Export and use

Export your material

Build the full-quality maps into a folder, with the maps each program gets, what each map is for, the real-size JSON, Package it and Send to.

Matelume Guide. Upcoming features are marked separately.

The Export step builds your material at full quality, with every choice you made in the Studio, and saves it in a folder for your 3D programs.

Build the maps

  1. Check the facts at the top: Name, Quality, For (your programs), Tile (one tile's real size in mm) and This PC.
  2. Click Choose the folder... and pick where to save. The folder window can open behind the Matelume window; look for it in the taskbar. You can also paste a folder path into the box.
  3. Leave Package it (install scripts, previews, ZIP) on, or switch it off for the maps alone.
  4. Click Build the maps. The picture side shows the build log and the time left, and the 3D view shows your material building.
  5. When it's done, the 3D view shows the exported maps. Click Open the folder to see the files. After a change, Build again makes a new export.

Each export goes into a new folder named after your material. It never writes over an earlier export; the next one gets _2 on the end. Matelume remembers your folder.

What's in the folder

Each map's file name starts with your material's name and ends with the quality and the map, such as …_4K_Color.png.

Map What it's for
Color Your material's colours, in sRGB.
NormalGL The fine relief for shading, OpenGL style: Blender, Cinema 4D, Unity.
NormalDX The same relief, DirectX style: Unreal, 3ds Max with V-Ray or Corona.
Roughness How glossy each point is: dark is glossy, light is matte.
Glossiness The same, the other way round, for renderers that ask for gloss.
Displacement The height, 16-bit, for real displacement. The .json gives its range in mm.
Metalness Black where there's no metal.
AmbientOcclusion For an AO slot only. Don't multiply it into the colour.

Every map except Color is data: set it to Non-Color (or Raw, or linear) in your program. The normal map does the shading and the displacement map moves the surface. Don't also plug the height into bump, or the relief counts twice.

Which maps each program gets

You picked Maps
Blender Color, NormalGL, Roughness, Displacement
3ds Max + V-Ray Color, NormalDX, Roughness, Displacement
3ds Max + Corona Color, NormalDX, Roughness, Displacement
Cinema 4D Color, NormalGL, Roughness, Displacement
Unreal Engine Color, NormalDX, Displacement, and a packed ORM map
Other software All eight maps

With several programs, you get every map any of them uses. Metalness comes too when your material has metal. With Package it on, you get all eight maps, whatever you picked. Unreal's packed ORM map, in the extras folder, holds ambient occlusion in red, roughness in green and metalness in blue.

The real-size JSON

Beside the maps is a .json file with the same name. It holds:

Other programs and renderers shows how to use these numbers.

How-to sheets and extras

Each program you picked, except Other software, gets a sheet such as USE_IN_BLENDER.md: which file goes in which slot, the colour spaces and its displacement numbers. Open it in any text editor.

The extras folder holds optional maps, such as the glow maps of velvet and other pile fabrics when Show the glow (optional glow maps) is on in Construction. The eight standard maps work everywhere without them.

Package it

With Package it (install scripts, previews, ZIP) on, the folder also gets:

Send to your 3D program

After the build, Send to Blender and Send to 3ds Max appear for the programs you picked. Pick On the selected objects, A sphere (30 cm), A cushion (45 x 45 cm) or A plane (one tile at its real size). The add-on picks it up while it's listening. See Use Matelume in Blender and Use Matelume in 3ds Max.

Wall art, marble and trial exports