Substance Painter to V-Ray - PBR Workflow

As of V-Ray 7, update 2, the VRayMts' shading model can be switched to OpenPBR, where some map slots are identical to those in Substance Painter.  This guide, however, is concerned with the VRayMtl shading mode.

Learn more about the OpenPBR shading model.

V-Ray export presets in Substance Painter

There are currently three existing V-Ray presets available in Substance Painter that have been created by Allegorithmic:

• Vray Next Metallic/Roughness
• Vray Next Specular/Glossiness
• Vray Next UDIM Legacy (Metallic Roughness)

The V-Ray presets export the following maps:

• Diffuse / Base Color
• Roughness / Specular
• Metallic / Glossiness
• Emission
• Transmissive
• Anisotropy Angle
• Anisotropy Level

These Adobe presets can be used for most common materials. However, if you want to better support your workflow and get texture exports that better fit your needs, we recommend creating your own presets.

Learn more about creating your own presets in Substance Painter.

Substance PBR to V-Ray Material setup

For this article, we prepared a retro night light, textured with all the mentioned maps.

• Diffuse / Base Color map

  The Diffuse / Base Color map stores the color information for your material. This texture is loaded into the Diffuse map slot of the V-Ray material.

  

   

  

• Normal

  Depending on the AEC/DCC used, the Substance normal maps can be loaded directly into the Bump map slot of the V-Ray Material or via a VRayNormalMap texture, plugged into the V-Ray material's bump slot.

  

  In order for the normal map to work correctly, you need to use the same normal map space in both Substance and V-Ray. 

  In this example, the normal maps are exported in tangent space; therefore, in V-Ray, we need to specify that the Normal Map is in tangent space.

  

   

  Substance Painter exports both DirectX (Y-) and OpenGL (Y+) normal maps. Note that exporting DirectX and OpenGL normal maps using the Converted Maps in the Substance Painter exporter takes both the normal and height information, and combines them into a normal map. DirectX and OpenGL use different directions for the green channel (Y- / Y+).
  
  V-Ray (except V-Ray for 3ds Max) works with OpenGL (Y+) normal maps. If you are using DirectX (Y-) normal maps, you need to flip the green channel of the normal map to work correctly. You can do this by using the VRayNormalMap shader's Flip channel options.

  

  Note: In V-Ray for 3ds Max, which uses DirectX (Y-) normals, this step is not needed.

   

  Where to find the options:

  • 3ds Max

    The VRayNormalMap texture assumes that any normal textures are in tangent UV space.

  • Maya
  • Cinema4D
  • Houdini
  • Blender

• Height map as Bump

  Height maps can be directly loaded into the Bump slot of the V-Ray material.

  

   

• Height map as Displacement

  Height maps can also be used for Displacement mapping by means of the displacement options supported by V-Ray for the dedicated AEC/DCC platform.

  Where to find the Displacement options:

  • 3ds Max
  • Maya
  • Cinema 4D
  • Houdini
  • Blender
     

• Specular/Glossiness and Metallic/Roughness maps

  There are two ways to set up the reflections of the material in V-Ray. 

   

  1. Using Specular/Glossiness:
     For the Specular/Glossiness PBR workflow, make sure the Use Roughness option in the V-Ray Material is disabled.

     

     Where to find the option:

     • 3ds Max
     • Maya
     • Cinema4D
     • Houdini
     • Blender

     Afterward, load the Specular map in the Reflection map slot and the Glossiness - in the Reflection Glossiness Map slot of the V-Ray Material.

     

      

  2. Using Metallic/Roughness:
     For the Metallic Roughness PBR workflow, make sure the Use Roughness option in the V-Ray Material is enabled.

     

     Where to find the option:

     • 3ds Max
     • Maya
     • Cinema4D
     • Houdini
     • Blender

     Afterward, the exported Roughness map should be loaded into the Reflection Roughness slot; the Metallic map - into the Metalness slot of the V-Ray Material. 

     

     The Reflection color should be set to white to get the proper reflectivity and preservation of energy. Otherwise, the glancing angle will never be 100% reflective, which it should be.

     Learn more in our blogpost about Understanding Metalness.

• Opacity maps

  The Substance Opacity map is loaded into the Opacity slot of the V-Ray material.

• Refraction maps

  Substance Opacity maps can also be used inside the Refraction map slot of the V-Ray Material. 

  

  Since Substance and V-Ray use opacity maps differently, in order to get a proper result, the opacity map needs to be inverted when used as a refraction.

  

  
  
  Substance Painter doesn’t represent physically based refraction in the viewport, hence why the result from V-Ray will look different, but more accurate. Due to the different viewport representations, to get desired results, some iteratation between Substance Painter and V-Ray must be done by making changes on the map you use for the Refraction.

  

• Ambient Occlusion maps

  The V-Ray Material doesn’t have a map slot for Ambient Occlusion maps. To make use of the Ambient occlusion maps, they must be multiplied by the Diffuse map, via, f.e., a VRayCompTex.

  

• Emission maps

  Emission maps can be loaded into the Self-Illumination map slot of the V-Ray Material. By turning on the material’s affect GI option, the Emission map also has an effect on the Global Illumination in the scene and becomes a light source.
   

  

  
   

  

   

Emission maps can also be used with the V-Ray Light material. Thus, the Emission map turns into a light source and controls the intensity of the light.

Color Spaces and mapping

It is important to load the materials with the color space they have been exported in to achieve the expected result. By default, Substance Painter exports all maps in sRGB color space except for the Normal map, which is in the Linear color space.

Additional Information and Related Content

• How to use the V-Ray shader in Substance Painter
• Substance Painter to V-Ray for 3DS Max Workflow
• Substance Painter to V-Ray for Maya workflow