Two Problems With Maya-Arnold Plugin

Report · Nov 04, 2021

First, if I use the plugin to load an *.sbsar file that has exposed parameters, the parameters disappear almost immediately after selecting the Arnold workflow. That is, the exposed parameters are available as Substance Settings" both before and immediately after selecting the Arnold workflow, but as soon as I move the cursor to the Materials window to select the new material, or if I move the cursor to the Viewport to select a model, the exposed parameters disappear. I no longer have access to these to make adjustments to the new shader.

(I have the latest versions of Maya and of Substance Designer installed. I have repeatedly tested this maybe 30 times to detect if I am doing something wrong or missing some step or element. No Joy!)

Second, the "displacement" property that is created in the process of loading the *.sbsar file and selecting the Arnold workflow seems to be completely messed up. It throws a huge expansion of something (maybe a height or a normal - not sure) around the model. This is true even when I have the Normal Intensity and the Height Amount both set to values of "0" in my Substance Designer material. This is another one I've tested repeatedly to try to detect the source of the problem. The only way I've found to resolve this is to delete the "displacement" element in the Materials window. Which more or less defeats my purpose of having height and normal properties in the SD material or the *.sbsar file.

I've tested all of my scene elements (the models, the *.sbsar files) in Max, following the Max plugin process and have experienced no issues there. In Max, everything works quite well.

Is there something I am doing wrong? (I've tried to slavishly follow the online plugin instructions on the Ecosystem pages.) Is there some kind of bug in the Maya-Arnold part of the plugin?????

Report · Dec 09, 2021

If you deselect the 'substanceNode' in the hypershade, then the parameters will no longer be available. Maya will display the properties of the currently selected object in the Attribute Editor (Main Maya panel) and the Properties Editor (inside the Hypershade). So if you wish to tweak the parameters further, you'll need to reselect the Substance node in the Hypershade that plugs into your Arnold shader, and then the parameters will become available again in the interface.

For the displacement, if you go to the displacement shader, there should be something like a displacement scale parameter. Make that much smaller, try 0.1 and go down from there. It defaults to '1' which is too strong.