Procedural Templates
Create custom hextile templates from 14 polyhedral geometries
Last updated: 2026-03-13
Procedural Templates
What Are Hextile Templates?
360 Hextile works by decomposing a 360° equirectangular image into hexagonal tiles, processing each tile with AI, then stitching them back into a seamless panorama. Templates define HOW the sphere is divided — the tile positions, orientations, overlap zones, and blending masks.
Pre-Made Templates
Three production-ready templates ship with the application: - Hextile 20 (2K) — 20 tiles, 2048×1024. Fast preview renders. - Hextile 32 (3K) — 32 tiles, 3072×1536. Balanced speed/quality. - Hextile 44 (4K) — 44 tiles, 4096×2048. High quality, default choice.
Procedural Template Generator
Create custom templates from any of 14 polyhedral geometries — no external tools required. The generator computes tile positions, field of view, overlap zones, and blending masks automatically.
14 Polyhedral Base Geometries
| Polyhedron | Base Faces | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
| Cube | 6 | Traditional cubemap-like coverage |
| Dodecahedron | 12 | Pentagon-based, uniform coverage |
| Rhombic Dodecahedron | 12 | Diamond faces, unique overlap |
| Truncated Octahedron | 14 | Mixed hex/square faces |
| Icosahedron | 20 | Default — best sphere approximation |
| Rhombicuboctahedron | 26 | High uniformity, many faces |
| Truncated Icosahedron | 32 | Soccer ball geometry |
| Chamfered Dodecahedron | 42 | Smooth transitions |
| Disdyakis Dodecahedron | 48 | Triangle-based, even distribution |
| Pentakis Dodecahedron | 60 | High tile count, fine control |
| Deltoidal Hexecontahedron | 60 | Kite-shaped faces |
| Rhombicosidodecahedron | 62 | Archimedean solid |
| Goldberg GP(2,1) | 72 | Dense coverage, minimal gaps |
| Goldberg GP(3,0) | 92 | Very dense, high-res targets |
Creating a Template
- Go to the Templates page
- Click "New Template"
- Choose your base polyhedron
- Adjust parameters:
- Field of View — Per-tile FOV angle. Wider = more overlap = better blending. Narrower = less distortion per tile.
- Overlap Fraction — How much adjacent tiles overlap (affects seam quality)
- Gradient Width — Blend zone size at tile edges (wider = smoother transitions)
- Preview coverage visualization (see how tiles cover the sphere)
- Click Generate
Template Parameters Explained
Field of View (FOV) Each tile captures a perspective view from the sphere center. Wider FOV means each tile covers more area (fewer gaps) but with more perspective distortion. Narrower FOV means less distortion but requires more tiles for full coverage.
Overlap & Gradient Blending Where tiles overlap, the system blends them using weighted gradient masks. The gradient width controls how gradually tiles fade into each other at edges. More overlap and wider gradients produce more seamless results.
Tile Count Total tiles = base faces × subdivision level. An icosahedron (20 faces) at subdivision 0 produces 20 tiles. Higher subdivision multiplies the count.
Coverage Visualization
- Real-time sphere coverage heatmap
- Coverage statistics: min/max/mean/std deviation
- Identifies gaps or thin coverage areas
- View individual tile positions and orientations
- Export coverage report
Managing Templates
- Duplicate — Clone any template as a starting point
- Import/Export — Share templates as ZIP files (includes geometry + masks)
- Delete — Remove custom templates (pre-made templates are protected)
- Regenerate — Re-compute masks with updated parameters
Template Files (what's inside)
Each template contains:
- hextiles.json — Tile positions, quaternions, FOV, neighbor adjacency
- inpaint_masks/ — Per-tile inpainting masks (white = generate, black = preserve)
- blend_masks/ — Gradient blending weights for seamless stitching
- preview.jpg — Visual preview of tile layout
- tilegen.json — Generation parameters for reproducibility