PBR viewport in 4.2.1 and supported outputs

[mdesign]

Which outputs are supported with PBR in Substance Designer viewport? Is emissive map supported? Is it possible to make something glow? Is it possible to import custom shaders? I would like to see in viewport all output maps which I create inside SD. Is it possible?

[mdesign]

Ok, so I think I sorted it out.

Emissive map preview is supported in relief shader and tesselation shader. Height map is supported only in tesselation shader. Relief and tesselation shader are not Physically-based shaders (please correct me if I`m wrong).

Please make some shaders in future in type all in one. I understand that I should choose which method of BPR I want to use - metallic+roughness or specular+glossines. But PBR shaders should show also in viewport emissive and height maps. It`s hard to find how it`s combine together if you can`t see it together (on one shader).

In my opinion shader preview in viewport should carry every kind of map which are possible to output through SD.

[Cyrille Damez]

Is it possible to import custom shaders?

Yes, you can import or code custom glsl shaders.

Height map is supported only in tesselation shader.

No, you can use an height map with the relief and the physically-based shaders also. They don't use it for displacing subdivided geometry, but they use it to displace the texels read in textures. However, note that by default the height scale factor is 0 in these shaders. That's probably the reason you haven't noticed it.

I would like to see in viewport all output maps which I create inside SD. Is it possible?

In theory yes. In practice, we don't do that because we had trouble with shaders using a lot of different texture samplers on some graphics card drivers (notably on Macs).
We have plans for adding a tesselation shader with physically-based lighting, but it is probably going to require a pretty good graphics card for it to run smoothly.

[elowan]

GTX770 for testing avail here 

[mdesign]

Thanks a lot for your answer.

Yes, you can import or code custom glsl shaders.

I use substance not for specific game engine so i don`t have any preset shader. I try to use it with higher density mesh to present in Modo and Marmoset. I`m not a coder so I can`t write own shader. I have basic skill in coding so your nodes are perfect for me. That`s why I choose your soft - artist friendly texture creation on nodes with possibility of changing parameters inside many different engines (not only dedicated for game f.e. Modo). Please redirect me to tutorials which let me write own shader which I will be able to import.

No, you can use an height map with the relief and the physically-based shaders also. They don't use it for displacing subdivided geometry, but they use it to displace the texels read in textures. However, note that by default the height scale factor is 0 in these shaders. That's probably the reason you haven't noticed it.

How notice height map on relief shader without preview displacing  subdivided geometry?

In theory yes. In practice, we don't do that because we had trouble with shaders using a lot of different texture samplers on some graphics card drivers (notably on Macs).

Maybe you should make external commercial shader for Windows users which will allow present all outputs together in preview window (PBR). I`ll buy it at once. I think it will be fair for Mac and Windows users.

We have plans for adding a tesselation shader with physically-based lighting, but it is probably going to require a pretty good graphics card for it to run smoothly.

Thanks a lot I`m glad to read this. I hope that future tesselation shader will change geometry on preview. Hardware is not a problem. I have 3990K CPU, 64GB ram and GTX770 4gb vram (Win8.1 x64). If my card or comp is too weak I may upgrade it.

I know that big studios who work on SD may have own coders who make shaders for their co-workers. For one man army freelance studio learning all CGI creation softs and writing own shaders is more than one man can handle (maybe it`s only my problem). Maybe there are some paid shaders on net which I can buy and import to SD?

Thanks again for answering.

[Wes McDermott]

SD 4.3 will have an updated PBR shader with emissive output support.

Cheers,

Wes

[Cyrille Damez]

How notice height map on relief shader without preview displacing  subdivided geometry?

"Parallax" effects in shaders are tricks (commonly used in games, but also in other 3D apps) where displacement is faked without having to subdivide triangles by "distorting" the input textures on the mesh depending on the perspective to fake relief. In the attached image for example, the geometry is only a flat quad, all the perceived relief comes from texture distortion (please excuse the ugly programmer art, that's only a quickly made example).

With reasonably small heights, it should give a fairly similar result to subdivision+displacement, except on the silhouette edges of your mesh.

[mdesign]

So it is something like bump/normal - fake of real displacement without changing mesh geometry (polygon is flat and only shading is similair to real displacment)

[Cyrille Damez]

Exactly.

[hechtCGI]

SD 4.3 will have an updated PBR shader with emissive output support.

Cheers,

Wes

I try to get emissive working with the PBR shader in the latest release (4.3.0) but with no luck yet, only the relief shader seems to support an emissive output at the moment. Maybe I have missed a step or is it just not implemented yet?

I created a new substance with the PBR (metallic/roughness) preset and added an emissive output manually. Piped in my emissive texture and added a glow filter. Anything else needed for this to work?

[Wes McDermott]

SD 4.3 will have an updated PBR shader with emissive output support.

Cheers,

Wes

I try to get emissive working with the PBR shader in the latest release (4.3.0) but with no luck yet, only the relief shader seems to support an emissive output at the moment. Maybe I have missed a step or is it just not implemented yet?

I created a new substance with the PBR (metallic/roughness) preset and added an emissive output manually. Piped in my emissive texture and added a glow filter. Anything else needed for this to work?

Hi Christian,

I'm sorry, but the emissive shader didn't end up shipping with 4.3. That is my fault, I thought it was going to ship. A fix for shaders the OSX version is being addressed and the cause for the delay. We didn't want to ship with emissive only working on a single platform.

Cheers,

Wes

[hechtCGI]

Thanks for the info! I'm wondering though, how would a proper setup for an emissive effect in the viewport look like? If I do it the way I described in my last post I don't get a real glow effect, how can I get the brightness value over 255 or 1 so that glare effects it?

[Wes McDermott]

Thanks for the info! I'm wondering though, how would a proper setup for an emissive effect in the viewport look like? If I do it the way I described in my last post I don't get a real glow effect, how can I get the brightness value over 255 or 1 so that glare effects it?

The glow intensity is handled by the shader. In the PBR Emissive shader we have coming, you will have an emissive intensity slider. You can drive this value high and YEBIS will use this to really bloom and intensify the effect.

Here's an example of the effect.



Cheers,

Wes

[fishapotamous]

Hey Wes,

   Did the emissive PBR shader get into Substance Designer 4.4?

Thanks!
Bryan

[Wes McDermott]

Hey Wes,

   Did the emissive PBR shader get into Substance Designer 4.4?

Thanks!
Bryan

Hi Bryan,

I'm sorry it did not. I was wrong. There needs to be an update to the renderer on Mac so that the shader will handle the additional samples. We didn't want to release different versions on PC / Mac. Are you on PC by chance? If so, I can send the shader to you.

Cheers,

Wes