Jump to content
The Dark Mod Forums

Material Maker: Node-Based Material Creator


Gin

Recommended Posts

Some people here might already know this, but there is a free node-based material creation program made in the Godot engine. If you're familiar with Substance Designer then you probably would understand how useful this is. I've been using it in my own projects lately and I figured it might be a good idea to post about it here since I didn't find any threads mentioning it.

https://www.materialmaker.org/

The website also features a user-created library that includes CC0 materials people have made. A lot of them are mostly tech demo materials, but even ones that aren't general use can be downloaded and examined to see how they were made in the program, which helps with learning it. There's also a lot of tutorials for Substance Designer itself online and, though it doesn't line up 1:1, it seems like you can generally get most of the same stuff done in Material Maker using different methods.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ah, it didn't come up in the search I did, sorry about that.

Edit: I just tried Texturelab. It's more polished looking, closer to Substance Designer visually, and connecting nodes is less finicky at different zoom levels, but it has much fewer nodes than Material Maker. It's hard to say it's currently usable since it's also lacking some key nodes like curvature and occlusion, but it would be nice to see it get better eventually.

Edited by Gin
Tried texturelab
Link to comment
Share on other sites

That makes sense, these programs are more for making textures from the ground up than generating normal maps from existing images. Though, there is someone working with Material Maker who has been using it to create normal maps from photos, but they seem to be doing the studio method to get exact normal maps from the images.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Material Maker would probably be best used as a way to create textures that you cannot find already made, or for textures that you want to be easily modifiable in a nondestructive way.

For example, this material of sewn flesh I made would probably be hard to find a CC0 material of otherwise, and if you don't like stuff like the size of the threads or patches it's easily changeable through editing node parameters: https://www.materialmaker.org/material?id=453

It wouldn't be efficient to use it as a replacement for materials that you can already find as CC0, though, since it takes time to make these.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recent Status Updates

    • Ansome

      Finally got my PC back from the shop after my SSD got corrupted a week ago and damaged my motherboard. Scary stuff, but thank goodness it happened right after two months of FM development instead of wiping all my work before I could release it. New SSD, repaired Motherboard and BIOS, and we're ready to start working on my second FM with some added version control in the cloud just to be safe!
      · 0 replies
    • Petike the Taffer  »  DeTeEff

      I've updated the articles for your FMs and your author category at the wiki. Your newer nickname (DeTeEff) now comes first, and the one in parentheses is your older nickname (Fieldmedic). Just to avoid confusing people who played your FMs years ago and remember your older nickname. I've added a wiki article for your latest FM, Who Watches the Watcher?, as part of my current updating efforts. Unless I overlooked something, you have five different FMs so far.
      · 0 replies
    • Petike the Taffer

      I've finally managed to log in to The Dark Mod Wiki. I'm back in the saddle and before the holidays start in full, I'll be adding a few new FM articles and doing other updates. Written in Stone is already done.
      · 4 replies
    • nbohr1more

      TDM 15th Anniversary Contest is now active! Please declare your participation: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22413-the-dark-mod-15th-anniversary-contest-entry-thread/
       
      · 0 replies
    • JackFarmer

      @TheUnbeholden
      You cannot receive PMs. Could you please be so kind and check your mailbox if it is full (or maybe you switched off the function)?
      · 1 reply
×
×
  • Create New...