Are Substances in 3dsMax always 8 bits ?

[dominik_diener]

Hi,
while evaluating the SD5 demo I run into the problem of banding artifacts in 3dsMax.
The Substance originally contained a 'Normal'-node (high-map to normal), but meanwhile I have a very simple test-setup:

The test-substance (set to 16 bit) contains only one image-input-node (also set to 16 bits) that is directly connected to diffuse and normal outputs, kind of a pass-through setup.
Now in Max I'm feeding a 16-bit-image into the substance. The result in viewport and rendering it looks like the 16bit-image is converted into 8bit (with the result of strong banding).

My question, are Substances always 8bit in 3dsMax or do they support 16bit as well ?

[Gaetan Lassagne]

Hi,

Unfortunately the current 3dsMax Substance integration doesn't handle RGB16b in its current version.
You can export a RGB16b from SD but it will not be possible to process existing 16b Normal maps using a substance filter in 3dsMax (in this case you'll get a RGB8b output). However you shouldn't get problem with grayscale (16b is supported).

[dominik_diener]

Thank you for the clarification and the tip with the greyscale :-)