Categories

Getting Started
Creating Things
Ambient CG
Shader Types
Utilities

True-Assets

Support documentation

Getting Started

Intro to True-Assets

True-Assets is an asset management tool for Blender that automates workflows for creating and marking assets from various file types. It integrates with the OS's file explorer and is found in Blender's 3D viewport 'N' panel.
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Installing True-Assets

To install True-Assets in Blender, go to User Preferences in the Edit menu, select Install from File in the Addons tab, choose the addon ZIP, enable it, set a storage location under True-Assets Directory, and save changes.
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Preferences

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Creating Things

Creating Assests From Current File

The 'Mark asset and quit' function in True-Assets lets you mark content in a working Blender file before closing the project. It prompts you to save if no tags have been written. After finalizing options, it runs the process in the background. It offers options like choosing what to save, object types, thumbnail shading and rendering, object data types, material specifications, and cataloging.
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Creating Assets From Directory

This feature lets you convert data (Objects, Materials, Worlds etc.) from old .blend files into Assets, accessible from any new Blender instance via the "asset browser". It allows the grouping of multiple .blends into a single file, filtering for selective data conversion, and thumbnail shading for rendered previews. It can handle multiple object types and material nodes, and supports Shader node groups. It also includes Kitbash options for handling Kitbash content from KB3D. Data management options and settings for managing duplicate data are provided.
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Create Assets From FBX

True-Assets allows direct creation of assets from FBX or OBJ files without needing them to be in a .blend file. Users can use the default Blender importer or the Better FBX addon. After selecting a file/directory, you choose the thumbnail shading and rendering, decide to pack external data, and set rules for duplicate data handling.
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Create Assets From OBJ

True-Assets allows asset creation from OBJ or FBX files without requiring them in a .blend file. Users can select thumbnail shading and rendering, pack external data, and set rules for managing duplicate data. Supports Blender's built-in importer and Better FBX addon.
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Create Materials

True-Assets allows users to create materials from directory textures for use as assets in Blender. It uses texture name tags to identify map types, and requires textures to be organized in sub-folders. Options include marking assets, cataloging, image packing, and choice of shaders.
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Create Worlds

True-Assets' Creating Worlds feature enables world shader generation in Blender by converting 360 HDR images. It offers customization options including marking assets, categorizing creations, packing textures, filtering file types, and specifying search depth. It provides two shader types: True-HDRI for realistic environments, and Standard for basic functionality. The search function allows image filtering by name, and Default Values sets uniform shader values for a batch of images.
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Ambient CG

Introduction

True-VFX has partnered with AmbientCG and ShareTextures to integrate their CC0-licensed asset library directly into Blender's asset browser via True-Assets. To access, select the Online Assets library in the Asset-Browser dropdown and use the [Fetch] button.
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Installing Modules

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First Time Use

On first access, Online Assets library appears empty and must be loaded by clicking [FETCH]. This downloads the material data and icons, not the assets. After the Fetch process, the library loads in the asset-browser workspace. Materials are tagged based on available information for easy search. Assets can be dragged and dropped into the 3D viewport. They offer various resolutions and file-types. Downloaded assets are stored to save on API calls and traffic, and can be toggled between live and downloaded files.
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Shader Types

Organic Shader

The True-Organic shader, ideal for 'meaty' or 'leafy' materials, has four main sections: Colour, Material, Surface, and Mapping. The Colour section controls Hue, Saturation, and Lightness, affecting the HSL of translucency and subsurface scattering (SSS). The Material section allows adjustments of translucency and SSS. The Surface section controls the intensity and appearance of textures on the material. The Mapping section governs the application of textures onto the material. Changes made to these sections can greatly affect the material's appearance.
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Plastic Shader

The True-Plastic shader is tailored for plastic-like texture sets with a user-friendly interface split into 4 sections. It offers sliders and color pickers for hue, saturation, and lightness of both surface and subsurface. Translucency and roughness can be adjusted, and additional options allow for unique effects such as "frosting". There's also support for normal and bump maps, displacement, and opacity masks. The mapping section provides texture rotation, scaling, and tri-planar mapping options. Changes in the object's size affect mapping values.
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Uber Shader

The True-Uber shader is designed for texture sets like metals, rocks, and hard surfaces. It features four sections in the UI for clarity, adjustable by drop-down functions. Its functions include color alteration sliders and pickers for metallic/non-metallic hues and lightness, AO map strength, and options for texture manipulations such as metallic-ness, roughness, anisotropy, and opacity. It also includes tools for adjusting normal map and bump map strengths, displacement scale and mid-level, and texture mapping. This shader is recommended for users setting up objects at the correct scale prior to applying the material.
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True-BSDF

The True-BSDF shader is designed for basic material settings, offering controls for ambient occlusion, emission, texture data handling, surface properties, and mapping adjustments. It handles normal and bump map intensities, displacement scale, and provides mapping adjustments. Users should set up the object at the desired scale before applying the material for best results.
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True-HDRI

The True-HDRI World Shader offers precise control over HDR image rendering, with features like tonemap detection, light intensity/exposure adjustments, horizon cleanup, color & contrast tweaking, and atmospheric effects. It also allows manual/automatic adjustment of light source position.
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Standard (World)

The Standard-HDRI World Shader in Blender uses HDRIs to create realistic environments. It features controls to adjust HDRI intensity and rotations for aligning with scenes or achieving desired lighting directions.
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Standard (Material)

The Simple PBR Material using the Standard Shader supports multiple texture maps and allows customization by adjusting these maps. It enhances material shadows through ambient occlusion, which blends with the Base Color map.
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AmbientCG Uber

The AmbientCG Uber Shader is versatile, offering controls for color adjustments, material settings, emission, texture data handling, and more. It features distinct sections for cleaner UI. The shader allows hue adjustments, intensity control of ambient occlusion, modification of metallic and non-metallic properties, emission effects, and handling of texture data and surface properties. It enables UV and Tri-Planar mapping, with options for scaling, rotating, and repositioning textures.
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AmbientCG Standard

The AmbientCG Standard Shader provides controls for material properties, emission, texture handling, and mapping adjustments. It features strength parameters for ambient occlusion and emission, opacity mask for transparency, normal and bump map strength for surface effects, displacement scale and midlevel for displacement effects, and location, rotation, and scale parameters for texture mapping.
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Utilities

Asset-Browser Utilities

True-Assets offers functions for editing, renaming, updating metadata, clearing, and managing assets. Edit Assets allow users to fix asset issues like topology and scale. Rename Assets permit adding prefixes or suffixes to assets. Update Asset Data enables management of metadata such as tags, author, and descriptions. Clear Assets removes selected assets entirely, with various deletion options. Additionally, users can move assets to different catalogs, fix Kitbash assets, re-render thumbnails, delete or rename catalogs, and reorder libraries.
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Switch Shader

The "Switch Shader" button allows users to change the shader for a selected object's active material from 7 options or the active world's shader from 2 options. Detailed information about each shader can be found in the dedicated shader articles.
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Changelog

True-Assets' development till v3.1 focused on rapid iteration and innovation over formal documentation. From v3.1 onward, detailed change logs highlight enhancements like new asset creation, shader options, FBX/OBJ support, bug fixes, and UI updates. V4.0 brought AmbientCG integration, updated shaders, and UI tweaks. V4.0.5 added new catalog functions and improved shaders. V4.1.0 introduced USD support, quick access buttons, and library reordering, along with fixes for Blender 3.5 crashes.
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