Adobe releases Substance 3D Sampler 4.4
Originally posted on 23 March 2024, and updated with details of the final release.
Adobe has released Substance 3D Sampler 4.4, the latest version of its material authoring and 3D capture software.
The update adds three new features based on Adobe’s Firefly generative AI toolset.
Text-to-texture and Text-to-pattern generate materials and patterns from users’ text descriptions, while Image-to-texture generates tileable textures from reference images.
The features are all still officially in beta, and are only available to Adobe subscribers.
Text-to-texture generates tileable textures from text prompts
Adobe originally released Substance 3D Sampler 4.4 in beta back in March, at which point there was only a single new generative AI feature: Text-to-texture.
As the name suggests, it generates tileable textures from simple text prompts, automatically creating four variations of the texture from which a user can pick.
The texture can then be converted into a complete PBR material using Substance 3D Sampler’s existing Image to material system.
Sampler automatically attaches Adobe’s Content Credentials to assets generated using Firefly, indicating in the metadata that they are AI-generated.
Image-to-texture generates textures from reference images
To that, the final release adds two further AI features: Image-to-texture and Text-to-pattern.
Image-to-texture also generates textures, but it does so from a reference image rather than a text prompt, providing greater control over the results generated.
Its output is always a square, tileable texture, although the reference image itself need not be tileable, and can have any aspect ratio.
Text-to-pattern works in a similar way to Text-to-texture, generating a square tiling pattern from a text description.
The result can be used as an input for the existing Pattern filter or Cloth Weave filter.
Still officially beta features, and not available to Steam users
All three of the new AI features are still officially in beta, even in the final release.
They require an Adobe account, so they’re only available to users with Substance 3D subscriptions, not with the old perpetual license, which was sold through Steam.
Adobe discontinued the Steam version at the start of the year, but had said that users will “keep receiving free updates all throughout 2024”.
Price and system requirements
Substance 3D Sampler 4.4 is compatible with Windows 10+, CentOS 7.0+/Ubuntu 20.04+ Linux and macOS 11.0+. The software is now subscription-only.
The Windows and macOS editions are available via Adobe’s Substance 3D Texturing subscriptions, which cost $19.99/month or $219.88/year; or Substance 3D Collection subscriptions, which cost $49.99/month or $549.88/year.
The Linux edition is available via Creative Cloud for Teams, priced at $1,199.88/yr.
Read a full list of features in Substance 3D Sampler 4.4 in the online changelog
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