There is a version of Bitmap2Material in this pack on the Asset Store - I’ve been fishing for license information on the Allegorthimic site, but it’s quite vague.
From a couple of Allegorthimic forum posts, it would seem this does not work within Unity - even though it’s sold through the Asset Store.
Can anyone who’s bought this confirm it?
Thanks
Steve
it seems Unity is now allowing stand alone assets that have nothing to do with Unity specifically, but can work for assets… Like their studio tool. So I guess you can no longer trust that anything sold on the asset store is for Unity
Good point.
In this case as there are are two versions of B2M, one standalone, and one within Unity, it seems especially odd that it’s the non-Unity version.
From looking on http://www.allegorithmic.com/products/bitmap2material#game_engine website. The only site I have found this information at. “Substances being fully supported in Unity 3D and UDK/UE3, B2M can be used in your game engines with the Pro license”
This information should have been stated in the asset store.
OK. It looks like it costs an extra $100 to upgrade it to the Pro (Unity) version. Still quite a good deal, but I agree it should be made clear in the promotion.
Hi Steve I think your assumptions are wrong. The indie pack allows you to use all the tools for commercial work unless you earn over $10000 and also has limits on how you can distribute the substance files you create. For example you aren’t allowed to sell substance files and you can’t use the batch tools for generating substances you have to create each substance manually. Apart from that you can do what you like. The only difference between the 2 b2m tools is that the unity one is automatically imported into your unity project while the one in the pack assumes you want to us it with any game engine and can also be used as a stand alone application. If you want to use the b2m substance from it in unity all you need to do is import it manually in the same way you would do it from substance designer.
The main reason for buying the indie pack would be that you wanted to be able to use the painting tools and full substance tools from substance designer rather than the b2m tool in unity though. If you aren’t interested in using the more complexed features you would be better just getting b2m on its own as it would have no limits on it’s commercial use.
In short the indie pack is designed and created for people who want to make use of all the substance features but couldn’t usually afford to do so. They are separate complexed applications outside of unity. You are expected to create the substance files in these applications outside of unity and then import them into unity in the same way you would create psd files in photoshop and import them.
In substance designer you can set what parameters can be changed in a substance by unity after it is exported so you have more flexibility than b2m anyway.
Hi Ian
Thanks for the info.
Not sure which assumptions you meant; I’m familiar with the suite, my confusion was just about whether B2M was standalone or integrated.
I’ve already used SD and so agree with what you said. For me personally though*,* for certain kinds of textures, I will still find B2M very useful rather than doing the whole CrazyBump & Photoshop thing. It’s worth it for my workflow to pay the extra to have it integrated. It’s great for quick prototyping.
Interesting what you said about batch processing - hadn’t seen that mentioned before. Do you know where I could read about that directly?
The assumptions I meant were about the pro upgrade of b2m and what it does. The $100 upgrade you mentioned is just to allow you to use it for commercial use. You don’t need to pay this with the indie pack as you can already use it for commercial use unless you make more than $10000 . The batch processing limitations are mentioned in the terms and conditions linked to on the indie pack on the algorithmic website.
B2M in effect is just an advanced substance material that allows you to input texture maps that it can then compress and manipulate in an engine that supports substances. You could build your own customized version of it with substance designer anyway so b2m should not be the reason for being interested in the indie pack.
If you don’t need to create your own substances or want a paint tool that can paint the channels needed for pbr shaders in unity 5 then you shouldn’t purchase it. You would be better off just buying the substance materials that someone else has made. It’s all a question of how many substances you need. That’s the reason for the batch limitations and not being allowed to sell substances created with the indie pack. They don’t want you selling packs of substances. It is meant for an indie developer that needs to create a few customized substances or paint meshes for their own game.
If you only really need the tools provided by b2m then just buy the commercial version of that. You would have less restrictions on it’s usage and it would be slightly cheaper. Or just buy the substance materials you need for your game and save even more money.
Ahh… I suspected we were talking at cross-purposes, and this may be the root of it. 
The $100 upgrade also importantly provides the Unity-integrated Bitmap2Material_2.sbsar, along with the standalone. That, and that alone was the subject of the OP. Nothing about only needing B2M, or wanting pre-made substances.
Substance Designer and Substance Painter are great tools, and of course the stars of the show. I’m not sure how you inferred that I thought otherwise. But, sorry, I still find a Unity-integrated B2M to be a fast & useful tool in many scenarios as I said. I’m not wealthy, so I do think it’s OK to query exactly what I’m getting for my money. If I can afford B2M rather than a lot of work cobbling together and maintaining a homemade version in SD, I’ll go for it.
Thanks for the comments anyway, could be useful for others who didn’t know the difference between the tools.
Finally, for anyone in the UK considering the pack… it actually works out about £13 cheaper to buy it from Allegorthimic at $199, than the Asset Store’s 157.70 Euros. (Unity’s UK vs US pricing is always poor, maybe down to Danish VAT?)
Where does it mention that the $100 upgrade also contains an extra sbsar if so I certainly missed that ? Also with regards to the pricing on their website wouldn’t you also have to add 20 % vat to that or did you take that into account ? I think the asset store automatically adds 25 % vat to the price if you are in Europe.
OK I did some digging and it looks like you are correct about the B2M version. I agree they certainly should make that clearer. It seems a really bizarre design decision on their part to give you a fully featured version of substance designer but to limit the tool that is already designed to be a subset of substance designer. It seems strange to even include a stripped down version of B2M with the indie bundle. I just hope there are no more limitations with substance designer that I missed. In short buy the indie bundle only if you want to get substance painter and substance designer cheaper, don’t want to sell substances and expect to make less than $10000. If you just want B2M buy it separately as the version included with the indie pack seems pointless.
Agreed.
VAT is not payable on the $199.
Hi All,
As I’m working at Allegorithmic, here are a few clarifications:
You are allowed to sell substances and any asset created by Allegorithmic tools with the Indie licenses, as long as you/your company doesn’t make more than 10 000$ per year in revenue.
To sum up, the differences between the Indie Pack and Pro Pack are:
If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at http://www.allegorithmic.com/contact, we will be happy to answer any of your questions!
Cheers,
Nicolas