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P3D v4 How to make PBR correctly from diffuse?

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poland
Hello
I am learning PBR, I want to get PBR textures from diffuse texture - this texture was used as usual textures in FSX/P3D. How can I create a PBR object correctly? What alpha channel should the albedo, metallic, normal contain? How to properly do metallic and normal texture? I have Substance Painter and ShaderMap 4. Is it possible to automatically create such textures after loading a regular texture?
Thanks for your help
Regards
 
Hello...

Depending on the diffuse map that you have, you might need to remove any and all highlights from it first. I suggest you look at a few tutorials for Substance Painter.

What was the model created in?
 
Hey. For albedo I’ve used a Shader Map. I am creating terminal for my airport. So from albedo can I get metallic and norm quickly?
Regards
 
I get the same thing with the ShaderMap. However, I would like to get the correct metallic texture (the green one). And I don't know what to do to make it work properly. I can export all maps using ShaderMap.
Regards
 
If you have all the maps required, the only step left is to combine the metalness, AO, and the Roughness/smoothness into one. In P3D v4.5, the metalness or metallic goes in.the red channel, the AO into the green channel, and last, the smoothnes/ roughness goes into the alpha channel (if Shader map creates a roughness map you will need to invert it, fherefore getting a smoothness map.)

The albedo map is stand alone. The normal map will need to either go through imagetool or MCX ( to convert it). No one will be able to tell you if the metellic map is correct if they don't know what it is suppose to be.
 
Okay, thanks!
So I'll write my steps now and tell me if I did it right, ok?

I generated AO, Roughness and Metalness. Then I opened the Rougness file that looked like this:
rough1.PNG


Then I inverted the colors and it looks like this:

rough2.PNG


After that, I created a new file where I put AO, new roughness and Metalness. I assigned only "G" to AO, "R" to Metalness, and I put Roughness in Alpha, just like in these photos:

1.PNG


2.PNG


This is what my AO and Metalness look like:

3.PNG


4.PNG


Have I followed all the steps correctly? What should I do next?
Thanks for your help!
 
Now it looks better!! I have two more questions

Which alpha channel must contain the albedo texture and normal texture?

What needs to be changed in the textures to be displayed correctly in P3Dv5? Somewhere I read that something needs to be changed.
Thanks for your help!
 
No, the albedo map is not in an alpha channel. It is in its own RGB+A dds5 format file.

The normal map is also in it own file, as mentioned before must be converted through MCX or imagetool.

This information for the metallic map is also covered within the "PS:: " or "GIMP: Creating Ambient Occlusion Maps" in the Resources section on this site. The normal map is also covered in the Resources section.

P3D v5 is the same setup but adding the "specular reflection" map, which is placed in the blue channel of the metallic map.
 
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So, in Albedo alpha should be white?
My Albedo:
6.PNG


For normal map I must click in MCX "Convert normalmap to FS" and save it in DDS DXT 5, right?
Thanks!
 
Hello...

The alpha channel in the albedo map should be white unless there is any transparency within the map. If the albedo map has any transparency though it would be best that it be separated into its own map. Looking at the above image (of what I can see) it would appear that you do not have any transparency areas, therefore the alpha channel should be white.

Yes, when using MCX to convert the normal map, you will click on "Convert normalmap to FS" and save it in DDS DXT5.
 
I see, thank you so much!
The last question is:
Before PBR, I had a specular map for windows that looks like this. Do I need to put it somewhere? I've used it to create maps from ShaderMap4
678.PNG
 
I have been looking at the specular workflow conversion to PBR and as of right now (unless I find out later) should not be needed. I do know that within Substance Painter when developing for FSX/ FSX:SE (or any version before P3D v4.4), the metallic is required in creating the specular map.

After saying, "as of right now..", what might be a possible workflow in converting the specular map to PBR is adding it (by a layer within Photoshop or GIMP) to the metalness map prior to placing it in the Red Channel. After adding it though you would change the blending mode to "multiply", then copying the metalness + specular into the red channel of the metallic map. I haven't tested this yet, but I believe it is correct.
 
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I have been looking at the specular workflow conversion to PBR. As of right now (unless I find out later) should be not be needed. I do know that within Substance Painter when developing for FSX/ FSX:SE (or any version before version P3D v4.4), the metallic is required in creating the specular map.

After saying, "As of right now..", what might be a possible workflow in converting the specular map to PBR is adding it (by a layer within Photoshop or GIMP) to the metalness map prior to placing it in the Red Channel. After adding it though you would change the blending mode to "multiply", then copying the metalness + specular into the red channel of the metallic map. I haven't tested this yet, but I believe it is correct.

Ok. I will try! Thank you for your help, you are great!
 
I have noticed one problem. The dividing lines of panels, depending on the angle of incidence of light, are convex or concave. I would like them to be concave all the time - can it be done?
2020-9-23_18-38-3-941.png

2020-9-23_18-38-12-15.png
 
This would be caused by the normal map... What does the normal map look like prior to you converting it? Hopefully, you still have it - a backup, maybe? If you do could you send it to me (email: "pyscen" at "gmail.com")?

You said that some look concave and some don't. That could possibly mean that the normals or faces are not all facing outwardly.
 
I have been looking at the specular workflow conversion to PBR and as of right now (unless I find out later) should not be needed. I do know that within Substance Painter when developing for FSX/ FSX:SE (or any version before P3D v4.4), the metallic is required in creating the specular map.

After saying, "as of right now..", what might be a possible workflow in converting the specular map to PBR is adding it (by a layer within Photoshop or GIMP) to the metalness map prior to placing it in the Red Channel. After adding it though you would change the blending mode to "multiply", then copying the metalness + specular into the red channel of the metallic map. I haven't tested this yet, but I believe it is correct.
I was just about to post when I saw your comment on the specular map. So the specular map function is probably being undertaken by the metallic map in the red channel.

Question is,
  1. where will the specular alpha reside?
  2. in MCX how does one adjust specular values in the PBR section of the material editor?
  3. how does one control the quality of reflections of metals and windows?
 
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