Image to Material Introduces Seams in a Seamless Texture

[Kryat]

Hi!

I am facing a difficult problem with the Image to Material AI that I believe to be a bug.

I have completely seamless textures I am trying to create maps from, but whenever I run them through the AI, horrible seams are introduced by the software on the edges of the source texture.

Is there a way to fix this? Maybe a setting I am overlooking? I've tried tweaking all sliders in the AI settings, but this never goes away. I've included screenshots of what the seams look like.

Thanks!

[LoryAline · Accepted solution]

Hi,

This is a known and complex issue, we are working on a fix. 
It will be available as soon as possible. 

Thank you

[Mark S. Johnson]

Lory, I am experiencing these same problems.  Every time I feed a seamless texture into Sampler using Image to Material (AI), it actually introduces seams to the seamless texture.  Is there a workaround or solution for this issue yet?  If not, do you have an anticipated time frame?  This is throwing a big wrench into my ability to work with Sampler.  Thanks.

[LoryAline]

Hi,

This is a known and complex issue, we are working on a fix. 
It will be available as soon as possible. 

What you can do is to treat your images after the Image to Material (AI) with the filter Tiling or Make it Tile to make the seem disapear.
Workflow here

More about the filters :

• Tiling 
• Make it Tile 

[Mark S. Johnson]

Lory, is there some way to be notified when this issue is fixed?  Since it's a game changer for me, I'll want to know the moment it is resolved.  The filters Tiling and Make it Tile aren't getting the job done for most of my materials.

[LoryAline]

We'll let customers know on the forum here for sure and it will be mentioned on the release note of the concerned update.

[Mark S. Johnson]

Thanks, Lory.  Have an outstanding weekend.

[Mark S. Johnson]

Hi Lory.  I'm wondering if there has been any progress on fixing the Image to Material (AI) issue?  I have so much work to get done and I'm awaiting a fix before I can move forward.  I understand that this is a major issue, but frankly I have to be able to do my job and I'm wondering if Adobe intends to fix this issue, and when?  This major bug has existed for several months.  Thanks.

[LoryAline]

Hi,
The fix is near to be ready. We work on it so it can be delivered as soon as possible, but I can't tell when exactly it can be available. 
As said it is a complex issue and taking time is imperative to deliver the best filter possible without any other issue with it.

I'll keep you updated on this topic.

Regards

[Mark S. Johnson]

Thanks for your response, Lory.  I appreciate it.  In the meantime, since I have a lot of work stacking up, is it possible for me to roll back to a previous version of Sampler where Image to Material (AI) and the other options associated with it are functional?  If so, which version would it be and how do I access it?

[LoryAline]

There is no version where the problem doesn't exist.
You have many workarounds:

• Use B2M instead of Image to Material AI.
• The seam issue occurs only on tiled image (image that are tiling before importing to 3D Sampler), there's two way to counter this: 
                         1. Crop the images before importing them in 3D Sampler.
                         2. Import the image as bitmap, put a crop on top and only then add the Image to Material AI

Those should allow you to work.
Regards.

[Mark S. Johnson]

Thanks for your suggestions, Lory.  I'll give these a try and see if I can make them work.

[Mark S. Johnson]

Lory, even with your suggestions, I'm still encountering an issue where adding a Normal to Height layer creates a thin grey border at the edge of the height (and sometimes AO) channels.  This, of course, breaks the seamless tiling.

In my workflow, I sometimes begin with just a Base Color map.  In these cases, I use Image to Material AI. 

Other times, I begin with a Base Color, Normal, and possibly AO map.  In these cases, I use either Texture Import or Use as Bitmap. 

So far, I've tested out the scenario where I use either Texture Import or Use as Bitmap.  In both of these cases, I also add a Normal to Height layer to create a Height map and this breaks things, even if I play around with a Crop layer.

Any suggestions?

[LoryAline]

Yes,
This is a known issue and and it is related to the seam issue of Image to Material AI.

Did you try the Image to Material B2M workflow?
And did you try to put a Tiling layer above the Normal to Height layer? 

Regards,

[Mark S. Johnson]

A Tiling layer does not work.  I'll try the B2M workflow next.  I haven't used that software for several years, so I'll have to track it down and re-learn it.

[Mark S. Johnson]

Lory, I encountered a weird bug in Sampler this morning.  I can't name a material "Concrete..."  Sampler won't let me type the "n" in "Concrete."  So I end up with a material named "Cocrete."

[LoryAline]

That's weird indeed!
Did you try to "rename"? does it work? 
Did you relaunch Sampler and did the bug still occurs?

Thanks.

[LoryAline]

I found a Workaround for the issue, see video attached:

[Mark S. Johnson]

Thanks for sharing this helpful video, Lory.

[LoryAline]

You are welcome!
I would add that we are discussing with dev team to fix the behaviour.

Thank you for reporting this!
Have a nice week end.

[Mark S. Johnson]

Lori, I'm getting ready to dig around for a copy of B2M, but before I go to the trouble, I still have a copy of Alchemist on my PC.  I'm 90+% sure that it does not have the seamless tiling problem.  When I tried to open it this evening, however, it would not let me fully launch because it says I'm no longer licensed to use it.  Since I'm a licensed Sampler use, I should be allowed to use Alchemist as well.  Is it possible for you to provide me with a way to get past the licensing issue for Alchemist so I can finish my big project in the next week?  I would so much ratther use Alchemist than the outdated B2M.  Thank you.  – Mark

[LoryAline]

As far as we know the seam problem already existed in Alchemist it occurs on any pre-tiled images.

That would depend on your current subscription, if you have an Allegorithmic subscription you should be able to log in Alchemist, you can access Alchemist builds and license from https://www.substance3d.com/
Go to My License>Licenses>All Builds

Thank you.

[Mark S. Johnson]

At some point in Alchemist's history, I'm absolutely positive that it was able to successfully handle the input of seamless textures.  The question is whether or not the version I currently have on my PC has the seam issue or not. 

I moved my subscription over to Adobe a few months ago because I thought Adobe would provide fully functional software.  Now I no longer have an Allegorithmic subscription and am up a creek without a paddle.  Very frustrating.

[LoryAline]

I understand the frustration.

B2M is fully fonctional and I already shared workarounds that I use daily.

I mis-expressed myself earlier; there isn't a version of Image to material (AI Powered) that doesn't have the issue. The problem is in the filter not in the software versions. 

The issue will be fix in the upcoming versions of Substance 3D Sampler.

Regards.

[Jon Tojek XYZ individual]

This first solution worked for me, stopped using the AI choice, but instead the older B2M first step, the mystery seam went away.