You would have to be knowledgable-enough in math* to make brick-and-tile UVs, or you can use the provided function to pick apart and mod as needed:
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- note that I am not that guy.
EDIT: as to the original proposition insofar as painting tiles, it works. You can also do the same thing a variety of other ways, so long as you are able to paint-height into your common-information-sink, RVT usually.