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Substance Bitmap2Material

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Liatti, Aug 2, 2011.

  1. Liatti

    Liatti

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    Hi all,

    I've received several messages/questions in private about Bitmap2Material, so I hope this topic will answer everybody's questions.

    Bitmap2Material is a standalone filter which creates a complete material from one diffuse. This means that:
    1) You don't need Substance Designer to use it. Just download it and it's fully compatible with Unity 3.4
    2) It generates all the channels at runtime, thus you don't need to embed them in your texture package. You just store your diffuse and the B2M (a few kb), and it will generate automatically at run-time in-game your spec, normal, height, etc.

    As a consequence, B2M acts as a kind of super Crazybump, and also reduces game size.

    This video explains everything: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UOXJiJpfiw

    Also, a user story by Martin Schultz (Decane) explains how he reduced the size of his game by 33% using B2M in only a few days: http://www.allegorithmic.com/content/unity-decane

    A B2M trial version is available on the asset store (with watermarks) if you wish trying it.

    If you have more questions, feel free to ask!
    Nico
     
  2. linusnorden

    linusnorden

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    I buyed it and its great! I also own crazy bumb but guess i dont need it no more. One question is there any shader that take advantig of the generated ambient occlusion?
     
  3. larvantholos

    larvantholos

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    Quick question, is this also included with substance designer, or would you need to purchase it separately, or design a similar filter within it?
     
  4. Jerc

    Jerc

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    Substance Designer includes the sources for a "lite" version of B2M with less options , but you could easily add your own parameters and create your own custom B2M.
     
  5. janpec

    janpec

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    Yes there are shaders that use ambient occlusion maps -self iluminated shaders.
     
  6. Liatti

    Liatti

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  7. lka69

    lka69

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    amazing product !!!
    Just a simple question: If I have a material in wich I would like to use B2M for all channel but not for the Normal Map ... it's possible to add a different normal map image instead of the one procedurally generated ?

    thx
     
  8. Jerc

    Jerc

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    Yes, substance outputs are like standard textures, so if you want to use your own normal map, simply create a new material, drag and drop the diffuse substance output in you diffuse slot and your custom normal map in the normal slot, you are not bound to use the substance material.
     
  9. lka69

    lka69

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    thaks!!!
     
  10. Jerc

    Jerc

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    There is now a 33% discount on Bitmap2Material on the Asset Store until September 15th, making it $95 instead of $150 !
     
  11. mk1978

    mk1978

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    Is it possible to use this for creating seamless floor materials, for example like parquet below?

     
  12. niosop2

    niosop2

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    Yup, that's basically what it's for. Although they have a free parquet substance on their site you might want to check out. It's not nearly as versatile as B2M, but it is made specifically to create parquet textures.
     
  13. Jerc

    Jerc

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    Yes, if you want to make parquet specifically, you should check out this free Parquet filter.
    You feed it with a raw wood texture and it outputs a tiling parquet material.

    For every other floor surface, B2M is the way to go :)
     
  14. RandAlThor

    RandAlThor

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    Is there a way to save out the newly generated material from b2m so that i can use it on ios?
    I understand that it will not run on ios until now but can i export the material with all the layers to i.e. png or ... ?
     
  15. Jerc

    Jerc

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    It will do that automatically for you when you build for a mobile device :)
     
  16. RandAlThor

    RandAlThor

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    That is great so i hope then i can use these materials in other games as well if i wish, i mean the png´s or so.

    Can i also use these materials to paint on my terrain?
     
  17. Liatti

    Liatti

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    Materials can't be used on terrains in Unity, but you can however bake them and use them on terrains.
     
  18. don_vladimiro

    don_vladimiro

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    Is it possible to implement in Unity 3.3?
     
  19. MrBurns

    MrBurns

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    I have one question before buying this product:

    Is there a way to change the procedural settings while the game is running? In the trial it seems to be just a usual material so there is no obvious way accessing these parameters?!

    Thanks :)
     
  20. niosop2

    niosop2

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  21. MrBurns

    MrBurns

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    But then what is that Bitmap2Material for? I am really a bit confused right now with these substances and all that stuff and how it is connected with Unity ^^. What can I do with B2M what I can't do with the integrated ProceduralMaterial? Isn't there a good paper that gives the whole picture. All I have seen so far are only pieces here and there but I still lack a lot of details...
     
  22. niosop2

    niosop2

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    B2M is just a procedural material (aka Substance). You'd use the ProceduralMaterial interface for modifying any of the values of any Substance at runtime.

    B2M is just a complex Substance that creates a diffuse w/ normalized lighting, a normal map and a spec map (as well as others if you wanted to use them) from a single diffuse image.
     
    Last edited: Sep 7, 2011
  23. MrBurns

    MrBurns

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    Yes thanks ;)... Things start to clear up for me. This thread also helped a lot: http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/86414-Substance-answers-!

    Maybe someone will make this link a sticky topic ^^. It's quite a bit hard, and sometimes you really feel fooled by the documentation around. The link I posted gets right to the point I think ;). But still, these substances are worth a try, even though they were a little bit unfortunately marketed by UT.
     
  24. Liatti

    Liatti

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    No, that's only from Unity 3.4.
     
  25. MrBurns

    MrBurns

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    I was just wondering ift there is a B2M which supports also taking normal and height maps?! because usually one will have them already but likes to take advantage of the additional substance features... The automated map generation is really a bit messy compared to what you get from prebuilt normal/height maps, which is quite understandable...
     
  26. Phil W

    Phil W

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    I don't have the standalone B2M, but you can do this easily in Designer.

    Not sure how effective it would be but you may be able to feed the textures created by B2M into a custom material into which you could feed your own normals. (beware though, as the textures are regenerated when you tweak substance settings; no idea if this would break their connection to your custom material).
     
  27. Jerc

    Jerc

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    If you already have your Height and Normal maps, you could simply modify the B2M lite shipped with Substance Designer, remove everything normal map related and use your own normal map and height instead.
    We may update the B2M to add support for custom height and normal map in the near future but I can't promise anything :)
     
  28. moska

    moska

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    hi
    i try demo of B2M with substance player.
    if i buy it , can i export the textures without watermaks?
    i may need those textures as im used to.
    or just works for saving space in webplayer?
    and does it also save space in standalone?
     
  29. niosop2

    niosop2

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    Yes, if you buy it you can export the textures without watermarks. You can either export the textures from Substance Player and then import them into Unity, in which case you get no space savings, but it works fine. Or you can use the B2M Substance directly inside Unity, set all the parameters the same way you would in Substance Player and then you only have to ship the diffuse image with your game and the others will be generated at runtime.
     
  30. Dreamora

    Dreamora

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    Unless its a mobile platform where it happens at build time in the editor
     
  31. J_P_

    J_P_

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    Can anybody tell me if this is worth it for iPhone development? Does it still help build size in the same way? Does it impact performance?
     
  32. Liatti

    Liatti

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    It doesn't work at runtime for iPhone for the moment (it's ongoing however :) ). It can help you saving time for generating all the maps, and then it will simply bake them when building for iPhone.
     
  33. Jingle-Fett

    Jingle-Fett

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    I'm thinking about getting B2M but I have a question about it, if I buy it on the unity store, will it also work with 3ds Max? (3ds Max supports it and substances in general) Or will the one in the store only work in Unity? I'm guessing it will work but I want to be sure
     
  34. Jerc

    Jerc

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    Every substance works on all supported platforms: Max, Maya and Unity.
     
  35. Jessy

    Jessy

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    As such, I recommend offering Designer licensees a discount. I currently have plans to pick up a Designer license, but if, as a Designer owner, I could get substances for reduced prices, I'd be more inclined to buy them. Designer + B2M, just to learn about how B2M gets great results, is too hefty for me at present.
     
  36. duke

    duke

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    I saw B2M 1.5 came out, but the page doesn't seem to specify what's new over 1.0
     
  37. Dreamora

    Dreamora

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    You can't open B2M and the lite thats included is included without the need to buy anything in addition, so that problem shouldn't exist.
     
  38. Jerc

    Jerc

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    Indeed B2M 1.5 is here :)
    THere was an issue on our side and the changelist should be online tomorrow, meanwhile if you are already a B2M licensee, go grab your copy to see what's new !
     
  39. Dreamora

    Dreamora

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    already done when I got the mail :D
     
  40. Jerc

    Jerc

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  41. SteveJ

    SteveJ

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    It's also on sale until December 15th... $150 --> $100

    Definitely going to grab a copy tomorrow when the Apple payment comes in :)
     
  42. Jerc

    Jerc

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    The B2M will be reuploaded tomorrow with a changelist and also a script allowing you to batch apply your B2M or other substance materials on your objects instead of applying it manually on each object.
     
  43. SteveJ

    SteveJ

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    Any way to apply two B2M materials to a single object, say on something like this:

     
  44. Jerc

    Jerc

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    Yes, you can simply set your 2 current materials to Bump Specular and then drag and drop your substance outputs from your B2M substance material to your texture slots.
     
  45. SteveJ

    SteveJ

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    Thanks... I was doing something....... stupid :)
     
  46. Jerc

    Jerc

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    A new version is up on the asset store, we fixed a few bugs and added a few new parameters following user feedback !
    You can now blend the normal map from B2M with a normal map of your own and invert the normal map Green channel for people using B2M in an engine that uses this normal format.
     
  47. Agrios

    Agrios

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    We just tested B2Material with 3.5 rc2 and compiled Windows build will not run when compressed, or let say virtualized with Spoon Studio.
    How is this going to look in final 3.5? We are trying to switch to Allegorithmic's substances but this got us by surprise.
     
  48. Jerc

    Jerc

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    What do you mean by "Compressed" windows build ? Did you try with Untiy 3.4 ?
     
  49. Agrios

    Agrios

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    Spoon Studio is packing EXEs and all resource files from Unity standalone build into one package in form of EXE. With Untiy 3.42 we had success, and now we try to use it with Unity 3.5 but couple test we made with rc2 show that packed application will hang on start. We tested simple scene with just one substance created in B2M from simple jpeg floor tile.

    Edit:
    The same problem persists in Unity 3.5 f3, standalone application created with Allegorithmic substances can not be virtualised. I mean they can, but they will hang on the first substance loading.
    Also I personally hate this glowing blue color visible while substances are loading...
    can we at least have it black? We can not make smooth fades if this blue hits from time to time.
     
    Last edited: Feb 6, 2012
  50. Agrios

    Agrios

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    Allegorithmic substances work fine in 3.5 f4!
    and no glowing blue! F A N T A S T I C.