mdl export warning

[yusuke asami]

Hi,
I am trying to export mdl but I get a warning. The cause is unknown. I tried to load the exported mdl file into Daz Studio, but it failed with an error.
I was able to read the .mdl file called vMaterials(https://developer.nvidia.com/vmaterials) distributed by the NVIDIA official. So the reason why Daz Studio can't load is probably due to this export warning.

[Luca Giarrizzo]

Hello Yusuke,

Thank you for reaching out to us!

To investigate this issue, we need the following resources:

• Substance Designer's log file, which you can find at the following location by default on Windows:

Code: [Select]

C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Allegorithmic\Substance Designer\log.txt

• the SBS file which includes the MDL graph used to export the faulty MDL file
• the faulty MDL file

Feel free to send these out to me privately in a direct message. I appreciate your help and patience!

Best regards,
Luca

[an-imagination]

Has this been solved?
Asking because I have a similar issue.

[yusuke asami]

For export warnings, connect 'texture tangent u' to 'microfacet ggx smith bsdf node'. Connect normal to custom curve layer and 'weighted layer'. This operation cleared the warning.
As for loading failure into Daz Studio, I know that there is a compile error due to the module':: alg :: base :: core' missing in the module path. But I still don't know how to add':: alg :: base :: core' to the module path.

[Luca Giarrizzo]

Hello @yusuke asami,

Thank you for providing these additional details, as well as sending us your assets. They were very helpful! I also really appreciate your patience.

The warnings you encountered were caused by Substance Designer trying to provide values to unconnected inputs which already have default values. These warnings are harmless and do not mean the exported MDL module is compromised in any way.

Regarding the import issues into Daz, I have reached out to a member of our team for further information.

Best regards,
Luca

[Andrea Machizaud 0]

Hi yusuke,

First sorry for all the trouble you had to set up you MDL shader done in Substance Designer in Daz 3D, this process should be easier and we will improve our documentation for this.

In the meantime, I have downloaded Daz Studio and investigated the right way to import your MDL shader from Substance Designer and here is a step by step guide you can rely on :

• Open Substance Designer, create a MDL graph and export the created Substance Package (cf. 0000.jpg)
• Indeed, the export dialog tell us about warning but those can be safely ignored (in that specific case of a default material) (cf. 0001.jpg)
• Open Daz Studio, open a Shader Mixer pane tab (cf. 0002.jpg)
• Create a new material, and remove every node except the MDL surface (cf. 0003.jpg)
• IMPORTANT Open Edit > MDL Directory Manager to setup MDL paths : this is where we tell Daz where to find your shader dependencies (e.g. `::alg::base::core`) (cf. 0004.jpg)
• IMPORTANT Select "Base Paths" and add path where Substance Designer MDL resources are located, for a default installation on Windows this is "C:\Program Files\Allegorithmic\Substance Designer\resources\view3d\iray" (cf. 0005.jpg)
• IMPORTANT Select "Base Paths" and add path where you exported your MDL Graph, in my case this is "C:\Users\machizau.ADOBENET\Downloads\daz_mdl" (cf. 0006.jpg)
• Drag'n'drop your exported MDL file into the shader mixer graph, you should see a new node (if you failed, a dialog will tell you to look at logs) (cf. 0007.jpg)
• Connect your node output to MTL input on MDL Surface node, select the scene surface and hit apply. Et Voila ! (cf. 0008.jpg)

[Andrea Machizaud 0]

Here is an additional tip in case you are not creating MDL Graph yourself but just want to consume them (e.g. you downloaded one of our MDL material from https://source.substance3d.com/)
The MDL community has a package designed for application interchange called "MDL Material Exchange", it is freely available at https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/design-visualization/technologies/material-definition-language/ (cf. 0000.jpg)

After installing it, you can add its path to your Daz MDL Directory Manager ("C:\ProgramData\NVIDIA Corporation\mdl" for a default installation on Windows).
It contains our Substance Designer MDL resources plus additional ones from other MDL apps from the ecosystem.

NOTE: It may be slightly out of date as there is some latency between our releases and the time we send an up-to-date package to NVIDIA to update the MDL Material Exchange.

Hope all that helps !