User Guide Cancel

Mesh map settings | Substance 3D Painter

Search
Substance 3D Painter

Substance 3D Painter

Open app
  1. Substance 3D home
  2. Home
  3. Getting Started
    1. Getting Started overview
    2. Activation and licenses
    3. System requirements
    4. Project creation
    5. Export
      1. Export overview
      2. Export window
        1. Export window overview
        2. Export settings
        3. Output templates
        4. List of exports
      3. Export presets
        1. Export presets overview
        2. Predefined presets
          1. Predefined Presets
          2. USD PBR Metal Roughness Preset
          3. Default Presets
        3. Creating export presets
    6. Glossary
    7. Performance
  4. Interface
    1. Assets
      1. Assets overview
      2. Navigation
      3. Customizing the layout
      4. Filter by path
      5. Saved searches
      6. Advanced search queries
      7. Adding a new library
      8. Sub-library tab
    2. Substance 3D Assets
    3. Color picker
    4. Display settings
      1. Display settings overview
      2. Environment settings
      3. Camera settings
      4. Viewport settings
    5. History
    6. Layer stack
      1. Layer stack overview
      2. Creating layers
      3. Managing layers
      4. Masking and effects
      5. Blending modes
      6. Layer instancing
      7. Geometry mask
    7. Main menu
      1. Main menu overview
      2. File menu
      3. Edit menu
      4. Mode menu
      5. Window menu
      6. Viewport menu
      7. Plugins menu
      8. Help menu
    8. Project configuration
    9. Properties
    10. Settings
      1. Settings overview
      2. General preferences
      3. Shortcuts
      4. Libraries configuration
    11. Shader settings
      1. Shader settings overview
      2. Updating a shader
    12. Texture Set
      1. Texture Set overview
      2. Texture Set list
      3. Texture Set settings
      4. Texture Set reassignment
    13. Toolbars
    14. Viewport
      1. Viewport overview
      2. 2D view
      3. 3D view
      4. Camera management
    15. Miscellaneous
      1. Sliders
      2. Log
      3. Update checker
  5. Painting
    1. Painting overview
    2. Tool list
      1. Paint brush
      2. Eraser
      3. Projection
      4. Polygon fill
      5. Smudge tool
      6. Clone Tool
      7. Quick mask
      8. Path tool
    3. Straight line   
    4. Lazy mouse 
    5. Symmetry
      1. Symmetry overview
      2. Mirror Symmetry
    6. Fill projections
      1. Fill projections overview
      2. Fill (match per UV Tile)
      3. UV projection
      4. Tri-planar projection
      5. Planar projection
      6. Spherical projection
      7. Cylindrical projection
      8. Warp projection
      9. UV set to UV set projection
    7. Presets
      1. Presets overview
      2. Creating and saving presets
      3. Creating particles presets
        1. Creating particles overview
        2. Installing the particle editor
        3. Overview of the particle editor
        4. Creating a new particle script
      4. Photoshop brush presets (ABR)
        1. Photoshop brush presets overview
        2. Exporting Brush Presets from Photoshop
        3. Importing Photoshop Brush Presets
        4. Photoshop Brush Parameters Compatibility
    8. Dynamic strokes
      1. Dynamic strokes overview
      2. Enabling Dynamic Stroke feature
      3. Dynamic Stroke Performances
      4. Creating custom Dynamic Strokes
    9. Advanced channel painting
      1. Channel painting overview
      2. Ambient Occlusion
      3. Flow Map
      4. Height Map
      5. Normal Map
    10. Vector graphic (.svg & .ai)
    11. Text resource
  6. Effects
    1. Effects overview
    2. Generator
    3. Paint
    4. Fill
    5. Levels
    6. Compare Mask
    7. Filter
    8. Anchor Point
  7. Baking
    1. Baking overview
    2. How to bake mesh maps
    3. Mesh map settings
    4. Baking visualization settings
  8. Content
    1. Creating custom effects
      1. Creating custom effects overview
      2. Generic filter
      3. Channel specific filter
      4. Generators
      5. Mesh map
      6. Mesh based input
      7. User data
    2. Importing assets
      1. Adding resources via drag and drop
      2. Adding resources via the import window
      3. Adding content on the hard drive
      4. Receiving assets from other Substance 3D applications
  9. Features
    1. Automatic resource update
    2. Automatic UV Unwrapping
    3. Physical size
    4. Smart Materials and Masks
    5. Subsurface Scattering
      1. Subsurface Scattering overview
      2. Enabling Subsurface in a Project
      3. Subsurface Parameters
      4. Subsurface Material Type
    6. Dynamic Material Layering
    7. UV Reprojection
    8. UV Tiles
      1. UV Tiles overview
      2. Image Sequence
    9. Color Management
      1. Color management overview
      2. Color management with Adobe ACE - ICC
      3. Color management with OpenColorIO
    10. Post Processing
      1. Post Processing overview
      2. Color correction
      3. Depth of Field
      4. Glare
      5. Lens Distortion
      6. Tone Mapping
      7. Vignette
      8. Color Profile
    11. Iray Renderer
      1. Iray Renderer overview
      2. Iray Settings
      3. Viewer and MDL Settings
    12. Plugins
      1. Plugins overview
      2. Autosave
      3. Resources Updater
    13. Sparse Virtual Textures
    14. Custom Shaders
    15. SpaceMouse® by 3Dconnexion
    16. Universal Scene Description (USD)
    17. Send to
  10. Technical Support
    1. Performance Guidelines
      1. Performances guidelines overview
      2. Conflicts and background applications
      3. Mesh and UV setup
      4. GPU Drivers
      5. NVIDIA Drivers Settings
      6. GPU VRAM amount and bandwidth
      7. GPU VRAM and other applications
      8. Texture Sets amount
      9. Layer management
      10. Channels management
      11. Substance filters and materials
      12. Viewport display
    2. Configuring Pens and Tablets
    3. Exporting the log file
    4. Exporting a DXDiag
    5. Technical issues
      1. GPU Issues
        1. Crash when working with overclocked GPU
        2. Forcing the external GPU on Mac OS
        3. GPU drivers compatibility
        4. GPU drivers crash with long computations (TDR crash)
        5. GPU has outdated drivers
        6. GPU is not recognized
        7. GPU is not recognized and is mentionned as GDI Generic
        8. Issues with Nvidia GPUs on recent Mac OS versions
        9. Multi/Bi-GPU
        10. Running on integrated GPU
        11. Painter doesn't start on the right GPU
      2. Startup Issues
        1. Application failed to start because of Qt
        2. Crash or freeze during startup
        3. Software conflicts
      3. Rendering Issues
        1. Artifacts and glitches on Mac OS with Custom GPUs
        2. Blocky artifacts appear on textures in the viewport
        3. Mesh appears pink in the viewport
        4. Mesh flash to white when moving camera
        5. Some HDPI scaling values are not working
      4. Stability Issues
        1. Crash during export
        2. Crash when opening or saving a file
        3. Crash while baking
        4. Crash with low virtual memory
        5. Windows Blue Screens
      5. Miscellaneous Issues
        1. Corrupted texture error message
        2. Shelf resources are gone after 7.2 update
        3. Error there is no disk in the drive
        4. Error with missing api-ms-crt dll
        5. Impossible to drag and drop files into the shelf
        6. Impossible to use the ALT keyboard shortcut on Linux
        7. Assets (or shelf) previews are empty
    6. Workflow Issues
      1. Export Issues
        1. My exported opacity map is totally black
        2. Texture dilation or Padding
      2. Tools Issues
        1. Normal map looks incorrect when loaded in layer or tool properties
        2. Paint Tool bleeds on other UV islands
      3. Project Issues
        1. A project has been processed as a text file and is now corrupted
        2. Loading files from a network
        3. Preserve brush strokes setting stays disabled
        4. Projects are really big
      4. Library Issues
        1. Thumbnails in the shelf look incorrect
        2. Error when importing a Font
      5. Viewport Issues
        1. Mesh faces disappear when looking at them from behind
        2. Viewports and textures are blurry or lack sharpness
      6. Plugins Issues
        1. Substance Source plugin doesn't load
      7. License Issues
        1. Maintenance is expired dialog on startup
  11. Pipeline and integration
    1. Installation and preferences
      1. Preferences and application data location
      2. Automated installation
      3. Retrieving the installation path
    2. Configuration
      1. Command lines
      2. Environment variables
      3. Firewall Configuration
      4. Querying Current Software Version
      5. Remote Desktop
    3. Resource management
      1. Shelf and Assets location
      2. Resource paths
        1. Adding resource paths by editing preferences manually
        2. Editing resource paths manually
        3. Editing the Shelf Preferences with Python
      3. Adding saved searches manually
      4. Preferences and content migration
      5. Excluding resources in a resource path
  12. Scripting and development
    1. Scripts and plugins
      1. Creating a Javascript plugin
      2. Remote control with scripting
    2. Shader API Reference
      1. Shader API overview
      2. Changelog - Shader API
      3. Libraries - Shader API
        1. Lib Alpha - Shader API
        2. Lib Bayer - Shader API
        3. Lib Defines - Shader API
        4. Lib Emissive - Shader API
        5. Lib Env - Shader API
        6. Lib Normal - Shader API
        7. Lib PBR - Shader API
        8. Lib PBR Aniso - Shader API
        9. Lib Pom - Shader API
        10. Lib Random - Shader API
        11. Lib Sampler - Shader API
        12. Lib Sparse - Shader API
        13. Lib SSS - Shader API
        14. Lib Utils - Shader API
        15. Lib Vectors - Shader API
      4. Parameters - Shader API
        1. All Custom Params - Shader API
        2. All Engine Params - Shader API
        3. All Rendering States Params - Shader API
        4. Layering Bind Materials - Shader API
        5. Layering Declare Stacks - Shader API
      5. Shaders - Shader API
        1. PBR Material Layering - Shader API
        2. PBR Metal Rough - Shader API
        3. Pixelated - Shader API
        4. Surface Shader - Shader API
        5. Toon - Shader API
  13. Release notes
    1. Release notes overview
    2. All Changes
    3. Version 11.0
    4. Version 10.1
    5. Version 10.0
    6. Old versions
      1. Version 9.1
      2. Version 9.0
      3. Version 8.3
      4. Version 8.2
      5. Version 8.1
      6. Version 7.4
      7. Version 7.3
      8. Version 7.2
      9. Version 2021.1 (7.1.0)
      10. Version 2020.2 (6.2.0)
      11. Version 2020.1 (6.1.0)
      12. Version 2019.3
      13. Version 2019.2
      14. Version 2019.1
      15. Version 2018.3
      16. Version 2018.2
      17. Version 2018.1
      18. Version 2017.4
      19. Version 2017.3
      20. Version 2017.2
      21. Version 2017.1
      22. Version 2.6
      23. Version 2.5
      24. Version 2.4
      25. Version 2.3
      26. Version 2.2

The Mesh map settings panel is available in Baking mode, and has controls to prepare your mesh for baking. To adjust mesh map settings for a given map, select the map in the Mesh map bakers panel. Each Mesh map can have different settings available. A collection of Common settings shared by all mesh maps is available at the top of the Mesh Map Bakers panel. 

Any settings that are shared across mesh maps will appear on the Common settings page, rather than on each individual mesh map.

Common settings

The Common settings page holds controls that affect how all mesh maps are baked.

Output settings

Setting Function
 Output size

Define the X and Y resolution of generated mesh maps.

Click the lock to allow for non-square resolutions.
Dilation width Adjust how far the baked information extends beyond the boundaries of UV islands.
Apply diffusion Enable this box to apply diffusion to the edges of generated information.

High-poly parameters

Setting Function
Use Low poly mesh as high poly mesh

Enable this setting to bake maps based on your project mesh.
High definition meshes Add high poly meshes to your project to make from a high poly mesh onto the low poly mesh in your project. Multiple meshes can be imported.
Cage

Determine how the baking cage is generated.

  • Distance based: Inflate the vertices away from the mesh a uniform distance across the model to create a cage.
  • Automatic (experimental): Painter will analyse your mesh and generate a cage automatically, trying to keep the cage close to the surface without creating intersections for best results.
  • Custom file: Import a file that you have created to use as the cage. Note that imported files must have the same number of vertices as the base mesh to work correctly.
Ignore backface Toggle whether back-faces are ignored while baking. This can help reduce artifacts, but can also cause errors in certain edge-cases.
Match

Change how the Baker determines whether to include objects while baking:

  • Always: Include all high poly meshes that are hit within the cage while baking.
  • By mesh name: For each cage, only bake meshes with the corresponding mesh suffix.
Low poly mesh suffix When using Match By mesh name, use this suffix to define low poly meshes.
High poly mesh suffix When using Match By mesh name, use this suffix to define high poly meshes and match them with the corresponding low poly mesh.
Antialiasing Adjust the amount of antialiasing in the generated maps.

ID map settings

Setting Function
Color source

Change how the baked colors of the ID map are determined:

  • Vertex Color
  • Material Color
  • File ID
  • Mesh ID/Polygroup
Color Generator

When using File ID or Mesh ID/Polygroup as the color source, determine how colors are generated:

  • Random
  • Hue shift
  • Grayscale

Ambient occlusion map settings

Setting Function
Secondary rays Change the number of secondary rays. More rays can yield better results at the cost of increased processing time.
Min Occluder distance Adjust the minimum distance for rays to travel to hit high poly geometry and impact the resulting AO map.
Max occluder distance Rays that extend further than this distance without hitting the high poly mesh are considered to not be occluded and will not affect the AO map.
Relative to bounding box When this box is checked, other settings that refer to distance are based on the bounding box of the project mesh. So a distance of 1 is equal to the size of the bounding box.
Spread angle Adjust the angular range of generated rays. A higher spread angle allows a surface to be occluded more easily by geometry that is not positioned perpendicularly away from the surface.
Distribution Select how rays are distributed.
Ignore backface Change whether backfaces are considered to occlude objects.
Self occlusion Select which meshes should affect ambient occlusion for the current mesh.
Attenuation Change how occlusion is attenuated by occluder distance.
Ground plane Enable this to create a ground plane that acts as an occluder.
Ground plane offset Change the position of the ground plane.

Curvature map settings

Setting Function
Method Choose how to generate the curvature map.
Secondary rays Adjust how many secondary rays are used to generate the curvature map. More secondary rays can produce better results at the cost of increased processing time.
Sampling radius Adjust how far the baker searches to calculate the curvature of the current point.
Relative to Bounding box When this is checked, all distances are based on the size of the mesh bounding box.
Self intersection Choose which objects will be considered when determining curvature.
Auto tonemapping (per UV tile) Leave this checked to automatically adjust the tonemap curvature maps on a per UV tile basis.
Tonemapping Min If auto tonemapping is disabled, adjust the minimum value for tonemapping.
Tonemapping Max If auto tonemapping is disabled, adjust the maximum value for tonemapping.

Position map settings

Setting Function
Mode Select whether to generate an all axis position map, or only calculate position for a selected axis.
Axis If Single Axis mode is selected, use this setting to choose which axis to calculate.
Normalization type Change how position values are normalized, either with a Bounding Box, Bounding sphere, or disable normalization.
Normalization scale Change what is considered the maximum bounds of the position space.

Thickness map settings

Setting Function
Secondary rays Change the number of secondary rays. More rays can yield better results at the cost of increased processing time.
Min Occluder distance Adjust the minimum distance for rays to travel to hit high poly geometry and impact the resulting thickness map.
Max Occluder distance Rays that extend further than this distance without hitting the high poly mesh are considered to not be occluded and will not affect the thickness map.
Relative to bounding box When this box is checked, other settings that refer to distance are based on the bounding box of the project mesh. So a distance of 1 is equal to the size of the bounding box.
Spread angle Adjust the angular range of generated rays. A higher spread angle allows a surface to be occluded more easily by geometry that is not positioned perpendicularly away from the surface.
Distribution Select how rays are distributed.
Self occlusion Select which meshes should affect thickness for the current mesh.
Normalization Change how thickness values are normalized.

Height map settings

Setting Function
Normalization Change how height values are normalized.
Scaling divisor If Normalization is set to Manual, use this slider to adjust the scaling divisor and adjust height map normalization.

Bent normals map settings

Setting Function
Secondary rays Change the number of secondary rays. More rays can yield better results at the cost of increased processing time.
Min Occluder distance Adjust the minimum distance for rays to travel to hit high poly geometry and impact the resulting bent normals map.
Max Occluder distance Rays that extend further than this distance without hitting the high poly mesh are considered to not be occluded and will not affect the bent normals map.
Relative to bounding box Whenn this box is checked, other settings that refer to distance are based on the bounding box of the project mesh. So a distance of 1 is equal to the size of the bounding box.
Spread angle Adjust the angular range of generated rays. A higher spread angle allows a surface to be occluded more easily by geometry that is not positioned perpendicularly away from the surface.
Distribution Select how rays are distributed.
Ignore backface Choose whether to treat backfaces as occluders.
Self occlusion Select which meshes should impact bent normals for the current mesh.

Get help faster and easier

New user?

Quick links

View all your plans Manage your plans
View quick links
Hide quick links

Legal Notices    |    Online Privacy Policy