FAQ

What happens if I run it again on the same textures?

The instance is updated, not duplicated. The list shows Update instead of New, and Create sets the texture parameters, the map switches, the blend mode and Two Sided overrides and the mesh slots again. Texture overrides of maps the set no longer has are removed. Parameters you changed by hand, such as tint, tiling or the roughness range, stay as they are.

Because the switches are set again on every run, a switch you turned on by hand for a map the set doesn’t have is turned off, and Use Height Map (Parallax) follows the Parallax for height maps option. To keep such an instance as it is, uncheck its set before you click Create.

To skip every set whose instance exists, turn off Update existing. Texture fixes and channel packing still run for those sets; uncheck a set to leave it completely alone.

Can I remove the plugin later?

Yes. The master material M_Smith_Standard, its default textures, your material instances and packed textures are regular assets of your project, made from standard material nodes. They keep working without the plugin. The settings stay in the [/Script/TAMaterialSmith.TAMaterialSmithSettings] section of Config/DefaultEditor.ini until you delete it.

Why are some textures “not recognized”?

Their names don’t end with an ending from the name table. Common reasons:

• The ending isn’t in the table, for example _Grunge. Add it in Project Settings > Plugins > ta Material Smith > Detection > Suffix Rules, or rename the texture.
• A one or two letter ending without a separator: T_RockD is not recognized, T_Rock_D is.
• A camel case ending that doesn’t start with an uppercase letter after a lowercase letter or digit: RockNormal works, rocknormal and ROCKNORMAL don’t.

Click the not recognized bar under the list to select those textures in the Content Browser. See Texture set naming.

A texture is neither in a set nor “not recognized”. Why?

Its ending is in the Not Used row of the table (_Spec, _Cavity, _ID, _Mask …) and no other texture of the same set was found. A set needs at least one map the material can use, so a lone T_Rock_Spec doesn’t form a set. Next to T_Rock_BaseColor it belongs to the Rock set and is listed as Not Used.

My instances fail with “Sampler type is …, should be …” errors

The texture settings don’t fit the sampler type of the parameter. Keep Fix texture settings on, and Material Smith changes sRGB, compression, Flip Green Channel and virtual texture streaming during Create. With the option off, What will happen warns about each texture that doesn’t fit. See Texture settings.

With your own master, the error can also come from the master itself: Unreal checks the default texture of every texture parameter against its sampler type, even when the instance overrides it. Material Smith warns The default texture of the master’s ‘…’ parameter does not fit its … sampler, so instances will not compile. Give that parameter a fitting default texture in the master. See Custom master materials.

How do I get masked foliage?

Give the set an opacity map (T_Leaf_Opacity, T_Leaf_Alpha, T_Leaf_A …). With Blend mode on Auto, the instance gets a Masked blend mode override, and with Two Sided when Masked on (the default) it is two-sided too. The opacity drives the Opacity Mask of the master.

If your opacity is in the alpha channel of the base color texture, Material Smith doesn’t detect that. Set Blend mode to Masked in the details, and in the instance turn on Use Opacity Map and Opacity From Base Color Alpha. Since Use Opacity Map is turned off again on the next run for a set without an opacity map, uncheck that set when you run Material Smith on the folder again.

My normal map looks inverted

It is probably an OpenGL (green up) normal map. Names ending with NormalGL, Normal_GL, Nor_GL (Poly Haven’s _nor_gl), NormalOpenGL or Normal_OpenGL are detected as OpenGL, and Fix texture settings turns on their Flip Green Channel. For other names, check OpenGL (green up) next to the map in the details. Material Smith never turns Flip Green Channel off.

Does it work with Megascans ORD textures?

Yes. _ORD and _ORDp are packed textures with ambient occlusion in red, roughness in green and displacement in blue. The Material Smith master reads occlusion and roughness from them; the displacement channel is not used. Bridge names such as T_Cliff_vdzkbf_2K_D give the set Cliff_vdzkbf, because the 2K token is ignored. Metallic stays at the master’s Metallic value (0).

What about glossiness or smoothness maps?

Names ending with Glossiness, Gloss, Smoothness or Smooth are roughness maps marked Glossiness (invert). With the Material Smith master, the Invert Roughness (Glossiness) switch is turned on in the instance. When the map is packed into an ORM texture, it is inverted while packing.

Where are the material instances created?

By default in a Materials folder next to the textures’ folder when that folder is called Textures, Texture or Tex (Rock/Textures → Rock/Materials), otherwise in the textures’ folder. Change it with Output Folder in Project Settings, or per set in the details. See Settings.

Why didn’t my mesh get the material instance?

Check that:

• the mesh is in the search folder: the parent of a Textures folder, or the texture folder itself, including subfolders;
• its name without the prefix (SM_, SK_, SKM_, S_) equals the set name, and it has exactly one material slot; or
• for meshes with several slots, the set name is <Mesh>_<Slot> and the slot is named like the second part (Chair_Wood → slot Wood, M_Wood or Wood_Mat of SM_Chair);
• Assign to meshes is on and the slot is checked in the details.

See Meshes.

Does Pack channels overwrite my own ORM textures?

No. Material Smith never replaces a texture that was imported from a file. If T_Rock_ORM exists and was imported, the packed texture is created as T_Rock_ORM_Packed. Only packed textures that Material Smith created itself are updated in place. See Channel packer.

Does it support virtual textures?

Yes. When every map of a set streams as a virtual texture, the set uses M_Smith_Standard_VT, a copy of the master with virtual texture samplers. When only some maps are virtual textures, the regular master is used and Fix texture settings turns virtual texture streaming off for them. See Texture settings.