[HN Gopher] I'm creating PBR Textures and 3D models since 2018 a...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       I'm creating PBR Textures and 3D models since 2018 and sharing them
       for free
        
       Author : tolgaarslan
       Score  : 328 points
       Date   : 2024-04-26 12:23 UTC (10 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.sharetextures.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.sharetextures.com)
        
       | Tomte wrote:
       | How is that done? What more than a camera and a computer do you
       | need to create those textures and associated maps?
        
         | tolgaarslan wrote:
         | I've been creating for 6 years and adding new assets every
         | couple of days. There are several technic to make them. You
         | need a computer indeed but some creation methods don't require
         | a camera. You can generate textures procedurally using
         | software.
        
           | Tomte wrote:
           | Let's say I want to "texturize" an existing brick wall of a
           | building.
           | 
           | I make high-quality photos, but then what? How do I create
           | bump maps and so on? Do I need a stereoscopic setup? Do I
           | need polarizing filters or something like that? What software
           | is used?
        
             | tolgaarslan wrote:
             | IF you want to make it high-quality, there is a technic
             | called photogrammetry. You need to take hundreds of photos
             | under same light, without shadow or reflection. Then you
             | create the 3D model of the facade using photogrammetry
             | software like metashape or realitycapture. After you have
             | the 3D model, you need to transfer 3D data to 2D texture.
             | It's called baking. After baking is done you endup with
             | basecolor(diffuse/color), height(displacement), normal and
             | ao(ambient occlusion) maps.
             | 
             | If you are looking for a basic way, just take one clean
             | photo(without visible shadows or reflections) There is
             | method called Bitmap to material. Basically, you grayscale
             | your image and using that grayscale data to create other
             | maps like bump, roughness height etc. If you've experience
             | in that area you can make them in Photoshop. Adobe
             | Substance Sample(Substance Alchemist) has great abilities
             | to generate using that method + AI.
             | 
             | To clear reflections you need circular polarization
             | filters. You can also use cross-polarization method to
             | clear all unwanted reflections. But It require addinational
             | light source and linear polarization filter.
        
               | Tomte wrote:
               | Thank you, these are great keywords to google.
        
       | at_ wrote:
       | Fantastic resource! I actually stumbled across it organically a
       | few months ago, and couldn't believe my luck. There's really
       | nothing else out there as high quality that's CC0. So thank you.
        
         | r1chardnl wrote:
         | You could try https://polyhaven.com/
        
         | tolgaarslan wrote:
         | You can also use 3dassets.one It let's you search 3D assets
         | based on the license or creator.
        
       | nightowl_games wrote:
       | Great timing. I'm currently playing around with 3D in Godot 3.
       | We've made a bunch of 2D games, and have a huge system that we
       | have no real incentive to port to Godot 4, so I'm seeing how far
       | I can push Godot 3. Looking forward to trying some of these.
        
         | tolgaarslan wrote:
         | I'm also working on Unreal Engine and creating my assets Unreal
         | Engine Material versions on that. I'm hearing too much about
         | Godot and I hope, I can find a way to make a game using my own
         | assets.
        
       | r1chardnl wrote:
       | What are atlases used for? https://www.sharetextures.com/atlases
        
         | whizzter wrote:
         | Before bindless became a thing (and it's not yet standard with
         | for example WebGL) then doing extra render calls just to change
         | active textures could be an quite expensive operation. Thus a
         | texture atlas is useful to be able to batch a lot of geometry
         | into the same call (Also useful for 2d-like animations).
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texture_atlas
        
         | tolgaarslan wrote:
         | Atlases are a set of small elements grouped together in one
         | asset. It's usually used for trees and terrain objects.
        
       | catapart wrote:
       | I've had my eye on this for a couple of months now because you
       | guys are doing exactly what I'm doing when it comes to modular
       | asset/utility development: putting it in the public domain, where
       | it belongs.
       | 
       | I'm all for making money on specialization or convenience, but I
       | really can't find it in myself to build a perfectly useful
       | something and then only use it for myself unless someone else can
       | pay for it. As long as it's fully modular, I just have to give it
       | away for free. Some things - no matter how much work they took to
       | make - are just not worth paying for. Or, at the very least, I
       | would never pay for them. So rather than just keep everything to
       | myself so I can use it the one time, I can't see any reason not
       | to just make it entirely available to the public.
       | 
       | And, good god, I would be so embarrassed to see my name in the
       | credits of something with a label like "provided image
       | formatter", or something. So attribution is something that I
       | really couldn't care less about. It's always a nice gesture, but
       | some things just aren't worth attributing.
       | 
       | All of which is to say: I love your interest in releasing these
       | things to the public domain, and I'm very eager to join you! I've
       | worked in games since before the original THQ went under, and
       | have been using Unreal for the last 6 years or so. I'd be happy
       | to get into whatever process you guys are using, and provide
       | assets to whatever specifications you enforce. I find the most
       | important thing about assets is that they be uniform (so large-
       | scale changes can all happen in the same way, per asset). So I'm
       | happy to conform, just so I can make assets that will act well
       | in-editor.
       | 
       | Unfortunately, I'm mired in some side-project dev work, and won't
       | be able to work on games, or game assets, probably for the rest
       | of the year. So I've got to put off helping until I can clear my
       | plate some. But I have bookmarked you guys, and will follow up to
       | see if you have any interest in additional help with this kind of
       | work, as soon as I can!
       | 
       | Aside from all that, thanks again for providing this. It really
       | is a useful and altruistic endeavor!
        
         | tolgaarslan wrote:
         | Come to our discord and say hi. I'll love to discuss the idea
        
       | FrostKiwi wrote:
       | Seem like this project's goals and the goals of polyhaven.com are
       | aligned. Is a cooperation possible? Each other's libraries could
       | totally benefit from more 3D Models under CC0
        
       | anticorporate wrote:
       | Love this! One nit. The homepage says "All of our content is
       | copyright-free. It means, you can use them anywhere you want
       | which includes commercial projects too." That's not how copyright
       | works. All of these works are copyright. That copyright is _what
       | allows_ the owner of the copyright to place them under a CC0
       | license. What CC0 really means is  "the copyright holder has
       | waived the rights they have under copyright by granting you a
       | non-exclusive license to use this work pretty much however you
       | choose."
        
         | dahart wrote:
         | CC0 is "a tool for relinquishing copyright and releasing
         | material into the public domain", and the official icon for it
         | says "public domain" [1] mainly created because actual public
         | domain is problematic across different countries, I believe.
         | Actual public domain really is 'copyright-free', and it makes
         | sense to describe CC0 as making things 'copyright-free' to a
         | general audience that may not be familiar with the subtle
         | intricacies of copyright law. It is true that only the original
         | copyright holder has the authority to release their works into
         | the public domain, but once they've done that, copyrights are
         | no longer held, and the work is no longer subject to protection
         | under copyright law.
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons_license#Zero_...
         | 
         | https://creativecommons.org/public-domain/cc0/
        
           | anticorporate wrote:
           | Right... CC0 exists because there is _no such thing_ as
           | relinquishing copyright in many countries, including the
           | United States. It 's a license that allows the work to be
           | used _as if_ copyright were relinquished. If I create a work
           | and license it under CC0, I still own the copyright, I 've
           | just given everyone a license to use the work in such a way
           | that I cannot enforce most or all of the rights associated
           | with my ownership of that copyright.
        
             | starkrights wrote:
             | And their point is that saying "copyright free" will
             | probably be more immediately understandable to people who
             | don't know that and don't want to read a small comment
             | about copyright 'intricacies' (even if it's not that
             | intricate)
             | 
             | By saying copyright free, more people who need freely-
             | licensed works like this are likely to use it instead of
             | being warded off by "this does has a license, it's
             | copyrighted, but it's actually free because of the license"
             | 
             | Colloquially, it's the same thing.
        
             | dahart wrote:
             | CC0 a license that relinquishes copyrights. You're right
             | that it's a license and not public domain, but otherwise
             | making a distinction without a difference. The stated
             | explicit intent, and the rights granted by the license, are
             | to provide a version of public domain that is unambiguous
             | and works globally.
             | 
             | Your terminology is a bit funny when you say "I still own
             | the copyright" or "all of these works are copyright". Works
             | aren't copyright, works are protected by copyrights that
             | authors have... unless the author waives those rights. The
             | copyright one has by default is the exclusive right to copy
             | and distribute the work. Once you give that away, either
             | via license or public domain attribution, it's irrevocable
             | and permanent, and there's nothing of value in the idea
             | that you're still the copyright holder, since there are no
             | longer any copy rights retained nor copyright protection
             | under any laws.
             | 
             | In short, it's perfectly fine to call CC0 attributed works
             | "copyright-free" because that's what the license actually
             | does, it "waives" all copyrights and "related rights", and
             | allows the public to copy at will, forever.
             | 
             | BTW I don't think it's true to say that there's no such
             | thing as relinquishing copy rights in many countries,
             | that's too strong of a claim. It is true to say there's no
             | such thing as public domain, but copy rights (or "related
             | rights") can be transferred and/or waived pretty much
             | everywhere.
        
         | regularfry wrote:
         | This does depend on the jurisdiction. In some legal
         | jurisdictions the effect of putting something in the public
         | domain is to assert that no copyright exists in the work. In
         | other jurisdictions that's not legally possible.
        
           | dahart wrote:
           | Exactly. This is why CC0 is was created- to make public
           | domain available to jurisdictions that don't already have it.
        
         | qarl wrote:
         | I sorta think that for a large banner appealing to a naive
         | audience, "copyright free" is more appropriate than "the
         | copyright holder has waived the rights they have under
         | copyright by granting you a non-exclusive license to use this
         | work pretty much however you choose."
         | 
         | But hey, maybe there are more IP lawyers in the free texture
         | community than I realize.
        
         | mminer237 wrote:
         | In the US you can disclaim your copyright and place works in
         | the public domain. It's only countries with strict authors
         | rights like Germany that that isn't possible.
        
       | aarongeisler wrote:
       | This is great! I added the link to my list of free game dev
       | resources: https://github.com/aaron9000/c-game-resources
       | 
       | Is there a tool you used to create these materials that you would
       | recommend?
        
         | tolgaarslan wrote:
         | Thanks. Substance Designer, Substance Painter, Metashape,
         | Blender, Marmoset. We are mainly using these softwares. For the
         | atlases we are using Details Capture from VFX Grace
        
           | aarongeisler wrote:
           | Thank you, I will check these out - love what you are doing.
           | Please keep it up.
        
           | AvieDeckard wrote:
           | Would you be willing to consider sharing the substance source
           | files on your site as well? I've been learning material
           | design off and on for a while now and the ability to learn
           | from and modify them would be cool, but obviously not
           | required if that's too much effort or just not something
           | you'd want to share. Either way, thanks a lot for the
           | resource, stuff like this always gets me excited!
        
       | DannyPage wrote:
       | Is there any software meant for casual users for displaying and
       | walking around these objects? I'd love to have some sort of VR
       | room with the simplicity of "The Sims" where I could add these,
       | plus perhaps some connections to the rest of the internet. A fake
       | TV that displays the frontpage of HN or a 24-hour Twitch feed. A
       | radio object that can play Spotify streams, with 3D audio
       | enabled.
        
         | catapart wrote:
         | Don't know of anything like this, but this is a really good
         | idea! It would be sweet to have a scene and renderer with well-
         | known properties (which could be adjusted to account for style;
         | realistic/toon/dynamic lighting/baked lighting, etc) which
         | could be dropped in to a webpage so that users could mess with
         | it. That way, developers could independently include it and
         | write their own ways of injecting the assets.
         | 
         | The end result being a web widget that is a 3D environment with
         | whatever the developer wants to put in it (with some defaults
         | like "sunny outside", "sun room", "basement", "cave", etc), and
         | drag-and-drop asset selection for users to view the showcased
         | assets in the scene. Could even double as a code-guide, based
         | on your idea of including functioning TV and Radio assets (an
         | example of how to include this functionality into the assets).
         | Overall, just a really great idea!
        
         | squigz wrote:
         | I've considered something like this for years. A simple,
         | casual, social space to just decorate, hang out, do basic stuff
         | like what you outline. I think there's a lot of potential
         | there! Not so much money though, I imagine...
        
           | sooperserieous wrote:
           | Second Life is still a thing, or OpenSimulator if you really
           | do want to do it all yourself :)
           | 
           | FWIW, SL is finalizing the addition of PBR textures now and
           | may go further WRT scene imports.
        
             | squigz wrote:
             | I know one shouldn't judge an entire community like this,
             | but every interaction I've had with SL has been... strange,
             | to put it lightly. Still, I have a lot of respect for those
             | devs and their commitment to the game
             | 
             | OpenSimulator looks like a cool idea too!
        
       | jandrese wrote:
       | Browsing the models is a bit of a trip. Potato, chair, onion,
       | lamp, medieval torture device, banana, couch...
        
       | hahamrfunnyguy wrote:
       | What is PBR? Not Pabst Blue Ribbon! Here's a brief description
       | from Adobe:
       | 
       | Physically based rendering (PBR), sometimes known as physically
       | based shading (PBS), is a method of shading and rendering that
       | provides a more accurate representation of how light interacts
       | with material properties. Depending on which aspect of the 3D
       | modeling workflow is being discussed, PBS is usually specific to
       | shading concepts while PBR refers to rendering and lighting. Both
       | terms describe the process of representing assets from a
       | physically accurate standpoint.
        
         | weinzierl wrote:
         | That is true but not whole story. I believe when people talk
         | about PBR Textures they most often use PBR synonymously to _"
         | Principled Shader"_, _" BSDF Shader"_ or _" Disney Shader"_
         | (all meaning roughly the same thing).
        
         | cubefox wrote:
         | PBR textures don't include just the usual colored images, but
         | also other surface properties that influence how specific
         | surfaces interact with light. Like roughness, glossiness,
         | elevation (surface normal vectors), whether the surface is a
         | metal, whether it has specular highlights, whether it appears
         | fuzzy, whether it is partly translucent (like skin) and so on.
         | The combination of such textures is called a (PBR) "material".
         | 
         | It's called "physically based" because there exist simple
         | physics formulas for these properties, so it luckily isn't
         | necessary to simulate the all microphysical details that cause
         | them in real objects. Similar to how one can describe a gas
         | with a few parameters from thermodynamics without considering
         | the molecular details that explain those phenomena.
         | 
         | In old 3D renders everything looked like plastic because they
         | had only very primitive surface properties.
        
       | WickedSmoke wrote:
       | The website is completely broken with Firefox. Search results do
       | not appear on the screen - you must scroll down to see results.
       | Clicking on the asset images does nothing so they cannot be
       | downloaded.
       | 
       | When using Chrome the layout and interaction works, but even then
       | browsing is a poor experience as only four items can be seen at
       | once so lots of scrolling is needed.
       | 
       | Sheesh... modern web design is a disaster. This sort of
       | collection could really use static pages with labels as links and
       | small thumbnails showing at least 50 items per page.
       | 
       | [Edit] I recommend https://ambientcg.com/ instead as that site is
       | much more responsive.
        
         | jayess wrote:
         | Works fine for me on firefox 125.
        
       | goodcjw2 wrote:
       | Great work to publish your work into public domain. I saw a
       | couple more people in the thread trying to do the same thing.
       | 
       | Just curious: is there a reason to create your own site for this?
       | Instead of listing on things like Sketchfab?
       | 
       | They seem to support public domain for a long time already:
       | https://sketchfab.com/blogs/community/sketchfab-launches-pub...
        
         | tolgaarslan wrote:
         | My wife and I have been architects since 2013, and back in
         | 2018, it was almost impossible to find high-quality free
         | materials. Polyhaven (formerly Texture Haven) and AmbientCG
         | (CC0Textures) mainly focused on more natural assets. We decided
         | to give it a try, and within just two weeks, we reached 100
         | patrons. So, ShareTextures is funded by the patrons, and as a
         | result of this support, we continue creating.
         | 
         | We have our website because we want to provide some advantages
         | to our patrons. Additionally, it helps us promote our
         | supporters, partners, etc.
        
           | lofaszvanitt wrote:
           | Don't you have a feeling that your actions will break down
           | the market and kills the revenue for those who depend on this
           | kind of income? I mean, you people are architects, not some
           | digital beggars. You should ask a minimal price for it, but
           | should not offer it for free, as others have also pointed it
           | out.
        
             | baobabKoodaa wrote:
             | Yes, how dare they give out their work for free. The
             | audacity of these people!
        
               | carlosjobim wrote:
               | Architects get paid for making models, so why is it not
               | fathomable for the poster that they should pay for the
               | textures they use? Or, why do some workers deserve to get
               | paid and others not?
               | 
               | Edit: And reading the reply from the architects, you can
               | almost smell the entitlement.
        
               | baobabKoodaa wrote:
               | I don't get it. How is this any different from
               | programmers who create open source software that they
               | release for free?
        
               | carlosjobim wrote:
               | There is no difference. Programmers keep making open
               | source software for free, and people making money on that
               | software keep acting entitled to it.
        
             | tolgaarslan wrote:
             | We understand your concern, but we believe in the power of
             | sharing and accessibility. We aim to support the community
             | by offering free materials and 3D models. Our creations are
             | simply tools to aid talented artists in creating their main
             | products.There are unlimited options to create a digital
             | asset. (style, design, year, condition, etc.) We can't
             | create all of them.
        
         | baobabKoodaa wrote:
         | This is like "old web" versus "platforms".
         | 
         | Me personally, I like the old web. Websites that people make
         | and put stuff on.
         | 
         | Platforms are generally great... until they aren't. Your own
         | website will be great as long as you want.
        
       | jppope wrote:
       | the problem with acronyms... his PBR is a completely different
       | PBR than I was thinking...
        
       | lurkingmba wrote:
       | I guess "PBR" means something different to you.
        
         | noworld wrote:
         | Patrol Boat, River
        
         | junon wrote:
         | Pabst Blue Ribbon?
         | 
         | Yeah. Been a mindfuck ever since I started 3D stuff.
        
         | trillic wrote:
         | Professional Bull Rider?
        
         | zamadatix wrote:
         | Wait, we're not all on HN to discuss Policy Based Routing?
        
         | wnoise wrote:
         | Peanut Butter and Radishes?
        
       | folli wrote:
       | Slightly (?) on topic: I'm looking for some collaborators for an
       | opensource project using Babylon.js (where PBR textures could
       | also be helpful): https://github.com/r-follador/CubeTrek_Babylon
       | 
       | It's a GPS track visualization web app for outdoor sports; any
       | help would be appreciated (see here for the hosted app:
       | https://cubetrek.com)
        
       | waynecochran wrote:
       | Is there a high demand for models of gallows, electric chairs,
       | and head stocks? I now know where to go if need to create a model
       | of a torture chamber with some added fruits and vegetables.
        
       | rbanffy wrote:
       | This is amazing. Back in the 1990's, when I worked in 3D, a
       | resource like this would have been an immense force multiplier.
       | Back then we had BBSs to share models, but nothing like this.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2024-04-26 23:00 UTC)