Substance for Unity 5: Creating PBR textures for environments and characters

[Wes McDermott]

Trying to build for Windows 64 bit

Can you try updating to Unity version 5.4.2? We think this is an issue that was already fixed in the latest build.

Cheers,
Wes

[jinja]

I have already tried that. The tutorial map scene also crashes (hangs) when starting the build, using unity beta 5.5.09b 

[jinja]

I mean it hangs when I run the build, not when I build it

[Wes McDermott]

I mean it hangs when I run the build, not when I build it

After you force quit the exe file, how are you getting the error message? I checking into it now and the build runs, but the player then goes into a not responding mode.

Cheers,
Wes

[jinja]

I was seeing that message in the Unity console after force quitting the unresponsive build. I'm not sure if always got the message, or just using my own rock version (not at home right now). The behaviour you found is the same for me, however, using the tutorial files, my version, and/or unity 5.4 or latest beta.

EDIT: Just checked: Not getting any red errors in Unity using 5.5 beta with your tutorial files (just some yellow alerts to unnecessary commands), but built app still hangs when started.

[jinja]

Hi there! Hope you've not forgotten me!

So, do you find this problem with all your PBR materials in unity? (Like I do?).

Any closer to knowing why/how to fix it?

[Wes McDermott]

Hi there! Hope you've not forgotten me!

So, do you find this problem with all your PBR materials in unity? (Like I do?).

Any closer to knowing why/how to fix it?

HI,

Very sorry for late reply! Definitely haven't forgotten. I am speaking to the devs about it and creating a repro scene for them. Very interesting to hear this is happening with all substance materials you try. So it's not specific to the tutorial file?

What other substances have you tried?

Cheers,
Wes

[Wes McDermott]

We found the issue. The problem comes into play with Substance that are very heavy to compute. In the case of the tutorial file, I had left the substance set to be absolute 2K so on level load the substance was stuck trying to compute 2K maps. I republished the sbsar set to relative to parent and now it loads.

Another way to work with this is to change the load settings. You can change it to bake. If the size of the player becomes an issue with baked content you can then choose the Do Nothing and manually generate the substances in a C# script.

I've attached the updated sbsar file.

Cheers,
Wes

[jinja]

Brilliant! That works for me too!

I tested simply by applying your new sbar file texture to a cube in Unity and building a scene to a W7 (64bit) app.

I guess, for me, 'all Substance materials' meant your tutorial material AND the tutorial material I had made. Since there were significant differences in each version, I assumed that it would break for all Substance materials, though this might not have been the case.

Still, great to have it working, and I will do some further tests along the lines you have discovered to stay the right side of 'too much to compute'. Now, I can resume my quest to build multiple procedural planets using Substance! Yay!

Thanks for all your hard work and for seeing this through to a resolution :-)

[Wes McDermott]

Brilliant! That works for me too!

I tested simply by applying your new sbar file texture to a cube in Unity and building a scene to a W7 (64bit) app.

I guess, for me, 'all Substance materials' meant your tutorial material AND the tutorial material I had made. Since there were significant differences in each version, I assumed that it would break for all Substance materials, though this might not have been the case.

Still, great to have it working, and I will do some further tests along the lines you have discovered to stay the right side of 'too much to compute'. Now, I can resume my quest to build multiple procedural planets using Substance! Yay!

Thanks for all your hard work and for seeing this through to a resolution :-)

Thanks! Great to hear it's working now. I'm sorry for the confusion before. It was my mistake in my substance : )

Cheers,
wes

[thedigitalguerrilla]

I got a doubt after watching the PBR introductory video, is there a way to validate the assets in UE4? And is it necessary when I pick a color, as albedo albedo for example, to stay within certain limits, or is already capped?
Thanks.

[Wes McDermott]

I got a doubt after watching the PBR introductory video, is there a way to validate the assets in UE4? And is it necessary when I pick a color, as albedo albedo for example, to stay within certain limits, or is already capped?
Thanks.

If you are choosing albedo it is best to stick within a range. For raw metals the albedo should equate to a value is 60(70) - 100% reflective. I don't get too picky, I just use a brighter value for raw metals where the metallic map is white. For non-metals you don't want the color to drop below 30 sRGB.

Cheers,
Wes

[thedigitalguerrilla]

Just a small thing for those who got the same issue. In chapter 02-05 at 18:00, I noticed that if you don't set an output group to "Material" when you import dirt_ground you won't get a single green output node.

[Wes McDermott]

Just a small thing for those who got the same issue. In chapter 02-05 at 18:00, I noticed that if you don't set an output group to "Material" when you import dirt_ground you won't get a single green output node.

Yes, that is correct. For the channels to be grouped as a material, each output needs to have the same name in the Group field. The name "Material" is used by default, but it can be any name the important thing is that the name match for all the channels you want to group as a material.

Cheers,
wes

[JeffA]

I am using Substance 6.0.3 on steam, and have been following your tutorial (which are really great, btw, thanks for producing them) but i've run into a snag and not sure if it's something I did wrong or if there is a toggle i am missing.  I am at the step in video 2-05, where we are putting everything together.  I have the rock_shape, the rocks, the dirt_ground all working in their individual setups with the instance parameters, but when I bring the rocks into rock_ground, the connections are all there but they don't do anything.  They work when I go into rock_shape and rocks, but clicking between ground and cliff and all the other parameters, it doesn't change in the main rock_ground.  Am I missing something?

Edit:
for some reason it fixed itself.  I restarted substance and it was still broken, but I went into rocks and messed with the settings, but didn't really think I fixed anything, and now it works.  *shrugs*