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Smart Material Editor behaviour // Gloss/Metal blend not working - self closing channels window


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Hi Guys,

today I was excited to create my first own custom Smart Materials from scratch.

The process is very straightforward so far, and I would enjoy it, but if I am not missing something, there seems to be a problem with the gloss blending.

--- Gloss not blending in the Smart Material Editor ---

It seems when I add a new layer, the gloss of the previous layer gets overridden, no matter the opacity of the gloss on the top layer. When using the degree options, such as "more on concave" or "less on concave", it will work, but not when set to "Always"

I have tried to switch to modulate, but that does not change it. I can not blend gloss textures via the gloss opacity slider. Only the Overall Material Blend will affect the gloss.

Here is a video showing what I mean:

You will notice that the gloss simply won't blend with the one from below when using the gloss opacity slider. Is this a bug? Or by design? Am I doing something wrong, maybe?

The same problem is with the Metalness. Only the Color blending works just fine and blends as it is supposed to, no matter the Degree setting:

The blending will always work though when using the "Master" material blending slider at the top. Then, the gloss and Metalness blends as it is supposed to. But not with the respective gloss or metal sliders.

For me it is currently holding me back a bit from wishing to create more materials in 3D Coat, which I would love to do if this would work. As also a Substance Painter user, I am used to stuff like this usually working flawlessly.

I find gloss/rough blending one of the most important aspects of material creation. I think it should work also when set to "Always", as you don't need "Degree" information every time for gloss or metal blending. Sometimes you want to just mix to get more variation, regardless of the Curvature or AO information.

--- Self-closing Channels window ---

Also, it is currently very inconvenient that switching off channels on a layer automatically closes the window with the checkboxes, and you have to reopen it every time after disabling/enabling a channel. I saw tutorials where it is not that way, probably in past versions. I can see PolyToots enabling/disabling channels without this issue here: 

 

For me however it is like this, the window is closing for no reason, after ticking a checkbox:

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- When using the degree options, such as "more on concave" or "less on concave", it will work, but not when set to "Always"

You are right, is how it works

- Is this a bug ? Or by design ?

You can't paint any glossiness/ metalness when the opacity value is set to 0.

It is a long term feature request still open. This ticket is open awaiting development team to resolve it.

Andrew said: Actually opacity does not influence gloss/metall values itself. It is opacity of g/m application. How do you think, g/m requires additionlal slider for own opacity? It was there actually, I removed it to avoid cluttering.
How do you think?

If opacity is 0 nothing will be painted. Bepause it is opacity for ALL.
Do I need separate opacity for gloss/met?

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Thanks for your reply.

I understand the first part, so it seems indeed to be by design with the "degree" option. Then I need to work around this by using the master opacity slider and fill each new layer with only a glossnes texture instead to build up roughness/gloss. Pity though, as it takes away some flexibility of complex stacking of multiple channels inside one layer. but at last once you know this, it is workable.

The second part I am not completely sure I understand, as my issue does not have to do with painting directly, only with smart material creation.

As I understand, Metallic and Glossnes being tied together as one parameter without the ability to be painted as a separate channel. I reckon because there is no metallic On/Off switch as there is for Depth/Col/GLoss. So it is either gloss+metal or nothing when painting. You can not paint only metal or only gloss. Which is also not the most optimal, but workable also once you know.

But it does not seem related to my topic with the smart material creation and blending of glossness? Good to know though that there is somehting being enhanced about this.

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