Earlier in the month Allegorithmic announced its upcoming Substance Designer 5, a next-generation texture compositing tool for the 3D visualization and gaming industry. The tool has been adopted by major studios such as Ubisoft, Konami, ActiVision, Microsoft and others.
Substance Designer 5: A Dedicated Texturing Solution
As physically based rendering (PBR) becomes more entrenched, the need for dedicated texturing tools becomes more crucial. Substance Designer 5 is the next iteration of the professional software tool used by many of the biggest companies in 3D industry.
This version was co-designed with some of the biggest names in the gaming industry from top studios. New features include dedicated to next-gen procedural art, as well as pipeline enhancements that ensure consistency for large-scale teams as they share and reuse assets.
01 – Allegorithmic’s new Substance Designer 5 is professional texture compositing tool for Mac OS X and Windows platforms. (image: courtesy Allegorithmic, All rights reserved.)
“With Substance Designer 5, highly demanded features aren’t the only things we are adding,” said Dr. Sébastien Deguy, Founder and CEO of Allegorithmic. “This release also marks the introduction of Substance Engine 2, a major upgrade to the core engine behind our ecosystem of products. With Substance Designer 5 and Substance Engine 2, the creative possibilities offered to texture artists are now endless! I am truly excited to see what our vibrant community produces with them.”
Key New Features include:
- Substance Engine 2.0 — New generation of Allegorithmic’s core tech will push Substance Designer’s power of expression to new heights.
- Pixel processor node — This true image processor allows you to read input images and apply any custom effect or treatment using visual programming.
- Transfer Baker — Transfer textures from one mesh to another without worrying about UV changes. Name matching between the high resolution and low-resolution meshes allow artists to bake every part of their object separately and merge the results in one click.
- Tri-Planar projection — Any image can be applied to a mesh with no visible seams, helping to control the scale and rotation of the projection.
- Dependency Manager — Makes asset management and sharing of Substance files across artists and studios intuitive and painless.
- New Template System — Creates starting templates tailored to custom engines and pipelines.
Since the release of Substance Designer 4, Allegorithmic has become the leader in PBR texturing, growing at a fast pace as more and more AAA and indie studios add Substance to their pipelines. Allegorithmic’s recent PBR guides also outlined some of the ways PBR is approached by Substance Designer. Volume 1 and 2 can be downloaded here.
02 – Substance Designer 5 has support for popular game engines with new export wizards for Unreal Engine 4, Unity 5, and Cry Engine 3. (image: courtesy of Allegorithmic. All rights reserved.)
“We are committed to bringing the best PBR tools to game artists everywhere,” added Deguy. “It’s where the industry is headed, and hopefully we can be a positive part of that change.”
Mac OS X and Windows Availability and Pricing
Substance Designer 5 is available for pre-order now for Mac OS X and Windows platforms. It will be officially released on 4 March 2015. Prices run from 149.USD for an indie license to 590.USD for a pro license. A floating license cost 749.USD.
You can order the indie version for a pre-order discount now at 99.USD. Indie licenses can be used within studios or firms with a revenue limit set of up to 100,00o.USD, up from 10,000.USD prior. To learn more visit Allegorithmic here.
About Allegorithmic
Founded in 2003 and based in France, the US and China, Allegorithmic is the leader in 3D texturing technologies with more than 50,000 users including Sony, Microsoft, Activision, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, NCSoft, Tencent, Autodesk, NVIDIA and Intel. The company specializes in creating advanced authoring software and middleware that is designed to simplify the process of creating and distributing high-quality textures for next-generation content developers. The company’s flagship product range is Substance. For more information on Allegorithmic and its products, please visit www.allegorithmic.com.