What’s New

• Replace Image in layer/mask source now will open the image from disk.
• Mute Stencil Mask Opacity option is no longer available when doing the quick setup, since it has no purpose anymore.
• Blur types option is now available when doing Bake layer/mask as image
• Now Transition Bump Max Height can use negative values. It’s needed for creating some peel effects (Example)

Youtube demo of baking color ID mask with gaussian blur

Bugfixes

• Fix: Right-click menu on the File Browser can be spawned multiple times after creating a new blend file.
• Fix: Toggle Eraser doesn't work on Blender 5.0.
• Fix: Replace decal layer/mask image is causing the image extension to be repeated
• Fix: Back to Original UV doesn't work when the active image is from a channel's custom source data.
• Fix: Wrong baked channel result if displacement setup is enabled and there's a layer with a non-UV vector. The result is still not an exact match, but close enough.
• Fix: Preview Mode doesn't work with Blender 5.0.
• Fix: Error when trying to bake a channel when there's a missing decal mask image
• Fix: Refill UDIM Tiles returns an error when there's no layer.
• Fix: Paste Layers sometimes can return an error.
• Fix: Cannot set channel’s name on Blender 5.0.
• Fix: Using Add blending for bump map does not contribute to the final maximum height value.
• Fix: Merge layers with normal main channel will return an error.
• Fix: Baked Normal without bump sometimes does not get saved when saving the blend file.

Changes

• Opening other layer image/vertex color as a mask no longer automatically set the source input to Alpha since the user doesn't always want to use the image as an alpha clip.
• Using Enable Baked Outside and Displacement Setup will use the combined normal as the final normal rather than the normal without bump. This is because displacement maps are not exportable using GLTF, so by using the combined normal, it makes sure the displacement data is at least already included in the baked normal map.

Bugfixes

• Fix: Baking with Denoise/Dithering enabled doesn’t work with the latest Blender 5.0 Alpha
• Fix: Alpha socket default value gets reset after enabling/disabling channel's alpha
• Fix: Max height on node input always gets reset to 0.1, causing a wrong bake result
• Fix: Vector displacement input socket won't get properly reconnected after enabling/disabling Displacement Setup
• Fix Displacement image won't get baked if there's no layer using but there's a connection to input displacement socket (#307)
• Fix: Moving a layer with a transition ramp inside or outside a group can produce wrong color because of wrong connections
• Fix: Baking other object data can spawn an empty image texture node on some materials
• Fix: Wrong other object's channel bake result for channels after Normal
• Fix: Clicking Brush tool after toggling eraser with Smear/Blur tool will revert to using the eraser brush instead of the real paint brush
• Fix: Error when trying to refill UDIM tiles with an empty UDIM image

What’s New

• Notification of the time taken after the baking process is completed
• Notification to update when opening a blend file that is created using a newer version of Ucupaint

Example of notification after baking an edge detect layer/mask

Bugfixes

• Fix: Material becomes black after merging masks
• Fix: Updating a blend file that has older color ramp versions can produce the wrong material color.
• Fix: UV Mapping doesn't work with curves (#304)
• Fix: VDM layer does not work with layer group (#306)
• Fix: Cannot create a new channel when the channel list is empty
• Fix: Cannot bake with denoise enabled on Blender 5.0
• Fix: Baked vector displacement image isn't listed in baked normal channel images list
• Fix: Incorrect bump scale when Write Height is disabled
• Fix: Auto image save fails to save EXR image properly.
• Fix: Bump map with Write Height disabled produces wrong blended normal

What’s New

• Blender 5.0 Alpha support
• Normalize option for pointiness baking (#300)
• Use Cage option for baking other objects' data (#286)
• New option for ramp modifier to affect only color or alpha (#297)
• Other Object Emission bake option is replaced with Other Object Color since it can also work with Principled or Diffuse BSDF materials (#302)
• Active Mask / Override option for layer preview mode is renamed to Active Mask / Custom Data

Baking pointiness with Normalize enabled has less banding and is easier to control

Bugfixes

• Fix: Artifacts around the alpha area when using baked other object color as bump
• Fix: Refresh UV does not correspond to the custom channel source image, and sometimes can cause an error
• Fix: Expandable subitems do not list non-image/vertex color custom channel source
• Fix: Wrong vector displacement scale on Blender 4.5+

Maintenance release of Ucupaint, contains only bugfixes.

Bugfixes

• Fix: Creating a solid color layer with a vertex color mask in edit mode can cause missing data that cannot be resolved (#285)
• Fix: Baked layer/mask sometimes won’t use the correct UV Map
• Fix: Edge detect and Ambient Occlusion layer use wrong icons (#284)
• Fix: Removing Ambient Occlusion channel while Preview Mode is enabled is causing a disconnected node (#277)
• Fix: Moving channel order does not also move layer channel input properties (#283)
• Fix: Adding a new layer when the active layer is a disabled group on index 0 will make the newly created layer have weird indentation (#287)
• Fix: Cannot sculpt VDM image when the scene world is empty
• Fix: A pure black color on the color channel can affect the bake result of the normal channel

New Features

• Rebake all baked layers and masks (#245)
• Paste layer(s) has an option to rebake baked images
• New layer and mask type, realtime Ambient Occlusion (#253)
• Realtime Edge detect can now also be used as a layer
• Realtime Edge Detect, AO, and Fake lighting layers are now bakeable as an image
• New Dither option (for bake channels) to avoid banding color
• New OSL option (for bake channels) to avoid Out of SVM stack error when the material is too complex
• Fill selected geometry option when ColorID or vertex color is added in edit mode (#243)
• Copy & Paste custom bake target (#256)
• Open Images from Material now will check the node connection by default rather than checking the image names (#267)
• Paste layer now works with ucupaint node with a different channels list

Youtube video demo of realtime AO and rebake all layers/masks

Comparison of baked channel result with dithering on and off

Changes

• New float image will use Premultiplied alpha by default since it has better alpha handling.
• Enabling displacement setup will use Displacement and Bump mode rather than Displacement Only

Byte image with straight alpha has outline artifacts compared to float image with premultiplied alpha

UI Update

• All baked channel data is now displayed at the same time
• A bake button is added for some realtime AO/Edge Detect/Fake Lighting layer/mask for easier access
• Most Ucupaint operators now can be assigned to a custom shortcut key.
• Tree name can now be customized from the quick node setup popup (#247)
• Remove button is added for baked layer/mask
• Open Image in Explorer is added to the image layer/mask/channel source dropdown (263)
• Toggle Eraser button will be switched to red Disable Eraser button when the active brush is an eraser.

New baked channels UI

Bugfixes

• Fix: Misaligned internal nodes location on Blender 4.4+
• Fix: Replacing a mask type to Backface will create unnecessary nodes
• Fix: Baking with denoise enabled can make the bake result even noisier in some cases
• Fix: Group panel shows unused properties
• Fix: Open Image as channel source always uses an absolute path
• Fix: Duplicate layer won't duplicate its vertex color data
• Fix: Open image to layer channel source sometimes uses incorrect colorspace
• Fix: Bake All Channels causesan error when there's a normal enabled layer with a fake lighting mask
• Fix: Duplicate/Paste multiple layers did not recognize multi-user images and decal objects (#271)
• Fix: Bake Bevel Normal sometimes produces wrong result
• Fix: Float image uses wrong gamma color (#268)
• Fix: Wrong base color of float baked normal
• Fix: Bake other object channels with SSAA enabled produce wrong results on Blender 4.5

This release includes a significant UI redesign that aims to resolve some of the previous UI issues.

Updated UI

Collapsible Group

It's now possible to collapse a layer group

New dropdown icons

Dropdownable UI panels now have distinct arrow icons and are easier to click.

Layer channel source

Previously you needed to enable override toggle (hidden by default) to change layer channel value, now you can just change the layer channel source.

Other UI changes

• Vector option is now outside of layer dropdown
• Use lock icon toggle for Uniform Scale
• Object index is now consistently labeled Object index instead of Pass Index
• Layer and mask sources are now directly integrated into the UI
• Experimental display list option to make mask/override images to have their own entries on the layer list
• Rebake button is added beside Use Baked button
• Blender 2.7x also has an updated UI, but the dropdown area is still the icon only (icon label can't be clicked)

Changes

• Preview mode is now will disable compositor by default since it can change the actual color (#238)
• Toggle Eraser on texture paint mode in Blender 4.3+ won't create a new brush but select the available eraser brush asset
• Smoother Bump option is now only available if the experimental option is enabled since it's been deprecated (It's still available by default for Blender 2.7x)

Support

Ucupaint 2.2 still supports all Blender versions from Blender 2.76, so no worries for anyone who still uses older hardware/software

Bugfixes

• Fix: Images won't autosave when using EXR format (#232)
• Fix: Manually created UDIM images sometimes don't get packed correctly (#237)
• Fix: Apply sculpt to VDM produces wrong result when view transform is not Standard (#240)
• Fix: UI shows old alpha settings on Blender 4.2+ with cycles renderer
• Fix: Wrong bake results with multiple objects with the same material if there are mismatched attribute data types
• Fix: Move layer in or out of group can't be undo-ed
• Fix: Renaming layer also renames image atlas mask
• Fix: Missing UI when other objects bake data are not found
• Fix: Toggle eraser is not working on Blender 4.4
• Fix: Manipulating main channels can cause wrong keyframed/driver data

What's New

Object Space normal

Ucupaint can now bake and use an object space normal map. This is very useful for hand painting a stylized normal map.

Bugfixes

• Fix: Cannot enable channel's alpha on Blender 4.3+
• Fix: Transferring image masks sometimes will use wrong base color (Blender 2.83+)
• Fix: Cannot bake channel when there are multiple materials in a single object and the active object is in edit mode
• Fix: Opening images from other material can accidentally delete unrelated images
• Fix: Cannot preview the override normal when using layer preview mode
• Fix: Images get Packed after Saving them externally (#230)

Bugfixes

• Fix: Opening images to single layer with Add Mask enabled is causing error (#223)
• Fix: Misaligned mask UI on Open Images to Single Layer popup
• Fix: Duplicated decal object does not use the same collection as the original decal

New Features

• Quick resolution toggle when creating a new image layer/mask (#189 by @Kareemov03)
• Gabor layer/mask type (Blender 4.3+) (Showcase)
• Exclusion blend type (Blender 3.5+)
• Flip G option for loaded normal map when opening images to a single layer
• New button to open an image as a mask for a new layer (#211 by @passivestar)
• Individual color channel (R/G/B) as vertex color mask inputs (#222 by @passivestar)

New resolution toggle on new image layer popup

Bugfixes

• Fix: Some bake types (cavity, pointiness, bevel) does not take into account solidify modifier
• Fix: Baking other object channels does not read the alpha channel
• Fix: Toggle eraser on vertex paint mode cannot go back to original brush (Blender 4.3+)
• Fix: Cannot set some of transition effect properties
• Fix: Cannot go back to original UV when using image atlas on edit mode
• Fix: Adding a new vertex color mask resets the extension mode of a previous decal image mask back to clip (#209)
• Fix: Layer with Flip Y enabled still flips the G/Y channel after changing layer type to non-image
• Fix: Error when replacing UDIM atlas layer to another type
• Fix: Using vertex color alpha as a mask will cause missing UI
• Fix: Blender 2.80+ uses the wrong icons for channel selection on the new layer popup

Label Renames

For more clarity, some labels in Ucupaint are renamed

• Image’s Flip Y is renamed to Flip G
• Spread Fix is renamed to Divide RGB by Alpha
• RGB to Intensity and Intensity to RGB modifiers are renamed to RGB to Alpha and Alpha to RGB

Icon Changes

The show layer channel toggle now uses a new icon for a better representative of what it does

New icon for show layer channel toggle