for Blender adds a practical one‑click Auto Repacking system. This feature enables artists to apply pre‑configured packing options across multiple meshes and automatically repack only those with changes, saving time in iterative workflows.

Texel density control has finally arrived. Artists can now assign consistent texel density values (in px/m) globally or per‑UV‑island. This ensures uniform texture quality in game and real‑time workflows.

Added grouping by vertex colour offers a visual means to arrange UV islands logically. This complements new Option Sets—collections of packing settings stored within a .blend file or as standalone presets UVPackmaster.

The update expands upon prior enhancements documented in the official release notes. Version 3.4.1 introduced Auto Repacking tied to Option Sets, plus texel‑density tools and expert controls such as High‑Precision Topology Analysis. Version 3.4.2 adds vertex‑color grouping, performance improvements in island stacking, a Force Repacking toggle per‑object, and a fix for a critical Blender 2.8–2.9 issue.

System compatibility remains broad: Blender 2.83 and above on Windows 10+, glibc 2.29+ Linux, and macOS 11.3+ are supported. Pricing remains unchanged: a single‑user licence is US $44, while multi‑user Studio licences start at US $159.

UVPackmaster, first released in 2018, remains a high‑performance, GPU‑accelerated UV packing engine. It supports UDIMs, tiled and non‑square layouts, and runs on NVIDIA and (since version 3.3) Vulkan‑accelerated AMD GPUs and Macs.

Full Release Notes (Scroll down!) are here: https://uvpackmaster.com/for-blender/release-notes/

Developers and texture artists should note that new features like Auto Repacking and texel-density tools should be tested within production pipelines before deployment to ensure stability and compatibility.

The post UVPackmaster 3.4 Adds One-Click Auto Repacking to Blender first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Jürgen Firsching.

The biggest news for Blender users: UnwrellaConnect, a free MIT-licensed plugin, now embeds Packer‑IO directly into Blender 4.2 and above. This replaces the older UV‑Packer add-on and offers tighter, more intuitive pipeline integration, including access to the commercial Unwrella‑IO unwrapping tool. UnwrellaConnect (GitHub) is distributed as a ZIP archive and brings Packer‑IO’s UI directly into Blender’s UV Editor—no need to jump between external applications. The UnwrellaConnect workflow is simple: install both the Packer‑IO standalone app and the Blender ZIP extension, then pack UVs directly from inside Blender. The plugin’s interface is minimal and matches Blender’s default UI style, designed for focus and speed.

Free, Not Basic.

Since its release in May 2024, Packer‑IO has positioned itself as a free, production-ready UV packing solution for VFX, game, and 3D visualization professionals. Its engine, developed over more than a decade, is designed to chew through thousands of UV islands and millions of polygons with ease. What sets it apart is the consistent packing time—no matter the texture resolution or polygon count. The multithreaded backend uses all available CPU cores for maximal throughput, and its multipacking capability means users can pack several models into a single or multiple texture sheets in one go.

Packer‑IO’s exact padding calculation prevents baking overlaps and maintains even spacing between UV charts. Supported formats include FBX, OBJ, GLTF, PLY, STL, among others, making it a practical bridge between different 3D content creation tools.

Texel Density and Real‑World Units

The update to version 1.2 in June 2025 added support for real-world scene units—metric and imperial—plus direct control over texel density. Users can now set precise pixels-per-centimeter or pixels-per-inch targets to ensure all their assets maintain consistent texture resolution, a feature particularly valued in game development and real-time pipelines.

Intelligent Hole‑Filling

With version 1.3, released July 2025, Packer‑IO’s packing logic takes a further leap. The new algorithm intelligently fills gaps between larger UV islands with smaller ones, reducing wasted texture space and maximizing texture efficiency. The improved hole-filling routine is essential for anyone needing the tightest possible UV layouts.

UI, Platform Support, and Licensing

Packer‑IO’s UI follows Design‑Thinking principles for clarity, reducing visual noise and hiding non-essential settings while still providing wireframe, edge, and fill display modes for visual feedback. The app is available for Windows 10+ and macOS 10.15+ and is fully free for personal, commercial, and educational use. Both Packer‑IO and UnwrellaConnect are MIT-licensed, so there are no restrictions or costs for commercial deployment.

Built for Pipeline Artists, Not Buzzword Collectors

Packer‑IO is aimed at real-world artists who need UV packing to be reliable, predictable, and efficient, not “revolutionary.” With its long engine lineage, scale- and texel-aware packing, multipacking, and robust hole-filling, it fills a practical gap for production pipelines. The direct Blender integration with UnwrellaConnect streamlines workflows and eliminates tedious import/export routines.

Of course, as with any “new” tool, artists should validate stability and performance in their own production environments before making permanent changes to their pipeline. Features look solid on paper, but only real jobs can confirm if Packer‑IO is ready for daily production.

Packer IO Release Notes

By the way: Packer Io is based on this previous Product for 3ds Max, which is now discontinued, but still available for Legacy Pipelines…

UV-Packer 3 | 3d-io

The post Packer‑IO with Blender integration! first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Wrap Gen is a procedural wrapping tool for Blender, created by Hodgson3D. It allows users to wrap custom geometry around objects using guide curves and geometry nodes. The tool supports both poly and bezier curves as guides, enabling users to define the path of the wrap. Users can choose to array objects along the wrap or wrap single objects along the curve. An internal shrinkwrap/convex hull system ensures that the wrap conforms to the contours of the target mesh, behaving like a tight rope or strap over concave and convex areas.

Key Features

• Custom Geometry Wrapping: Assign your own geometry to be wrapped around the target mesh.
• Wrap Count Control: Set the desired number of wraps. For individual control, set the wrap count to “1” and duplicate the guide curve in edit mode.
• Curve Radius Adjustment: Dial in where the wraps interact with the target mesh by adjusting the curve radius.
• Target Mesh or Collection: Choose to wrap around a single mesh or a collection of objects.
• Array Option: Decide whether to array the wrap mesh along the curve or wrap a single object.
• Randomization Settings: Add randomness to offset, rotation, and spin with exposed seed parameters for quick iterations.
• Scatter Meshes: Scatter objects along the wraps to add knots or imperfections, enhancing the organic look.
• Self-Collision Detection: Enable self-collision to generate more realistic layering of wraps.
• Convex Hull Normals: Convert the target mesh to a convex hull to sample normals from, aiding in wrap alignment.
• Alignment to Normals: Align wraps to the normals of the target mesh for non-uniform objects like straps.
• Merge Threshold: Adjust the merge threshold to control the merging of vertices after deformation.
• Default Wrap Settings: Use default settings for profile radius, resolution, and curve resolution when no custom wrap mesh is assigned.

Usage Steps

1. Draw out a guide curve (poly or bezier).
2. Set the desired number of wraps.
3. Adjust the curve radius to define interaction with the target
4. Assign your target mesh or collection and the wrap mesh.
5. Customize settings for randomness, alignment, and more.

Compatibility and Availability

Wrap Gen is compatible with Blender versions 4.1 through 4.4. It is available for purchase at Superhive Market for $10.99, currently discounted to $8.24.

Final Thoughts

Wrap Gen offers a procedural approach to wrapping geometry in Blender, streamlining the process and providing extensive customization options. As with any new tool, it’s advisable to test its integration within your specific pipeline before full-scale implementation.

モデルに複数のケーブルなどを巻き付けるのに便利なBlender用モディファイアのWrap Genが現在セール中です。https://t.co/sXobyzoxa4… pic.twitter.com/73DPdowVBL

— ModelingHappy (@happy_modeling) May 21, 2025

The post Wrap Gen: Because Your Mesh Deserves a Hug first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

If your next 3D shot demands a textured globe with properly mapped UDIMs and a side of sanity, the Figments UDIM Globe add-on might be worth a look. The free tool lets artists generate globe objects complete with baked-in UVs optimised for UDIM texture layouts—a rare case where world-building starts with fewer headaches. Created by developer Figments, this add-on creates spherical objects with UDIM-compliant UVs right out of the gate. No manual UV unwrapping, no endless fiddling with seams—just a sphere and a texture-ready UV layout that starts at tile 1001 (UDIM’s default numbering) and continues eastward as needed.

UVs, but make them planet-sized

The key feature of UDIM Globe is automatic generation of UVs that tile across UDIM spaces, allowing artists to wrap textures seamlessly around the sphere using tile-based workflows. This is particularly handy for artists working in physically based rendering (PBR) setups, where assets often need high-res, multi-tile textures for close-up beauty shots. The tool doesn’t just generate the sphere and UVs. It also creates a rotation rig, so the globe can be spun in your scene immediately after creation—useful for animations or motion graphics.

Use cases and limitations

The add-on targets workflows where globe-style objects need UDIM textures applied efficiently. Think of it as a shortcut for animation, visualisation, or VFX shots that include Earth-like bodies, stylised planets, or any situation requiring procedural yet UDIM-compatible geometry. That said, there are no additional controls for surface detail, shader presets, or deformation—this is not a planet generator in the vein of Gaea or World Machine. It’s a UV-and-rotation solution, not a full-on terrain engine.

Compatibility and install

Figments UDIM Globe runs in Blender, and installation follows the default Blender add-on process: download the toolset here via GumRoad (hosted by Figments), install it as a zipped archive in Blender’s preferences, and start mapping. Because this is a free, open-source utility, artists are encouraged to check the tool’s GitHub page for updates, notes, and community feedback. As with any new plugin, especially in production workflows, it’s best to test it in isolated setups before committing it to pipeline-critical tasks.

Price and availability

This asset pack is completely free – even for commercial use! But any payment or donation is greatly appreciated. The add-on can be downloaded from GumRoad.

The post UDIM Planet: Free Globe Toolset Orbits Blender, Max, Maya, Houdini, Unreal and C4D first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.