Substance node Attribute Editor

Substance Texture Attributes

Substance File

Use this attribute to load a substance file (.sbsar file); can be a full path filename or a relative filename. Substance files are located in the <Maya Directory>\substances folder by default.

Note

Search paths for relative filenames happen in the following order:

1. Using the MAYA_LOCATION environment variable. The plug-in searches for a substance file in MAYA_LOCATION/substances (but not in subfolders);
2. Using an optionVar named SBS_FILE_PATH, if it exists.

Substance graph

A substance graph is basically a substance. A graph may contain several outputs combined to make a whole usable material that can be connected directly to any kind of shader. Several substances can be present in a substance file.

Reload

Reloads the present substance file, this is used when updating a substance file or when you want to reset all substance parameters of this graph.

Substance outputs

After a substance file has been loaded, the possible substance outputs appear in this list. May include Diffuse, Specular, Normal, Bump, Displacement and so forth.

When you click on a connect button, it creates a material or gets the connected material and creates the corresponding substance output node to this material in the appropriate attribute. The color of the connect button indicates the status of the output node.

A grey connect icon (initial state) denotes that no Substance Output node has been created yet for this output map.

An orange connect icon denotes that an output node is created but not connected to another node.

A green connect icon denotes that the Substance Output node has been created and is connected to another node.

Normal

This channel outputs a tangent-space normal map. It is mainly intended to be connected to a bump2D node that is connected to the Bump Mapping channel of your shader.

Height

This map includes all the detail generated for the purposes of surface displacement. It includes major surface distortions, as well as very small surface details.

Displacement

This map includes the low-frequency distortions of the Height map. The Relief Balance parameter filters the amount of detail included from the Height map. It describes major surface displacements (such as dunes on a sand surface).

Bump

This map includes the high-frequency detail of the Height map. The Relief Balance parameter filters the amount of detail included from the Height map. It describes the fine details of the same surface (as the sand grains on the sand surface).

Absolute width/Absolute height

Select from resolutions between 32 to 2048. Select Absolute width and Absolute height to represent the actual resolution of the textures. You can also select Relative width and Relative height to set the multiplication factor for the current texture resolution.

Relative width/Relative height

Set Relative width and Relative height to set the multiplication factor for the current texture resolution.

Absolute sizes

This attribute is enabled by default. Disable this to use Relative width/Relative height instead of Absolute width/Absolute height.

Lock aspect ratio

Disable this attribute to generate substance output maps that are non-square textures. You can then move the Absolute width and Absolute height sliders independently of each other.

Create shader network

Click this to create a basic shading network with a PhongE material. It connects the Diffuse, Specular, and Normal substance outputs by default, and can connect to more outputs if available.

Export images to disk

Select this option to bake textures of the output maps you have created. Use this feature if you want to export your maps to an external game engine or to render with the mental ray for Maya renderer.

Substance Parameters

Hue Shift

Shifts the global color range of the texture.

Luminosity

Adjusts the brightness level of the texture.

Saturation

Adjusts the level of color purity of the texture.

Contrast

Adjusts the gradations between the light and dark areas of the texture.

RandomSeed

Adjusts the random seed value of the generated texture and allows you to quickly modify the base pattern of the texture.

Depth

Adjusts the attenuation of depth of the texture.

Normal

Adjusts the attenuation of the normals of the texture.

Emboss

Adjusts the level of detail enhancement of the texture.

Angle

Adjusts the angle of diffuse in relation to the level of Emboss applied to the texture.

Relief Balance

The Relief Balance parameter drives the way the Bump/Normal and Displacement outputs behave.

The higher the value, the more detail is put in the Bump or Normal output and the less in the Displacement output. The lower the value, the more detail is put in the Displacement output and the less in the Bump/Normal output. With the default value, the Displacement output is almost flat.

Using this attribute, you can filter the high frequency detail out of your displacement map to limit the amount of tessellation in your displacement rendering. The high frequency detail can then be handled by a normal map instead.

Normal Format

Normal map format

Select among the list of normal map formats.

The default is the OpenGL file format.

OpenGL is the default Maya hardware rendering API used in the viewport. This option allows users, and especially game developers, to export their assets with their 3D engine format such as Direct3D, and so forth.

Right handed denotes using right handed coordinates.

Normalized in the range [0,1] means that a color value of 0 corresponds to 0 in the normal, and a color value of 255 corresponds to a value of 1 in the normal. If not using normalized values, the normal map is between [-1,1], where [-1,0] maps to the [0,128] color values and [0,1] maps to the [128,255] color values.

Engine Settings

Global texture width / Global texture height

Use these attributes to specify a default resolution upon loading each substance file. This attribute is set to 512 by default.

Automatic Baking

Format

You can connect the substance outImage attribute to a file node in order to render the substance texture with mental ray for Maya, IPR, or a 3rd party renderer. Use this attribute to select among different image formats. Connected outputs are automatically baked to disk each time you tweak the substance attributes.