glTF Materials (glTF 2.0-compliant PBR) / 3ds Max

If your content needs to be compatible with glTF 2.0 standard for some reason, you can use physical materials for this purpose as described below.

For usage example, check out the following demo from the asset store: GLTF Compat.

Contents

• Introduction
• glTF Material
• Using Usd Preview Surface Material
• Physical Material
• Color Space and Gamma Correction
• Exporting Textures from Substance Painter
• Export to glTF in Runtime

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Introduction

The following usage of PBR materials is recommended:

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glTF Material

The glTF Material is fully compatible with glTF 2.0.

This material can only be used with 3ds Max 2023 and later.

Add a glTF Material shader node as follows: go to Materials/Map Browser and choose glTF Material from the General material list.

Then you can connect texture nodes, note that all textures are optional and any of them can be safely omitted. For example:

1. Assign glTF Material to your model.
2. Connect a Base Color texture to the Base Color Map input.
3. Connect a Transparency texture to the Alpha Map input, otherwise the alpha channel will be taken from Base Color Map.
4. Connect a Metallic texture to the Metalness Map input.
5. Connect a Roughness texture to the Roughness Map input.
6. Connect an Normal texture to the Normal Map input.
7. Connect an Occlusion texture to the Occlusion (AO) Map input.

All inputs are supported in Verge3D. So you can use extensions too, by enabling corresponding checkers:

1. Unlit Material - makes shading independent of lighting, constantly shaded surface.
2. Clearcoat - adds a reflective extra layer on top of any another layer that may be irregular or rough.
3. Sheen Color - adds a sheen layer (an independent roughness layer).
4. Specular - configures specular reflection in the dielectric.
5. Transmission - adds advanced transparency rendering, takes into account light reflections. Material's Alpha Mode should be Blend.
6. Volume - used to describe the transmission of light through the object's surface.
7. IOR - the index of refraction.

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Using Usd Preview Surface Material

You can use these materials for both glTF and USD formats. Note: they can only be used with 3ds Max 2022 and later (it is "USD for 3ds Max 2022" plugin, you have to get it from "Product Updates" in your Autodesk account).

Assign the Usd Preview Surface material node. Then you can connect texture nodes, note that all textures are optional and any of them can be safely omitted. The following settings are supported in Verge3D:

• Diffuse Color
• Metallic
• Roughness
• Occlusion
• Normal Map
• Emissive Color
• Opacity
• Opacity Threshold

Creating USD material

Follow these steps to configure standard PBR shader which has 3 maps: Base Color, ORM (Occlusion, Roughness, Metalness) and Normal Map:

1. Assign Usd Preview Surface to your model.
2. Connect a Diffuse Color texture to the Diffuse Color Map input.
3. Connect a Metallic texture to the Metallic Map input.
4. Connect a Roughness texture to the Roughness Map input.
5. Connect an Occlusion texture to the Occlusion Map input.
6. Connect an Normal texture to the Normal Map input.

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Physical Material

Add a Physical Material shader node as follows: go to Materials/Map Browser and choose Physical Material from the General material list.

Then you can connect texture nodes to the Physical Material as described below. Note that all textures are optional and any of them can be safely omitted.

• Connect an Ambient Occlusion texture to the Base Weight Map input. For better consistency between the 3ds Max viewport and Verge3D you can also connect the Ambient Occlusion texture to the Refl Color Map input, but it's not necessary.
• Connect a Base Color texture to the Base Color Map input.
• Connect a Roughness texture to the Roughness Map input.
• Connect a Metallic texture to the Metalness Map input.
• Connect a Normal texture to a Normal Map node and then connect it to the Bump Map input of the Physical Material. You should also set the Bump Map Amount value in the Special Map panel of the Physical Material to 1.0.
• Connect an Emission texture to the Emission Color Map. You should also set the emission factor to 1.0 in the Basic Parameters panel of the Physical Material preferences.
• The Transparency map will be taken from Alpha Channel of the Base Color texture.

Transparency Texture

The engine will use the Alpha channel from the Base Color texture as a transparency map automatically, if it is present. To make the transparency visible in the 3ds Max viewport, connect the Alpha channel of the Base Color texture to the Transparency Color Map input.

Also in the Preferences of the texture, in the Bitmap Parameters panel you should set Mono Chanel Output to Alpha and RGB Channel Output to Alpha as Gray.

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Color Space and Gamma Correction

For correct rendering, the color space should be taken into account for images. All images, except the Base Color and Emission textures, must be presented in the linear color space. To do this, select Override Gamma with the 1.0 value in the Gamma Preferences when you open an image in the Open Image dialog box (as can be seen below).

On the contrary, the Base Color and Emission textures must be opened in sRGB color space (with Gamma 2.2). To make it happen, just leave Automatic in the gamma preferences of the Open Image dialog box.

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Exporting Textures from Substance Painter

The models and the baked normal and occlusion maps (if any) can be loaded in Substance Painter via OBJ format.

Overall 3 maps are produced in this software in the end: base color/transparency, occlusion/roughness/metallic and normal.

To facilitate exporting textures from Substance Painter and to ensure maximum capabilities within the Verge3D engine we recommend using Verge3D export preset. Place this preset file to the export-presets folder usually located in the My Documents\Allegorithmic\Substance Painter\shelf\ directory (create it if does not exist).

When exporting textures from Substance Painter, choose Verge3d for 3ds Max in the export dialog window so that all generated textures are compatible with the glTF 2.0 standard Verge3D is based on.

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Export to glTF in Runtime

With export to gltf puzzle you can export your models or the entire scene in realtime. Then you can download the exported model or upload to the server for permanent storage. See more in the puzzle's reference.

Got Questions?

Feel free to ask on the forums!