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André29429494el9u
Participant
June 5, 2023
Question

Figuring out the proper Designer + Painter workflow for best reusability in games

  • June 5, 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 204 views

Hi, there! 

Let's say I'm building a castle for a game environment. I'll have to author a brick wall tiling texture. But I'll also need stairs, individual bricks, pillars, etc, which will be actual 3D models with unique UVs. The thing is, they'll be made of the exact same type of stone, and ideally I'd like to make some sort of stone smart material (or base material in Designer), that will be used to texture all of these things. I'm looking at adding a bit of rocky surface noise since I don't wanna sculpt microdetails, and some extra cracks perhaps.

 

The problem is this: from what I understand, tiling textures would be built in Designer using height data. But for 3D models, the height data is sort of useless, right? It seems to me like tiling textures vs unique UVs are completely different workflows, and I can't find a way to properly author materials that can be reused between them. I see lots of people using Designer exclusively for tiling textures and Painter for 3D models with unique UVs.

 

What would be the ideal workflow to easily build something usable in both cases for a consistent look and fast iteration?

 

Thanks a lot in advance!

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1 reply

davescm
Community Expert
davescmCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 5, 2023

I would normally use Substance Designer to make tile-able textures. I then take them to Substance Painter to apply to model surfaces. Whether I apply them at 1 to 1 ratio or tiled is a decision I can make in Painter.

 

On a tile-able material, all channels will tile - not just height. A common approach to material creation is to make the node set up for the height channel first then create the other channels from that initial building block.

 

You can also use a full material graph as the basis for another graph. So for example you could produce a rock surface in Designer and save as SBS as well as exporting it as SBSAR for use in Painter. You could also use that SBS in another Designer graph to create stone blocks which you can also export for use in Painter.

 

Dave

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