Substance Painter for creating skyrim textures

[TRXtrixter]

Hello everyone! And sorry for my bad english...

 

In this moment im trying to figure out how to use Substains Painter fot texturing skyrim models.

Im trying to find some info in google and youtube, but no luck. Only one video in french (unfortunatly i dont understand french language at all) and one article from Beyond Skyrim team but still lot of questions afner it.

 

Can anyone explain step by step how to create textures in Substains Painter for Skyrim?

 

i know how import nif in SP but what next?

 

1. Which channels must be in texture set settings? (Skyrim not supports PBR format)

2. How create glossines / metallic effects?

3. Exporting preset?

 

Or maybe there are some tutorials?

Edited March 11, 2019 by m4mk203

[FrankFamily]

You can't import nif in SP, use nifskope or blender + nif plugin or maybe outfit studio to open the nif and export in obj or fbx.

 

Now, what channels, I'm not sure there's a good answer. There's certainly not a single "one size fits all" approach. Skyrim isn't pbr as you say, if you make pbr textures and then load those in skyrim is not going to look good at all. You can:

 

a) Make pbr textures normally and then do some conversion on these to get something that looks good in skyrim. Like, for example, I need the metals darker then maybe I can multiply the metalness onto the albedo at a certain opacity, stuff like that. Lighten/darken stuff, more contrast or whatever. Pbr glossiness could be a starting point for normal map alpha (specular) if you do metalness workflow, otherwise the specular. The metalness map will have some similarities with what you'll want the enviroment mask (_m) to look like (you definitely want to use enviroment mapping in skyrim in metals), since you basically want enviroment mapping in metals. You most definitely want to multiply AO into the texture, potentially even more lighting. There's some baked lighting effects in SP that could be useful. You could do this conversion later in photoshop or less destructively with adjustments directly in SP on top of the layer stack.

 

b) Make textures specifically for skyrim in the first place with the downside that what you see in the viewport won't really match what you'll see ingame so you are a bit "blind". It's basically the same that you'll do in photoshop, just exporting and test ingame as you go.

 

In either case, make a custom export preset that exports exactly what you want, it's super easy to setup and that way you put your specular in normal map channel, suffixes and so on. You need some other software to compress to dds though.

 

Which aproach is better? B is simpler and kind of makes more sense, I'd argue you lose a lot of what SP provides, I do A. In the end you have to be familiar with PBR and Skyrim and find a workflow that works for you. Look at vanilla textures or textures from mods for a guideline of how should stuff look.

 

Some links that could be useful:

 

https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/1188259-bslightingshaderproperty-basics/

https://marmoset.co/posts/pbr-texture-conversion/

Edited March 11, 2019 by FrankFamily

[TRXtrixter]

You can't import nif in SP, use nifskope or blender + nif plugin or maybe outfit studio to open the nif and export in obj or fbx.

 

Now, what channels, I'm not sure there's a good answer. There's certainly not a single "one size fits all" approach. Skyrim isn't pbr as you say, if you make pbr textures and then load those in skyrim is not going to look good at all. You can:

 

a) Make pbr textures normally and then do some conversion on these to get something that looks good in skyrim. Like, for example, I need the metals darker then maybe I can multiply the metalness onto the albedo at a certain opacity, stuff like that. Lighten/darken stuff, more contrast or whatever. Pbr glossiness could be a starting point for normal map alpha (specular) if you do metalness workflow, otherwise the specular. The metalness map will have some similarities with what you'll want the enviroment mask (_m) to look like (you definitely want to use enviroment mapping in skyrim in metals), since you basically want enviroment mapping in metals. You most definitely want to multiply AO into the texture, potentially even more lighting. There's some baked lighting effects in SP that could be useful. You could do this conversion later in photoshop or less destructively with adjustments directly in SP on top of the layer stack.

 

b) Make textures specifically for skyrim in the first place with the downside that what you see in the viewport won't really match what you'll see ingame so you are a bit "blind". It's basically the same that you'll do in photoshop, just exporting and test ingame as you go.

 

In either case, make a custom export preset that exports exactly what you want, it's super easy to setup and that way you put your specular in normal map channel, suffixes and so on. You need some other software to compress to dds though.

 

Which aproach is better? B is simpler and kind of makes more sense, I'd argue you lose a lot of what SP provides, I do A. In the end you have to be familiar with PBR and Skyrim and find a workflow that works for you. Look at vanilla textures or textures from mods for a guideline of how should stuff look.

 

Some links that could be useful:

 

https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/1188259-bslightingshaderproperty-basics/

https://marmoset.co/posts/pbr-texture-conversion/

 

Thanks for the answer and links.

 

I work with nif in 3ds max then export it to obj file and import obj to SP. Works fine.

 

Thanks for the advice! I'll try option a :) and deal with the conversion.

[cain9580]

Best way to get metal to look like metal is through cubemaps. You have to really play around with it since the renderer is not set up for PBR. Use the same specular color for the cubemap and then set the metals glossiness onto the Env Mask Map. The diffuse color can be black or you can split the difference in whatever way you need between the cubemap and the diffuse. The end result is a metal that reflects the true color and look. Once you are satisfied with that then play around with the specular map for highlighting and the diffuse for ambient occlusion.

 

It works best if you can isolate the object in question from the rest of the most. Then you can add Specular color and adjust the level of highlights and intensity inside the Nif. This is the only method I have been able to come up with and it really does create some create looking metals when you get it all right.

[TRXtrixter]

Best way to get metal to look like metal is through cubemaps. You have to really play around with it since the renderer is not set up for PBR. Use the same specular color for the cubemap and then set the metals glossiness onto the Env Mask Map. The diffuse color can be black or you can split the difference in whatever way you need between the cubemap and the diffuse. The end result is a metal that reflects the true color and look. Once you are satisfied with that then play around with the specular map for highlighting and the diffuse for ambient occlusion.

 

It works best if you can isolate the object in question from the rest of the most. Then you can add Specular color and adjust the level of highlights and intensity inside the Nif. This is the only method I have been able to come up with and it really does create some create looking metals when you get it all right.

Interesting idea. Thanks!

[cain9580]

After I commented on your post I decided to do a brief write up of how I came across this method. I will post it on this forum for anyone else that is having this issue and wants to try this method.

[TRXtrixter]

After I commented on your post I decided to do a brief write up of how I came across this method. I will post it on this forum for anyone else that is having this issue and wants to try this method.

I think it will be very useful for many people. Thanks you!

[NINDjimmyyu]

After I commented on your post I decided to do a brief write up of how I came across this method. I will post it on this forum for anyone else that is having this issue and wants to try this method.

Sorry to ressurect a dead thread, but did you ever post that writeup? I've been converting files for a bit now, and I want to get into texturing.

 

Any advice or links to skyrim-focused substance painter tutorials is appreciated