Textures Exported from Substance Don't Look the Same in Maya

[calebmcg]

When I create a new aiStandard Surface in Hypershade and input all of my Substance-exported textures and apply it to my mesh, the shader looks nothing like it does in Substance. I just end up with a dark gray surface with a tiny bit of reflectivity. And I don't mean it looks different because of the lighting. I mean NONE of the texture properties such as the scratches or specularity come through. 

I've tried setting up the shader manually (see nodes screenshot) and using the Substance plugin for Maya. Both yield the same results. I believe I'm using the correct colorspace settings as well as checking 'Alpha is Luminence' for all grayscale maps. I've watched and followed every tutorial I can find on Substance -> Maya and they all make it look effortless but for some reason Maya refuses to display the textures for me. 

Note: I've used only unedited smart materials from Substance for this example. I used the Arnold output template in Substance. Arnold Render View screenshot is circled in red with the part of the mesh which has the aiStandardSurface with Substance texture maps applied. 

If anyone has any ideas, I'd really appreciate it. I'm completely stuck on this.

[sharktacos]

My guess is something is wrong with your metalness map. Try breaking the texture input in Maya and just set the metalness to 1 and observe what happens to the reflections.

[defaultmvep0cmck9ob]

I've had to fix this issue a lot. You have mesh errors, Substance is VERY picky with mesh issues and will do weird and unpredictable things when issues are present. I can see from your screenshot that you have a section of your mesh that Substance can't triangulate properly. Open up your log and check the issues it's having. It's not too helpful and won't show you where the issue usually is, but usually with this kind of masking issue, the culprit is nonmanifold geometry, lamina edges, or edges that are separated but completely overlap with another edge.

If it says you have normals that are missing or corrupted the mesh will appear as if every normal is softened, this can be one way to isolate where your problem is. You can separate your meshes and visually check which part has all soft edges and narrow down your scope that way.

My recommendation as a Maya professional, use the mesh>cleanup, but set it to select offending geometry, not just auto clean up. The auto cleanup will not work in Substance as it will create the third situation outlined above. Then you will have to manually correct the issues, usually by deleting and rebuilding faces. Also keep in mind that non-manifold errors can occur in UV space too! Especially if the mesh has been altered after UVs have already been generated (like using the merge verts/edges tools)

It's tedious work, and it sucks to have to go back to Maya after doing all the work in Substance, but it pays off in the end. When you work more and more with painter, you will find ways to adapt your workflow and adopt better technique. Sometimes with this pickyness it actually helps, especially if you're doing skin binding or working with a game engine, having Substance stop you from proceeding without fixing those errors can save you a ton of time.