Adobe releases Substance 3D Designer 15.1
Adobe has released Substance 3D Designer 15.1, the latest version of its material-authoring software for game development, visual effects and visualization work.
The update streamlines workflow when creating or editing Substance graphs, and updates the behavior of many of the noises used as components in materials.
Workflow improvements to the graph creation window
Substance 3D Designer 15.1 significantly overhauls workflow for the creating node graphs on which Substance 3D materials are based.
The graph creation window that appears when creating a new graph now shows thumbnail previews of the templates available, and tooltips with more information.
Templates are also now sorted by category, including materials, filters, and scan processing.
Adobe has also added a new set of sample materials: complete annotated graphs showing how common material types like wood, fabrics and plastic are created.
Changes to the Node menu and node graph
When working in the node graph itself, the Node menu, used for locating specific nodes to add, now organizes search results into categories to make them easier to parse.
Where a node has multiple outputs, it is now possible to specify which one should be displayed by default in the thumbnail preview.
In function graphs, a new is defined node makes it possible to check whether a variable exists within a graph: for example, in order to provide a fallback value.
Updates to the behavior of many key noises
Substance 3D Designer 15.1 also updates the behavior of many of the software’s built-in noises, including the Cells, Cloud, Dirt and Directional noises.
Noises are no longer forced to tile, and are no longer locked at 16-bit depth, making it possible to trade the detail they generate against the interactive performance of the graph.
Most noises also get extra control parameters for fine-tuning their output.
Price and system requirements
Substance 3D Designer 15.1 is compatible with Windows 11, RHEL 8.6/9.2+ Linux and macOS 12.0+.
It is available as a $199.99 perpetual license on Steam, or via Substance 3D subscriptions.
Substance 3D Texturing subscriptions cost $24.99/month or $249.99/year. Substance 3D Collection subscriptions cost $59.99/month or $599.88/year.
Read a full list of new features in Substance 3D Designer 15.1 in the online release notes
Have your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we don’t post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.