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Bitmap2Material now on Steam

interpolator
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Jerc interpolator
Hi all,

Just a quick word to give you some updates on Allegorithmic's world domination plans.

Bitmap2Material, our seamless normal/ao/spec/whatever generator is now available on Steam and for the occasion, we introduced a non-commercial license priced at $50, with 20% discount for the coming week.

That's less than 40 bucks for the best image-to-normal algorithm out there.

Just thought some of you guys might be interested to take advantage of the offer :)

2GgoiGp.jpg

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  • marks
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    marks greentooth
    Jerc wrote: »
    That's less than 40 bucks for the best image-to-normal algorithm out there.

    Why is it better than Crazybump and/or Knald?
  • Jerc
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    Jerc interpolator
    The resulting normal maps can be much more precise and crisp while retaining broad shapes, and you have a lot more control over pretty much everything. It's also a lot faster than Crazybump and it can make your images seamless automatically.

    The commercial version allows you to generate and tweak your normal maps in real time in UDK or Unity viewports.

    There is a trial version over here if you want to check the quality by yourself.
  • Kwramm
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    Kwramm interpolator
    ...great! Going to grab this on Steam :)

    about CB - I doesn't seem to get developed anymore. B2M also integrates nicely with Designer and together with the batch tools it's quite powerful. We got full licenses here, so I didn't have the time to check - but it would be cool if the batch tools would be included in the Stream version
  • Jerc
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    Jerc interpolator
    We will probably include the batch tools in the Steam version of SD in the next update.
  • MM
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    MM polycounter lvl 17
    does it support 4k and 8k maps ?

    what if i get B2M and need batch export but dont want to buy SD, what then ?

    *Edit

    in the trial, when i put output size to 4k the curvature map shows flat grey but if i go down to 2k it shows the curvature properly.

    also the curvature calculation by default seems really off compared to what Knald is doing right now.
  • Jerc
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    Jerc interpolator
    It supports 4k max at the moment.
    I just checked using high resolutions maps and indeed the curvature fades out above 1k. I just updated it with a higher quality version and fixed the fading out, I'll keep you updated as soon as the new build is up. Thanks for reporting the issue.
  • Accipiter
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    Accipiter triangle
    What's the difference between this and Substance?
    *edit*
    Nevermind, I read about it on your site. Haven't even used Substance after initial purchase. Maybe I'll get around to it.

    I'm just always disappointed to see that I've got to purchase yet another tool that doesn't come with my initial high price purchase.
  • Jerc
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    Jerc interpolator
    Well B2M was created using Substance Designer, so with a bit of time within SD, you could very well create your own customized equivalent to B2M. Buying it is just the quick and easy way :)

    MM, would you have a texture example on which the curvature looks bad to you ? It will in any ways look different than knald as the algorithms are obviously different, but it shouldn't look worse.
    Keep in mind that our method tends to produce sharper normal maps, and the default settings can be too sharp with high resolution textures, setting the Fine Details slider to a very small value like 0.01 will change a lot the look of the curvature.

    Difference between the default value and 0.01 value on a high-rez noisy input:

    ZJZ9q5l.png
  • MM
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    MM polycounter lvl 17
    here is some comparison with Knald. noise or sharpness is not the issue here, it is the lighting direction.

    they height map produced by Knald is really nice and uniform without any lighting direction and works really well as a curvature map.

    B2M on the other hand creates map with very visible light directions similar to the normal map. you can see left to right, top to bottom shading in both the curvature map and the height map. this is not ideal for a good curvature or even height map.

    I tried changing several setting but wasnt successful in getting a uniform height map without any directionality. am i missing something ?

    U6AjuHM.jpg
  • Jerc
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    Jerc interpolator
    I was able to get the same result in the Curvature output (seems like the height from knald is using the same process as we do for the curvature):

    mGocyGR.png

    The trick is that if you use a normal map as input, you need to plug it to the "Bitmap Relief" input instead of the Bitmap Diffuse. If you don't, it actually interpret that normal as a height and produces the mess you got.

    Here are the parameters you have to use to get a clean curvature from a normal map:

    tWDY5J8.png

    Also to get a clean AO, you might want to set the AO Light Strenght to 0 too.

    Most of our default settings work really well for generating those maps from photographs, using a normal map as input was kind of an afterthought so you need to change a few settings, but once you got them right you can save them as a preset (button on the top right of the parameters).
  • MM
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    MM polycounter lvl 17
    thanks for that.

    the results seem to be a bit noisy even after denoise but i was able to get a cleaner result after switching to Direct3D 10 engine from options menu.

    how would i go about batch converting/exporting multiple normal maps at once ?
  • Jerc
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    Jerc interpolator
    Yes, the GPU engine works in 16bits depth while the CPU works only in 8bits.
    There is currently no batch tool included with B2M, we are discussing including some though.
  • almighty_gir
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    almighty_gir ngon master
    Jerc wrote: »
    I was able to get the same result in the Curvature output (seems like the height from knald is using the same process as we do for the curvature)

    i honestly do not think that's the case, at all. it's nice that you can get a "similar" result (look how noisy yours is). but i'm certain the processes are not the same.
  • Mathew O
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    Mathew O polycounter
  • Jerc
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    Jerc interpolator
    i honestly do not think that's the case, at all. it's nice that you can get a "similar" result (look how noisy yours is). but i'm certain the processes are not the same.

    We probably don't use the exact same method, but the result is extremely similar. Most of the noise came from the fact that I'm was using a poorly resampled version of the image MM posted. I redid it properly here, and you can see it's almost pixel perfect although a bit sharper:
    6y6pCs9.png

    Same thing for the heightmap, it's very very similar :)

    gjvC5YB.png

    My point is, both are great :)
  • Alberto Rdrgz
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    Alberto Rdrgz polycounter lvl 9
    can you input just a normal map? or a height map??
  • Jerc
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    Jerc interpolator
    Mathew O > The version on the website is the commercial version. On top of the standalone, it allows you to use B2M directly in game engines and 3d tools, it also contains a extremely fast version (few miliseconds) to generate textures at runtime, during a game for example.

    Alberto Rdrgz > Yes, that's what we didi with MM in the previous posts. Feeding it a heightmap will give you a lot of controls, feeding directly a normal map will give you less parameters to tweak but you can clicky get cavity, AO maps and such from it.
  • Jerc
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    Jerc interpolator
    Quick ping guys as the discount on Steam will expire tomorrow, last chance to get the 20% off :)

    The update for the Curvature is done and should be up on Steam in a few days at most btw.
  • Accipiter
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    Accipiter triangle
    How do updates work with all this? Through Steam as long as I purchased it through there?
    Also, it seems like a pretty cool program...but my problem is...how do I explain all this to another person. I dove into "Substance" yesterday night for the first time (I'm currently trying to watch tutorials on everything to get a better idea), but currently I've come up with this solution to everything.

    Substance Player -
    A free tool.
    Used to adjust any "substances" that are already packaged within Autodesk's 3DS Max Map folders.
    Pretty cool and I'm able to save out Diffuse, Normal, Specular, Bump, Height, and Displacement. (can't seem to get Displacement to work, not sure why yet)
    You cannot pull up .jpg, .png, .targa, etc files.

    Substance Designer -
    Not a free tool.
    You can use this tool to create "Substances" (I'm going to stop with the " ") and you can throw in .jpg, .png, .targa, etc files to have interesting new Substances.
    I'm guessing you can export different texture maps with this tool? If not you'd have to pull up the Substance Player just to do that.

    Substance Bitmap2Material -
    Not a free tool.
    Can take any image you have created, in my case a Diffuse texture map, and generate your other Texture Maps from it?
    Afterwards, throwing them into Substance Designer...but not Substance Player?

    It's rather confusing, I tried explaining all this to co-workers as it seems like it would save a lot of time, but I'm such a noob at it I don't know the proper way of explaining the workflow of this.

    If you could break it down a bit, would be helpful. I'll keep listening to this tutorial and reading up on everything. You've probably got another Thread regarding this...I probably should have looked first.

    Oh well, SEND!!!
  • Jerc
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    Jerc interpolator
    Accipiter wrote: »
    How do updates work with all this? Through Steam as long as I purchased it through there?
    Yes, updates will come to Steam automatically as they are available.
    Accipiter wrote: »
    Substance Player -
    A free tool.
    Used to adjust any "substances" that are already packaged within Autodesk's 3DS Max Map folders.
    Pretty cool and I'm able to save out Diffuse, Normal, Specular, Bump, Height, and Displacement. (can't seem to get Displacement to work, not sure why yet)
    You cannot pull up .jpg, .png, .targa, etc files.
    Pretty much, yes. The displacement in most substances is by default a plain grey image and the "Relief Balance" parameter allows you to put details in it, from low frequencies only, to higher frequencies, to keep a smooth displacement.
    Accipiter wrote: »
    Substance Designer -
    Not a free tool.
    You can use this tool to create "Substances" (I'm going to stop with the " ") and you can throw in .jpg, .png, .targa, etc files to have interesting new Substances.
    I'm guessing you can export different texture maps with this tool? If not you'd have to pull up the Substance Player just to do that.
    You can export textures at any time. The 2D preview has a "Save as bitmap" option as well as a simple "copy to clipboard" button on any node you are visualizing.
    Accipiter wrote: »
    Substance Bitmap2Material -
    Not a free tool.
    Can take any image you have created, in my case a Diffuse texture map, and generate your other Texture Maps from it?
    Afterwards, throwing them into Substance Designer...but not Substance Player?
    By default, B2M will open within the Substance Player, and it works like any other substance.
    The main difference being that you can use bitmaps(jpeg, tga, whatever) as inputs in the Player by drag and dropping them. You can also use the B2M file directly in Substance Designer as part of a larger substance.
  • Accipiter
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    Accipiter triangle
    Jerc wrote: »
    By default, B2M will open within the Substance Player, and it works like any other substance.
    The main difference being that you can use bitmaps(jpeg, tga, whatever) as inputs in the Player by drag and dropping them. You can also use the B2M file directly in Substance Designer as part of a larger substance.

    However B2M will not work unless you've got it installed?

    So until you install B2M you won't be able to open up any files within the Substance Player?
  • Jerc
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    Jerc interpolator
    You can open any substance file in the Player, whether or not B2M is installed. It's just the default program in which any substance, B2M included, are opened.
  • Accipiter
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    Accipiter triangle
    Well, what I meant was, images.
    You can only open any Substance, not images in the Player.
    You have to get Designer for this option.
  • kodde
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    kodde polycounter lvl 18
    Anyone figured out how to flip y/z for the normal map in the Maya trial version? I can't seem to find any option for this. Did I miss something?
  • kodde
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    kodde polycounter lvl 18
    Never mind. Found it.

    Relief -> Output Normal Format: DirectX / OpenGL
  • slipsius
    Any chance the substance plugin for unity will be going on sale as well? :D
  • Jerc
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    Jerc interpolator
    slipsius wrote: »
    Any chance the substance plugin for unity will be going on sale as well? :D

    If by Substance plugin you mean Bitmap2Material for Unity, the Steam Commercial version includes the B2M files that will work with Unity.
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