Questions

Experimenting on a grass generator FX Map node with various masks + height packed into RGBA but I'm struggling to achieve the correct blending/layering of elements (bottom image). Pretty new to it. Not sure if my workflow is bad or if its just a limitation of FX Maps.Considering just making 4 variations of grayscale FX Map but hoping to avoid having to make a bunch of matching variables to sync the parameters.JiggleW_1-1765668266925.png JiggleW_0-1765667789847.png 

Say I have a subgraph  saved in same sbs , now  I want some of its instances  do slight different thing.     in Blender I can  make a group  instance unique and local to the file ,   make an override.  All this seam impossible in SD .   The only way is to make a copy  , change what it does  and then manually  drop  and reconnect .      Is so  painstakingly annoying   coming after using  Blender.   Especially in some loop like operation like slope blur .      Am I missing something? 

Designer 15-1 banner.jpg   We’ve just released the newest version of Substance 3D Designer, adding features that make Designer faster and smoother to use, and easier to learn for users coming to the tool perhaps for the first time.   What’s new in Substance 3D Designer 15.1?   An updated ‘new graph’ window   If you’re new to material creation, the first head-scratching moment can come right at the start, when selecting a template for your project. The new release of Designer makes this step much, much clearer, giving you thumbnails allowing you to visualize templates at a glance, and informative tooltips which help you to determine which template suits your project best. New graph creation b.jpg New noises   Noises – whether dirt, directional noise, Perlin noise, or many others – can be a key part of a project. Designer now allows noise nodes to override bit depth; noises are no longer fixed at 16bit, providing better support for non-tiling workflows. In additi

UE5_01 2K cropped.jpg   Environment artist Sherif Dawoud has just created a new Signature Collection for Substance 3D Assets, Welcome to Mireland, focused on the richly atmospheric world of wetlands and marshes. We’ve also just published an interview with Sherif, where he breaks down the creative and technical processes behind this collection, exploring the construction of several key materials, including a highly flexible birch bark system, a mossy swamp-ground surface built from tile-based organic patterns, and terrain materials enriched with customisable grass, leaves, and twig placement. Sherif also shares insights into using displacement-driven workflows in Unreal Engine with Nanite, and how decals, with carefully applied normal exaggeration, can add realistic variation without heavy geometry.   Read the interview with Sherif right now!

Wondering if someone can point me in a direction. I'm used to PySBS, but need to understand how the SD python API handles a couple of things.I've created some node instances, outputs, and graph parameter (inputs) via the API.However, I need to set the graph parameter to Vec4 type (but not the default slider variant, I need to set to a color variant, and potentially change color specific settings [sRGB, float, etc]).I also need to bind that parameter to a uniform color's Output Color parameter. Thanks!

  Arr, matey! Few there be who be havin’ the gumption to create materials that be useful years down the line! Yet this be just what wily ol’ Eric Wiley did a few years back when he put together his ‘Treasure Island’ Signature Collection for good ol’ Substance 3D Assets! The most beautiful ship decking ye ever did see! Treasure, me hearties, by the armful! Everything ye need to make the most astounding pirate scene ever seen across the seven seas!   So aghast were we at the beauty of ol’ Eric Wiley’s work that we dredged up from the depths Eric’s accounting of his workflows and techniques and all, and republished it just these last few days. Go and cast yer eyes over it now, ye mangey landlubber! Arr, me beauties, she be a fine read indeed!  

Substance designer creates a circular basketball leather pattern, as shown in the following reference image 

Hi everyone,I’m new to Substance Designer and I’ve run into a problem I can’t figure out. No matter how many times I create a new graph and select the Metallic-Roughness preset, I cannot find the option to choose Translucent + Displacement (or any PBR shader) in the 3D View.The only material available is AdobeStandardMaterial, and it’s always marked as “default (overridden)”. I don’t see any way to load other shaders.I’ve searched for solutions, but most tutorials show that by choosing the Metallic-Roughness preset, the PBR shader options should appear automatically. In my case, they don’t.Has anyone else had this issue, or knows why this is happening?It’s really frustrating and I’d appreciate any advice.Thanks in advance!

Hi, Apologies if this is an obvious or dumb question - I'm a but new to this and the learning curve is proving steep!  I have been using the mutliangle_to_normal function in 3D Designer to take a set of images recorded using illumination form 4 equally spaced directions - lets say N, E, S and W - to create a normal map of my object and from that create a height map.  It works really well and give some amazing results. But.... I now have a sample where I can't use the 4-equally spaced points, the lamps have to be placed at irregular, but well-defined, known points.  Can I change the input angles into the function and if so how do I do that?Thanks in advance, and agin aplogies if this is too easy a question. 

Hello all,I'm creating a Substance Designer filter that turns an image input into an oil paint effect. I made custom brush stroke alphas and used Shape Splatter node to scatter them around.The problem:Shape splatter tiles by default, so some brush strokes are leaking through the borders which can be seen in the images. I don't want any tiling effects to happen at all since I will also use this shader to paints on baked Unity lightmaps.Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

Hello dear community,  i want to create a function for 2D transformation node to control only Y2 transformation matrix. My aim is to expose this as a parameter which i need to use in a sbsar in other software. how can i build it in the function graph?   thank you, Mark g 

Is there a correct way to check the default resolution on a mystery SBSAR with no origin, info text or metadata?In this case the SBSAR output is probably set to Relative to Parent so it is adjustable dynamically when brought in to another Substance graph.Wanted to find out if there is a better way than simply changing the Parent graph size and eyeballing the SBSAR output to see if it stops changing at a certain resolution? 

Hey! I want to scatter my pattern on a spline, and have it layer the patterns based on a height map (bottom to top). This is easily done in Scatter On Splines Greyscale, but the only blend options in that node at Add or Max, and my pattern has a black outline (so needs an alpha channel).The option for ordering via height map isn't available in Scatter On Splines Colour. Is there a way to get around this?I approximated a result using Shape Splatter and Shape Splatter Blend and then using a map to mask it, but I ended up with too many shapes clustered together than I'd like.

  Matthias Schmidt’s new Procedural Planetarium Signature Collection delivers a rich set of procedural planet materials – from icy moons to gas giants to ocean worlds – built for Substance 3D Assets. All materials of course incorporate modifiable parameters to allow it to fit your stellar needs, and node graphs are provided allowing you to study Matthias's expert approach to material creation.    In our new article, Procedural Planetarium: Matthias Schmidt on Filling the Night Sky, Matthias details the techniques he used to recreate layered atmospheres, emissive “civilization” masks, and more to create these astrological wonders, incorporating outstanding visuals and practical tips you can drop straight into your material workflows.   Take a look today! (Or, y'know, tomorrow.)  

HelloHow should I proceed so that multiple meshes (each with its own UVs) in a single graphic/material can have their individual bakes read without overlapping the bakes?Thank you

HelloIs it possible to create a single graphic with multiple objects that have the same material and bake each object individually?Is there a tutorial?Thanks

HelloIn Blender, it's possible to optimize material graphics by grouping them so that when a change is made to the graphic, the entire graphic doesn't have to be processed.Is there a similar feature in SD 15? Is there a tutorial?Thanks

Does anyone  know  right way  or could point me to a relevant tutorial?  I need not a tree like "splines on a spline"  but rather  vertical splines  with random subtle  waviness    getting random x and y shift  .   Is there something like index parameter   in spline nodes  like inside fx map node ?    A way to  set spline quadratic  node spline amount to say 10  and  use each spline index  to give each its own subtle  random points  wavines .     A super easy to do thing in Blender geometry nodes  with clear and easy preview  but I broke my mind alredy trying to do it in Designer.  I see I can do  10  pre-made  splines manually   with some functions controlling  points position  for each of them individually ,   map a texture on splines,  and then feed each on

Documentation page says it can be used as input to Spline poly quaderatic  node . How?  it has incompatible inputs.    

Hello,   We have observed an increase of crashes reported by users, occurring when Designer is used in combination with third-party software that intercept calls from Designer to the graphics drivers.   Software such as: Post-process injectors such as reshaders that apply color grading, camera effects, ... On-screen overlays such as custom crosshairs, GPU performance metrics, skins for video streaming...   Please note these applications are not supported, and we recommend disabling them before running Designer.   The hooks applied by such software can lead to errors in Designer's graphics processes, especially those involving the 3D View. Crashes may therefore occur when the 3D View is started, which happens when creating or loading the first graph in a Designer session.   Thank you for your understanding.   The Substance 3D Designer team  

  We just published an article exploring how the Substance 3D Assets team and Chris Lefteri Design combined 3D and ‘real-world’ expertise to look at injection-molded plastics, and consider how techniques like injecting dyes or adding speckles in the mix can create interesting material effects.   These materials were created with CMF designers in mind—experimenting with parametric materials in this way to show every phase of the material creation process can essentially save a lot of time and resources in terms of iteration and prototyping—but it's a fascinating look overall at how different areas of of material creation can converge (and create some phenomenal visuals, as a plus).    Go ahead and read the full article, Go with the Flow: Animating Injection-Molded Plastics with Substance 3D Designer, right now!  

  Substance Days is coming to Gnomon this month, for a day of industry insights, expert tips, exclusive reveals, and more!   Some key highlights of the day: deep-dive demos of Designer, and ZBrush-to-Painter workflows; a session on texturing garments with Painter and Marvelous Designer; a whole bunch of expert guest speakers; an evening reception for attendees and the Substance team to hang out and share experiences.   You can find more information right here, on the event page for the day.   Please note that you need to register in advance in order to attend. You can REGISTER FOR THE EVENT RIGHT NOW at the button on the event page ^^^.   See you there!

Hi,  When making a new node via script and setting the identifier like this: output_node = graph.newNode("sbs::compositing::output") output_node.setPosition(sd.api.sdbasetypes.float2(48, 48)) output_node.setAnnotationPropertyValueFromId("identifier", sd.api.sdvaluestring.SDValueString.sNew("N")) output_node.setAnnotationPropertyValueFromId("description", sd.api.sdvaluestring.SDValueString.sNew("Normal")) The node doesn't update in the UI,  it just has the default 'output' name and doesn't show the description in the tooltip.  I have to click each node for it to refresh and show the correct name and tooltip.  Given there doesn't seem to be a SelectNode(node) in the API i can't do this in the script either. I would have there might have been a node.Redaw() or graph.Redaw() but can't find anything along those lines in the API either.  Am i missing something here or is this a bug?  Thanks.  

Im sorry but after upgrading to 15.0 I am super confused? When I rotate my camera in the renderer I get this effect and I can't seem to get tesselation factor to work (yes, I know it got moved...) despite playing with the settings like before nothing updates. I am following a designer tutorial verbatim and their renderer looks completely different than mine, and I have followed this same tutorial on previous versions of Designer and it looked 1;1. Is it bugged? I never had this ugly render issue before the new designer update. I dont know if there is something I am missing but I can't be the only one struggling with this. Any guidance is appreciation, maybe I am making a dumb error lol 

Hi,Whenever i change scene or renderer in Designer the app just crashes.  I've tried a bunch of stuff such as reinstalling Designer, GPU drivers, fiddling with a bunch of the settings within Designer to no avail.Aside from that, it works fine - i can make as complex a texture as I like and open and close different files without issues.  But turning a cube into a cylinder is crossing the line.Specs:LaptopGPU: 4080 CPU: Ryzen 9 7945HX32GB RAM