Preventing Bitmap from Tiling/Stretching with Tile Sampler Color

Question

I have three tileable, seamless bitmaps that I want to use in a “Tile Sampler Color” node to create vertical siding.  I chose the “Tile Sampler Color” node so that I could iterate between each bitmap image to create a random pattern.  The problem I’m running into is that the bitmaps get scaled or stretched.  I have tried using “Absolute” under “Size Mode” and I end up with only one of the bitmaps showing.  There has got to be an easy way to randomly assign my bitmap images to these planks.  I can’t believe something so simple has to be so complicated in Substance Designer.  I would use Substance Sampler; however, I am not happy with the latest version, and I don’t have enough control over what I want to do.    I could also use a Flood Fill to move things around, but I think it would be much easier using “Tile Sampler” if it's capable of this taske  What am I missing here?  Thanks in advance.

Luca Giarrizzo · Answer

Hello,

Indeed, using your tilable as direct inputs of a Tile Sampler for mapping planks will result in stretching, as the entire texture will be mapped to each individual plank.

Instead, a common technique for mapping wood tilables to planks is to create a plank grid with a different grayscale value for each plank, then use that to drive a Directional Warp on the wood tilable.

Then you can combine your tilable with blend nodes, by using a similar grayscale plank distribution for selecting planks. You can use Threshold or Histogram Select for creating masks. I have attached a sample project with this graph:

I hope this is helpful! Let me know if that does not address your request.

Best regards.

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