DocumentationSubstance 3DSubstance 3D Painter

Version 12.1.0 (Beta)

Last update: April 16, 2026

Substance Painter 12.1.0 introduces major improvements to baking workflows, a new option to automatically unwrap hard surface models, and support for OpenPBR.

Release date: May 25th 2026

NOTE
Beta releases can include unknown bugs or issues so stability is not guaranteed. As a result, we do not recommend using Beta builds for urgent or sensitive work.

New baking features

Enable automatic rebaking to save time while tweaking baking parameters.

Fix distortion with a skew correction map

New Skew correction options are available when in Baking mode that allow you to directly fix distortion.

With Cage set to Distance-based, under Skew correction, select Paint skew correction to start painting on your low-poly mesh.

While in skew painting mode, you can paint on the surface of your mesh to control the direction of surface normals for baking.

NOTE
You can use the standard painting shortcuts while painting skew corrections, just like you would in a paint layer. For example, use X to switch between painting and erasing, or use ctrl + right-click to change the brush size.

Turn on Edge protection to ensure the baker still projects high-poly softness onto low-poly hard edges. You can adjust the Edge distance and Edge contrast for finer control over the edge protection.

Above, the mesh on the left displays visible distortion due to surface normal misalignment near hard edges. The same mesh on the right with a painted skew map shows no more distortion, and normals are perpendicular to the surface, except near the edges thanks to edge protection.

Updated Mesh map bakers panel

Instead of appearing like another channel, Common settings now has a dedicated button.

Additionally, new controls are available next to each channel so you can:

  1. View the channel in the viewport.
  2. Rebake the channel.
  3. Toggle auto-rebake for the channel.
  4. Sync settings across texture sets for the channel.

OpenPBR support

Use the new industry standard for your projects. Import shader settings and textures from other apps and export your work with the USD format to ensure material consistency across your workflow.

You can find the new OpenPBR shader in the Shader settings panel. Painter still defaults to the Adobe Standard Material - PBR Metallic Roughness shader.

Automatic unwrapping for hard surface models

Hard-surface has been added as an optional Unwrap mode when using Auto-Unwrap. With hard surface mode selected, the unwrapper focuses on minimizing distortion of UV islands and creating an orthographically aligned UV map.

Hard surface unwrap produces cleaner, orthographic UVs for your hardsurface assets.

Changelog

V12.1.0 build 2795

Release date: 2026/05/25

Added:

  • Several minor improvements to USD exports
  • Update Adobe Color Engine to version 7.0
  • [Flatten] Allow to flatten all instanced layers across Texture Sets
  • [Skew Baking] Rework Mesh map List UI
  • [Skew Baking] Update baking mode icon
  • [Skew Baking] Change viewport toolbar buttons
  • [Skew Baking] Show Symmetry toggle for brush in top toolbar
  • [Skew Baking] Rename Options in mesh map List Sync menu
  • [Skew Baking] Create Grayscale color picker variant
  • [OpenPBR] Update Export Textures window to show OpenPBR naming convention
  • Make OpenPBR the default workflow and shader
  • [Shader] Add documentation about changes to support OpenPBR

Fixed:

  • [Substance] Only the first usage of an input/output node is taken into account
  • [Shader] Ambient Occlusion is applied twice with Texture Sets using different mixing methods
  • [Crash] [Baking] Baking with custom cage enabled but no file selected crashes
  • [Engine] Normal textures with empty blue channel (black) can lead to wrong blend results

V12.1.0

Release date: 2026/03/31

Added:

  • [Skew baking] Skew Painting Tools
  • [Skew baking] Change Polygon Fill behaviour to work on first channel of the current stack instead of basecolor or mask only
  • [Skew baking] Add Skew Preview shader and Skew Direction Vector visuals when painting skew map
  • [Skew baking] Split Mesh Map / Common Baking settings + Move Common Settings out of mesh map list
  • [Skew baking] Auto rebake
  • [Skew baking] Add Edge Protection option
  • [OpenPBR] Add support for OpenPBR 1.1
  • [OpenPBR] Export OpenPBR materials and textures via USD
  • [OpenPBR] Import OpenPBR materials and textures via USD
  • [Iray] Add new MDL to support OpenPBR 1.1 in Iray
  • [Auto Unwrap] Integrate Hard Surface option
  • [Substance] Add new “mesh_hard_edges_triangle” engine map input
  • [Substance] Add new “mesh_hard_edges” engine map input
  • [UI] Add warning in the viewport when trying to paint on another Texture Set

Fixed:

  • [Polygon Fill Tool] Does not work with non-PBR
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