Maniphest T72983

FBX export uses "base color" instead of white when texture is attached
Closed, Archived
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Assigned To
Philipp Oeser (lichtwerk)
Authored By
Todd Gillissie (Gillissie)
Jan 8 2020, 11:33 PM
Tags
  • BF Blender
Subscribers
Julian (MotoFckr9k)
Omar Emara (OmarSquircleArt)
Philipp Oeser (lichtwerk)
Pratik Borhade (PratikPB2123)
Todd Gillissie (Gillissie)

Description

System Information
Operating system: Darwin-18.7.0-x86_64-i386-64bit 64 Bits
Graphics card: AMD Radeon Pro 580 OpenGL Engine ATI Technologies Inc. 4.1 ATI-2.11.20

Blender Version
Broken: version: 2.81 (sub 16), branch: master, commit date: 2019-12-04 11:32, hash: rBf1aa4d18d49d
Worked: (optional)

Short description of error
The "Base Color" property of the Principled BSDF shader is not shown nor editable when a texture node is linked to the Base Color input. However, when exporting, the base color is still used instead of white.

Exact steps for others to reproduce the error
As a workaround for every single object before exporting, I need to disconnect the Base Color texture node, set the Base Color to white, then re-connect the Base Color texture node.
I would expect the base color to export as pure white whenever a texture node is connected to it, so that there is no unexpected non-texture tinting.
See attached screenshot of the problem material in Unity. See attached video for the workaround that is needed to fix each one.

Related Objects

Event Timeline

Todd Gillissie (Gillissie) created this task.Jan 8 2020, 11:33 PM

Todd Gillissie (Gillissie) added a comment.Jan 8 2020, 11:35 PM

Todd Gillissie (Gillissie) added a comment.Jan 8 2020, 11:38 PM

I think the real problem is that the Base Color picker disappears when a texture is connected. It should still be pickable in that situation.
Plus, I would love the default color to be pure white. Who uses slightly less than pure white as the normal base color??

Philipp Oeser (lichtwerk) closed this task as Archived.Jan 9 2020, 9:52 AM
Philipp Oeser (lichtwerk) claimed this task.
Philipp Oeser (lichtwerk) added a subscriber: Philipp Oeser (lichtwerk).

Hi and thx for the report!

The default of 0.8 for most "base" colors (except emission, transparency) originates in the fact that in nature there aren’t pure white or black or 100% reflective surfaces, so it makes a nice default for a physically plausible scene.
This might be debatable, but would not be considered a bug.

The base color being hidden is a UI/UX choice which makes sense in many cases [since in blender, the base color has no effect when the socket is connected], maybe it has drawbacks when exporting to different engines [where the base color even has an effect if the socket is connected], but that that would also not be considered a bug.

If you want this changed and can make a good point in how this could work without causing confusion, please use other channels for this: https://wiki.blender.org/wiki/Communication/Contact#User_Feedback_and_Requests
For more information on why this isn't considered a bug, visit: https://wiki.blender.org/wiki/Reference/Not_a_bug

Todd Gillissie (Gillissie) added a comment.Jan 9 2020, 5:36 PM

I agree that most of this is just bad UI/UX decisions instead of a bug, but I would still argue that exporting with that "unused in Blender" color instead of white is a bug, since it's not shown or expected. It's exporting differently than represented. That seems like a bug to me.

Philipp Oeser (lichtwerk) added a comment.Jan 9 2020, 6:32 PM

Well, the base color is not white, I would expect it to export with that [and the texture of course].

It's exporting differently than represented. That seems like a bug to me.

It is debatable if a shading system should always multiply its textures by a base color [this is what you describe with Unity], but this is outside the scope of this bugtracker.

FYI, just had a quick glimpse over Unitys docs and apparently they also changed this (optionally):

Starting with version 2019.3, Unity introduced the ability to modify the Material mapping during import via scripting...
Unity provides default implementations of this Post Processor....
These default implementations handle importing Materials differently from the ImportStandard mode, including the following improvements:
If a diffuse Texture is set, it ignores the diffuse color (this matches how it works in...

https://docs.unity3d.com/2020.1/Documentation/Manual/FBXImporter-Materials.html

Todd Gillissie (Gillissie) added a comment.Jan 9 2020, 6:34 PM

But like you said, the base color has no effect in Blender when there is a texture connected. So, effectively, the base color is pure white when a texture is connected. It should export this way to match how Blender treats it.

Omar Emara (OmarSquircleArt) mentioned this in T101198: Should FBX exporter exports the base color when there is a texture embedded, or instead always export a white base color?.Sep 28 2022, 10:27 PM
Omar Emara (OmarSquircleArt) merged a task: T101198: Should FBX exporter exports the base color when there is a texture embedded, or instead always export a white base color?.
Omar Emara (OmarSquircleArt) added subscribers: Julian (MotoFckr9k), Omar Emara (OmarSquircleArt), Pratik Borhade (PratikPB2123).