Some thoughts and considerations for improvement

[Peter Villevoye]

In general, I think it is a good idea to have such a tool to serve as a 3D viewer and segway to 2D tools, and especially to integrate some 3D processing (not creating) into Photoshop. And initially, that works very well. Dragging a 3D file into the Photoshop canvas, getting a Smart Object layer, which can be opened, viewed and slightly edited in this Substance Viewer. Kudos for that integration !

Viewing and/or (slightly) editing 3D files using the Substance Viewer as a stand-lone tool, is less successful.

The file opens in the 3D view, stating I can "Freely move around..." Well, I tried to click and drag anywhere, but nothing happens. Ah, I spot an option in the corner of the canvas, to set my device. Should I pick 2 or 3 buttons, or trackpad" ? I have a Mac with a no-button mouse. What setting do I use now ? And as I tried to switch to trackpad, it couldn't honor my personal settings...
So the device settings and gesture clues are quite clueless and useless for most Mac users.

This is the umpteenth navigational interface in the 3D area, even within the Adobe set of tools.

Neo, anyone ?

BTW: I also spotted some arrows (>>, with tip) in the bottom left corner, which are just silly. Clicking it doesn't do anything. It merely presents a description, which makes no sense. I'll just stick to opening some of the settings panels myself, guessing I'm not missing anything relevant here.

Let's skip the Appearance (paint icon) because I want to enjoy my weekend...

Except for the fact that these settings are called "Materials" in Dimension and Stager. Why the confusion ? And why do the unavailable color or image swatches of unavailable options stand out so terribly pink ?

Surprise ! The Composition icon looks like an Environment settings. But it's actually switching to Canvas mode showing a 2D comp. In the actual lighting settings named Environment with a light bulb icon and Light as the only section [sigh] all you can set is indeed the Environment light, with Brightness & Rotation and some other options. But I'm missing the option to set a generic 'sun' light, including a Height, to obtain the correct main lighting direction (and shadows) to match with other parts in my comp.

The Generate icon, whipping up 2 methods to a prompt entry box, should not be in this area. It appears to belong to the other settings but it doesn't. It starts a complete new file, after closing your current one. Please place it in the section below the Home folder icon or somewhere else.

Why does cropping the canvas initially scale the picture, just to jump back to a correct (cropped) rendering when you release the handle ? That's a bit useless, even counterproductive. You can't see what will be cut away. It also differs in how it behaves horizontally vs vertically. With the vertical handles, content is not cropped but scaled. That's a mistake, I hope.

Alerts (like "Lighting Effects are not supported") are prompted at the top, in the middle, and stay in view until I close them. Or rather: at one time, I tried to close it, but it didn't want to go away.

First: why not show that alert where it's appropriate, i.e. in the Light or Material panel itself, in stead of showing an irritting Help tip popup about what I can do (or actually can't do now). Or even better: leave unavailable settings greyed out (like in Environment panel), with a gentle popup telling why it doesn't work.
And now I know why the alert only went away after 20 close-clicks: I tried the (unavailable) settings for a couple of 20 times...

Finally, coming from Photoshop in Viewer, doing some edits, and after clicking To Photoshop, I'm not being brought back to Photoshop. Would be nice if it did. Or maybe it's the "default" application setting of my system that is messing things up again ?

All in all, the concept is okay, and the technology works reasonably.
But I'm afrad the clumsiness of the interface will be a hindrance in testing/using it any further than the back-and-forth integration with Photoshop.

My 2 cents. 

[I'm using Build: 0.19.1-20241106.r.9-fa61c87, on a Mac with Sonoma]

[Cramseur]

Hi Peter, I appreciate you taking the time to use Substance 3D Viewer, and the plugin and sharing your thoughts and feedback. I will take them back to the team so they can read them too. 

[cgvinny]

Thanks for all this relevant feedback!

[Peter Villevoye]

Well, we're more than a month later and there's a newer version (Build: 0.20.1-20241218.r.9-d0939c3).  But none of my earlier suggestions have found their way into the current version. Which is understandable, when priorities were given to improving technologies and fixing bugs. Nevertheless, I do hope that my suggestions will be considered and exectued, because otherwise I think this tool will become just another failed attempt to lure designers into a 3D application.

My advices –again– in a nutshell, even if it's going to be a Minimal Viable Product for now.

Feature-wise

A Directonal Lighting setting (like sunlight), which supports at least a height setting next to a panoramic value and an intensity. Environmental Lights (aka Image Based Lighting) are useful, but can only revolve. The designer definitely needs more control over the direction and heigt of any key light, to have a direct effect on the key shadows, to make the rendered 3D object fit the 2D composition's lighting.

If this Photoshop connection is what you think is very useful, than such a key lighting is crucial.

And the Canvas Cropping feature (still) works horrible...

Interface-wise

Please try to offer a navigational interface (on-screen gizmo, mouse/trackpad, modifier keys) which tends to be more common, at least within the current Adobe eco-system of 3D tools. And let any Help to navigate the scene be truly helpful. 

The location and design of many icons, buttons, and features is still confusing. Buttons and sliders that should be greyed out when they momentarily don't offer any interaction; features/actions that should be in a different modal (like Generate, which belongs in the Home panel); icons that don't match nor even relate to what they actually stand for (silly Canvas button on the left bar, not even matichting the toggle button in the top bar); alerts that pop up in a different spot than expected...

It wouldn't be the first time a tool dies because of a crippled interface.

Find more descriptions of the mentioned issues in my initial post.