Sorry to spam this topic, but there were a few other things I ran into:
When linking a psd and blending a seperate layer with the diffuse, it gets white fringing around semi-transparent pixels. Any way to prevent this?
Also, can I set the 3D View to unlit, for the purpose of previewing the diffuse only?
What does your high poly mesh look like? Are you sure the scale is right between your high and low poly?
Also I forgot to mention that Gamma correction has been fixed in the viewport so your PBR substances should look much better in Toolbag2 or other PBR apps when fine -tuned through the SD viewport.
A quick clear up question our game engine uses albedo, normal, reflectance and roughness. In substance which output should i be using to mimic the reflectance? i assume reflection rather than metallic?
Cheers guys
Jerc: quick heads up, you can't drag resources into the graph straight onto a frame, and 'add comment' with a node selected isn't attaching it to the node (and it doesn't scale with the zoom-level).
edit: old comments are detached from their nodes as well now, but they do still retain the old styling, and zoom-dependent text-size.
A quick clear up question our game engine uses albedo, normal, reflectance and roughness. In substance which output should i be using to mimic the reflectance? i assume reflection rather than metallic?
Cheers guys
Use the shader i posted up, it's in the first post of this thread. Make sure you have an output called Specular, and in that outputs settings you need to make sure you have the following:
Identifier: Specular
Label: Specular
Usage: RGBA > Specular
Use the shader i posted up, it's in the first post of this thread. Make sure you have an output called Specular, and in that outputs settings you need to make sure you have the following:
Identifier: Specular
Label: Specular
Usage: RGBA > Specular
Cheers mate thanks. Just downloaded the shader and will check out
What's the best way to make some of the generators tile? say for example, i want a 2048 texture output, and i'm using a 128 generator. i don't want to just scale up the generator to fit the 2048 texture, i want it to tile 16*16 times to fit into the 2048.
I've tried forcing the node to tile h+v as an absolute value but it doesn't seem to be behaving.
Is it possible to use the PBR shader with specular map instead of metallic?
There is no native shader that support that in a PBR context, but if you look some posts above, some Polycount users created an alternate PBR shader that support them.
What's the best way to make some of the generators tile? say for example, i want a 2048 texture output, and i'm using a 128 generator. i don't want to just scale up the generator to fit the 2048 texture, i want it to tile 16*16 times to fit into the 2048.
I've tried forcing the node to tile h+v as an absolute value but it doesn't seem to be behaving.
You can do a node for it, gir. One that just takes an integer as input for how many times it should tile. I think you can even have it control the resolution.
Jerc: quick heads up, you can't drag resources into the graph straight onto a frame, and 'add comment' with a node selected isn't attaching it to the node (and it doesn't scale with the zoom-level).
edit: old comments are detached from their nodes as well now, but they do still retain the old styling, and zoom-dependent text-size.
So, is this only on my end, should I send my file?
Is it possible to use the PBR shader with specular map instead of metallic?
Here is diffuse/specular/glossiness version of the pbr shader, we'll probably include it into the next 4.1.1 version. It includes the correct gamma management introduced in SD 4.1.
Just use the same mesh for the low-poly and the high-poly.
I just looked at your mesh, you have ovelapping uvs. So in this context the baker can't produce a good AO map since it always rewrite part of your UVs on other UV islands. For a map like your AO you want to use unique UV islands, or to put overlapping faces outside the UV range 0-1.
Question for the general public: For anything that references a bitmap should I save it as a sbsar so that I can move it as I please without breaking the file locations? Or should I just generally import anything I work on? I am having a lot of trouble with organizing substances at the moment...if you can't tell. How do you go about reusing substances..
ETA : Ah nevermind. I answered my own question by doing a quick test. SBSAR contain a lot less information making it have a lot less impact on the substance
Question for the general public: For anything that references a bitmap should I save it as a sbsar so that I can move it as I please without breaking the file locations? Or should I just generally import anything I work on? I am having a lot of trouble with organizing substances at the moment...if you can't tell. How do you go about reusing substances..
ETA : Ah nevermind. I answered my own question by doing a quick test. SBSAR contain a lot less information making it have a lot less impact on the substance
Personally I keep what I need as an SBS file and open them when I need to export them. I create custom folder where I put all the resources and link them in my substance. Like :
res_character (folder containing fbx, tga, and so on)
char_character.sbs (sbs file)
char_characer.sbsar (cooked substance, in case I need it in Maya/UDK)
Since the path stored in the sbs are relatives, it's quite easy to move dependencies. Note that you can also generate a zip file with all the sbs + linked objects via Designer directly. Right-click on your substance -> Export with dependencies.
With the last update it's also even more easier to move sbs since you have the alias system for your custom libraries.
I typically try to do that too, but it somehow ends up a big mess of everything. I am terrible with organization and often end up having days like this where I am just sitting reorganizing everything from the past weeks work. So I've had a lot of substances break because I moved the substance without grabbing the resource file etc..
So I think I will mostly stick to just using the sbsar files for anything that uses photo sources and then the SBS file for any custom filters etc I make. Substance designer is fun, organization is not! >:(
You could just set up a messy library then. Takes some work setting up, but once you're watching the folder (like C;/dump/) and set up the Library filter rule (Path contains 'Dump'), the new relative library path system should work for you. You just have to keep photo resources in that folder or subfolders, but you can move the SBS all you want.
I use almost exclusively sbs personally. Keep your files in order and you will be fine. Sbs is super flexible and you can of course still edit your graph!
I was pondering if it's possible to take a color map like Ddo and have it auto assign to the corresponding network.
Yes, there is a filter in the library called "color to mask". Dedicated to create a black and white mask from a specific color. It's the same feature used for blending multi-material by the way (the feature that was introduced in Designer 4.0).
Note that you can bake you UVs as a colored map in Designer too (in svg file format).
Or use the Multi-Material Blend node (Materials/Blending), allows the exact same thing; blends a dynamic amount of materials with a built-in Color-To-Mask
Nice. Thanks for the response Xoliul and Froyok. I use the Color to mask quite a lot.
What I have in mind is having a network with all of my specific materials such as metal, concrete, wood and so on. There would be a function that says once the RGB value is met assign wood for example. Hmmmm I am going to attack this today. It is pretty damn easy to just hook everything up mind you.
I just like the quick and dirty press one button and all your base surfaces are applied.:) HAHAHA
Nice. Thanks for the response Xoliul and Froyok. I use the Color to mask quite a lot.
What I have in mind is having a network with all of my specific materials such as metal, concrete, wood and so on. There would be a function that says once the RGB value is met assign wood for example. Hmmmm I am going to attack this today. It is pretty damn easy to just hook everything up mind you.
I just like the quick and dirty press one button and all your base surfaces are applied.:) HAHAHA
Just wrap the Multi Material Blend in an extra graph with predefined materials and color values. The character guys at work do it exactly like that.
Does anyone know if there is a quicker way to create almost an "instance" of a node? I'd like to be able to just quickly edit something like the length of a scratches node and have the change appear in say the normal and specular graphs at the same time. There are a few ways that I can think of doing this, either by linking the same output or creating a new graph but they are both quite messy solutions. Is there just a copy as an instance feature or anything?
I'm not sure I fully get it, but it sounds like something i run in to a lot with the Tile Generator; I want the same amount of X and Y tiles, but the scale or variation should be different. And I don't want to go and change both nodes separately when I decide on a different X and Y amount. Sound similar?
In that case, what i do is either expose the things I want 'linked' on one node, and then hook those same values on the other nodes up to these exposed values. So a global exposed value controls all.
It's actually better to do what you consider 'messy' though; create a new (sub)graph with multiple outputs, and expose it in this graph. Then you replace it all by one centrally controlled graph, i'd argue that's actually cleaner.
Just an opinion on the transformation node.
Currently the scale and angle numbers reset when you leave the node. if you scale an axis to 150%, leave the node, then return, it'll be 100%. Same with angles.
Doesn't it make more sense to have the angle and scale keep the number i set it to?
If i rotate my texture 90° and scale it 200%, I'd like those numbers to be there the next time i return to the node. That way it's easier to see what you've previously done, and easier reset or tweak those numbers.
Is it even possible to see what changes you did with the transformation node? I can't find it anywhere. The Offset seems to work as expected at least.
I'm not sure I fully get it, but it sounds like something i run in to a lot with the Tile Generator; I want the same amount of X and Y tiles, but the scale or variation should be different. And I don't want to go and change both nodes separately when I decide on a different X and Y amount. Sound similar?
In that case, what i do is either expose the things I want 'linked' on one node, and then hook those same values on the other nodes up to these exposed values. So a global exposed value controls all.
It's actually better to do what you consider 'messy' though; create a new (sub)graph with multiple outputs, and expose it in this graph. Then you replace it all by one centrally controlled graph, i'd argue that's actually cleaner.
Thanks Xoliul that was exactly what I meant. That's actually how I've been working so far, perhaps messy was the wrong choice of words. Having to create an entire subgraph to have one instanced node seems unnecessarily time consuming when a "duplicate as instance" option could achieve the same. Thanks for your help though, as I've been using Substance more I've actually found that having a library of subgraphs is probably the better way of doing it just in case you need to use it in multiple other substances (which is more often than not the case)
For those of you trying the grass thing, here is a method that works pretty well.
I'm using the gradient pattern in the fxmap but you could replace it with a custom grass blade.
The noise I used as an input acts as a flow map for the grass, you can replace it by anything else to create crop circles or what not
It could use some more randomness on the bigger blades though now that I look at it again.
Replies
When linking a psd and blending a seperate layer with the diffuse, it gets white fringing around semi-transparent pixels. Any way to prevent this?
Also, can I set the 3D View to unlit, for the purpose of previewing the diffuse only?
Main new features are:
You can check the full changelist over here as there are also a lot of small additions and fixes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROMRjbvGgxc#t=98
Here's what I get:
Seems like it could be a bug. I only have ambient light affecting the scene, by the way.
Also I forgot to mention that Gamma correction has been fixed in the viewport so your PBR substances should look much better in Toolbag2 or other PBR apps when fine -tuned through the SD viewport.
Finally, new updated tutorials! Can someone add them to the first post of this thread?
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB0wXHrWAmCwLRTzdb-RxadGk_xBBQKar
Cheers guys
edit: old comments are detached from their nodes as well now, but they do still retain the old styling, and zoom-dependent text-size.
Use the shader i posted up, it's in the first post of this thread. Make sure you have an output called Specular, and in that outputs settings you need to make sure you have the following:
Identifier: Specular
Label: Specular
Usage: RGBA > Specular
Cheers mate thanks. Just downloaded the shader and will check out
I've tried forcing the node to tile h+v as an absolute value but it doesn't seem to be behaving.
There is no native shader that support that in a PBR context, but if you look some posts above, some Polycount users created an alternate PBR shader that support them.
What you are looking for is the transform node.
So, is this only on my end, should I send my file?
Here is diffuse/specular/glossiness version of the pbr shader, we'll probably include it into the next 4.1.1 version. It includes the correct gamma management introduced in SD 4.1.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/bvij88br7jz2bap/physically_specular_glossiness.zip
We've also made a filter to convert diffuse/metallic/roughness maps to this model.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sruthjsbn6qxo1g/physically_specular_glossiness_converter.sbs
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nyim2oa483g1kh7/cube-ao.fbx
Just use the same mesh for the low-poly and the high-poly.
I just looked at your mesh, you have ovelapping uvs. So in this context the baker can't produce a good AO map since it always rewrite part of your UVs on other UV islands. For a map like your AO you want to use unique UV islands, or to put overlapping faces outside the UV range 0-1.
Question for the general public: For anything that references a bitmap should I save it as a sbsar so that I can move it as I please without breaking the file locations? Or should I just generally import anything I work on? I am having a lot of trouble with organizing substances at the moment...if you can't tell. How do you go about reusing substances..
ETA : Ah nevermind. I answered my own question by doing a quick test. SBSAR contain a lot less information making it have a lot less impact on the substance
Personally I keep what I need as an SBS file and open them when I need to export them. I create custom folder where I put all the resources and link them in my substance. Like :
res_character (folder containing fbx, tga, and so on)
char_character.sbs (sbs file)
char_characer.sbsar (cooked substance, in case I need it in Maya/UDK)
Since the path stored in the sbs are relatives, it's quite easy to move dependencies. Note that you can also generate a zip file with all the sbs + linked objects via Designer directly. Right-click on your substance -> Export with dependencies.
With the last update it's also even more easier to move sbs since you have the alias system for your custom libraries.
So I think I will mostly stick to just using the sbsar files for anything that uses photo sources and then the SBS file for any custom filters etc I make. Substance designer is fun, organization is not! >:(
Note that you can bake you UVs as a colored map in Designer too (in svg file format).
What I have in mind is having a network with all of my specific materials such as metal, concrete, wood and so on. There would be a function that says once the RGB value is met assign wood for example. Hmmmm I am going to attack this today. It is pretty damn easy to just hook everything up mind you.
I just like the quick and dirty press one button and all your base surfaces are applied.:) HAHAHA
Just wrap the Multi Material Blend in an extra graph with predefined materials and color values. The character guys at work do it exactly like that.
Thanks!
In that case, what i do is either expose the things I want 'linked' on one node, and then hook those same values on the other nodes up to these exposed values. So a global exposed value controls all.
It's actually better to do what you consider 'messy' though; create a new (sub)graph with multiple outputs, and expose it in this graph. Then you replace it all by one centrally controlled graph, i'd argue that's actually cleaner.
Currently the scale and angle numbers reset when you leave the node. if you scale an axis to 150%, leave the node, then return, it'll be 100%. Same with angles.
Doesn't it make more sense to have the angle and scale keep the number i set it to?
If i rotate my texture 90° and scale it 200%, I'd like those numbers to be there the next time i return to the node. That way it's easier to see what you've previously done, and easier reset or tweak those numbers.
Is it even possible to see what changes you did with the transformation node? I can't find it anywhere. The Offset seems to work as expected at least.
I'm building a character pipeline and I had been thinking about doing this very same thing soon...I want so many more details, haha!
Thanks Xoliul that was exactly what I meant. That's actually how I've been working so far, perhaps messy was the wrong choice of words. Having to create an entire subgraph to have one instanced node seems unnecessarily time consuming when a "duplicate as instance" option could achieve the same. Thanks for your help though, as I've been using Substance more I've actually found that having a library of subgraphs is probably the better way of doing it just in case you need to use it in multiple other substances (which is more often than not the case)
Thanks!
I'd really love to take a look at how you did this, but your dropbox link does not work ^.^
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><package><packageType v="ProFX"/><identifier v="Unsaved Package"/><formatVersion v="1.1.0.11829"/><updaterVersion v="1.1.0.11829"/><platform v="1"/><author v=""/><fileUID v="{ded8b0be-ce38-4a2f-9be9-f88b26413d61}"/><versionUID v="0"/><configurations><name v=""/><uid v="0"/><configuration/></configurations><dependencies><dependency><filename v="sbs://clouds_2.sbs"/><uid v="1181365405"/><type v="package"/><fileUID v="0"/><versionUID v="0"/></dependency><dependency><filename v="sbs://clouds_1.sbs"/><uid v="1181365945"/><type v="package"/><fileUID v="0"/><versionUID v="0"/></dependency></dependencies><content><graph><identifier v="New_Graph"/><uid v="1181365240"/><graphOutputs><graphoutput><identifier v="diffuse"/><uid v="1181365241"/><attributes><l
But a lot longer, So its an XML link it looks like, er.. Can you not just copy the link from your folder?
like : https://www.dropbox.com/s/edkc221c5v5hk21/magic%20shop_WIP.jpg
I have no idea how you're getting the dropboxusercontent link
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9804576/Grass.zip