The Substance Palette maintains two separate Resolution fields in its "Texture Resolution" Menu. This page covers what they are and how to make use of them
The Preview and Final Resolution work at different levels. Preview Resolutions serve for quick "streaming" Feedback inside Mari, while the Final Resolution is the finished Render Resolution
Final Resolution
The Final Resolution is the size of the textures that end up in Mari's Image Manager. Think of it like the "Export Resolution" in Substance 3D Painter.
•You can choose between 128 and 8192
•When you load a new Substance, the palette starts at the Final and Preview Resolution you used last. If you work at 4k, you stay at 4k across materials. If you have never set one, the resolution the Substance was authored with is used
•Reopening a Substance that already lives in your project (e.g. via "Edit as Substance") brings back the resolution it was saved with
•The blue dot next to the label matches the blue progress bar at the bottom of the palette when the Final Resolution is calculating
Preview Resolution
The Preview Resolution is a smaller, faster render. It gives you quick feedback in Mari while the Final Resolution is still rendering. Think of it like the "Document Resolution" in Substance 3D Painter.
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In addition to acting as the "streaming" resolution for textures being pushed into Mari, the Preview Resolution is also the one used to display textures in the Preview area |
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• You can choose between 128 and 4096. The default is 512
• The grey dot next to the label matches the grey progress bar at the bottom of the palette
The Preview resolution will usually arrive much faster. For example while you drag a Substance Attribute Slider it will continuously show you the result in Mari without having to wait very long for the Final Resolution render.
Only once you let go of the slider, will the Final Resolution render start.
Example of first the Preview Resolution Render (grey progress), followed by the Final Resolution (blue progress)
With the default "Full Auto" render behavior:
•While dragging a slider, every update renders at Preview Resolution and goes straight into Mari. Once you let go, the Final Resolution render follows
•Changing a toggle, dropdown, the random seed, a preset or the graph renders a quick Preview first, then the Final Resolution
•Typing in a value renders directly at Final Resolution (or ramps up to it, see "Ramp up Resolutions" below)
•The "Render Substance" button always renders directly at Final Resolution
If "Auto Render Final Resolution" is turned off in the Settings (e.g. in "Fast" mode), only the Preview Resolution is rendered automatically.
You then trigger the Final Resolution yourself using the "Render Substance (Final Resolution)" button.
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Setting the Preview Resolution to the same value as the Final Resolution (or higher) turns the preview step off. Everything then renders at Final Resolution only. |
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Substances are often fully procedural and can react to the resolution they are rendered at. Noises, edge wear or small details may change a lot between 512 and 4096.If the preview and the final look differ too much to be useful, raise the Preview Resolution closer to your Final Resolution. Previews get a bit slower, but they match the final result better.
Both rows (Final and Preview Resolution) have a "=" button between the width and height fields. With "=", width and height are linked and the textures stay square. Click it (it changes to "|") to set width and height separately.
The result are non-square images
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The Preview Resolution does not have a separate Width/Height Overwrite. It will inherit the aspect ratio automatically from the Final Resolution |
In the Channels section of the Substance palette, each channel can be set to a separate resolution from the Final Resolution.
Available options are:
•Full (100% Final Resolution)
•Half (50% Final Resolution)
•Quarter (25% Final Resolution
This is always a fraction of the Final Resolution and only applies to the Final render. Preview renders render every channel at Preview Resolution.
Rendering at 4k or 8k Final Resolution takes a while. For Final Resolution renders of 4k or above a special inbetween Render mode exists
In the "Settings" Section of the Substance Palette you can find a "Ramp up Resolutions (4k+) Option:
Without ramping on a 4k or 8k Render, you would see the Preview Resolution in Mari and then wait until the full-size textures are done.
The "Ramp up Resolutions for Highres Renders (4k+)" option adds one in-between step, so the textures in Mari get sharper in stages.
The ramp goes from your Preview Resolution to one step below your Final Resolution, then to the Final Resolution itself.
With a Preview Resolution of 512:
• Final Resolution 4096: 512 (Preview) > 2048 > 4096
• Final Resolution 8192: 512 (Preview) > 4096 > 8192 (2048 is skipped, there is only ever one in-between step)
The in-between step shows up as an amber progress bar at the bottom of the palette.
The amber dot next to the checkbox shows that color.
