User Guide Cancel

Version 2017.4 | Substance 3D Painter

  1. Substance 3D home
  2. Home
  3. Getting Started
    1. Getting Started overview
    2. Activation and licenses
    3. System requirements
    4. Project creation
    5. Export
      1. Export overview
      2. Export window
        1. Export window overview
        2. Export settings
        3. Output templates
        4. List of exports
      3. Export presets
        1. Export presets overview
        2. Predefined presets
          1. Predefined Presets
          2. USD PBR Metal Roughness Preset
          3. Default Presets
        3. Creating export presets
    6. Glossary
    7. Performance
  4. Interface
    1. Assets
      1. Assets overview
      2. Navigation
      3. Customizing the layout
      4. Filter by path
      5. Saved searches
      6. Advanced search queries
      7. Adding a new library
      8. Sub-library tab
    2. Substance 3D Assets
    3. Color picker
    4. Display settings
      1. Display settings overview
      2. Environment settings
      3. Camera settings
      4. Viewport settings
    5. History
    6. Layer stack
      1. Layer stack overview
      2. Creating layers
      3. Managing layers
      4. Masking and effects
      5. Blending modes
      6. Layer instancing
      7. Geometry mask
    7. Main menu
      1. Main menu overview
      2. File menu
      3. Edit menu
      4. Mode menu
      5. Window menu
      6. Viewport menu
      7. Plugins menu
      8. Help menu
    8. Project configuration
    9. Properties
    10. Settings
      1. Settings overview
      2. General preferences
      3. Shortcuts
      4. Libraries configuration
    11. Shader settings
      1. Shader settings overview
      2. Updating a shader
    12. Texture Set
      1. Texture Set overview
      2. Texture Set list
      3. Texture Set settings
      4. Texture Set reassignment
    13. Toolbars
    14. Viewport
      1. Viewport overview
      2. 2D view
      3. 3D view
      4. Camera management
    15. Miscellaneous
      1. Sliders
      2. Log
      3. Update checker
  5. Painting
    1. Painting overview
    2. Tool list
      1. Paint brush
      2. Eraser
      3. Projection
      4. Polygon fill
      5. Smudge tool
      6. Clone Tool
      7. Quick mask
      8. Path tool
    3. Straight line   
    4. Lazy mouse 
    5. Symmetry
      1. Symmetry overview
      2. Mirror Symmetry
    6. Fill projections
      1. Fill projections overview
      2. Fill (match per UV Tile)
      3. UV projection
      4. Tri-planar projection
      5. Planar projection
      6. Spherical projection
      7. Cylindrical projection
      8. Warp projection
      9. UV set to UV set projection
    7. Presets
      1. Presets overview
      2. Creating and saving presets
      3. Creating particles presets
        1. Creating particles overview
        2. Installing the particle editor
        3. Overview of the particle editor
        4. Creating a new particle script
      4. Photoshop brush presets (ABR)
        1. Photoshop brush presets overview
        2. Exporting Brush Presets from Photoshop
        3. Importing Photoshop Brush Presets
        4. Photoshop Brush Parameters Compatibility
    8. Dynamic strokes
      1. Dynamic strokes overview
      2. Enabling Dynamic Stroke feature
      3. Dynamic Stroke Performances
      4. Creating custom Dynamic Strokes
    9. Advanced channel painting
      1. Channel painting overview
      2. Ambient Occlusion
      3. Flow Map
      4. Height Map
      5. Normal Map
    10. Vector graphic (.svg & .ai)
    11. Text resource
  6. Effects
    1. Effects overview
    2. Generator
    3. Paint
    4. Fill
    5. Levels
    6. Compare Mask
    7. Filter
    8. Anchor Point
  7. Baking
    1. Baking overview
    2. How to bake mesh maps
    3. Baking visualization settings
  8. Content
    1. Creating custom effects
      1. Creating custom effects overview
      2. Generic filter
      3. Channel specific filter
      4. Generators
      5. Mesh map
      6. Mesh based input
      7. User data
    2. Importing assets
      1. Adding resources via drag and drop
      2. Adding resources via the import window
      3. Adding content on the hard drive
      4. Receiving assets from other Substance 3D applications
  9. Features
    1. Automatic UV Unwrapping
    2. Physical size
    3. Smart Materials and Masks
    4. Subsurface Scattering
      1. Subsurface Scattering overview
      2. Enabling Subsurface in a Project
      3. Subsurface Parameters
      4. Subsurface Material Type
    5. Dynamic Material Layering
    6. UV Reprojection
    7. UV Tiles
      1. UV Tiles overview
      2. Image Sequence
    8. Color Management
      1. Color management overview
      2. Color management with Adobe ACE - ICC
      3. Color management with OpenColorIO
    9. Post Processing
      1. Post Processing overview
      2. Color correction
      3. Depth of Field
      4. Glare
      5. Lens Distortion
      6. Tone Mapping
      7. Vignette
      8. Color Profile
    10. Iray Renderer
      1. Iray Renderer overview
      2. Iray Settings
      3. Viewer and MDL Settings
    11. Plugins
      1. Plugins overview
      2. Autosave
      3. Resources Updater
    12. Sparse Virtual Textures
    13. Custom Shaders
    14. SpaceMouse® by 3Dconnexion
    15. Universal Scene Description (USD)
    16. Send to
  10. Technical Support
    1. Performance Guidelines
      1. Performances guidelines overview
      2. Conflicts and background applications
      3. Mesh and UV setup
      4. GPU Drivers
      5. NVIDIA Drivers Settings
      6. GPU VRAM amount and bandwidth
      7. GPU VRAM and other applications
      8. Texture Sets amount
      9. Layer management
      10. Channels management
      11. Substance filters and materials
      12. Viewport display
    2. Configuring Pens and Tablets
    3. Exporting the log file
    4. Exporting a DXDiag
    5. Technical issues
      1. GPU Issues
        1. Crash when working with overclocked GPU
        2. Forcing the external GPU on Mac OS
        3. GPU drivers compatibility
        4. GPU drivers crash with long computations (TDR crash)
        5. GPU has outdated drivers
        6. GPU is not recognized
        7. GPU is not recognized and is mentionned as GDI Generic
        8. Issues with Nvidia GPUs on recent Mac OS versions
        9. Multi/Bi-GPU
        10. Running on integrated GPU
        11. Painter doesn't start on the right GPU
      2. Startup Issues
        1. Application failed to start because of Qt
        2. Crash or freeze during startup
        3. Software conflicts
      3. Rendering Issues
        1. Artifacts and glitches on Mac OS with Custom GPUs
        2. Blocky artifacts appear on textures in the viewport
        3. Mesh appears pink in the viewport
        4. Mesh flash to white when moving camera
        5. Some HDPI scaling values are not working
      4. Stability Issues
        1. Crash during export
        2. Crash when opening or saving a file
        3. Crash while baking
        4. Crash with low virtual memory
        5. Windows Blue Screens
      5. Miscellaneous Issues
        1. Corrupted texture error message
        2. Shelf resources are gone after 7.2 update
        3. Error there is no disk in the drive
        4. Error with missing api-ms-crt dll
        5. Impossible to drag and drop files into the shelf
        6. Impossible to use the ALT keyboard shortcut on Linux
        7. Assets (or shelf) previews are empty
    6. Workflow Issues
      1. Export Issues
        1. My exported opacity map is totally black
        2. Texture dilation or Padding
      2. Tools Issues
        1. Normal map looks incorrect when loaded in layer or tool properties
        2. Paint Tool bleeds on other UV islands
      3. Project Issues
        1. A project has been processed as a text file and is now corrupted
        2. Loading files from a network
        3. Preserve brush strokes setting stays disabled
        4. Projects are really big
      4. Library Issues
        1. Thumbnails in the shelf look incorrect
        2. Error when importing a Font
      5. Viewport Issues
        1. Mesh faces disappear when looking at them from behind
        2. Viewports and textures are blurry or lack sharpness
      6. Plugins Issues
        1. Substance Source plugin doesn't load
      7. License Issues
        1. Maintenance is expired dialog on startup
  11. Pipeline and integration
    1. Installation and preferences
      1. Preferences and application data location
      2. Automated installation
      3. Retrieving the installation path
    2. Configuration
      1. Command lines
      2. Environment variables
      3. Firewall Configuration
      4. Querying Current Software Version
      5. Remote Desktop
    3. Resource management
      1. Shelf and Assets location
      2. Resource paths
        1. Adding resource paths by editing preferences manually
        2. Editing resource paths manually
        3. Editing the Shelf Preferences with Python
      3. Adding saved searches manually
      4. Preferences and content migration
      5. Excluding resources in a resource path
  12. Scripting and development
    1. Scripts and plugins
      1. Creating a Javascript plugin
      2. Remote control with scripting
    2. Shader API Reference
      1. Shader API overview
      2. Changelog - Shader API
      3. Libraries - Shader API
        1. Lib Alpha - Shader API
        2. Lib Bayer - Shader API
        3. Lib Defines - Shader API
        4. Lib Emissive - Shader API
        5. Lib Env - Shader API
        6. Lib Normal - Shader API
        7. Lib PBR - Shader API
        8. Lib PBR Aniso - Shader API
        9. Lib Pom - Shader API
        10. Lib Random - Shader API
        11. Lib Sampler - Shader API
        12. Lib Sparse - Shader API
        13. Lib SSS - Shader API
        14. Lib Utils - Shader API
        15. Lib Vectors - Shader API
      4. Parameters - Shader API
        1. All Custom Params - Shader API
        2. All Engine Params - Shader API
        3. All Rendering States Params - Shader API
        4. Layering Bind Materials - Shader API
        5. Layering Declare Stacks - Shader API
      5. Shaders - Shader API
        1. PBR Material Layering - Shader API
        2. PBR Metal Rough - Shader API
        3. Pixelated - Shader API
        4. Surface Shader - Shader API
        5. Toon - Shader API
  13. Release notes
    1. Release notes overview
    2. All Changes
    3. Version 10.1
    4. Version 10.0
    5. Version 9.1
    6. Old versions
      1. Version 9.0
      2. Version 8.3
      3. Version 8.2
      4. Version 8.1
      5. Version 7.4
      6. Version 7.3
      7. Version 7.2
      8. Version 2021.1 (7.1.0)
      9. Version 2020.2 (6.2.0)
      10. Version 2020.1 (6.1.0)
      11. Version 2019.3
      12. Version 2019.2
      13. Version 2019.1
      14. Version 2018.3
      15. Version 2018.2
      16. Version 2018.1
      17. Version 2017.4
      18. Version 2017.3
      19. Version 2017.2
      20. Version 2017.1
      21. Version 2.6
      22. Version 2.5
      23. Version 2.4
      24. Version 2.3
      25. Version 2.2

Version 2017.4

Substance Painter 2017.4 add a new workflow feature with the layer instancing allowing to easily synchronize layers across different Texture Sets inside a project.

Release date : 23 November 2017

Major Features

Layer Instancing

The layer instancing is a new system that allows to keep synchronized layer parameters across other layers and Texture Sets. When creating a layer instance the original layer becomes the source and the instances will stay updated unless the link between them is broken. Instanced layers are a great way to texture an asset in a few clicks and avoid doing back and forth to update layers. To easily texture an asset, simply instantiate a folder across other Texture Sets and put a smart material or any other layer into it, it will be replicated everywhere instantly.

There are two ways to create an instance :

  • Choose "paste as instance" (or use the shortcut CTRL+SHIFT+V), after copying a layer
  • Choose "instantiate across texture sets" (or use the shortcut CTRL+SHIFT+D) after selection one layer
Note:

There are some limitation related to the layer instancing :

  • Any painting actions will only be present on the source layer, instanced layers won't replicate brush strokes.
  • Anchor's references must have the anchor point at the same level of the instance, an anchor point can't be outside of an instanced folder otherwise it will be broken.
  • If a smart material is saved with instanced layers, the source layer must be in the smart material folder otherwise the instance link will be broken.
  • Depending of the layer stack setup, instanced layers can create a cycle, which is not supported and will break the instance result. Either delete or move the instance to fix it.

For more details and examples, see the dedicated page : Layer instancing

DCC Live-link with Unreal Engine 4 support

The previously beta version of our live-link plugin has now been integrated in Substance Painter. We took the occasion to support the Unreal Engine 4 which now allows to see the result of a project into the engine automatically.

To connect the application with the Unreal Engine 4 (version 4.18 minimum required), download the Substance plugins over here : https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/substance-plugin

New shelf content

We added 20 new procedural materials and also added 40 new grunge maps (with some of them being procedural). The new materials can be found in the "Materials" section of the shelf, such as the 6 new metals, the 8 new plastics, a few fabrics and 2 new wood surfaces. The new grunge maps can be found directly in the "Grunge" section of the shelf.

Many thanks to Clément Feuillet and Nicolas Longchamps for allowing us to license their content for this new version.

Sketchfab export improved

We updated our Sketchfab export and added the ability to publish your project as a draft and even update already uploaded projects. It should make project iterations much easier to do.

Performance improvements

We continued our work regarding performances improvements. In this new version we reworked quite a lot of our OpenGL rendering in the viewports which should give a nice speed boost. We also improved the way brush strokes are computed and they should require much less bigger texture computations in memory. Overall it will give much faster results and better painting sensations.

Tutorial

The new features are covered in details in our latest videos :

Release Notes

2017.4.2

(Released January 24, 2018)

Added:

  • [Export] Get the status of an export with step progress
  • [Export] Allow cancelling an export
  • [Export] Export textures to Sketchfab without loosing normal map quality
  • [Export] Export in glTF binary format (glb)
  • [Export] Allow resizing columns in configuration tab of the export window
  • [Shader] Add a changelog for the shader API
  • [Scripting] Add Before and After callback functions when exporting textures
  • [Iray] Upgrade to SDK 2017.1 (support of Volta GPUs)

Fixed:

  • Crash when quitting the application before the main window is displayed
  • [MAC] Crash when loading grayscale maps with IRAY
  • [MAC] VRAM detection is not correct with the new High Sierra OS
  • [Plugin] Downloading assets from Substance Source does not work anymore
  • [Scripting] Incorrect minimum plugin version detection
  • [Export] Fail to save export preset after exporting textures
  • [Instancing] Issue on generators instantiated in a TextureSet with no Additional Maps
  • [Viewport] Dithering does not work with resolution above 4k
  • [Viewport] 2D View material display is covered with noise
  • [Shelf] Improve loading time for shelf presets
  • [Engine] Incorrect blending when painting under color selection

2017.4.1

(Released December 15, 2017)

Added:

  • [Scripting] Export mesh through the scripting API
  • [Import] Disable import of unsupported mesh file format (allow only obj, fbx, dae, ply)
  • [Log] Indicate more precisely the TDR issue in the log file

Fixed:

  • Crash if application is closed before resources crawling has finished
  • Crash when opening projects with Smudge/Clone tool
  • Crash when using redo after an undo of a Shader change in Viewer Settings
  • [Engine] Texturing differs between Painter 2017.2 and 2017.4
  • [Viewport] Picking on an ID map from an instance samples the wrong color
  • [Export] Crash when exporting an invalid normal or occlusion texture
  • [Export] PSD files have their groups locked when opened in Photoshop CS6
  • [Plugin] Photoshop plugin ignores channel selection and always export everything
  • [Layers] Anchors break when copy/pasted across Texture Sets
  • [Layers] Some anchor's references cannot be restored if broken
  • [Shader] pbr-coated secondary roughness parameter is broken
  • [Steam] Version checker pop-up shouldn't be visible at launch

Known issues:

  • [AMD] Crashes/Freezes when trying to paint on a mesh. Can be fixed with a GPU Driver update.

2017.4

(Released November 23, 2017)

Added:

  • [Instancing] Allow to instantiate parameters across layers
  • [Instancing] Allow to jump between a source layer and an instance
  • [Instancing] Add a "instantiate across texture sets" action
  • [Instancing] Indicate in the layer stack re-entrant instances (cycles)
  • [Instancing] Delete instances when a source is removed
  • [Instancing] Don't allow Anchor's references from outside an instanced folder
  • [UI] Move the Undo Stack into its own window named "History"
  • [Plugin] Integrate DCC live-link plugin
  • [Engine] Improve painting performances with Sparse painting
  • [Export] Add draft and re-export options to Sketchfab exporter
  • [Shelf] Add "flip" control for Font substances
  • [Shelf] Add 20 new procedurals materials
  • [Shelf] Add 40 new grunges maps (bitmap based and procedural)
  • [Viewport] Enable brush preview collisions on other visible texture sets
  • Update AMD GPU drivers minimum requirements

Fixed:

  • Crash When computing Substances at too big resolutions
  • Crash when painting heavily with particles
  • [Viewport] Incorrect specular reflection in the 2D view with specific meshes
  • [UI] Some unwanted actions appear into the History window

Known issues:

  • [Layers] Some anchor's references cannot be restored if broken
  • Crash when using redo after an undo of a Shader change in Viewer Settings

 Adobe

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