New in ArtEngine 2021

ArtEngine version 2021.9.0 (Beta)

Release date: July 23rd, 2021

New Features and Improvements

Unity Direct Link

With Unity Direct Link, you can modify your materials in ArtEngine on the fly, and see the changes reflected in your Unity project right away.

The new Direct Link functionality is accessible via the Output node. In the node properties, you can now choose to export your material to a Unity Project, rather than a Unity Package. By pointing the Output Path to your Unity project directory, you can export Unity .mat files straight into the Unity project, with all the material maps assigned correctly in the Unity shader of your choice.

Whenever you re-execute the Output node, you will see the material changes reflected immediately in Unity.

Export Unity materials for Built-in and URP pipelines

The Output node now supports Unity material export for the Standard and URP render pipelines, in addition to the HDRP material support added in the previous ArtEngine release.

Feature Selector updates

The new Feature Selector node now has tweaked the way you select and deselect the SuperPixel segments. You can now also clear your segments from the properties panel UI.

Resolved Issues

• Opening an ArtEngine project that contains an .AMTL file connected to an Output node no longer results in an error.

• Copy and pasting Bitmaps connected to a node in the Node Graph no longer removes the previous node execution results from the pasted copy.

• Material Generation node no longer produces an invalid normal map when all node slider properties are set to 0.

• Reduced ArtEngine’s CPU usage when the program is minimized.

• Output node no longer requires the filename to contain the input_name macro.

• Fixed a flickering issue in the 2D Viewport sometimes caused by using the Distort node before a Crop node in a chain of nodes.

• Using more than one Distort node in a project no longer breaks the 2D Viewport preview of the node.

• Nodes no longer switch to Input viewing mode in the 2D Viewport during execution.

• Fixed an issue where the Height Generation node could not be brought into the 2D or 3D Viewports unless the node’s default properties were changed.

Known Issues

• Nodes that are not recommended for Batching: Color to Mask, Color Muse, Mask Paint, Color Transfer, and in general nodes that are more specific to the individual bitmaps coming through.

• There is an issue with Batching creating extra black maps for output folders to make up the difference in numbers, if one input folder has more maps than another.

ArtEngine version 2021.8.0 (Beta)

Release date: July 9th, 2021

New Features and Improvements

Feature Selector - AI-assisted segmentation

The Feature Selector node, which allows for fast AI assisted mask creation in ArtEngine, has been significantly upgraded. You can now create multiple selection segments (up to 3) based on the parameters entered and can now also call for some AI based Segmentation. 

The AI Segmentation requires input masks to generate results. Users can create these masks by simply painting on an example texture of the input bitmap that they would like to create a mask for. For example if you have an image of some sand and stones, you simply paint on a part of the sand with a Mask Paint node, and the stones with another, then connect the masks to the Feature Selector. With AI Segmentation turned on the node will create two masks for those regions in seconds.

You can mix and match between your manual and AI assisted segments but it is worth noting that you will always need a minimum of two input masks for the AI Segmentation to work.

Output Node - export native Unity materials

Our goal in ArtEngine is to become the go to texture creation tool for Unity developers. Part of the work to reach that goal is allowing ArtEngine users to easily export their ArtEngine textures as native Unity textures, with their Unity settings already backed in and the maps packed in the correct way, depending on the render pipeline being used. The first part of this work allows users to export a range of HDRP textures from the Output node. Our next release will see other more common formats added.

Resolved Issues

• Fixed an issue where the mutation node fails to finish execution when all of the properties are selected.

• Fixed an issue related to color space where linearity was not being set correctly for a few nodes.

• Fixed issues around project load failure.

• Fixed issues around license activation.

• Fixed an issue where application crashes when editing the advanced output identifiers for duplicate maps.

• Fixed an issue where the Content-Aware Fill node did not switch from Output to Fill Definition when changing the Feathering slider.

• Fixed an issue where input bitmaps become unexecuted when copy-pasted.

• Fixed an issue where in the Material Generation node, dropping all sliders to 0 produces a corrupted normal.

• Fixed issues where painted masks were lost while copy-pasting or import-export with a painted mask.

• Fixed an issue where Distort node where more than one Distort node in a node graph created a blank canvas

• Fixed an issue where the Distort node caused the 2D viewer to flicker.

Known Issues

• Nodes that are not recommended for Batching: Color to Mask, Color Muse, Mask Paint, Color Transfer, and in general nodes that are more specific to the individual bitmaps coming through.

• There is an issue with Batching creating extra black maps for output folders to make up the difference in numbers, if one input folder has more maps than another.

ArtEngine version 2021.7.1, 2021.7.0 (Beta)

Release date: June 15th, 2021

New Features and Improvements

• ArtEngine Templates (Beta-only)

  Templates is a new feature that allows you to export any part of your project’s Node Graph. The export contains the selected nodes and their set properties. This way, you can import any Node Graph into a different project seamlessly.

  To create a new template, select the nodes that you want to be in the template from the Node Graph, right-click, and choose Create Node Graph Template. If you have any input bitmaps in your template, ArtEngine will automatically create a placeholder for them. The placeholder can be replaced from any project by dragging and dropping a bitmap asset onto it.

  You can view and manage your templates in the Library panel, under a new section called Templates. You can right click on any template to perform any of the following actions: Show in Explorer, Rename, Open into Project, Delete, and Edit Description. You can find a number of built-in system templates in the Templates panel. These templates are shipped with ArtEngine, to simplify your workflow and save you time.

• Color Space Conversion node
  You can now control the Bit Depth and Color Space parameters of your bitmaps. The Color Space Conversion node allows you to convert images between 8, 16, and 32 bit depths, as well as between the sRGB and linear RGB color spaces. Please note that only .EXR file types can be used to export bitmaps with linear RGB. 

• Output node improvements
  

  You can now access the advanced settings of this node in the Properties tab, without having to switch to the pop-up window interface.

Resolved Issues

• Fixed an issue where the project would be lost upon ArtEngine failing to save it.

• Fixed an issue where imported AxF files became unusable after saving a project.

• Fixed an issue where users could not launch the application if their Windows username has special characters in it.

• Fixed issues with clashing licenses when there is more than one account on the same machine using ArtEngine.

• Fixed an issue where users could not select input from the 2D viewer dropdown in the Crop node.

• Fixed an issue where the changes made by the Normal Intensity node would not apply to the bitmap upon export.

• Fixed an issue where exporting a project and pressing the Escape key closed both the "Overwrite" window and the Export window.

• Fixed an issue where the Hard Shadow Removal node interface would display a solid red image after execution.

• Fixed various issues around Split Material Node.

Known Issues

• Nodes that are not recommended for Batching: Color to Mask, Color Muse, Mask Paint, Color Transfer, and in general nodes that are more specific to the individual bitmaps coming through.

• There is an issue with Batching creating extra black maps for output folders to make up the difference in numbers, if one input folder has more maps than another.

ArtEngine version 2021.6.0

Release date: May 17th, 2021

New Features and Improvements

• Improved Node Graph speed
  Improvements have been made to the processing speed of all nodes. These speed increases will be particularly noticeable in nodes that usually take less time to execute and should result in very noticeable improvements across large Node graphs.

• Relative linking of the node properties
  Previously, nodes with height and width adjustments become equal when you link them in the properties. This makes it difficult to work with images that are not square. Hence, we have updated the sliders to adjust relatively when you link them with different values for width and height. This applies to nodes such as Crop, Free Transform, Resize, Basic Shape, Pattern Array.

• 2D Viewport - memory optimization
  The 2D Viewport is now faster and consumes less VRAM.
• 3D Viewport - orthogonal camera angles
  You can now validate the textures by viewing the model from a set camera angle in either orthographic or perspective view. The 6 new angles can be accessed through a new dropdown in the 3D viewer settings.
  

Resolved Issues

• Fixed an issue where the Compose Material node renamed bitmaps when added using the quick-add feature in the node graph.

• Fixed an issue where several nodes failed to execute or produced image artifacts when running on an RTX 3*** series GPU

• Fixed an issue where users were not able to open exported projects.

• Fixed an issue where Nvidia driver update was prompted even with only AMD GPU.

• Fixed an issue where Blend Node did not disconnect the existing connection when a new connection was made to its input pin.

• Fixed an issue where the Flip X and Y functionality of the Normal Generation node was not working for Height maps.

Known Issues

• Nodes that are not recommended for Batching: Color to Mask, Color Muse, Mask Paint, Color Transfer, and in general nodes that are more specific to the individual bitmaps coming through.

• There is an issue with Batching creating extra black maps for output folders to make up the difference in numbers, if one input folder has more maps than another.

ArtEngine version 2021.5.1

Release date: April 22nd, 2021

New Features and Improvements

• 3D Viewport Tooltips
  Tooltips for the various 3D Viewport shortcuts and actions are now available from within ArtEngine. In the bottom right corner of the 3D Viewport, you will find a new help icon. Hover over it to see all available actions and their hotkeys.

• Advanced settings for the Multi-Angle to Texture node
  Previously, the Multi-Angle to Texture node was mostly automated, built to work in all contexts. However, we wanted to give you more precision and flexibility over the rig setup and other parameters. The node now allows you to modify settings such as number of images to process, light position for each image, as well as distance and field of view for the camera.

Resolved Issues

• Fixed a freeze caused by copying and pasting a Bitmap node on the Node Graph.

• Fixed an issue where the Histogram Scan node would not update in real-time when working with single-channel images.

Known Issues

• Nodes that are not recommended for Batching: Color to Mask, Color Muse, Mask Paint, Color Transfer, and in general nodes that are more specific to the individual bitmaps coming through.

• There is an issue with Batching creating extra black maps for output folders to make up the difference in numbers, if one input folder has more maps than another. 

• The following nodes cannot be canceled during execution: JPEG Artifact Removal, Up-res, and Blur.

ArtEngine version 2021.4.0

Release date: April 9th, 2021

New Features and Improvements

• Share your ArtEngine projects easily using Export Project
  You now have access to the Export Project and Export Graph functionality, available from the File menu. Export Project allows you to easily pack up your project, including the Node Graph and (optionally) your Asset Library assets, into one ZIP file. To import a project, simply extract the ZIP and open the .ART project file on any other machine.

• Error message improvements
  We’ve improved our error messaging system, which will now give you better feedback on which nodes failed to execute along the execution chain, as well as the potential error causes. Nodes which failed execution are now marked with a red header on the Node Graph.

Resolved Issues

• Fixed a crash sometimes caused by the Batch Input node when manually typing in an input path.

• Fixed an issue where the intensity value on Roughness and Gloss nodes would revert to that of the previous selected material whenever the nodes are copied or reloaded. 

• Fixed an issue where the Batch Output node would sometimes fail to execute on multiple materials. 

• Fixed an issue where cancelling node execution would sometimes cause an error. 

• Fixed an issue where cancelling a Project Export would sometimes result in an error.

• Fixed an issue where using Save As to save a project in the same location with the same file name would create a new project hierarchy instead of overwriting the existing one.

• Reduced resource consumption of the Pattern Array node, and made the node less error-prone.

• Fixed an issue where the Crop node would not display more than 4 digits in the Properties window when working with high-resolution files.

Known Issues

• Nodes that are not recommended for Batching: Color to Mask, Color Muse, Mask Paint, Color Transfer, and in general nodes that are more specific to the individual bitmaps coming through.

• There is an issue with Batching creating extra black maps for output folders to make up the difference in numbers, if one input folder has more maps than another. 

• The following nodes cannot be canceled during execution: JPEG Artifact Removal, Up-res, and Blur.

ArtEngine version 2021.3.1

Release date: March 18th, 2021

New Features and Improvements

• Gradient node improvements: The Gradient node now has dropdown output settings.
• Update to the Upres node: The Upres now has even more accurate results when upscaling bitmaps resolutions.
  
• Resize Node - percentage based scaling: There is now a dropdown to choose the size in pixels or percentages. When pixels are selected everything is the same as the current node. In percentage dropdown - we multiply the input by the percentage.
• Roughness Preset Values for the Roughness Node: This node now has preset Roughness values for a number of surfaces.
  

Resolved Issues

• Fixed an issue where the up-res of materials in batching gave an error.

• Fixed an issue where ArtEngine was unable to perform a Seam Removal on the output of a Pattern Array.

• Fixed an issue where Multi-Angle To Texture Node was throwing out of memory exceptions.

• Fixed an issue where in the asset library, undo deletion of amtl material restores an unusable material.

• Fixed an issue where when dragging a BIG .amtl (> 100MB) it appears as if the node has not been created.

Known Issues

• Users with NVIDIA RTX 3070/3080/3090 cards will have issues with the Up-Res and JPEG Artifact Removal nodes.  Neural Match options in the Pattern Unwarp and Mutation (Structure) nodes may also have issues on these graphics cards. Users with these graphics cards will be prompted to download this version of ArtEngine.

• Nodes that are not recommended for Batching: Color to Mask, Color Muse, Mask Paint, Color Transfer, and in general nodes that are more specific to the individual bitmaps coming through.

• There is an issue with Batching creating extra black maps for output folders to make up the difference in numbers, if one input folder has more maps than another. 

• The following nodes cannot be canceled during execution: JPEG Artifact Removal, Up-res, and Blur.

ArtEngine version 2021.2.0

Release date: February 22nd, 2021

New Features and Improvements

• Crop Edit: There is now an ‘Edit in Viewer' button in the Crop node properties. This simply loads the Crop selection into the 2D viewer. The button is grayed out when the Crop window is active in the 2D viewer. When you edit the properties in the crop node it automatically invokes the Crop window in the 2D viewer and edits the values in the widget. Additionally, a 'Centre Crop Widget’ button and a ‘Reset Crop Widget' button have been added.
  
• New Nodes: Metalness and Specular: These nodes contain a set number of surface presets that can be accessed from a dropdown. Selecting one of these will load the color of the preset below, with a visual representation and its hex value. The Specular node produces grayscale values, and the Metalness node produces color values. The nodes will output solid color values at a resolution of your choosing.
• More control around overwriting files when exporting: Added an ‘Overwrite Existing Files’ checkbox in the node properties of the Batch Output, Output, and Export to Unity nodes. By default, it is unchecked. A dialog box appears when the overwrite checkbox is enabled. When overwriting maps, if there is a conflict, the existing file is backed up. If the export succeeds, that backup file is deleted. If the export fails, the exported file is deleted. When exporting maps and the overwrite checkbox is disabled, existing behaviour is preserved. Conflicting map names have a number appended to them until there are no conflicts.
• Reduced memory requirements for Multi-Angle to Texture: Multi-Angle to Texture now works with VRAM more efficiently, and should provide you with a performance increase.
• Update from within ArtEngine: Users can now see when a new version of the software is available from within ArtEngine. When an update is available, a green dot appears beside the Help item in the Menu bar. In the Help dropdown, you will see a new Update ArtEngine option. Here, you can download and install the newest available build of ArtEngine.

Resolved Issues

• Fixed an issue where trying to export only specific maps of a Material via the Output node would still output all maps, regardless of selection.

• Fixed an issue where some Undo strokes would be skipped over when using the Mask Paint node.

• Fixed an issue where the contrast slider in the High Pass node would become disabled when loading an existing project with the node already executed.

• Fixed an issue where starting two instances of ArtEngine would cause a clash while handling the sign in.

• Fixed an issue where giving an invalid or empty file path in the Batch output node would cause the batch run to execute but not actually export the files.

• Fixed an issue where the Roughness Transfer node would produce a red texture instead of the correct output.

• Fixed an issue where input maps would occasionally fail to load when opening a saved project.

• Fixed an issue where the cursor became a cross-hair on 3D Viewer

• Fixed an issue where duplicating a Normal Generation node would change its input type.

• Fixed a crash where Height generation node failure would lead to being unable to then execute further nodes.

Known Issues

• The Up-Res and JPEG Artifact Removal nodes are currently known to have issues executing on the NVIDIA RTX 3070/3080/3090 cards. Neural Match options in the Pattern Unwarp and Mutation (Structure) nodes may also have issues on these graphics cards.

• Nodes that are not recommended for Batching: Color to Mask, Color Muse, Mask Paint, Color Transfer, and in general nodes that are more specific to the individual bitmaps coming through.

• There is an issue with Batching creating extra black maps for output folders to make up the difference in numbers, if one input folder has more maps than another. 

• The following nodes cannot be canceled during execution: JPEG Artifact Removal, Up-res, and Blur.

ArtEngine version 2021.1.1

Release date: February 17th, 2021

New Features and Improvements

• New node: Noise: The new Noise node replaces the old Noise (Gaussian) node and introduces many more new types of noise generation for you to work with, including several types of cellular (Voronoi) noise and clouds (Perlin) noise. The properties of the node let you customize the noise generation behavior for each type.
  
• Pattern Array now supports Material input: You can now use the Pattern Array node with Material input types. All the pattern generation behaviors can now be applied to entire materials as well as individual textures.

Resolved Issues

• VRAM requirements for the Height Generation and Multi-Angle to Texture nodes have been reduced.
• Several issues with the Mask Paint node have been fixed.
• Fixed an issue that would sometimes cause licensing ArtEngine to fail.
• Fixed an exception that would previously prevent ArtEngine from starting.
• Fixed an issue that would sometimes cause ArtEngine to freeze after opening a project and previewing a node in one of the Viewports.
• Fixed an issue that sometimes caused ArtEngine to crash when using the Mutation node.
• Fixed an issue that would cause several tooltips to be truncated.
• Fixed an issue where connecting a new map to Hard Shadow Removal would not correctly update the shadow mask to match the new input.
• Fixed an issue where the file name preview for Batch Output did not fit into the field.
• Fixed an issue where Undo would not correctly work on renaming nodes.
• Fixed an issue where opening a saved project with an AMTL material node marked the project as having unsaved changes.
• Fixed an issue where the Ambient Occlusion Generation preview does not match the final output.
• The default settings for using height maps in the 3D Viewport have been improved. By default, meshes will now be affected by the height map.
• There is now a Sign Out button during licensing ArtEngine which allows you to sign out if you have logged in with the wrong account.

Known Issues

• The following nodes are not recommended for Batching: Color to Mask, Color Muse, Mask Paint, Color Transfer, and in general nodes that are more specific to the individual bitmaps coming through.
• There is an issue with Batching creating extra black maps for output folders to make up the difference in numbers, if one input folder has more maps than another.
• The following nodes cannot be canceled during execution: JPEG Artifact Removal, Up-res, and Blur.

ArtEngine version 2020.16.1

Release date: January 5th, 2021

New Features and Improvements

• New functionality for Pattern Array: The newest ArtEngine node just got better, now allowing you to add more variety to how the node arranges inputs in the pattern. You can vary input scaling, rotation, and offset, as well as add a degree of randomness to each of these properties, turning the Pattern Array node into a Scatter node in the process.
• Better Ambient Occlusion Generation: The Ambient Occlusion Generation node now uses a new algorithm to produce more physically accurate results. You should see much better output when using this node. Note that old values will not produce the same results in the new node.
• Better normal map generation for Multi-Angle to Texture: The Multi-Angle to Texture node now has a new radial compensation step and a new property to control it. This produces normal maps which preserve much better detail than before.

Resolved Issues

• Fixed an issue where ArtEngine would freeze when executing Mutation Revision on a Mutation node with a Structure Guide input.
• Fixed an issue where ArtEngine would freeze when copying and pasting an existing part of the Node Graph that contains Mask Paint nodes connected to Mutation nodes.
• Fixed a crash when adjusting node properties for Height Generation nodes.
• Fixed a crash when executing JPEG Artifact Removal on 4k resolution Bitmaps.
• Fixed an issue where a transparent texture would be displayed in the 2D Viewport when changing properties in Blend nodes.
• Fixed an issue where the Roughness Transfer node would produce a red texture instead of the correct output.
• Fixed an issue where input maps would occasionally fail to load when opening a saved project.
• Fixed an issue where using Undo after disconnecting a map from the Compose Material node would bring back the connection but not the input data.
• Fixed an issue where using Undo after deleting a folder from the Asset Library would not bring back the images that were inside that folder.
• Disconnecting the Metalness map from a Compose Material node no longer breaks rendering in the 3D Viewport.

Known Issues

• Nodes that are not recommended for Batching: Color to Mask, Color Muse, Mask Paint, Color Transfer, and in general nodes that are more specific to the individual bitmaps coming through.
• There is an issue with Batching creating extra black maps for output folders to make up the difference in numbers, if one input folder has more maps than another. 
• The following nodes cannot be canceled during execution: JPEG Artifact Removal, Up-res, and Blur.