pbr_import.md

PBR Texture Set Import

Table of Contents

• Introduction
  • Demonstration
• Support and Compatibility
  • Supported Render Engines
  • Supported Texture Maps
  • Supported File Types
• Color spaces
• Popup menu
  • Open Image Texture Set
  • Replace Image Texture Set
• Assign new PBR material
• Preferences

Introduction

This feature lets you import a whole set of textures in one action. It's main purpose is to add a set of PBR (Physically Based Rendering) textures (sometimes called a PBR material), but it will import any set of textures to your material (no matter if they follow a certain naming convention or not). If you've already added a texture set to your material you can also automatically replace those textures with a new set (keeping the overall material setup)

You can access the functions of this feature in the same way as the main menu for Material Utilities: with the keyboard shortcut Shift+Q (by default), but in the Shader Editor instead of the 3D View. There is also an addition to the Specials in the Material Utilities menu in the 3D View.

Demonstration

The resulting node trees could look like this (these include all supported texture maps):

• Cycles/Eevee example (screenshot)
• Octane (screenshot)

Support and Compatibility

Supported Render Engines

Unlike the rest of the Material Utilities, this feature is limited to specific render engines, simply due to that different render engines use different shader and texture nodes. But support for more render engines could be added if they are requested. Currently the supported render engines are:

• Cycles/Eevee (or any other engine that might use the same nodes) Tested with Blender 4.2.0

• Octane Render (Both add-on and the Octane Blender Build) Tested with Blender Octane 2022.1.1 (v.27.12) and Octane Addon 27.16.3 (Blender 3.6.0)

Supported Texture Maps

While any texture can be imported with this feature, only specific texture maps will be recognized and connected properly.

• AO/Ambient Occlusion ¤ Will not be automatically connected
• Albedo/Diffuse/Color Treated as the same type of map
• Alpha/Opacity/Mask ¤ Treated as the same type, connected to Alpha or Opacity
• Bump ¤ Will be connected through a Bump node for Cycles
• Displacement ¤ Will be connected through a Displacement node, connected to the Material Output, for Cycles.
• Emission Will be connected through a Texture Emission node for Octane.
• Glossiness ¤ Will be inverted, with an invert node for Cycles, or in the texture options for Octane, and connected as Roughness
• Height ¤ Can be imported/connected as either Bump or Displacement, or not connected at all, depending on the chosen option in the import dialog.
• Metalness/Metallic ¤
• Normal ¤ Will be connected through a Normal Map node, and then via the Bump node, if also added, for Cycles.
• Roughness ¤
• Specular ¤
• Transmission
• Render/Sample/Preview Some texture sets might contain a sample render among the textures, if one is detected it will be ignored and not imported

Maps marked with ¤ will be treated as "non-color" (see Color Spaces for more information)

Notable: The different maps are detected via their filenames (e.g. tiledfloor_diffuse.jpg, brickwalldiff.png will be interpreted as Diffuse maps), but the process to do so isn´t necessarily 100% accurate. It can give both false positives and false negatives (e.g. maoi_displace.png could be identified as an AO map instead of an Displacement map). The maps are detected in order of "importance", to try to avoid any major issues.

Supported Shader Nodes

The main idea is to import PBR textures and connect them up to a universal/principled shader node (that can take full use of a PBR texture set), support for some more basic shaders has been added.

• Cycles/Eevee

  • Principled BSDF
  • Diffuse BSDF (Only connects Color, Roughness, Bump, and Normal)
  • Glossy BSDF (Only connects Color, Roughness, Bump, and Normal)

• Octane Render

  • Universal Material
  • Standard Surface Material (Emission maps can be connected either directly to the Emission color input or via an Texture Emission node. In either case the Emission weight will be set to 1.0)

Supported File Types

The currently recognized file formats are:

• JPG/JP2
• PNG
• EXR
• HDR
• TIFF
• TGA

All other filetypes will be ignored.

Color Spaces

By default* the color space will be set to (sRGB) Linear for most filetypes, except for JPG and PNG, which will be set to sRGB. The default color space can be overridden if there's an appropriate tag in the filename (e.g. brick_diffuse_aces.exr). For JPG (but not JP2) and PNG files any such tags will be ignored (by default*), and the sRGB color space kept.

Additionally some maps, that shouldn't contain any color data, will be treated as "non-color" (marked with * in the list of supported texture maps). For Cycles that means that the color space will set to Non-Color, unless the color space is overridden. For Octane those textures will be added as Greyscale (or Grayscale) images (except Normal maps), and (the option to) have different (legacy) gamma values.

(*You can change this behavior, but it isn't exposed in the preferences, so if you really want to, you can change it in enum_values.py, look for mu_file_types and mu_texture_map_options)

Color Spaces in Octane

In Octane there is a Color space node (instead of just a property of the image data, as for Cycles), that also have the possibility to have any number of available color spaces (depending on the loaded OCIO configuration). So for imports into an Octane material setup we can add (if enabled) a Color space node for each unique color space. We will also add one Color space node connected to just RGB images, and one connected to just Grayscale images (So if the color map is ACES, but the rest is sRGB you'll get one Color space node for ACES, one for sRGB color, one for sRGB greyscale).

NB: For the Color space nodes to work correctly, you do need some kind of OCIO config set in the Octane Add-on settings. (Material Utilities assumes that the config loaded is the official ACES config, if not the default "IDs" might not be compatible, if so, you can manually change the mapping by looking for mu_ocio_colorspace_map in enum_values.py)

NB2: Currently (v. 27.16.3, 2023-07-02) the Addon version does not fully support Color space nodes (they don't get added to the Octane Node Tree). In Octane Blender (v. 27.12) changes to the Color space node wont trigger an update, you need to change something else (like toggling the Invert option on a texture).

Recognized Color Spaces

• sRGB
• Linear sRGB
• ACES (linear)
• ACEScg (linear)
• Filmic (only recognized by Cycles/Eevee)
• Filmic Log (only recognized by Cycles/Eevee)

Gamma in Octane

Octane have the option to set gamma values for each image texture (now marked as a legacy feature, succeeded by Color space), and Material Utilities lets you set that gamma value on import. You can set two different gamma values, one for color textures, and one for non-color textures (set to 2.2 and 1.0, respectively, by default) on import. There's also an option to add common gamma nodes, which lets you easily change the gamma values for several textures at once (group by color and non-color, if applicable), after the import. If you're confident that you're not going to want to change the gamma on import, you can choose to hide the gamma value option in the preferences.

Popup Menu

You access the popup menu via [Shift+Q] in the Shader Editor (There is also an option, in the preferences, to add it to the top menu in the editor)

Either option in the menu will bring up a file selection dialog. By default this dialog will let you select a directory (but not specific files), you can change the default behavior in the preferences, or by holding [Ctrl] or [Shift] while clicking (or hitting [Enter]) on the option ([Ctrl] will always bring up directory selection, [Shift] will always bring up file selection)

Open Image Texture Set

Importing

After you've selected a directory (or specific files) Material Utilities will go through the files, try to determine the texture map type, color space, add the appropriate image texture node, and then connect them (if enabled) to the shader node.

Please note that the import might take some time (especially with Octane [remember to have the render server running]), and that Blender will become unresponsive during the import (and no progress information will, at the moment, be shown).

Supporting Nodes

On import (if automatic connection is enabled) several extra nodes might be added, besides the texture nodes. Some of these are needed to make the texture maps (like Displacement) work correctly, while others are added to help you manage the material (like UV map).

• Cycles/Eevee

  • UV Map Added together with a reroute node, so you can easily change to an other type of texture projection/coordinates, or add a Mapping node (that will affect all texture maps). (The UV Map node will be labeled with the name of the texture set [from the directory])

  • Displacement Added if there is a Displacement map (or Height is imported as Displacement), gets connected to the Displacement input of the Material Output node.

  • Normal Map Added if there is a Normal texture map (the properties are left as default).

  • Bump Added if there is a Bump map (or height is imported as bump). The Distance property will be set according to the Bump distance value in the addon preferences. If there's also a normal texture map, the Bump node will be added between the Normal Map node and the shader node.

  • Invert An Invert node will be added between the Glossiness texture node and the shader node. (It might be left disconnected from the shader node if there's also an Specular map)

• Octane

  • Mesh UV Projection Added together with a reroute node, so you can easily change to an other type of texture projection. (The Mesh UV Projection node will be labeled with the name of the texture set [from the directory])

  • 2D Transform Added together with a reroute node, so you can easily change to an other type of texture transform. (The 2D Transform node will be labeled with the name of the texture set [from the directory])

  • Float value (Gamma) (optional) If chosen (in the import Connection options) Float value node(s) (up to 2 nodes) will be added, for controlling the gamma of the textures. NB: The gamma value is ignored, by Octane, if the texture has a color space (except for Linear sRGB) NB: This node (in Blender's UI/Shader Editor) has 3 values, but only the first one is used! (The nodes will be labeled with Gamma - Color or Gamma - Non-Color)

  • Color space (optional) If chosen (in the import Connection options) Color space node(s) will be added, to set the color space(s) for the textures. Up to two Color space nodes (one for RGB, one for Greyscale textures) per color space used (usually just one). (The nodes will be labeled with the colorspace and type of image texture node [Greyscale or RGB], e.g. ColorSpace - ACES (RGB))

Import Options

• Connections

  • Connect to Shader Connect each imported texture to the shader node (otherwise the image texture nodes will be added to the node setup, but no connections will be automatically made)

  • Connect Alpha Channel For Cycles: Connects the Alpha output of the Color/Diffuse node to the Alpha input of the shader node. For Octane: Detects the tags: walpha, w_alpha, withalpha, and with_alpha, in the filename (no analysis of the image data will be done), and then adds a new Alpha Image Texture node with the image, connecting it to the Opacity input of the material node.

  • Add Color spaces (Octane) Will add one, or multiple, OCIO Color Space node(s), set the appropriate color space, and connect to the Color space input of the texture node. Read more in the Color space section.

  • Add common gamma nodes Will add one or two float value nodes (One for color textures, one for non-color textures) to let you control the gamma value of several textures at the same time.

  

• Default Gamma (Octane only)

  Lets you set the gamma values (for for color textures, one for non-color textures respectively) for the imported textures. NB: The gamma value is ignored, by Octane, if the texture has a color space (except for Linear sRGB) If you don't plan to change the gamma values on import, you can hide the options in the addon preferences

  

• Appearance

  • Set node labels Sets the labels of the added nodes to match the texture map. In Octane whether it is an RGB or Greyscale node will be added to the label. Ex: DIFFUSE or DIFFUSE - RGB for Octane

  • Collapse texture nodes Whether or not to collapse (or "hide") the texture nodes. This will give a neater node setup, but might not be wanted if you plan to change the different node options.

  • Stair step nodes If you don't want to have collapsed nodes you have the option to have the texture nodes arranged in two columns, in an alternating fashion. This will make the node setup more compact (vertically). Otherwise the texture nodes will be arranged in a single column (with no overlapping)

  

• Map options

  • Reflection as Specular Import, and connect (if enabled), the reflection map as a specular map. Otherwise reflection maps will not be connected to the shader node.

  • Height Map Treatment Choose how height maps should be imported and treated.

    • As Displacement Import the height map as displacement (will add the appropriate nodes, if node connection is enabled)

    • As Bump Import the height mop as a bump map.

    • Don't connect Imports the height map, but it will not be connected (and placed above the node setup)

    NB: Importing Height as Displacement or Bump might take precedence over actual displacement or bump maps.

  • Emission map treatment (only for Standard Surface Material in Octane) Choose how the emission map will be added and connected to the material node.

    • Use Texture Emission Node Add an Texture Emission node, and connect the emission map via it. Will set Emission weight to 1.0 and Emission color to 100% white.

    • Connect to Emission color Connects the emission map directly to the Emission color input of the material5. Will set *Emission weight to 1.0.

    • Don't connect The emission map will be imported, but not connected to the material node.

  

Replace Image Texture Set

When using Replace Image Texture Set no additional nodes will be added, instead the selected texture maps will be matched to the existing texture nodes. If a matching node is found, the image in the existing node will be replaced with the image in the texture set being imported. NB: If no matching node is found, that texture map will be ignored. Likewise: if there exist a texture node, in the current node setup, that doesn't have a matching texture map in the set that is being imported, that node will be left as is (at least in the current version).

Replace Options

• Only selected nodes Will only consider the selected nodes when looking for textures to replace, all other textures will be left as-is.

• Wide search Go through all nodes in the material, if the matching node is not immediately found (connected to the first shader node). With this disabled it will only look at the image texture nodes connect to the first shader node. Wide search might take a longer time (in material setups with more nodes), but is also needed for node setups where the image textures aren't connected directly to the shader node. (The alternative being to manual select the correct nodes, and enable Only selected nodes)

• Set Fake user Will set the Fake user flag on the images that gets replaced (to keep them in the .blend-file)

Assign New PBR Material

Assign new PBR material functions like Open Image Texture Set, but it will create a whole new material, with a Principled BSDF shader for Cycles, or Universal Material (or Stand Surface Material) for Octane, that the texture set then will be added to. The import settings in the right properties panel is the same as for Open Image Texture Set, with added Material Options:

Where To Find It

You can access Assign new PBR material via Specials in the 3D viewport menu, by holding [Ctrl] or [Shift] (see opening the Popup menu), or it can be added as an button to the Assign Material dialog (needs to be enabled in the preferences).

Material Options

• Assignment method (In Object mode) Decides how the new material should be assigned to the object, read more about the options in the main documentation.

• Material Node Type (Octane only) Lets you set whether to base the new material on an Universal Material Node, or a Standard Surface Material. (Tip: You can set the default option in the preferences)

• Material Name The name you want the material to have, if it is left empty the name of the directory will be used.

Preferences

In the add-on preferences you can find and change several preferences that affects how the PBR texture import works.

• Add menu to shader editor header Adds an extra Material Utilities menu option to the shader editor header, where you can access the PBR texture import functions.

• Add to Assign Material dialog Will add an button to the upper left in the Assign Material dialog

File Selection

• Texture directory Lets you choose the directory that should be shown, by default, when using PBR texture import

  • Default directory - Will use the global texture directory, set in Blender's File paths preferences.
  • Last used - Will re-open the directory from where the last import happened.
  • Custom directory - Lets you choose a custom directory

• Custom directory If you choose Custom directory for Texture directory, you can set that here.

• File selection Set whether you want to choose a directory or specific texture files, by default, when importing textures.

Connections & Support Nodes

• Connect to shader Enable connecting the added texture nodes to shader node, by default

• Connect Alpha channel Enable connecting Alpha to the shader node, by default.

• Reflection as Specular Enable importing Reflection maps as Specular maps, by default.

• Add new UV Map node Always add new UV map nodes when importing (Opening) texture sets. (This isn't exposed in the import dialog)

Placement & Appearance

These options set the defaults for the properties under Appearance in the import dialog.

Height & Bump Options

• Height map treatment Will set the default option for how to treat height maps, under Map options in the import dialog.

• Bump distance The default value for Distance on added Bump nodes (only Cycles/Eevee). (This isn't exposed in the import dialog)

Replacing Textures

These options set the defaults for the properties in the Replace textures dialog.

Octane Specific

• Add Color spaces Enable Add Color spaces, under Connections in the import dialog, by default.

• Add common gamma nodes Enable Add common gamma nodes, under Connections in the import dialog, by default.

• Hide gamma values on import Hide the gamma value options in the import dialog. The gamma values will still be set according to the default values (bellow). (To slightly declutter the import options, if you don't plan on setting gamma on import)

• Defaults - Gamma Set the default gamma values for non-color and color textures.

Document info

Written by ChrisHinde for version 3.0.0 of Material Utilities (2023-07-04, v1) CC-BY-SA