Is BiteTheBytes’ Material Creator the new Substance 3D Designer?
World Creator developer BiteTheBytes has announced that it is working on Material Creator, a new application that it describes as a “true alternative” to Adobe’s Substance 3D Designer.
The software, which is due for release later this month, will enable users to create materials for games and VFX following a node-based workflow, and will be able to import Substance graphs.
Below, we’ve put together our FAQs on what we know about it so far.
Who is working on Material Creator?
Material Creator is one of several new tools that BiteTheBytes has announced alongside its flagship product, world-generation software World Creator.
The first, Cubify, is an editor for creating block-based voxel models for games, while byteInstaller creates installer executables for Windows applications.
However, the latest tool is the one that will really interest CG Channel readers: Material Creator, a node-based material-authoring tool for games, motion graphics and VFX work.
The software has been in development for over a year, with independent game designer and tools developer Steven Koch joining BiteTheBytes’ team to work on it.
Which existing software is Material Creator competing with?
On its release, Material Creator will go head to head with commercial material-authoring tools like Substance 3D Designer and InstaMAT, and open-source alternatives like Material Maker.
Like them, Material Creator enables users to create materials for games and VFX projects procedurally, using a non-destructive node-based workflow.
BiteTheBytes describes it as a “true alternative” to Substance 3D Designer and InstaMAT that “brings together many of the features you know [but] does a lot of things noticeably better”.
Why might you choose Material Creator instead of existing material authoring tools?
To judge from the sneak peeks posted on the Material Maker Discord, one of the things it aims to do better is to create simpler, more modular, easier-to-manage graphs.
A Function Node system makes it possible package groups of nodes into a single node, choosing with parameters to expose.
Koch describes it as similar to Unreal Engine’s Material Functions, making it possible to create reusable assets that can be added to a material library or shared with team members.
Another feature known as ‘The Cleaner‘ automatically tidies up a selected area of a node graph, optimizing the layout to simplify connections.
In addition, readymade ‘Smart Nodes’ will make it quicker to create common material types, like vegetation, and come with the key controls and mask inputs already set up.
What other features will Material Creator have?
BiteTheBytes hasn’t released a complete feature list for Material Creator, but it has hinted at some of its other capabilities on its Discord server.
We know that the software will have an Image to PBR system, presumably along the lines of the Substance tools’ Image to Material, and will support relatively new workflows like hex tiling.
Users will also be able to import Substance 3D Designer graphs, making it possible to reuse existing assets, although their output may not be absolutely identical in Material Creator.
It will be possible to export textures at at least 8K (8,192 x 8,192px) resolution, as you can in other commercial material authoring tools.
Price, system requirements and release date
Material Creator is currently in development with a public release expected in August 2026. BiteTheBytes hasn’t announced system requirements or exact pricing yet.
However, on Discord the firm has said that Material Maker will be available via both perpetual licenses and subscriptions, and is intended to be “cheaper than Substance 3D Designer”.
Read BiteTheBytes’ announcement of Material Creator
Follow the development of Material Creator on the BiteTheBytes Discord server
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