Substance Material
Updated: 4 Nov 2024
Add an imported SBSAR material from Substance.
Substance Material
Method #
Notch allows the use of materials made with Substance Designer from Adobe. The Substance Designer Material once assigned to an object will behave like a standard Notch material. All options are identical, but with the ability to modify the texture on the fly according to the Substance parameters.
For more information about Substance Designer, visit their website.
By default, textures are not automatically cached. To do this, right-click on the node in the nodegraph and select Substance Material Options > Cache Substance Textures. A new material node will be generated with the textures from substance applied, and the textures will be added to the resource view.
It isn’t a necessity to cache the textures, this is only if you want to use one of the generated textures as a normal texture, and apply a filter to it for example.
The output material can be applied to any node which accepts a material input, such as 3D Objects, Particle Trails, or a Procedural Raytracer.
Parameters
These properties control the overall Substance Material settings.
Parameter Details Substance SBS Selected .sbsar material
Output Width Pixel resolution of the texture horizontally.
Output Height Pixel resolution of the texture vertically.
If your material contains modifiable parameters, all modifiable parameters will be present here
These properties control the core behaviours of the material using Physically Based Rendering (PBR) properties from a A Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution function. Changing the properties below can make a material appear more reflective, more dirty, or add more detail to the material surface. By using textures (either through the relevant inputs, or in the texture section), each of these properties can be modulated over a surface, for more complex material effects.
Parameter Details Colour The colour of the material.
Brightness How much light the object absorbs and doesn’t reflect back into the scene.
Specular Colour The colour of specular light reflected from the material.
Specular Intensity Intensity of the specular reflections
Specularity How much specular light is reflected from the object.
Specular Anisotropy Change the shape of the specular highlight.
Emissiveness How much of a glow is emitted around the object. Requires “high dynamic range” to be turned on in the root.
Baked Diffuse Intensity Intensity of the texture supplied via the Diffuse channel - typically used for baked light maps.
Use Baked Diffuse Map As Ambient Occlusion Sets Diffuse Map to become an ambient occlusion map
Fresnel Diffuse Amount The brightness of the fresnel on the diffuse surface
Shadow Catcher Colour Colour of the shadow catcher colour
These properties control how transparent the material is. Transparency isnt always supported with some of the more advanced lighting effects, so some experimentation may be needed.
Parameter Details Alpha Change the alpha value of the material.
Alpha Mode Change how the alpha image affects the material.
- Opaque : The material is rendered solid, completely occluding any pixels behind it in the view.
- Alpha To Coverage : The material is rendered solid, but alpha values are converted into a dither pattern to allow textured alphas to shape the output.
- Alpha Blend : The material is rendered transparent and the Blend Mode is used to control blending.
Blend Mode Change how the material once added to an object blends with the scene. Only functions with Alpha Mode for details.
Alpha Sort Bias Biases the alpha sorting of the objects using this material, if they are transparent, so they are drawn earlier or later in the sorting order.
Refraction IOR How much the light is bent through a transparent surface.
Absorption How much light is absorbed by a transparent surface.
Absorption Colour The colour of the absorbed light on a transparent surface.
Transparent Diffuse The transparency of the diffuse material.
These properties control a rim lighting effect, a Light which sits just behind the subject and adds a wrapping of liht around the mesh edges.
Parameter Details Rim Lighting Enabled Simulates Rim Lighting on the material with respect to the camera.
Rim Lighting Use Material Colour Use the Materials Colour instead of the Rim Lighting Colour.
Rim Lighting Colour Select a colour to use for Rim Lighting. Overwritten by Material Colour with Use Material Colour Enabled.
Rim Lighting Intensity How strong the Rim Lighting is.
Rim Lighting Falloff How far the falloff for the Rim Lighting reaches.
These properties control the rendering settings for the material.
Parameter Details Lit Toggle whether the material can be lit by lights in the scene.
Casts Shadows Toggle whether the objects the material is applied to casts shadows.
Reflections Change what types of reflections will be reflected by the material.
- Raytraced : Toggle whether Raytraced reflections will be applied to this material.
- Voxel Cone : Toggle whether Voxel Cone lighting will be applied to this material.
- Screen Space : Toggle whether Screen Space reflections will be applied to this material.
- Probes : Toggle whether Probe reflections will be applied to this material.
- Environment Mapping : Toggle whether Environment Map reflections will be applied to this material.
Refractions Toggle whether light can be refracted Inside the objects the material is applied to.
Shadow Catcher Toggles converting the material into a shadow catcher material
Unseen By Camera Toggle whether can be seen by the camera.
Back Face Cull Mode Changes which directions the face will be visible in.
- Double Sided : Both sides of the material will be rendered to the surface.
- Show Front Faces : Only the front side aligned with the normal will be rendered.
- Show Back Faces : Only the back side opposite to the normal will be rendered.
Flip Polygons Toggles whether the polygons are flipped on the material
Wireframe Toggles whether the polygons are wireframe on the material
Flat Shade Colours Toggles whether the material colours are flat shaded
Thes properties comntrol how the surface of the material is displaced at rendereing, using normal maps, heightmaps, or both.
Parameter Details Normal Smoothness Change how much smoothing is done to the edges of the object.
Smoothing Angle Sets the smoothing angle of the mesh faces. The higher the smoother the result.
Normal Map Strength Change how strong the normal map effect is. Only functions if a normal map is selected in the “normal map” attribute, and the normal map mode is set to “normal mapping”.
Normal Map Mode Change how the normal map affects the material.
Normal Map - Invert Normal X Invert the normal map along the X axis.
Normal Map - Invert Normal Y Invert the normal map along the Y axis.
Normal Map - Invert Normal Z Invert the normal map along the Z axis.
Displacement How Much the displacement map affects the object.
Displacement Offset Offset amount for the displacement maps
Parallax Amount How much parallax in the displacement
Displacement - Use Polygons UVs Toggles on and off
Displacement - Fix Tessellation Seams Toggles on and off
These properties allow textures to modulate the surfaces. Textures connected to the maaterials relevant input properties will overwrite these textures.
Parameter Details Colour Texture Select a source image to add a colour texture to the material.
Normal Map Select a source image to add a normal map to the material.
Specular Map Select a source image to add a specula map to the material.
Diffuse Map Select a source image to add a diffuse map to the material.
Displacement Map Select an image to displace the mesh based on the luminescence values of the image. Can be used with the Subdivision Levels node.
Roughness Map Select an image to control how rough different areas of the material are, based on luminance.
Alpha Map Select an image to control the alpha values of different areas of the material, based on luminance.
Emissiveness Map Select a source image to control how emissive an object is, based on luminance.
These properties control how the material applies to the mesh UVs.
Parameter Details UV Scale X Scale the UV texture along the X axis.
UV Scale Y Scale the UV texture along the Y axis.
UV Offset X Offset the UV texture along the X axis.
UV Offset Y Offset the UV texture along the Y axis.
Diffuse UV Scale X Scale the Diffuse UV texture along the X axis.
Diffuse UV Scale Y Scale the Diffuse UV texture along the Y axis.
Diffuse UV Offset X Offset the Diffuse UV texture along the X axis.
Diffuse UV Offset Y Offset the Diffuse UV texture along the Y axis.
Texture Filter Mode Controls how textures used by the material are filtered - through point sampling, linear filtering or anisotropic filtering.
Texture Wrap Mode U Controls how textures used by the material are wrapped when the U value range exceeds 0 to 1.
Texture Wrap Mode V Controls how textures used by the material are wrapped when the V value range exceeds 0 to 1.
Diffuse Texture Filter Mode Controls how textures used by the material are filtered - through point sampling, linear filtering or anisotropic filtering.
Diffuse Texture Wrap Mode U Controls how textures used by the material are wrapped when the U value range exceeds 0 to 1.
Diffuse Texture Wrap Mode V Controls how textures used by the material are wrapped when the V value range exceeds 0 to 1.
UV Remap Filtering Toggles on and off
Texture Mip Bias Sets the bias of the mip maps
These properties control a couple extra settings for the material which didn’t fit into other categories.
Parameter Details Motion Blur Velocity Scale Scale how much motion blur is affected by the objects movement.
Glow Amount Control how much the object glows.
Density How dense the material is. Used in sub-surface scattering, and glass shading.
These properties control how the material interacts with ray tracing, when used by a Rendering Node.
Parameter Details Use Global Settings toggles off and on
Max Diffuse Depth sets the max diffuse depth
Max Glossy Depth Sets the max gloss depth
These properties allow you to control how vertex colours are applied to meshes, and to other parts of the PBR pipeline.
These properties store the textures of the substance material once they have been cached.
Parameter Details Base colour Texture Texture Name
Normal Texture Texture Name
Opacity Texture Name
Roughness Texture Texture Name
Metallic Texture Texture Name
Ambient Occlusion Texture Texture Name
Height Texture Texture Texture Name
These properties control the overall Substance Material settings.
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| Substance SBS | Selected .sbsar material |
| Output Width | Pixel resolution of the texture horizontally. |
| Output Height | Pixel resolution of the texture vertically. |
If your material contains modifiable parameters, all modifiable parameters will be present here
These properties control the core behaviours of the material using Physically Based Rendering (PBR) properties from a A Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution function. Changing the properties below can make a material appear more reflective, more dirty, or add more detail to the material surface. By using textures (either through the relevant inputs, or in the texture section), each of these properties can be modulated over a surface, for more complex material effects.
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| Colour | The colour of the material. |
| Brightness | How much light the object absorbs and doesn’t reflect back into the scene. |
| Specular Colour | The colour of specular light reflected from the material. |
| Specular Intensity | Intensity of the specular reflections |
| Specularity | How much specular light is reflected from the object. |
| Specular Anisotropy | Change the shape of the specular highlight. |
| Emissiveness | How much of a glow is emitted around the object. Requires “high dynamic range” to be turned on in the root. |
| Baked Diffuse Intensity | Intensity of the texture supplied via the Diffuse channel - typically used for baked light maps. |
| Use Baked Diffuse Map As Ambient Occlusion | Sets Diffuse Map to become an ambient occlusion map |
| Fresnel Diffuse Amount | The brightness of the fresnel on the diffuse surface |
| Shadow Catcher Colour | Colour of the shadow catcher colour |
These properties control how transparent the material is. Transparency isnt always supported with some of the more advanced lighting effects, so some experimentation may be needed.
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| Alpha | Change the alpha value of the material. |
| Alpha Mode | Change how the alpha image affects the material.
|
| Blend Mode | Change how the material once added to an object blends with the scene. Only functions with Alpha Mode for details. |
| Alpha Sort Bias | Biases the alpha sorting of the objects using this material, if they are transparent, so they are drawn earlier or later in the sorting order. |
| Refraction IOR | How much the light is bent through a transparent surface. |
| Absorption | How much light is absorbed by a transparent surface. |
| Absorption Colour | The colour of the absorbed light on a transparent surface. |
| Transparent Diffuse | The transparency of the diffuse material. |
These properties control a rim lighting effect, a Light which sits just behind the subject and adds a wrapping of liht around the mesh edges.
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| Rim Lighting Enabled | Simulates Rim Lighting on the material with respect to the camera. |
| Rim Lighting Use Material Colour | Use the Materials Colour instead of the Rim Lighting Colour. |
| Rim Lighting Colour | Select a colour to use for Rim Lighting. Overwritten by Material Colour with Use Material Colour Enabled. |
| Rim Lighting Intensity | How strong the Rim Lighting is. |
| Rim Lighting Falloff | How far the falloff for the Rim Lighting reaches. |
These properties control the rendering settings for the material.
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| Lit | Toggle whether the material can be lit by lights in the scene. |
| Casts Shadows | Toggle whether the objects the material is applied to casts shadows. |
| Reflections | Change what types of reflections will be reflected by the material.
|
| Refractions | Toggle whether light can be refracted Inside the objects the material is applied to. |
| Shadow Catcher | Toggles converting the material into a shadow catcher material |
| Unseen By Camera | Toggle whether can be seen by the camera. |
| Back Face Cull Mode | Changes which directions the face will be visible in.
|
| Flip Polygons | Toggles whether the polygons are flipped on the material |
| Wireframe | Toggles whether the polygons are wireframe on the material |
| Flat Shade Colours | Toggles whether the material colours are flat shaded |
Thes properties comntrol how the surface of the material is displaced at rendereing, using normal maps, heightmaps, or both.
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| Normal Smoothness | Change how much smoothing is done to the edges of the object. |
| Smoothing Angle | Sets the smoothing angle of the mesh faces. The higher the smoother the result. |
| Normal Map Strength | Change how strong the normal map effect is. Only functions if a normal map is selected in the “normal map” attribute, and the normal map mode is set to “normal mapping”. |
| Normal Map Mode | Change how the normal map affects the material. |
| Normal Map - Invert Normal X | Invert the normal map along the X axis. |
| Normal Map - Invert Normal Y | Invert the normal map along the Y axis. |
| Normal Map - Invert Normal Z | Invert the normal map along the Z axis. |
| Displacement | How Much the displacement map affects the object. |
| Displacement Offset | Offset amount for the displacement maps |
| Parallax Amount | How much parallax in the displacement |
| Displacement - Use Polygons UVs | Toggles on and off |
| Displacement - Fix Tessellation Seams | Toggles on and off |
These properties allow textures to modulate the surfaces. Textures connected to the maaterials relevant input properties will overwrite these textures.
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| Colour Texture | Select a source image to add a colour texture to the material. |
| Normal Map | Select a source image to add a normal map to the material. |
| Specular Map | Select a source image to add a specula map to the material. |
| Diffuse Map | Select a source image to add a diffuse map to the material. |
| Displacement Map | Select an image to displace the mesh based on the luminescence values of the image. Can be used with the Subdivision Levels node. |
| Roughness Map | Select an image to control how rough different areas of the material are, based on luminance. |
| Alpha Map | Select an image to control the alpha values of different areas of the material, based on luminance. |
| Emissiveness Map | Select a source image to control how emissive an object is, based on luminance. |
These properties control how the material applies to the mesh UVs.
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| UV Scale X | Scale the UV texture along the X axis. |
| UV Scale Y | Scale the UV texture along the Y axis. |
| UV Offset X | Offset the UV texture along the X axis. |
| UV Offset Y | Offset the UV texture along the Y axis. |
| Diffuse UV Scale X | Scale the Diffuse UV texture along the X axis. |
| Diffuse UV Scale Y | Scale the Diffuse UV texture along the Y axis. |
| Diffuse UV Offset X | Offset the Diffuse UV texture along the X axis. |
| Diffuse UV Offset Y | Offset the Diffuse UV texture along the Y axis. |
| Texture Filter Mode | Controls how textures used by the material are filtered - through point sampling, linear filtering or anisotropic filtering. |
| Texture Wrap Mode U | Controls how textures used by the material are wrapped when the U value range exceeds 0 to 1. |
| Texture Wrap Mode V | Controls how textures used by the material are wrapped when the V value range exceeds 0 to 1. |
| Diffuse Texture Filter Mode | Controls how textures used by the material are filtered - through point sampling, linear filtering or anisotropic filtering. |
| Diffuse Texture Wrap Mode U | Controls how textures used by the material are wrapped when the U value range exceeds 0 to 1. |
| Diffuse Texture Wrap Mode V | Controls how textures used by the material are wrapped when the V value range exceeds 0 to 1. |
| UV Remap Filtering | Toggles on and off |
| Texture Mip Bias | Sets the bias of the mip maps |
These properties control a couple extra settings for the material which didn’t fit into other categories.
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| Motion Blur Velocity Scale | Scale how much motion blur is affected by the objects movement. |
| Glow Amount | Control how much the object glows. |
| Density | How dense the material is. Used in sub-surface scattering, and glass shading. |
These properties control how the material interacts with ray tracing, when used by a Rendering Node.
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| Use Global Settings | toggles off and on |
| Max Diffuse Depth | sets the max diffuse depth |
| Max Glossy Depth | Sets the max gloss depth |
These properties allow you to control how vertex colours are applied to meshes, and to other parts of the PBR pipeline.
These properties store the textures of the substance material once they have been cached.
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| Base colour Texture | Texture Name |
| Normal Texture | Texture Name |
| Opacity | Texture Name |
| Roughness Texture | Texture Name |
| Metallic Texture | Texture Name |
| Ambient Occlusion Texture | Texture Name |
| Height Texture Texture | Texture Name |
