Mari 8.0's Hex Tile Node Is the Cheapest Fix for Visible Texture Repeats

Foundry released Mari 8.0 on 15 October, and among its 50-plus new Node Graph nodes two solve a problem every 3D artist knows: tiling textures that show their repeats.

The Hex Tile node tiles and blends a texture across a hexagonal grid instead of a rectangular one, which breaks up the obvious pattern. The Tri-Planar Tiled node projects a single 2D image along the X, Y and Z axes, with a Smart blend mode that preserves high-frequency detail. It suits models with UV distortion, seam problems or no UVs at all.

Both are useful on large surfaces: brickwork, paving, timber decking, carpet, grass. These are the surfaces that run the length of an interior or an exhibition floor, and a repeating pattern is the first thing a sharp-eyed client notices.

Mari 8.0 also adds a Compare node for A/B wipes between node streams, which makes material iteration quicker, and 49 new math nodes. It is rental only, at $689 a year for individuals. Hex tiling is also now supported in Houdini, Redshift and RenderMan, so the technique travels across a pipeline.