PBR Texturing Guide: From Substance Painter to Game Engine

Physically-Based Rendering (PBR) is the standard for modern game art. But "PBR" is broader than a single workflow — there are two common models (Metallic/Roughness and Specular/Glossiness), and nuances in how each engine interprets your texture data.

Metal/Rough vs Spec/Gloss

Unreal Engine 5 and Unity (HDRP/URP) both use the Metal/Rough model. If you're outputting for these engines, stay in the Metal/Rough export preset in Substance Painter. Only use Spec/Gloss if explicitly required by your client's pipeline.

Baking: The Foundation of Everything

A bad bake ruins even the best hand-painted texture. Before opening Substance Painter:

• Explode your mesh in the bake setup to avoid cage issues
• Bake at 4K even if the final asset ships at 2K — you can always downscale
• Normal map bake: use cage method, not ray-distance, for complex shapes
• Always inspect your Normal map in Marmoset Toolbag before moving to Painter

Calibrating Roughness Values

Roughness is the most commonly miscalibrated map. Real-world reference ranges:

• Polished metal: 0.05–0.15
• Brushed metal: 0.3–0.5
• Painted surface: 0.4–0.6
• Rough stone / concrete: 0.7–0.9
• Raw wood: 0.6–0.8

Material Storytelling

A technically correct texture can still look lifeless. Material storytelling answers: how has this object been used? Where has it been? For a weapon, think: grip wear from hands, barrel heat discoloration, scratches from holster contact, oil stains near mechanical parts.

Export Settings for UE5

• Albedo: BC7 sRGB
• Normal: BC5 Linear (two-channel, UE5 reconstructs Z)
• Roughness/Metallic/AO: BC4 or pack into a single ORM texture (R=AO, G=Roughness, B=Metallic)
• Emissive: BC7 Linear