Presets for Game Textures

[littlepolygon]

I find myself re-creating these presets a lot; would be nice to just be built in (esp if new preset-properties are added later, which might want nondefault values).

• Texture 4K (4096x4096, 128 dpi)
• Texture 2K (2048x2048, 64 dpi)
• Texture 1K (1024x1024, 32 dpi)

Edited October 1 by littlepolygon

[Old Bruce]

We can make our own Presets. Set the document like you want it and hit the little icon on the left for a new one.

Note that if you run Mac OS and use Light Mode then you won't see the icons, they are only available in Dark Mode. This is a major failure that Serif seem unconcerned about.

[littlepolygon]

Yes, I've already done this. But then I have to redo it for different installs / etc -- it should be standardized, esp since it's a more-common use-case than half the other standard presets.

[fde101]

5 hours ago, littlepolygon said:

it's a more-common use-case than half the other standard presets.

It may be more common in your industry, but is it globally?  There are a few issues (with existing threads complaining about them) which suggest that Serif didn't really have the game industry in mind when designing the Affinity products.  This particular item would probably be an easy add compared to at least one of the other things they really should get fixed, and I certainly am not opposed to it, but I'm a bit skeptical of this particular claim. 

[GarryP]

@littlepolygon I don’t really understand what the overall problem is.

You say you are using presets but that you also keep changing them, which isn’t really what presets are for.

If you can describe your situation, and then describe the problems that come from that situation, then we will have a better idea of what your requirements are.

[fde101]

@GarryP, I think this was already explained to some degree in the above posts: the same presets are being recreated in different installations of the Affinity products (after [re]installing them), not being changed after they are created.

What is not clear from this is why @littlepolygon needs to reinstall the Affinity products with enough frequency to be bothered by this, but different people have different working situations, so it is not outside the realm of possibility that there is a legitimate need.

[GarryP]

Once we have a good idea of what the situation is, and what the problems are with it in this case, we should have a better idea of what’s needed.

I’m certainly not against some improvements in handling these presets.

Many other suggestions have been made in this area, so it’s just ‘one more for the pot’.

[littlepolygon]

Quote

You say you are using presets but that you also keep changing them, which isn’t really what presets are for.

Presets aren't shared between Photo and Designer, nor are they shared between my laptop and PC. They also seem to get trashed on some updates. The net effect is my custom presets disappear sporadically. Maybe there's some config file I should be copy-pasting, but it's only a minor inconvenience.

TBH I just wanted to tag this as a nice-to-have minor feature, not face a hostile interrogation or condescended as "not who Serif had in mind as a user." I've learned my lesson, I won't ask for anything else. Cheers!

[fde101]

3 hours ago, littlepolygon said:

not face a hostile interrogation

Not sure why you would be getting this impression.   People are asking questions to make sure they understand the issue and to help ensure the request is clearly presented.  I don't see anything here that had any hostile intent toward you - my apologies if my own questions came across that way, it certainly was not intended.

 

3 hours ago, littlepolygon said:

not who Serif had in mind as a user

Assuming you are referring to this:

 

9 hours ago, fde101 said:

There are a few issues (with existing threads complaining about them) which suggest that Serif didn't really have the game industry in mind when designing the Affinity products.

 

This was not in any way directed as a complaint against you or intended to try to put you off.  I am referring mostly to the posts asking for things like alpha channels that are not pre-multiplied during edit (thus killing off values from being exported when the alpha is zero).  When Serif designed the product, they were most likely looking at more traditional illustration fields (Designer), photographers (Photo) and the like - game development uses many of the same tools but can sometimes have special requirements of its own, and my response was intended to convey that Serif probably did not take the time to research the special requirements of that field and did not develop the product to account for them, meaning it may not be the best fit for someone doing that kind of work.  It would obviously be nice if that changed.

[kirk23]

I would like just an easy button to save all customer created things : macros , batches, imagee presets,  filter presets etc  in one file or make it the way Blender does keeping it all available to new updates.   I am also tired of setting  everything up again and again.

As of gamedev in general  the software lacks a lot.   Starting from creating black holes at zero alpha .     Their target market is  starting to get affected by AI diminishing human input demand  so why not  turn slightly  to an another market which is hardly touched,  at least  where AI does something  totally rubbish yet.

Height to normal map.  2d displacement that would be really useful , the current  one is still not working  properly.   UV image  to image deformation/projection.     All it needs is just a slightly  more advanced procedural filter with multi layer access . Something  we could ask chatGPT to script/code maybe.   A few simple conveniences here and there , like multi texture  export.  Cryptomatte to masks for compositing in  CG content .

The fact, as a material artist for games  I often need a simple tool for compositing materials , height blending  something with a gradient . Something where    Substance Designer or Substance Painter are both huge pain in your a...  . Maybe something to quickly fix  bad photogrammetry.   Like depth  and  color layer in-painting  in sync  without inventing crazy workarounds.    

Sadly image software developers are in total ignorance  of what's necessary  for gamedev  or at least it's very much looks like so.   Including Adobe .   What they do as Sampler  is totally useless . Their Ai too doing  weird blurry stuff repeating like crazy.      I use substance Designer mostly  and oh boy, it took me almost two decades  to make a set of my own noises and compositing nodes  I could consider just close to be convenient and most of them doesn't work in Painter. 

    Still hope for a simple  software  where I wouldn't have to tweak  gazillion sliders in  "house of cards" style of node construct  or recollect  why I did all those anchors yesterday.    Once  thought  Affinity photo/ Designer pair could be one  but now not especially any more.