MatPlus puts Substance 3D-style texture painting inside Blender

Tools developer B3FX Studios has released MatPlus, an interesting new plugin that aims to put Substance 3D-style layered texture painting inside Blender.

MatPlus “turns Blender’s material editor into a powerful layer-based painting tool, inspired by professional workflows from Substance [3D] Painter, ArmorPaint, and Mari”.

A layer-based texture painting add-on focused on hard surface texturing
MatPlus – it’s a backronym for Material Paint Layer Unified System, apparently – isn’t the first application to tout itself, or to be touted, as an alternative to Adobe’s Substance 3D Painter.

B3FX Studios namechecks one popular contender, the open-source ArmorPaint, in its pitch for MatPlus; another is games middleware firm Abstract’s recently released InstaMAT Studio.

However, unlike them, MatPlus is a Blender plugin, meaning that its painting tools are integrated directly inside the open-source 3D software.

Although there are other Blender add-ons for layer-based painting, many are focused on creating painterly effects, whereas MatPlus looks solidly focused on hard surface texturing.

B3FX Studios also has a proven track record in developing Blender add-ons, including popular tools like the geometry fracturing plugin RBDLab.

Support for layer blending and ‘intelligent masks’
Blender’s native Texture Paint system makes it possible to paint directly onto 3D models in the viewport, with support for pressure sensitivity when using a graphics tablet.

On top of that, MatPlus implements a “non-destructive paint layer system with Photoshop-style blending modes”, with per-layer masks for finer control over the output.

At the time of writing, there isn’t any online documentation for the add-on, but the latter seems to be key to the results you can achieve.

The plugin’s Superhive listing shows an accompanying library of ‘intelligent masks’ – presumably geometry-based, since they include AO, Curvature and Thickness.

However, they also include more focused masks for common hard surface texturing tasks, including adding dirt and dust into crevices, and applying edge wear to exposed edges.

Users can also apply filters to the masks to modify the effects: the Superhive listing shows a range of familiar operations including Blur, Sharpen, Distort and Invert.

Paint in both 2D and 3D views
As well as the 3D viewport, MatPlus users can paint textures in a UV-unwrapped 2D view.

The add-on supports 2D symmetry painting, and supports UDIM texture layouts.

Other features namechecked in the Superhive listing include “optimized texture baking” with an automatic cage system for “distortion-free bakes”.

Exported textures are “ready” for game engines like Unreal Engine and Unity, although it’s unclear whether there is any kind of direct export functionality.

Comes with libraries of readymade brushes, mask textures, and PBR materials
The plugin ships with a library of custom brushes geared towards hard-surface texturing, including brush shapes mimicking screws, bolts, ports and decals for industrial signage.

Users also get a library of grayscale textures for use as masks, including a lot of noise and grunge textures; and over 360 PBR materials, including, metals, tiles, bricks and wood.

Price and system requirements
MatPlus 1.0 is compatible with Blender 4.5. It supports both the Eevee and Cycles renderers. A Personal license costs $75; multi-seat licenses start at $300.

Read more about MatPlus in the plugin’s listing on Superhive

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