Toolbag 5 Beta is Available Now!
The Marmoset team is excited to announce Toolbag 5 is publicly available for beta testing.
This new release is set to be a game changer for 3D artists of all disciplines. The new features in each major system of the software (baking, texturing, and rendering) significantly expand Toolbag’s production capabilities in all facets of 3D art creation, and boast major time-saving efficiencies in your art production pipeline.
Keep scrolling for a comprehensive overview of all the latest features, and get started with the Toolbag 5 beta today!
Now Featuring:
New in Baking
Take an in-depth look at the new baking features and improved baking performance in Toolbag 5 in this video walkthrough.
Let’s take a closer look at each new baking feature below.
Baking UDIM Textures
Toolbag’s Bake Projects now have UDIM support!
Achieve incredible levels of detail by baking high-resolution textures for multiple UDIM tiles simultaneously. Commonly used in the film industry, UDIMs offer a way to split your UV layout into multiple tiles – with a texture set for each tile – making it easy to manage complex, high-resolution texture data. UDIM tiles can be configured to maximize detail or to make complex UV layouts easier to work with by grouping them by object or material type.
To bake textures created with UDIM tile sets:
- Add a Bake Project to your scene.
- Change the Tile Mode to UDIM.
- Load your high-poly and low-poly meshes.
- UDIM tiles will automatically be detected based on the low-poly UV layout.
Most bake settings are shared for UDIM tiles. However, you can specify different resolutions for different tiles by clicking the lock 🔒 button to unlink that tile’s resolution. If your 3D application or target engine expects a certain naming convention for the UDIM textures, you can customize the output with the Append Tile and Separator settings.
Interactive Baking (real-time, for real)
Bake Projects now preview baked results in real-time while you make changes. Experience instant interaction as you change settings for your Ambient Occlusion map, material properties, and much more. Never interrupt your workflow again— continue to work in Toolbag as your baked maps write to disk.
To try out interactive baking, load an existing scene with a Bake Project or create a new one and press the Preview Material button. Baking will automatically engage when changes to the cage, meshes, and materials are detected.
Baking progress is now shown in the status bar, and interactive updates can be paused or canceled here as well. Interactive baking can be disabled by changing the Bake Mode to Offline – this may be useful if you’re making a lot of changes and don’t want to trigger a re-bake, or if you have an older GPU or very dense high poly mesh and want to improve performance.
Bevel Shader Baking
Massively increase the efficiency of your asset creation process by applying bevels to simplified high poly meshes. Say goodbye to control loops – you no longer need to create complex, time-consuming sub-division models to add rounded edges to your Normal maps. Bevels are baked to Ambient Occlusion and Curvature maps as well, making it easy to use the bevel workflow as a full replacement for high poly modeling in your baking and texturing pipeline.
To bake bevels, configure the Bevel shading model in the Surface panel for your high poly material. Vary the bevel width by applying unique materials to distinct regions to mimic different types of surfaces such as metal, rubber, and plastic. You can even create dents and wear effects by using Material Layering, masks, or vertex colors to randomize the bevels.
We look forward to your feedback on all the new possibilities with the industry’s most powerful baker. Next up, let’s dive into the major additions added to Toolbag’s texture painting tools.
New in Texture Projects
Before diving into the subsections below, please enjoy the following overview video giving a comprehensive look into each new texturing and painting feature introduced in Toolbag 5.
Now let’s break it down feature by feature…
UDIM Tile & Multiple Texture Set Support
You can now author textures that use multiple UV tile sets in Toolbag. Whether you’re using UDIMs, or have a unique texture set per tile, you can easily manage assets with textures that span numerous tiles.
You can 3D paint, apply Fill and Procedural layers of detail, and create complex masks and weathering effects that all work seamlessly over tile borders.
Get painting with seamless tile support by adding a Texture Project to your scene and setting Tile Mode to UDIM or Multiple Texture Set.
You can work seamlessly with both UDIM and MTS modes. However, the setup process varies for each:
- In UDIM mode, simply link the material for your low poly mesh, and the UDIM tiles will automatically be detected. Load input maps by selecting one map in the UDIM set – the rest will be automatically loaded.
- In MTS mode, link a material per texture set to determine the number of tiles. Input maps can be loaded for each material by selecting the tile and loading the maps.
Note: A GPU with 16GB of VRAM or more is recommended when working with multiple tiles at 4K resolution. You can improve performance and memory use by working at a reduced Viewport Resolution setting and by disabling tiles, layers, or groups that you’re not actively editing.
Vector Layers
Vector Layers are a new layer type that provides a powerful and non-destructive way to add geometric and organic shapes to your Texture Project using procedural curves or splines. This layer allows you to draw and edit vector shapes that wrap around your mesh in 3D. This suite of tools empowers you to create more of your asset’s details in the texturing phase, where it’s more convenient to experiment, iterate, and make corrections to suit the art direction of your project.
Vector layers can be added to your Texture Project in the Layers window. There are a number of tools for drawing vector shapes, selecting and editing them, and adjusting individual points and curve handles. You can store multiple shapes in a single layer and perform Boolean operations to create complex designs.
There are three vector modes:
- Tube – useful for pipes, wires, and panel lines.
- Solid – useful for blocking in larger forms like vents and portholes.
- Brush – useful for organic effects and repeating details like nuts, bolts, and stitches.
The material properties can be configured similarly to other layer types in Toolbag, giving you the flexibility to customize the surface qualities of your shapes. Additional settings control the profile or outer edge of the shape, allowing you to create recessed or protruding designs.
Sync Points
Sync Points unlock a revolutionary new workflow, allowing you to add geometric detail that influences other layers in your Texture Project. Save countless hours by drawing your details in Toolbag rather than modeling them in your 3D application.
Sync Points are a new layer type that generates input map data (curvature, ambient occlusion, and height) used by various processor layers from the normal and bump map detail added to the Texture Project. For example, nuts, bolts, dents, panel lines, and all manner of organic details. This makes it easy to build complex masks and effects that are aware of the geometric information built up in the layers below.
Sync points can be added to any Texture Project. You can add, refresh, and adjust the settings for Sync Points with the row of buttons at the bottom of the Layers window.
Generate Missing Input Maps
The content generation system developed for Sync Points can automatically generate missing input maps from a mesh and normal map too. This means if you have a normal map, but didn’t bake an AO or curvature map, the system will automatically create them for you.
To use this system, simply add an Input Map type in the Texture Project settings. If you leave the slot blank, these maps will be generated. You can load a texture to replace the automatically generated ones at any point by clicking on or dragging an image to the thumbnail.
The following map types are supported:
- Ambient Occlusion
- Curvature
- Height
Note: The automatically generated maps are an approximation. If you have a high poly mesh to bake from, it is still recommended to do so, but this is a useful feature if you do not have access to or are unable to bake maps from a high poly source.
Carve Groups
Carve Groups are a new group type that allows you to blend multiple layers using a single height-style blend mask. Carve Groups can be used in combination with Sync Points to create smart, surface-aware dirt, erosion, and wear effects that carve through the material layers. Save time and simplify your workflow – you no longer need to duplicate or carefully manage individual masks for related layers when building interconnected effects.
The new group icon in the Layers window allows you to add a Carve Group to your Texture Project. You can convert standard groups to Carve Groups with a RMB click. Carve Groups can also be placed inside other Carve Groups for even more complex effects.
Each layer maps to a configurable value range, with a gradient-style interface that makes it easy to control the weight or influence of specific layers. Carve groups and the individual layers they contain can have masks too, providing greater control over where the layers appear.
Clone Tool
The Clone tool is now available for Paint Layers. Clone allows you to sample content from one region of the canvas and paint it onto another. This is especially useful for correcting problems at UV seam borders and duplicating existing details.
To use the Clone tool:
- Add a Paint Layer to your Texture Project.
- Select the Clone tool from the toolbar.
- Hold Ctrl and LMB-click to set your sample point.
- Paint! The Clone tool can be configured to sample from all layers or only the current layer.
Anisotropic Direction Map Painting
It’s now possible to paint anisotropic direction or flow maps. Direction maps can be used to define the reflection direction for surfaces like hair and brushed metal.
To use this feature, add the Add Anisotropic Dir. to the Project Maps section of your Texture Project. When painting, the direction of the brush stroke will automatically be used to define the anisotropic direction.
Tiling direction maps can be applied with Fill layers, and various other types will generate direction content, too. Use Procedural layers like Cellular or Turbulence to create variation or abstract effects. This feature can be used to author directional content for hair, brushed metal effects, and more.
Recolor Adjustment Layer
Recolor is a new Adjustment layer that provides several methods for adjusting the colors of the layers in your Texture Project.
A Recolor layer can be added to your Texture Project by clicking on the Adjustment Layers button in the Layers window. It can be used to recolor multiple layers or parented to individual layers to isolate the recolor effect. Recolor layers have four modes:
- Simple – This mode uses the same technique we use to recolor maps in Fill layers. It provides a single color target, which will recolor the image as a whole.
- Primary Color – Automatically determines the main color, which can be recolored in isolation from the other colors used in the project.
- Multiple Colors – Automatically determines a variable number of colors that can be independently recolored.
- Custom Colors – Allows one or more color sources to be manually defined and recolored.
Fill Layer Recoloring Improvements
We have improved the algorithm used to recolor images and material references in Fill layers. Recoloring desaturated materials now works much better, especially when increasing saturation.
Color Selection (Material ID) Improvements
The Color Selection layer has been improved to better filter the anti-aliased borders between different regions. This results in higher-quality masks generated from Material ID maps.
Material ID maps (and other ID types) no longer need to be baked without anti-aliasing to avoid gaps between regions. Now, the anti-aliasing from the baked maps is smoothly integrated into the mask.
New in Rendering & Materials
We highly recommend watching the entire rendering overview video immediately below. We talk you through each new rendering feature introduced in Toolbag 5 to help get you acclimated to the new build as quickly as possible. Enjoy!
Note:👆This is a good overview video, don’t skip it. Alas, now let’s cover the new features one by one…
UDIM Support for Materials
It’s now possible to load tile sets in your material setup for film and game assets that use the UDIM workflow to render detailed, high-resolution materials. Easily manage the material settings for multiple tile sets from a single material instance.
To load textures created with the UDIM tile set layout convention into a material, set the Texture mode to UDIM. Load one texture from the set, and Toolbag will automatically detect the naming convention and load the rest. You can also drag multiple textures from a folder onto the material thumbnail to smart load them into the various texture slots.
Hybrid Rendering
Hybrid is a new rendering mode that balances the raster renderer’s interactivity and the ray tracer’s image quality. Hybrid splits the rendering of various lighting passes (shadows, GI, reflections) so they can be independently denoised. Lighting data from previous frames is re-projected, further reducing noise and providing a smoother, more game-engine-like experience.
To get started, go to the Render object and click on the dropdown in the Lighting to set the mode to Hybrid. You may notice that the settings in the Render object have been simplified; now, only the applicable options for each render mode are shown.
The Light Sampling Quality setting determines the resolution of various lighting passes. High uses the full viewport resolution, providing better detail and quality but with a higher performance cost. The Medium and Low settings use reduced resolution buffers and can be enabled to increase performance for viewport previews.
Note: Final renders will always use High quality.
Material Layering
Material Layering makes it possible to create complex, blended multi-material effects. This can be used for a wide range of purposes, from dynamic variations of props or characters to large assets like buildings and terrain. Traditional techniques like masking with a secondary UV set are supported. Triplanar projection and vertex color blending can be configured for a completely UV-less workflow as well.
To get started, select your material and pick a layering mode from the Layers panel.
- In Mask mode, you are able to load multiple images, with up to 4 masks per image (RGBA). This allows for a virtually limitless number of material layers.
- In Height mode, you can load a depth or height map. Each material layer automatically corresponds to a segment of the height map. This mode allows for many layers as well.
- In Vertex Color mode, layers can be assigned to one of four vertex channels (RGBA). This means you can have five layers, with the top four having unique masks. More layers are possible in this mode, however, only one set of vertex colors is supported, which limits the number of unique masks.
The base layer defines the primary shading models, however, you can disable shading models for individual layers to restrict certain effects. Texture maps such as albedo, roughness, normals, etc, can be configured with different blend modes. Blend modes are useful for building up detail, adding stains and dirt, etc.
Bevel Shader
The Bevel shader makes it easy to round over the hard edges of your objects to give them a more natural, realistic appearance. Adding bevels to the material can significantly simplify the modeling process, allowing you to create detailed hard-surface models without needing to use complex and time-consuming hard-surface modeling techniques. Bevels can also be baked!
To add the Bevel shader, select your material in the Materials window and change the Surface panel from Normals to Bevel.
Unique materials can be applied to different areas of meshes to vary the Bevel Width and Bevel Angle settings. Bevels will be created where objects intersect, which can be useful for creating complex parts that appear to be molded or welded together. To control this, split the different parts into dedicated mesh objects and use the Bevel Same Surface Only setting.
Note: The Bevel shader does not work with the Raster renderer, please use the Hybrid or Ray Tracing modes to preview bevels.
Groom Hair Rendering
Add realistic hair and fur to your characters with Groom spline support and the Hair shading model. Groom support enables you to import and render hairstyles created in XGen and other software that provide tools for authoring grooms. The Hair Reflection model scatters light through the hair strands for a more natural appearance.
To get started, import your groom file (.ABC format). This will create a Groom object that renders the splines. Various parameters can be adjusted to control the style of the splines. Upon importing, a material will automatically be configured with Hair set as the Reflection mode.
The new Hair Reflection model works with traditional hair card geometry as well. Hair can be enabled in the Clearcoat panel for secondary reflections which can be offset and tinted. There is a new Albedo Gradient model for coloring hair with a procedural gradient effect.
Triplanar Materials
Project materials seamlessly onto complex meshes without the need for UVs with Triplanar mapping. Easily apply any material to highly detailed sculpts and scans in seconds.
Triplanar projection can be engaged by switching the Texture panel from UV to Triplanar in the Materials window. The projection bounds can be adjusted in the Transform panel, click the Fine Tune button to interactively customize the projection in the viewport.
Procedural Skies
Procedural skies make it easy to create time-of-day style lighting in your scene. Create natural outdoor lighting for environments, architectural visualizations, and character presentations.
To get started, change the Sky type from Image to Procedural in the Source panel of the Sky object. Procedural skies can be customized to your liking with a variety of settings such as Time of Day, Day of Year, and fine adjustments for Sun Brightness, Scale, and color corrections.
Revamped Rendering – Up to 10x Faster RT
Toolbag’s rendering pipeline has been completely overhauled, bringing performance improvements and a more flexible backend for future development. The revised systems have been crucial for adding support for features such as UDIMs and triplanar projection and will be essential as we continue to add new and exciting rendering features in the future.
You can expect to see the following ray-traced performance improvements:
Performance improvements are most noticeable when using the ray-traced renderer in complex scenes with numerous meshes and materials, as well as scenes that use ray-traced Depth of Field or high bounce counts.
AgX Tone Mapping
AgX is a new tone mapping option which is enabled by default for the Camera object. AgX provides a nice balance of highlight and detail retention, creating a subtle, natural-looking image compared to the higher-contrast tone mappers like Hejl and ACES.
The images below show the difference between Linear (left) and AgX (right) tone mapping. Adjust the moveable slider to see the difference. When a camera object is selected, tone mapping can be adjusted in the Color panel.
UI & Misc
Updated UI Style
The user interface for Toolbag has been revamped, simplifying many elements and introducing hierarchical color cues for nested elements. High DPI artwork has been included for all GUI elements, and the font system has been revamped to better support different scaling settings for monitors of various resolutions.
Progress Bar Improvements
We’ve updated progress bars in various places to provide more detail and group rendering tasks together. The GUI style better matches Toolbag now as well.
When rendering with multiple cameras or render passes, Toolbag also now displays a secondary progress bar that shows the total progress/render queue. Offline baking will display a secondary progress bar for the total bake queue, as well as a bar for the progress of each map type and tile set.
Native Apple Silicon Support
Toolbag now runs natively on Apple Silicon hardware (Mac M1 and newer)! This change brings performance improvements to the Mac platform, primarily for CPU-heavy processes like model and texture loading, sub-division, animation playback, and CPU denoising.
Download Toolbag 5 Beta
Beta FAQs:
Beta Testing Reminder:
⚠️ Beta releases are likely to contain bugs and may have unstable features on certain machines or production pipelines. Beta releases are not recommended for live production pipelines or active educational environments.
That said, we encourage you each to get started testing the latest Toolbag beta on your personal projects. Please don’t hesitate to share your feedback by sending it directly to our support inbox, support@marmoset.co, or get involved in the community discussion on our official Marmoset Discord.
