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Help with Substance Painter Exporting

seippg

seippg

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My brain is about fried with Substance Painter today. I finally got the textures exported but I see that it's exported Roughness and Metal as separate files. The MSFS plugin expects those to be combined into different colors of the same bitmap, right? I'm using an MSFS Export Template I got here on the forum. So.......help?

Also, I'm wondering if I should be able to see them in Blender with Material Preview. Right now I'm seeing no change after I load them.
 
Pyscen

Pyscen

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You will need to look at the preset for MSFS within SP.
 
seippg

seippg

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Pyscen said:
You will need to look at the preset for MSFS within SP.
Click to expand...
Thanks, yes. Done and fixed. Now I have the right set of images. Next step is to get the images to display in Blender. Here's the images...a simple sign.
images.png

They look right. Next, here's what the sign looks like in Substance Painter...
SubstancePainter.png


That looks pretty good. Lastly, though, here's what it looks like in Blender after loading the textures. I'm getting close but still looking for the cigar.

blender.png
 
Pyscen

Pyscen

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The UV section and the graphic node - its hard to read. Need to see those 2 sections. The UV should be pointing to the Albedo map.
 
seippg

seippg

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Pyscen said:
The UV section and the graphic node - its hard to read. Need to see those 2 sections. The UV should be pointing to the Albedo map.
Click to expand...
Do you mean select the albedo in the drop down in the UV Editor?

I got it working...with a caveat....(I deleted the contents of the Shader Editor for both materials, then set the MSFS plugin to "disabled" and back to "MSFS Standard". Then, at the top of the material, I clicked Use Nodes and there it was. Not sure what Use Nodes does.)

Here's the UV Editor with the sign albedo (and looks right)...

sign_albedo.png


But here's the albedo for other parts of the sign (what I call White_Metal material). That doesn't look as right since it seems to cover the "Sign" part too, but, maybe that's because it's a smart material??

white_metal_albedo.png


In Substance Painter, here's the Metal view for White Metal...
SP_White_Metal_metal.png


And, finally, here's what the sign now looks like:...so I can't really complain.
blenderright.png
 
seippg

seippg

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Finally, this is what I get in the XML file when I export (everything in the dialog is checked and filled out):
<?xml version="1.0" ?> <ModelInfo guid="{c256552b-c0a6-4254-2cc4-34a483d69132}" version="1.1"/>
Click to expand...
Looks pretty blank and it doesn't Open as a Project in MSFS. I am wondering if I should copy an XML from one of the samples and try to use it.

EDIT: Hmmm. So, studying the sample projects, I see that the XML above looks correct...it's just that I don't have the rest of a real project. This makes sense, I guess. This sign is only an object that belongs on an airport and needs to be put into the larger context of an airport project. So, I guess I have to get busy on that.
 
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Pyscen

Pyscen

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It appears you have 2 albedo maps. One with the smart material and the other the with the stylish 'S'.

The 1 with just the smart material is not seen since you covered it up with the other. Basically, wasting memory.

If you are trying to have the material like metal of some kind then you need to adjust the material with the 'S' on it. Keep in mind that painted metal isn't classified as metal. So, it will have the shine from the paint not the metal.
 
seippg

seippg

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Pyscen said:
It appears you have 2 albedo maps. One with the smart material and the other the with the stylish 'S'.

The 1 with just the smart material is not seen since you covered it up with the other. Basically, wasting memory.

If you are trying to have the material like metal of some kind then you need to adjust the material with the 'S' on it. Keep in mind that painted metal isn't classified as metal. So, it will have the shine from the paint not the metal.
Click to expand...
I'll have to learn how to adjust those bitmaps at some point. The 'S' is a bitmap itself. It's imported as a 'texture' and then I assigned it to 'Base Color' of the SP texture. I was about to just export everything and then use Photoshop to paint it on and I read the trick on a forum and, somehow, it worked. SP doesn't seem to have a formal way to do it.
 
Pyscen

Pyscen

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What I suggest is learn how to place decals or using stencils in Substance Painter. There is a great tutorial, unfortunately, I don't have the link for it at this present time. I will get it to you sometime later this evening.
 
seippg

seippg

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Pyscen said:
What I suggest is learn how to place decals or using stencils in Substance Painter. There is a great tutorial, unfortunately, I don't have the link for it at this present time. I will get it to you sometime later this evening.
Click to expand...
Thanks.
 
Pyscen

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Here is the tutorial on decals, stencils, and material stamps! Have used all of them depending on the circumstances. The tutorial explains when and where as well. :)

 
seippg

seippg

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Pyscen said:
Here is the tutorial on decals, stencils, and material stamps! Have used all of them depending on the circumstances. The tutorial explains when and where as well. :)

Click to expand...
Interesting video. It's tempting to think about using decals for things like windows and doors. Normally, I'd make some cuts on a wall to show where to put them but that might make a building more complex than it needs to be. Using decals I could put it all on textures. The problem is getting them all to line up. I'm curious what others think about this.
 
Pyscen

Pyscen

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I've been using material stamps. From the tutorial, you can use albedo, metallic, and normal maps accordingly. In placing them, I assign them as materials. So within Substance, you would place them in the correct location and height, etc.
 
seippg

seippg

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Pyscen said:
I've been using material stamps. From the tutorial, you can use albedo, metallic, and normal maps accordingly. In placing them, I assign them as materials. So within Substance, you would place them in the correct location and height, etc.
Click to expand...
So, do you mark out faces (polygons) where the stamps go in blender to make them more accurate? I was thinking the scenery would be drawn more efficiently with fewer polygons.
 
Pyscen

Pyscen

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There are 2-ways in handling the material stamps or decals. The material created is just a placeholder - adding material or placing the material stamp on a polygon that is already there. Windows as you have suggested could be handled, either way, loop-cuts could help in the aligning of.

Keep in mind, where the decal, stencil, or material stamp is placed, the polygon, in most cases, is usually already there. For example, a door with a material stamp of a door handle. The door is already there (polygon). You would only be adding the material stamp from within Substance Painter.
 
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