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Version 9.0 | Substance 3D Painter

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Substance 3D Painter

Substance 3D Painter

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  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 9.0

Substance 3D Painter 9.0 introduces a new way to paint strokes with re-editable path in the 3D viewport as well as refreshed default content.

Release date: 20 June 2023

Major features

New paint along path in 3D viewport

Close up of a leather shoe with a path dranw on top with its helper UI

The Paint along Path tool is a new way to paint strokes in the 3D viewport. Similar to other applications, you can create bezier based curves driven by points on the surface of your 3D object to draw patterns. Combined with Substance materials this new tool can open a lot of new possibilities. 

  • New tool to create paint strokes driven by a path with points
    Inside the tool's toolbar is a new icon dedicated to the Path tool. This new tool allows to draw curves on the surface of the 3D model to create paint strokes. These strokes can always be re-edited. When the tool is active, simply click on the mesh surface to add a point. Click on an existing point and press delete to remove it.

    Screenshot of the toolbar itnerface showing the 3 types of path tools.

    Gif showing addition and removal of points on a path

  • Drag and move points on mesh surface
    To edit the shape of a path, simply click and drag a point to move along the 3D modle surface.

    Gif showing how to move points

  • Close path to create seamless patterns
    Path can also be closed to create loops, which can be useful for both creating repeating patterns around specific areas for example.

    Gif showing a path open or closed

    Gif showing a closed path to draw rivets on a mechnical surface

  • Re-edit paths (and their properties) with the Path panel
    When the Paht tool is selected, the path made within the current paint layer are listed in the dedicated Paht panel at the top of the 3D viewport. This panel allows to select, delete or rename path to 

    Gif showing the path panel in action

    Gid showing path properties being modified

  • Compatible with other paint feature like symmetry, geometry mask, dynamic strokes, etc.
    Many settings from regular paint strokes can be used with the path tool:

    • Enabling symmetry allows to draw a path multiple time while only managing one.
    • Path that are on a layer with a geometry mask enabled can paint under hidden geometry
    Gif showing a path being drown twice with the help of the symmetry property

  • Paint with other tools like Eraser or Smudge
    The path tool is also compatible with the eraser and the smudge tool, unlocking more advanced ways of painting and combining strokes with the easy and re-editable way of manipulating path points.

    Gid showing a path point being moved and updating the smudge effect

  • Save and re-use path properties with presets
    When using the Path tool, you can also save the brush properties as presets. This allows to save tool presets which will automatically switch to the Path tool when selected from the Assets window.

Note:

For more information, see the dedicated documentation.

New content to use with paint along path feature

Image showing a hoodie with different type of stitch brush strokes used on it.

A few new tool presets have been included in this version to take advantage of the new paint along path feature:

  • Pipe Rack Sci-Fi
  • Puckering
  • Seam
  • Topstiching
  • Welding metal
  • Zipper Tape
Image of the Assets window showing the new tool presets

Image showing an example of the new welding preset

Improved dynamic strokes for paint along path feature

Image showing a path stroke looking like an arrown with a round shape as the start and the arrow head as the end.

We took to opportunity of the new path tool to add new properties to the dynamic stroke system. These new properties unlock new kind of strokes which weren't possible before, like the arrow on the image above which features a different start and end visual.

  • New Start/Middle/End property
    A new property can be defined to specify to the Substance graph if a stamp inside a stroke is the first one, the last one, or any in the middle. This allows to create start and end points, which can be very usefull for example to creatter zippers. (Note: the end state is only available with the path tool.)
  • New Size and Spacing property
    The size and spacing property allow to adjust the output of a Substance graph based on the current stamp state.
  • New stroke length properties
    Having the distance along the path and the maximum distance of a path allows to better control when some effects repeat, instead of providing a normalized valued directly.
    It makes it possible to build both a growing stroke  for exmaple but also a stroke with a repeating pattern based on the distance drawn (and not the total number of stamps drawn).
Gif showing a path with a dynamic stroke

Note:

For more information, see the dedicated documentation.

Refreshed default materials

A list spheres displaying side by side, showcasing the different new materials

With this release we decided to do a bit of cleanup in our library and therefore changed our default base materials to make them more useful to everybody. These materials have been crafted by the same team delivering content on Substance 3D Assets.

 

Note:

The content which was removed is available on Substance 3D community assets.

Tutorials

To discover and learn about the new path tool, check out our latest tutorial:

Release Notes

9.0.0

Release date: 2023/06/20
Summary: Major release with Paint along path allowing 3D Curves, new base materials and cleaning of legacy materials and new presets for 3D Curves

Added:

  • [Path] Add new Paint along Path tool
  • [Path] Add an empty shortcut for the path tool
  • [Path] Allow to add new points to an existing path
  • [Path] Add shortcut to exit current path creation
  • [Path] Allow to edit brush properties for paths
  • [Path] Adjust tangents automatically when placing a point
  • [Path] Recompute tangents when a point is moved
  • [Path] Snap newly created points to the surface of a mesh
  • [Path] Allow to edit pressure per vertex
  • [Path] Adjust newly created point's pressure from neighboring points
  • [Path] Allow to convert points to smooth/corner (tangent break)
  • [Path] Allow to move a newly added point immediately
  • [Path] Allow to remove points from existing path
  • [Path] Allow to reverse the direction of a path
  • [Path] Allow to select a path in the viewport
  • [Path] Allow to select path points with marquee selection
  • [Path] Introduce CTRL-A shortcuts to select all points of a path
  • [Path] Allow to close path
  • [Path] Allow to specify path up axis in Properties
  • [Path] Add a vertex control menu to the contextual toolbar
  • [Path] Introduce paint/erase/smudge modes to the path tool
  • [Path] Create visual feedback for paths in the viewport
  • [Path] Add a visual indicator for path direction
  • [Path] Add line thickness to path display settings
  • [Path] Allow to hide paths UI
  • [Path] Add Path panel to list paths of currently selected layer
  • [Path] Add visual feedback when hovering over a path in the Path panel
  • [Path] Display path panel whenever the Path tool is selected
  • [Path] Allow to rename, delete, copy, cut, duplicate path in Path panel
  • [Path] Display message when trying to interact in the 2D viewport with the Path tool
  • [Library] Integrate new content (path tools and base materials)
  • [Dynamic Strokes] Add distance property for dynamic strokes
  • [Dynamic Strokes] Add size and spacing properties to dynamic strokes
  • [Dynamic Strokes] Add start/middle/end property for dynamic strokes
  • [Python][USD] Expose project configuration parameters for the USD format
  • [Python][USD] Expose project creation parameters for the USD format
  • [Export][USD] Add project path information inside exported USD file
  • [GLTF] Update textures in library when reloading a GLTF file
  • [Shader] Reduce seam artifacts for UV islands with different orientation
  • [Engine] Update to Substance engine version 9.0

Fixed:

  • [Import] Some GLB with textures do not get textures in Painter
  • [AMD] Artefacts on borders for all 3D projection fills
  • [Engine] Textures break when toggling layer visibility
  • [Engine] Textures are empty in some places when changing blending mode
  • [Engine] Texture/Projection is empty warp mode in some cases
  • [Iray] Iteration reset to 0 when saving render
  • [Log] USD error message when doing File > New

Known Issues:

  • [Color Management] HDR color space conversions with ACE on Linux produce clamped colors
  • [Layer Stack] Input source not saved per layer

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