Unity DCC live link with Substance Painter

1. Using Unity DCC Live Link with Substance Painter

This tutorial has been verified using Unity 2019 LTS

The Substance in Unity plugin has a live link feature that allows you to send an Asset from the Unity Editor to Substance Painter for texturing while automatically updating the Asset in Unity (Figure 01).

The plugin is available from the Asset Store.

Figure 01: An example of an Asset textured in Substance Painter and automatically updated in the Unity Editor

2. Before You Begin

1. Download the Live Link Substance Painter - Unity from https://share.substance3d.com/libraries/3088

2. Extract the archive and import as a custom package into Unity

To send an Asset to Substance Painter, it must:

• Be an FBX file that was imported into the Unity Editor. If the Asset is not an FBX file, it can be converted using Unity’s FBX Exporter plugin.

• Have UVs. Most Assets used in Unity require this as well.

• Have a Material that uses the standard Shader and has the same base name as the Asset.

3. Getting Started with Substance Painter

1. Open Substance Painter, and select Close if the Welcome to Substance Painter window appears (Figure 02).

Figure 02: The Substance Painter startup screen

2. Keep Substance Painter open as you follow the next steps.

Open the Unity Editor and select an Asset:

1. In Unity Editor, open an existing project.

2. To send an Asset to Substance Painter, right-click on the Asset and select Send to Substance Painter. Alternatively, select the Asset and go to GameObject > Send to Substance Painter from the menu bar (Figure 03).

Figure 03: The Send to Substance Painter option

Note: If the Asset is not an FBX file, right-click on it and select Convert to FBX.

The Asset is sent from Unity and can be seen in Substance Painter (Figure 04)

Figure 04: The Asset sent from Unity to Substance Painter

4. Painting and Texturing in Substance Painter

Before painting or applying Materials, make sure you’ve baked the Textures. For more information, see Baking Texture maps in Substance Painter.

For guidance on texturing and painting models in Substance Painter, see Changing Textures and Color Tints in Substance Painter.

Save all changes in Substance Painter. Any changes you make to the model in Substance Painter are automatically updated in the Unity Editor (Figure 05).

Figure 05: The Asset with a Smart Material applied in Substance Painter

5. Troubleshooting

If the painted Textures are not showing up on the Asset, even after you’ve saved the Substance Painter project, the Textures might not be connected to the Material assigned in the Unity editor. To fix this, select the Material assigned to the Asset find then select the properties that need the Textures assigned. Generally these are Albedo, Metalness, and Normal maps.

6. File Locations

Textures created in Substance Painter appear in the Unity Editor inside a folder named SP_Textures.

Substance Painter project files have an .spp extension. Projects files are saved inside Assets/.sp in the Unity Project directory. Most of the time, you will not need to access this directory, but it’s useful to know where Substance Painter saves project files.

7. Conclusion

The Substance in Unity plugin allows you to iterate on your designs in Substance Painter, while the Assets are updated in the Unity Editor. Use Substance Painter to add realism to your Assets or to create a unique design that enhances your project’s visual style.