Adobe releases Substance 3D Sampler 4.2
Adobe has released Substance 3D Sampler 4.2, the new version of its material authoring and 3D capture software for creating scan-based materials, HDRIs and 3D models.
The update adds new AI-trained features, including a new version of Image to Material, for generating multiple material channels from one image, and a new image upscaler.
Image to Material now comes with specific algorithms for different material types
Key changes in Substance 3D Sampler 4.2 include a new version of Image to Material, its AI-trained system for generating PBR texture maps from a single source image.
You can read more about the toolset, which can generate base color, roughness, metallic, normal and displacement maps from photos, in this story, from back when the software was still called Substance Alchemist.
The new version has been “trained on all material types”, with users now able to choose specific algorithms matching a range of common materials.
Those shown in the video above include asphalt, ceramics, leather, metal, paint, paper, plastic and rubber, and stone, plus general categories for organic and ground materials.
According to Adobe, the new algorithms give better results with many materials, with the release notes specifically namechecking fabric, plaster and wood.
New AI-trained Upscale layer increases the resolution of material channels
The update also adds an entirely new AI-trained feature, the Upscale layer.
As its name suggests, it upscales textures – it works with the base color, normal, height, roughness, and metallic channels of a material – with the AI filling in missing details.
It’s possible to increase the resolution of a texture by 2x or 4x: there doesn’t currently seem to be an option to achieve a specific target resolution.
The update also adds a new preference to enable or disable GPU-accelerated neural networks, presumably to control performance when working with the new AI features.
New layer resolution system, updates to the Crop and Delighter filters
Other changes in Substance 3D Sampler 4.2 include a new layer resolution system, with layers taking the resolution of the document itself, or from the layer below.
The UI displays the dimensions of each layer in pixels, to help visualize the impact of edits on the resolution of a material.
In addition, the Crop filter now supports dynamic output resolution, and the Delighter filter – which removes baked-in shadows and lighting from source photos – has been “vastly improved”, although the release notes don’t specify what has changed.
Price and system requirements
Substance 3D Sampler 4.2 is available for Windows 10+, CentOS 7.0+/Ubuntu 20.04+ Linux and macOS 11.0+.
New perpetual licences, available via Steam, cost $149.99.
The Windows and macOS editions are also available via Adobe’s Substance 3D Texturing subscriptions, for $19.99/month or $219.88/year; or Substance 3D Collection subscriptions, for $49.99/month or $549.88/year.
The Linux edition is available via Creative Cloud for Teams, priced at $1,199.88/year.
Read a full list of features in Substance 3D Sampler 4.2 in the online changelog
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