P3D v5 PBR Workflow - what am i missing ?

[WTFlorian]

Hey there,

i'm working on my first project and i'm learning as i go along - i'm using Blender and Substance Painter for the most part, and now i'm trying to texture my objects and that's where i ran into some sort of problem.

What i did is:

1) created the object in Blender
2) UV Mapped it (Smart UV project)
3) exported as .fbx
4) import that mesh into Substance Painter
5) Texture that object



6) export the textures using the PBR preset found here
7) Convert these textures from .tif to .dds
8) Set up the materials in Blender and export it to a .mdl file using the Blender2P3D Addon


9) Use MCX to place it in the Sim
10) Get frustrated because it looks very different - The colours are way too dark - and i have some weird reflection thing going on (at the top) - why ?



If i do not use substance painter and just use a downloaded texture from here the colours are not too dark, they look like they should - so i'm guessing i'm missing something in substance painter - but i'm not quite sure where to start looking.
I've attached the textures i used if anyone wants to take a look.

I just want the textures to look like they do in substance painter - but it seems i have much to learn.

Thank you for taking the time to read this - stay safe everyone

Cheers

 

[Pyscen]

All PBRs in P3D v5 will look darker, that's because of the PBR shader in v5. You will need to lighten the albedo maps to start off with. Everyone has had that situation, it's not just you.

I'll look at the preset exporter tomorrow (away from computer right now).

 

[WTFlorian]

You will need to lighten the albedo maps to start off with. Everyone has had that situation, it's not just you.

And this shader affects the PBR Materials only ?
That would explain why i didn't see this effect when i tried exporting a model to P3D with just a texture assigned and not a PBR Material.

Thank you Doug, i'll try lightning up my albedos and see where this goes - appreciate it.

But my bigger problem seems to be that weird reflection on top of that testobject



If i turn off the option for "buildings receive shadows" it's gone - and during the nighttime or certain daytimes (dawn/dusk) it's also not visible - so i guess it's a problem with the sun lighting up the object and casting that weird thing.
Would that be the metallic map i could look into - as this map determines how much an object "shines" - or am i mistaken here ?

 

[Pyscen]

And this shader affects the PBR Materials only ?
That would explain why i didn't see this effect when i tried exporting a model to P3D with just a texture assigned and not a PBR Material.

Thank you Doug, i'll try lightning up my albedos and see where this goes - appreciate it.

But my bigger problem seems to be that weird reflection on top of that testobject



If i turn off the option for "buildings receive shadows" it's gone - and during the nighttime or certain daytimes (dawn/dusk) it's also not visible - so i guess it's a problem with the sun lighting up the object and casting that weird thing.
Would that be the metallic map i could look into - as this map determines how much an object "shines" - or am i mistaken here ?

The shine can come from the smoothness map (within the metallic map - alpha channel) and/ or the metalness map (within the metallic map - red channel). This is true within v4.5 and v5, though in v5 you also have the use of the blue channel, which is for the Specular Reflection. What maps are being used within this particular metallic map for the model above?

Unfortunately, the preset-exporter you referred to, I'm unable to open it because it comes from a more recent version than mine (v2018). If you would show a screenshot of the configuration of this preset-exporter, so I can take a look at it.

 

[WTFlorian]

What maps are being used within this particular metallic map for the model above?

I'm not sure i follow your question - i thought the PBR Material consists of different maps- albedo, normal, metallic etc - and not that the metallic map itself consists of maps, is this just a problem i have with the terminology and/or a langugae barrier ?
I'll really have to read up on that, it seems my limited knowledge of texture creation is just not enough.

But, if that helps, i've attached the textures aswell es the blender file in my first post - does that answer your question regarding the metalic map ?

And here's the preset in SP

 

[Pyscen]

I'm not sure i follow your question - i thought the PBR Material consists of different maps- albedo, normal, metallic etc - and not that the metallic map itself consists of maps, is this just a problem i have with the terminology and/or a langugae barrier ?
I'll really have to read up on that, it seems my limited knowledge of texture creation is just not enough.

But, if that helps, i've attached the textures aswell es the blender file in my first post - does that answer your question regarding the metalic map ?

Hello...

Probably a little of both, terminology and language barrier...

OK... If you look at the metallic map configuration in SP, it is made up of 3 maps, the metalness map - red channel (also known as the metallic map), green channel - the ambient occlusion (AO) map, and alpha channel - the smoothness map (SP is calling it the glossiness map). You will not need to invert any of these maps whatsoever.

Within Prepar3D v5, you also have the blue channel - Specular Reflection (which would be assigned to the reflection in SP). The blue channel isn't necessary unless you plan on using the reflective surroundings, either using the envmap or the realistic surroundings (Dynamic Lighting used) and pure white would make it fully reflective – like a mirror.

So, when you are saving or exporting the metallic map you could have as many as 4 maps. Though as mentioned before, the shininess can be controlled by both, the metalness and/ or the smoothness maps within the metallic map. Hopefully, you are saving the metallic map as a ".TGA" file format from SP.

Will look at the rar file also.

 

[Pyscen]

After looking at the textures and the blend file, it appears that the UV unwrapping looks or appears distorted. The distortion could cause the shine and/ or darken areas to be concentrated or overabundant. I know you did a Smart Unwrap (smart unwrap is best on standard shapes) but unfortunately, it is not very smart sometimes (using conformal unwrap compared to angular unwrap). You might have better unwraps if you also use seams too, especially if you have multiple materials and non-standard shapes.

Also, you might want to place some space between polygons when you unwrap. This will help on bleed over from 1 polygon to the next, especially on the AO. When moving polygons or faces, you want to move the whole face, not the sides of (I'm not suggesting you did that though). You can change the size of the polygons or faces though. Your workflow is correct, it's a matter of just handling the unwraps better, depending on the shape of the model. Hopefully, I have explained it to your understanding.

EDIT: One other thing I need to mention, and it's crucial. Make sure before exporting to SP that all the materials are named differently within Blender.

 

[WTFlorian]

Thank you Doug for taking the time to help me here, unwrapping the object myself (and leaving a space betwenn the different faces on the UV) rather than relying on the Smart UV Project function did the trick, no more weird reflections/distortions whatsoever.
So thank you once again, you really helped alot, i really appreciate it.

And thanks for the detailed explanation of the metallic map, very helpful.

Cheers

Hopefully, you are saving the metallic map as a ".TGA" file format from SP.

Yes.