Substance model graph, does anyone use it?
polycounter
I did my third approach to Substance Designer model graph and still couldn't do anything meaningful contrary to Blender construction nodes where it's instantly cool and understandable .
Can't even import a curve since most of my procedural things are curve driven usually.
So wonder am I missing something great and convenient there?
Replies
the basics are all there and it's improving but I'm still struggling to find an actual use for it..
Simple things like making brick patterns, interesting arrays, placing objects on things, rudimentary tree generators etc. are doable and of course you can process meshes in a variety of ways
The new subgraph support makes it a bit more viable and there's automation toolkit support now but IMO until you can sample a material to drive parameters it's basically not much use as a procedural geometry generator.
it's never going to be convenient unless you see pixel processor and fx-map graphs as convenient - just like houdini, if you want to do anything that's not on a button you have to do some maths
Thanks poopipe for your opinion. Math is not a rub. It's a lack of immediate feedback . For example doing a formula for FX map I constantly have to copy paste into some value processor elsewhere just to see what is really coming through .
SD in general is a non stop puzzle generator IMO. For example In Blender geometry nodes there is a viewer node and a spreadsheet you can always see what's happening . Nodes connectors are dot vs romb codded as single value vs field . lots of hints under your cursor etc.
I also love Blender shader editor . More than Unreal one where you also have no idea where you did a mistake usually. In Blender you even don't t have to compile anything . It's instantly self explaining.
Probably best sticking with blender then tbh
Fwiw I generally debug fx map functions by outputting const values to pattern color - a 32bit graph gives you full range and you've got a float4 to play with so it covers must situations . I'll often use pattern position if I'm generating a range of numbers
I do the same for pixel processors although in addition I've got some utility nodes I've made that do things like draw the output of a function as a curve for visualising gradients.
I managed to make a shit isometric renderer with shit deferred lighting in designer - complicated things are possible if you build a toolset for yourself.
Except with the model graph, it's not very good yet