Ultimate PBRSkin Manager vs 1-Click PBRSkin

BlueFingers

I have applied and adjusted older skins to PBR myself in the past, but it's not a process I particularly enjoy so have been looking at Ultimate PBRSkin Manager and 1-Click PBRSkin. I can't determine the difference between the two products.

Am I correct in assuming they both make converting older skins to PBR easier rather than adding new possibilities?

Are there people with experience with both products who can give me an idea what the differences are, or even if it's worth using them both in the same workflow?

Silas3D

Hi @BlueFingers, full disclosure 1-Click PBRSkin is mine and Josh Darling's product and allows conversion of older skins from Genesis 2 all the way through to current Genesis 9 generation.

Ultimate PBRSkin Manager does not convert skins, a skin would already have to be using the PBRSkin shader for the product to work. Not to discount that product there's a lot you can do with it it really depends on what you need. There is some crossover in features such as gamma and translucency color adjusments, but presented differently.

You could certainly use them in the same workflow, first using 1-Click PBRSkin to convert and then if you need more advanced control then Ultimate PBRSkin Manager could help.

There is a commercial thread for 1-Click PBRSkin that I created which I would encourage you to take a look at as it has a lot of questions answered there along with example renders - please feel free to ask additional questions in that thread if you need any help!

BlueFingers

Thanks for the link to the thread, I found it before but stared a separte thread because I hoped on some input from users of Ultimate PBRSkin Manager too, and hopefully users who have used both products.

So what I am getting from this is both products more or less do the same but have a different focus;

• 1-Click PBRSkin also applies the PBRskin shader in a more convinient way and focusses on the most important variables (less mouse clicks towards the end goal, better UI overview, but no options to adjust slider for Normals for example)
• Ultimate PBRSkin Manager offers a UI improvement of all options that are found in the Surface Tab and the option to adjust settings for test renders (better overview, but you'll have to appy the PBR skinshader first).

Both do not added new features but are there to make the workflow more convinient, just with a different focus.

Does prompt the question, can I use 1-Click PBRSkin to edit the skin of Characters that already have a PBRSkin applied to it, or will it just give me a "Character already has a PBRSkin applied to it."-type-of-message and stop?

As I am already quite familiar with the Surface Tab and neither products allow me to load other Normal Maps, I'm currently leaning towards 1-Click PBR Skin as it will likely save me the most time and I'll end-up in the Surface Tab in the end anyway.

I really hope folks with experience with both products will chime in to correct me if I made the wrong assumptions and add their insight.

Silas3D

No problem - the primary focus of 1-Click PBRSkin was very much to convert older skins to the new shader (and make this much easier than doing manually), even going as far as creating translucency maps from the diffuse maps as older figures either have no translucency maps at all or use inferior grayscale maps. This in effect would be a new feature as its creating something that previously didn't exist.

Other features such as gamma, roughness and translucency color adjustments were added organically or as an update through customer feedback.

The conversion scripts will not work on a figure that already has PBRSkin applied, but all the other scripts (gamma, roughness and translucency color adjustment) will.

BlueFingers

Many thanks for the information, very helpful, you just sold it to me!

And I have to say, a PA being this actively in the forum helping with queries and responding to customer questions is a big + when considering a product like this for me.

Silas3D

Very welcome!

Thank you it means a lot. I do try to be as active as I can :)

bambooji

It helped me too.  Many thanks.  I think this is a super product! 

jardine

The conversion scripts will not work on a figure that already has PBRSkin applied, but all the other scripts (gamma, roughness and translucency color adjustment) will.

great product.  i've really enjoyed having it in my toolbox. 

but i just tried to run the script on a recent g9 character skin by a fairly new PA that had some of the surfaces/textures attiributes of a full PBR skin, but lacked others.  specifically, i was trying to add the skin detail MAT options to eliminate the plastic-doll look.  (i totally verified that the detail maps weren't there anywhere by searching for 'detail' in the surfaces tab.) 

but the script found enough PBRness in the skin to decline to run, so i wound up having to go with a time-consuming workaround that required a lot of fiddling around and manual map replacement.

so i just wanted to suggest that it might be nice to have an option (or a separate script) to convert a skin, even if it did tick a lot of the correct PBR boxes.

thanks and best wishes,

john