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I realize this question also deals with software other than Blender, but it's mostly a blender focused problem.

I am trying to figure out how to correctly set up displacement / height maps exported from Substance to Blender. Here is my node setup:

Bad Material

As you can see, the displacement is horrible. It's coming apart at the seams (black spots) and just generally looks horrible. This is what the material should look like:

Target 1 Target 2

So my question is the following:

What is the proper way to import and set up substance designer maps in Blender?

Is there an add-on that handles this automatically?

Is my node setup the proper way to do this?

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1 Answer 1

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Go to User Preferences > Addons, search for and enable "Node Wrangler".

NodeWrangler

Once you have it enabled, when you are in the shading tab, with the Principled BSDF selected, press Ctrl + Shift + T. This will allow you to load a whole PBR set at once (navigate to the folder and select multiple files). It works fine with Substance Designer's default naming scheme, except I think it has trouble connecting the BaseColor. You can do this by pressing Ctrl + T with the BSDF selected to load a single image texture connected to the basecolor and then choose your image that way, or you can Shift + D duplicate one of the other image textures, load it that way.

PBRSetup

This shortcut method sets up the displacement for you, however how much of an effect it has in EEVEE is somewhat a topic of debate (as far as I know, it's not supposed to do something, but it does - but not always the best result). Instead, I sometimes prefer to run my displacement through a Bump Node. Either way you choose, also note that the default strength of 1 (on any of the bump/displacement/normal nodes) is often too high and gives undesirable results. I've sometimes needed to go as low as 0.1 before it looks right.

PBRSetupAlt

As a side note, make sure to make use of the Scale values of the Mapping node - I find many textures exported from Substance are scaled too large (1/4 tiled or so) and benefit by scaling by at least 2 or 4 on the X and Y.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thanks for all that info. I didn't know that Node Wrangler could automatically set up your entire PBR texture set like that. Learn something new every day. :) Anyway, I actually think I pinpointed my displacement problem down to a lack of geometry. In order for the displacement to work correctly, I need a finely subdivided mesh (which my material preview ball isn't). But I really appreciate your thorough answer! $\endgroup$
    – fmotion1
    Nov 26, 2020 at 6:23
  • $\begingroup$ Make sure to use the experimental features and a subdivision surface using Levels to subdivide. It's adaptive (how far you are away from the camera) and non-destructive. $\endgroup$
    – Frederik Steinmetz
    Nov 26, 2020 at 10:45

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