Looking for PS plugins (or other software) for texturing spheres

I'm wondering if there are any photoshop plugins, or third party software, that makes it easier to create textures for spheres.

I'm not a 3-D designer at all and have little to no experience in other 3-D design interfaces, so that's why I'm leaning towards a PS filter/plugin option...

Any suggestions or input from you crazy texture gurus? You know who you are.

Anybody tried this thing ?

It's windows only, and i don't have my main machine atm to actually test it myself

Spider Mandala posted something a while back in this thread about help with texturing spheres. Spider is a texture god.

Wow! That's just plain elegant!

I'll have to add it to the Texture Tutorials in-game, when I get back from New Jersey.

I haven't tried that plugin in Damanios' link, but I'll definitely play with it. What I can tell you though about the other link is that I really, really, really hate Photoshop's built in spherical mapping filter. It doesn't just adjust relative sizing of different areas of the image like it's supposed to; it actually removes large portions of the cavas. It's terrible. It's not noticeable on an empty, uniform texture like the denim in the tutorial, but it's plain as day when you've got more striking details on your image. For example, let's say you're trying to prepare a world map to wrap around a globe. Use that filter, and you'll find yourself short a few continents. It's just not written right. Hopefully the plugin is better.

Okay, I have a few minutes to kill before we leave for the plane, and I tested this (on the Preview grid, since things aren't rezzing on the main grid.)

You do lose sections from both sides when you apply polar co-ordinates, so I would recommend using this on an overall pattern; something that won't be troubled by losing a wedge shaped section from the middle of both sides.

I would also recommend flipping the bottom section, distorting, and then flipping again if your pattern or design is directional. That way you get the same effect as if you were able to simply distort from the bottom, and not just the top.

But, other than those two things, it works really well.

OK, that's EXACTLY what I was looking for. Simple, quick, gets rid of most (if not all) of the squish at the polar points, as far as I can tell. I'll post some examples as soon as I get screenshots.


BRILLIANT


EDIT:: SCREENSHOTS





The sphere on the left is a 512X512 tilable texture I made. Notice that warping and pinching at the top of the sphere. The sphere on the right is the same texture, but ran though the photoshop filter in the link. No warping at the polar points, however it did break the seamless texture. Something I can fix if I go back into Photoshop, but good to know: don't bother making a texture seamless first if you need it for sphere work, since you'll just end up redoing the seams again. HOT STUFF

Windows only? Dammit. Cory had me all excited about this plug-in. Anyone know of a Mac plug-in that'll work like this?

Anyone know what folder is shoulld be in??

Found this thread while looking for help on texturing spheres. Haven't tried the download yet, but wanted to note that the location has moved and it's now here:
http://www.richardrosenman.com/software/downloads/