Adobe releases Substance 3D Sampler 6.0
Adobe has released Substance 3D Sampler 6.0, the latest version of its material authoring and 3D capture software.
The update adds support for the OpenPBR material standard, introduces new templates for common types of real-world materials, and improves workflow with HP’s Z Captis scanner.
Full disclosure: version 6.0 itself was released in April, but didn’t get a lot of coverage outside of Adobe’s own social media channels, and we didn’t spot it at the time.
However, Adobe has just released Substance 3D Sampler 6.02, which, although mainly a bugfix release, seems like an opportunity to revisit the Substance 3D Sampler 6 releases.
An ‘all-in-one-digitization software’ for real-world objects
Originally known as Substance Alchemist, Substance 3D Sampler started out as a tool for creating 3D materials from real-world sources: primarily reference photos.
Subsequent updates added toolsets for creating HDRI-based lighting setups and 3D models, the latter via an AI-assisted photogrammetry toolset.
Adobe now describes it as all-in-one tool for creating digital copies of physical assets.
Scans can be exported in Substance 3D .sbs and .sbsar formats, in the case of materials and environment lights, as bitmap textures, or in a range of 3D formats, including USD.
Now uses OpenPBR shading by default
For most users, the main change in Substance 3D Sampler 6.0 will be support for OpenPBR.
The new open material standard supersedes both the old Adobe Standard Material (ASM) and Autodesk Standard Surface, and is increasingly being adopted in other DCC applications.
Substance 3D Sampler’s default material-creation preset now uses the OpenPBR material model, and OpenPBR material channels are now supported when selecting export channels.
It is also possible to covert existing ASM materials to OpenPBR.
Adobe has also switched to OpenPBR as the default shading model in the latest versions of its other material-authoring and texturing tools, Substance 3D Designer and Substance 3D Painter.
Substance 3D Sampler 6.0 also extends support for another key open standard, USD, with the option to export materials in USD, USDA and USDZ formats as well as geometry.
Workflow improvements include new templates for common material types
Other than that, the changes are mainly workflow improvements: most notably, a new set of material-creation presets to streamline the process of recreating common real-world materials.
As well as a default base material, there are templates for transparent, translucent, coated, fuzzy and anisotropic materials, the latter for surfaces like brushed metal.
The Property panel has been redesigned, making it possible to apply filters on a per-channel basis.
Several of the filters have themselves been updated, with new dynamic versions of Auto Tiling, Content Aware Fill, Height Blend, and Normal Blend; plus a “new Fill experience”.
There are also a number of UI updates, particular to Quick Actions, where fuzzy search is supported in the quick accessor.
Users of HP’s Z Captis material scanner get a new one-click scanning option, where Sampler automatically defines the region of interest for the scan, and automates focus and light intensity.
In addition, when rendering material previews, the maximum resolution has been raised to 8K
Price and system requirements
Substance 3D Sampler is compatible with Windows 11+, RHEL 8.6/9.4+ Linux and macOS 13.0+. The software is rental-only, via Adobe’s Creative Cloud 3D and AR subscriptions.
Substance 3D Texturing subscriptions cost $24.99/month or $249.99/year; Substance 3D Collection subscriptions cost $59.99/month or $599.99/year.
Read a full list of new features in Substance 3D Sampler 6.0 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.