CLERMONT-FERRAND, FRANCE — Adobe’s Substance team (www.allegorithmic.com) has announces the first major Substance Designer update of 2019, bringing with it a new Substance Engine that will lay the groundwork for the future. With Substance Engine V.7, Substance Designer can now process both values and textures to simplify the material creation process and take users beyond the PBR format.
Where before textures represented values, Substance Designer can now process these values directly during material creation, ensuring consistency across the pipeline. Using the new “Value Processor” node, users can manipulate values from within the composite graph itself, helping to drive parameters and optimize their workflow with even more creative flexibility. Rather than working with nodes that represented elements like color, users can add the color value directly, simplifying and strengthening the design process.
Users can also pass values from one node to another, and create global variables at the graph level. Over time, nodes/filters will attain the ability to become smarter throughout the graph as they receive additional data. Substance Engine V.7 will soon be compatible with all the Substance integrations, so materials can be directly imported into top tools without any extra tweaks.
The update also introduces several performance upgrades, including a massive boost to the bakers. The integration of Optix for the AO, Bent Normal and Thickness bakers will now produce speeds at least five times faster than CPU ray tracing. The .obj loader has also been optimized and multi-threaded, leading to a significant increase in loading times.
For technical users, the update brings expanded options to the Python Scripting plug-in system. Users can now create GUIs for plug-ins within Substance Designer using the Python API. The plug-in system has also been standardized, allowing for plugins to start when the application loads, aiding in the creation of persistent plugins. Additional plug-ins created by the Substance team will be released soon.
Following the 30-day trial period, users will be able to subscribe to the Substance Indie or Pro plans. Substance Designer is also available for individual-license purchase, which includes 12 months of maintenance. Subscriptions to Substance Indie cost $19.90/month; Pro plans cost $99.90/month.