It's the first of a graph's Base parameters and, along with the Output Format (or bitdepth), is critical to understand well since it has a large impact on a graph's output, both within Designer and in other applications as a published Substance 3D asset (SBSAR) file.

In this page

Power of 2 values

Relative size

Changing the inheritance method

Example problems

The Output size property uses logarithmic steps to easily map increases of powers of two (e.g., 256, 512, 1024, ...) to a linear scale (e.g. 8, 9, 10, ...). This means increasing or decreasing the Output Size value in X or Y by 1 is akin to multiplying or dividing the current resolution by 2.

This also applies when the Output Size value is controlled by a function, where the function should output the target logarithmic values (relative or absolute) instead of the target resolution.

Relative size

When the Output Size property uses a Relative to... inheritance method, its value is expressed as a modifier relatively to the inherited logarithmic value.

Modifiers relative to the inherited resolution range from -12 to +12 on a logarithmic scale, with the default being 0. This means each step above or below results in doubling or halving of resolution. The table on the right gives an example of how relative resolution changes in one dimension for an inherited value of 9 (i.e., 512 = 2^9) and 11 (i.e., 2048 = 2^11):

Notice how above 8196, the size is capped. This cap is controlled by the Cooking Size Limit setting in the General section of the Preferences. Please note working with very large resolutions comes with a proportional performance cost and exponential memory footprint. Also, limits in graphics processing puts a hard limit on the maximum size of a texture.

Changing the inheritance method

In most cases, the default inheritance method for the Output Size property is the following depending on the item:

• Graph: Relative to parent
• Node: Relative to input – the values inherited by the node's Primary input are used in this case
• Bitmap node: Absolute – see the Bitmap resource page and performance optimization guidelines to know why that is

Display the properties of a node or graph by clicking that item, then in the Properties panel find the Output Size property in the Base parameters section. Click the inheritance method drop down menu select the desired inheritance method.

Example problems

If you are a new Adobe Substance 3D Designer user, you might run into some common problems. We'll list some examples below, along with solutions.