For those who don’t know the tool: Material Maker builds procedural textures and painted looks with node graphs, runs on Godot Engine, and exports materials for engines while you keep your DCC doing DCC things.

1.6 focuses on speed, sanity, and shipping

Material Maker 1.6 lands as a practical release: faster interaction on heavy graphs, new nodes aimed at controlled variation workflows, and a longer list of fixes that smooth daily use. The update keeps the core loop intact. You build textures and materials in a node graph, preview the result, and push assets downstream.

The release moves the app to Godot Engine 4.5.1. That base change pairs with performance work across graph rendering and several parameter editors. Graph rendering now optimizes zoomed-out views, and editor changes target responsiveness in places artists touch all day.

Controlled Variations aims for repeatable variety

1.6 introduces Controlled Variations and related nodes. The release frames this as a system for generating variants of a material look with more control than pure randomness.

Variant workflows matter when you need a family of surfaces that stay consistent across a set, a biome, or a prop library. In day-to-day terms, controlled variation can reduce duplicated graphs and the temptation to fork a graph into ten nearly identical versions you never want to touch again.

Aperture nodes cut the spaghetti

1.6 adds Aperture nodes to keep graphs readable. In and Out nodes connect through a shared identifier that appears as a label on the node. You edit the identifier by double-clicking the label or using keyboard shortcuts, and you can change label color with a key command while the node stays selected.

That feature targets the real enemy of node workflows: scaling up. A small graph stays understandable through wires. A production graph turns into a plate of noodles. Aperture nodes let you route signals cleanly without dragging cables across half the canvas.

Portal nodes and a growing node toolbox

1.6 adds portal nodes, plus a variadic Color Pick node. It also updates multiple existing nodes and editors. The changelog mentions changes around text handling, warp inputs, pixel tools, gradient options, and improved curve and polygon parameter editors. Comment nodes and remote links also receive attention, alongside drag-and-drop improvements for remote and iOS parameters.

glTF export takes a first step

1.6 adds a basic exporter for static PBR materials in the glTF format. The feature targets straightforward export rather than full dynamic graph translation. That still helps in real pipelines, where “get me the baked result in a common format” solves more problems than a perfect one-click pipeline dream. Several export-related fixes also land, including fixes tied to Godot 4 export behavior, missing ORM textures, and improvements to the Dynamic PBR preview and Godot 4 export paths.

Availability, licensing, and Steam plans

Material Maker distributes builds for Windows, macOS, and Linux via itch.io with name-your-own-price, including free. Source code lives on GitHub under the MIT License.

A Steam listing shows a planned release date of July 2026 and lists system requirements. Windows requires Windows 10, an x86_64 CPU with SSE4.2, and graphics support for Vulkan 1.2 or DirectX 12. macOS lists macOS 10.13 with Metal support. Linux lists Vulkan 1.2 support.

https://rodzilla.itch.io/material-maker/devlog/1491329/material-maker-16

https://github.com/RodZill4/material-maker

https://www.materialmaker.org/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4110830/Material_Maker/

The post Material Maker 1.6 tunes graphs and exports first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

or those who don’t know the tool: Material Maker is an open-source procedural material authoring and 3D texture painting tool based on the Godot engine that lets artists create node-based PBR texture maps for engines like Godot, Unity and Unreal via visual graphs and export templates.

Material Maker 1.5: What’s New

Material Maker 1.5 has been released by developer Rod Zilla with upgrades focused on file format support, workflow improvements and additional nodes. The update introduces support for DDS image loading, a texture format widely used in game pipelines, and FBX mesh loading for previewing and working with 3D models directly inside the authoring environment.

A command-line interface (CLI) has been reinstated, allowing for scripted or batch export of materials without the GUI, which benefits automated pipelines and bulk processing. Workflow has been improved in the node graph editor with lasso selection and additional keyboard shortcuts, and there are updates to the Library and Reference panels, including a clipboard paste option for reference images. The release also adds 10 new nodes, including seven signed distance field (SDF) nodes, expanding procedural texturing capabilities.

Position in Production Toolchain

Material Maker remains positioned as a free alternative to subscription tools like Substance 3D Designer, targeting texture authors in games and VFX who prefer open-source, node-based workflows. It supports Windows, macOS and Linux and is licensed under MIT, allowing integration into both hobby and professional projects without licensing costs.

What It Means for Artists

Support for DDS and FBX aligns the tool with industry standards for game and real-time asset pipelines. The return of a CLI enables light automation and bulk tasks that were harder to do in earlier versions. New nodes broaden procedural control, though Material Maker remains primarily geared toward texture creation and export, not a full shader authoring suite. Users should evaluate the interface and output quality before integrating it into production workflows.

Official Material Maker devlog on itch.io
// https://rodzilla.itch.io/material-maker/devlog/1312764/material-maker-15

Material Maker official site description
// https://www.materialmaker.org/

The post Material Maker 1.5 adds DDS, FBX, CLI, 10 new nodes first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

What’s Material Maker and why this matters

Material Maker is an open-source, node-based procedural texturing tool built on the Godot engine. It enables artists to create PBR texture graphs, paint directly onto 3D meshes, and export materials for engines such as Unity, Unreal, or Godot itself. The software has long served as a free alternative to commercial node-based texturing tools, offering a lightweight and extensible workflow.

Version 1.4 represents a substantial technical milestone. The entire tool has been ported from Godot 3 to Godot 4, involving a near-complete rewrite of shader generation, UI layout, and core rendering systems. Because this migration changes the internal architecture, older graphs and projects may not behave identically after conversion.

Godot 4 port and shader engine rewrite

The move to Godot 4 is the heart of this release. Developer RodZilla notes that he “seriously underestimated” the scale of the migration effort. The new engine required rewriting many components from scratch, including the shader generation logic. Unused functions are now pruned automatically, and generated code includes node references for improved debugging. The output is smaller, cleaner, and executes more efficiently inside Godot 4’s rendering pipeline.

The switch to the new rendering backend also made compute shaders more reliable. This stability, in turn, allowed the introduction of new parameter types such as Splines, Pixels, and Lattice, as well as distortion controls that were previously impossible or unstable on Godot 3.

32-bit precision textures

With version 1.4, Material Maker gains support for rendering textures at 32 bits per channel. This improves numerical precision in generated maps, reducing banding and quantisation artefacts. The improvement is particularly relevant for heightfields and normal maps, where small gradients often reveal rounding errors when limited to lower bit depths.

Artists can now choose 32-bit buffers in the rendering pipeline. This is the first time Material Maker achieves such precision, made possible entirely by the Godot 4 backend.

MeshMap node and smarter Smart Materials

The release also introduces the new MeshMap node, designed to bake and manage mesh-dependent textures directly within a material graph. It automatically generates per-mesh maps such as position, normal, tangent, curvature, occlusion, and thickness. When a user switches to a different mesh in the 3D preview, the node rebakes all associated maps automatically.

This capability strengthens the Smart Materials workflow, allowing procedural materials to react intelligently to the model’s geometry without leaving Material Maker.

RodZilla remarks that the painting tool has been partially re-implemented in this release, now using compute shaders to handle all channels in a single pass. He acknowledges, however, that this is an experimental solution and may evolve in future versions. The developer is considering a more layer-based UI for texturing workflows, where graphs could be abstracted into a simplified stack view.

UI overhaul and preview improvements

Material Maker’s user interface has been extensively redesigned. Panels can now be undocked, rearranged, and saved as custom layouts. Two default configurations are provided: one for material authoring and one for mesh painting. A new “Modern” theme has been added, and theme switching is now handled dynamically.

The 3D preview gains AgX tonemapping, along with controls for exposure and white balance. Shader errors are displayed in a dedicated console, and clicking an error message highlights the offending node directly in the graph. Additional refinements include a searchable “Add Node” popup and expanded Find/Replace functionality in the shader editor.

Overall, the UI changes make Material Maker less monolithic and more comfortable for artists accustomed to complex, multi-panel environments.

Expanded node library and parameters

Version 1.4 adds numerous new nodes and parameter types. Spline and Pixel parameters have been introduced, along with associated nodes for smooth pixel operations and curve-based modulation. The new Lattice parameter provides a grid-based deformation system for procedural distortions.

Signed Distance Function (SDF) workflows have been significantly expanded with new 2D and 3D SDF primitives and operations. The EasySDF editor now supports more shapes and axis parameters in Extrude and Revolution nodes. The Blend node gains additional blend modes for hue, saturation, colour, and value operations.

Material Maker now also supports Unity’s Universal Render Pipeline for static material export, improving compatibility for game developers.

These new options collectively make procedural authoring in Material Maker considerably more expressive. Artists can create more organic or structured materials without resorting to external maps or sculpted geometry.

Miscellaneous and platform updates

Material Maker 1.4 targets Godot 4.4.1 and includes optimisations across all supported systems. macOS packaging has been simplified for easier installation. The splash screen now features user-made materials or shaders from the community. A startup option allows deletion of unsaved “rescued” projects, reducing clutter for long-time users.

Under the hood, numerous fixes have been applied to library handling, export logic, environment editing, and popup placement. Shader exports for Unity, Unreal, and Godot have been refined, particularly in handling dynamic arrays and HLSL code generation.

Availability and stability

Material Maker 1.4 is available now for Windows, macOS, and Linux, distributed as open source under the MIT licence. The developer warns that despite months of testing, the Godot 4 port introduces major internal changes. Artists are encouraged to test thoroughly before deploying it in production.

RodZilla describes the painting workflow as experimental and continues to regard version 1.3 as the safest option for mission-critical work. Users should verify compatibility of existing graphs, node libraries, and shader exports before full migration.

Implications for production pipelines

For texture artists and look-dev specialists, the shift to 32-bit channel precision delivers measurable benefits in map quality. The MeshMap node shortens the path between procedural generation and mesh-aware baking, reducing dependency on third-party tools. The flexible UI layout accommodates multi-screen workflows common in larger studios.

At the same time, the deep architectural changes mean that conversion of existing node graphs may not be straightforward. Production users should test carefully before committing to version 1.4 in live pipelines. As always, no software, particularly one built on a new rendering core, should be adopted without validation in the specific studio environment.

The post Material Maker 1.4: Godot 4 port, flexible UI, 32-bit baking first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.