Correct workflow for using Substance plugin.

[brijcharan]

Hey folks.

So I tried loading in a sbsar into modo and giving it a whirl. I setup all my outputs etc, and setup the heights as displacement as well. In modo it seemed to render.

In v-ray, 'most' of it seemed to just work, but I noticed the displacement did not work.
Normally for displacement in v-ray I use the material common (vs the geometry setting). And it works.
But since the substance plugin creates a modo like shader, how do I make v-ray understand it?

Thx!

[boyan]

Hey, Brijcharan

Thank you for the post here. I've added the images to explain how you can achieve the result. But basically, you have to check the substance material properties - Relief Balance option. It is some kind of blend map between Normal and Displacement maps - so if you want some more balanced result set it to 16.

Cheers,

[vladimir.nedev]

Hey folks.
In v-ray, 'most' of it seemed to just work, but I noticed the displacement did not work.
Normally for displacement in v-ray I use the material common (vs the geometry setting). And it works.
But since the substance plugin creates a modo like shader, how do I make v-ray understand it?

It is setup the same way you do it with MODO's renderer.
Note that changing the displacement texture is not automatically updated in RT, so you will have to restart it to see the change. Maybe that was the issue ?

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[brijcharan]

Note that changing the displacement texture is not automatically updated in RT, so you will have to restart it to see the change. Maybe that was the issue ?

Yep tried that, no luck.

[brijcharan]

Hey, Brijcharan
But basically, you have to check the substance material properties - Relief Balance option. It is some kind of blend map between Normal and Displacement maps - so if you want some more balanced result set it to 16.

I don't seem to have that toggle?

I'm attaching my screenshots.

[vladimir.nedev]

How does it render in the MODO renderer ? There is displacement in the OpenGL viewport, but it's possible that the render doesn't match it and the OpenGL viewport is showing something incorrect.

If V-Ray renders differently compared to the MODO renderer, I will need a scene to fix it.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[boyan]

I don't seem to have that toggle?

I'm attaching my screenshots.

Hey,

Yep, it is depend of the Substance material. But I think you should proper scale the texture map material.

Check the link : https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?c...UhEhFBIQPIMox7

Cheers,

[brijcharan]

Ok,

Thanks Vladimir & Boyan, I'll check again when I'm home tonight and see whats up.

Boyan, when you enabled advanced opengl, do you see the displacement in the 3d viewport at all?

I'll check these settings and see what I get.

Thank you!

[brijcharan]

aha!

Got it working.

I had '2d displacement' enabled in V-Ray Displacement, in the V-ray Geometry Properties.

So now we've got displacement, but it seems to be 'less'. I'm gonna attempt to figure out what factor its off by.

[brijcharan]

Ok, it looks like if Modo's material displacement is set to a value of n, then the displacement setting in v-ray should be n*3.

Also, added bonus. for some reason v-ray is rendering the texture at the right resolution, the preview render in modo is much lower resolution on the texture (see screenshots).

So my follow up question, should we never try to use a v-ray material for substance textures then?

[brijcharan]

And thank you Boyan and Vladimir!

[brijcharan]

ok, seems to be working well now. Still have the discrepency between the material ref displacement value and the v-ray geometry displacement value.

[Robert]

The n*3 could be related to scale problem. Vray was first done for 3dsmax, which internal works with inches. Modo is more modern and works with centimeter as default units. So that could explain the 2.54 factor.

[vladimir.nedev]

Ok, it looks like if Modo's material displacement is set to a value of n, then the displacement setting in v-ray should be n*3.

The displacement amount in the V-Ray Geometry Properties is a multiplier for the displacement distance in the MODO material (or V-Ray Mtl Common tab). V-Ray uses both, but multiplies them together.
You must leave the displacement amount at its default (which is 1 meter, around 39 inches) to have the MODO and V-Ray renders match.
There is no n*3 anywhere.

So my follow up question, should we never try to use a v-ray material for substance textures then?

You can use it, just need to place it above the Substance material and change the effects of the textures accordingly.
It will be tedious though, so it's probably better to stick with the Substance material (which is really a MODO material with additional options).

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[brijcharan]

The displacement amount in the V-Ray Geometry Properties is a multiplier for the displacement distance in the MODO material (or V-Ray Mtl Common tab). V-Ray uses both, but multiplies them together.
You must leave the displacement amount at its default (which is 1 meter, around 39 inches) to have the MODO and V-Ray renders match.
There is no n*3 anywhere.

Ok.

So only tweak the modo setting in regards to substance displacement then, and then leave the v-ray one at 1meter? So if it's a multiplier, why does need to be a length unit?

You can use it, just need to place it above the Substance material and change the effects of the textures accordingly.
It will be tedious though, so it's probably better to stick with the Substance material (which is really a MODO material with additional options).

Ok sounds good!

Thanks Vladimir!