Specify texture format for UE4 Substance Plugin (height map)

Report · Apr 08, 2023

Hi, I'm using the Subtance plugin in UE4 to generate animated heighmaps. By default the plugin is generating 8-bit textures (format G8) and I'm wondering if it's possible to specify a custom output format. This doesn't apppear to be a feature of the plugin.

Currently, the height maps don't look great as a result of the lower detail .. lots of stepping (thr pic below uses the texture for the depth and albedo).

On the other hand, if I use an .exr file exported from Substance Designer, it loads as a HDR image / FloatGRBA format and looks amazing as a heigh map.

Would be grateful for any pointers. Is it possible to do this via blueprints? Or does the plugin only generate 8-bit textures?

Report · Apr 12, 2023

Hi @Sublimiteee , thank you for reaching out. This is currently something that we are evaluating. During initial development there was a challenge of matching the image data compression formats that we support, with the image data compression formats that Unreal supported. There have been updates to both Unreal and the Substance engine since then, and we are looking at how to implement the option of mutliple bit depth options.