I have a decimated version of a high-resolution model, and I need to map it. Knowing that the model is WIP and there will be changes, I need to set up a network to do this procedurally. Now, AutoSeam or Labs AutoUV provides an OK job, but I need to get rid of overlaps. OK, there's the Labs remove overlap node, but it introduces new UV islands, which are not the best solution for a game asset.
Is there any procedural way to do UV relaxing?

Thanks and Merry Christmas!

uvflatten is my go to, but it also is terrible and will create overlaps.

I haven't found a truly procedural way to do unwrapping. Surgical edge cuts are always required.

szmatefy
Is there any procedural way to do UV relaxing?

Thanks and Merry Christmas!

In the yet to be released new version of this tool, there is also an experimental auto-fix UVs intersections mode, that is going to need some real-world validation. It's working fine and it's very able to fix the overlaps generated by Labs AutoUVs, but it's not an actual relaxation algo: so it may introduce stretching and reduce too much the size of the affected UVs.
https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/82432/ [www.sidefx.com]

You can use a smooth node and set it to uv for smoothing. maybe this can help. also, make sure to set Constrained boundaries to none.

Cheers
CYTE

For me, relaxing is not just relaxing the interior vertices, but relaxing the whole, respecting the boundaries, and making sure there is no overlap. Last time I have seen a decent relaxing was in Maya (or Softimage)

You can try taking advantage of UV Pelt SOP and skin each UV island in a foreach loop. In theory, pelting should never create overlaps, but don't expect decent UVs coming out of it.

Here's a demo scene which I didn't have time to post earlier.

Thanks! I'll check it. I tried pelt before but i couldn't use the results as those were not decent for a game.

Interesting enough that uv edit node has capability to relax selection but has no capability to perform it procedurally.

szmatefy
Interesting enough that uv edit node has capability to relax selection but has no capability to perform it procedurally.

UV Relax in UV Edit is just a smoothing operation, not a flattening operation, it will not preserve angles or areas

if that's what you want however you can use UV Smooth SOP to perform it procedurally