How to use Substance generated Height maps in Maya

Hi there,

Although the Substance generated Height maps are not 32 bit/channel images, they are still usable as Displacement maps.

First – as always – update the Substance plug-in. (You have to do this after every Maya update as well.)
https://www.allegorithmic.com/buy/download
Maya section.

Workflow:

  1. Create a Substance node, load a Substance, turn on Automatic connections,
    change the file format to tga.
  2. Turn on the Height map (in the list within the Substance node).
    The Substance generated the texture, the file node, the Displacement shader and a PhongE material.
  3. Change the generated PhongE material to aiStandard.
  4. Connect the generated image (the file node of course) through its Alpha Out output into the Displacement shader (the default connection is not this).
  5. Turn on the Alpha is Luminance option and set the Color Space to Raw in the file node.
  6. Alpha offset: -0.5 (This shifts the mid value to 0).
  7. Set the Displacement scale as you like it (in the Displacement Shader).

Of course you need some subdivision (Mesh node, Arnold section, Subdivision, Type and Iterations attributes).

Cheers, D

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