Once again, DECALmachine takes care of this for you, if you useInstant Decal Creation. It creates a curvature map from the normal bake and creates an id map to create the subset mask.
btw if you use substance painter you can obtain a curvature map from the same normal map made from blender.
Method at minute 06:00
I was thinking more of the batch creation where it tells you to bake the images first, but yeah, Instant creation will do the maps. Speaking of which, are there any rules one should abide by to get the best possible results for the decal. Should the origin of the geometry be at a certain point? Does the geometry require some form of ābounding cage / polyā as seen at the start of the video:
I have had some odd results with the parallax appearing quite distorted unless I toggle it, is there some way to minimise the risk of this happening?
No, thatās done automatically for you.
Thereās no bounding cage, there only a flat piece of geo, resembling the surface a decal will sit on. If you want to bake out maps, to create the illusion of a surface impression, you need a surface for it right?
Parallax mapping is not a magic solution. Itās certainly not displacement.
Certain situations will work better than others. In general, going up, doesnāt work too well, going down does. What works really well is having a center piece thats mostly level with the surface and then a surface impression around it. Multi-level impressions also wonāt work too well.
Play around with it, youāll quickly gain an understanding of what works and what doesnāt. If something works well, you can play up the parallax amount, if it doesnāt set it lowā¦
Ahh, yes, where I have been having issues with parallax is definitely with multi level geometry, Iāll will bear that in mind.
EDIT: Meant to mention, interesting point, if the layer your geometry for the insert is on has hidden object, then the instant decal create can produce some odd results. If all items are unhidden, it works fine.
Are there any plans to allow multiple ālibrariesā of the different types of insert? Iāve been building a library of decals from a kit bask set of meshes and Iāve hit 99, so every time I try to add another, (Decal 100), it overrides the previous one. So I am presuming there was a 2 digit maximum on the decal naming? It would be good ot have sub-set libraries for each type, so you could build as many as you wanted, even if each subset was limited to 99.
Yes, thatās a limitation for now. Initially I never thought to go above 50 to avoid scrolling, but I underestimated how quickly they fill up. iāll look into extending the library system post 1.4.
Sweet, I look forward to it. 
First, My Blender is in C://Program File and windows hide other apps in the āUserā folder, so I had to look for it in Blender āUser Preference - Fileā copy and then paste into Windows folder address to locate it. My initial tests is that the āreplace lastā causes crash āunable to write into file C://ā¦ā or didnāt register until the second attempt, I see two of the same decal.
Wasnāt mention in previous posts, seems only happen to me.
To report errors, see https://machin3.io/DECALmachine/docs/faq/#reporting-errors-or-problems and do it via email and show me the actual error messages.
Make sure DM is not installed in the Progamm files folder, no 3rd party addon should be installed in there in fact.
Your āReplace Lastā error with decal creation is very likely directly related to installing DM in Program Files, which you are explicitely told not to do.
Thanks, I managed to un-hide AppData folder and placed the files in the right location, so far so good.
Has anyone had any luck with using finishes other than metallic surfaces? Even with material matching, all thatās capturing is the color. Iām trying to use it on a surface thatās more like a car; so a glossy, painted surface.
I think posting #205 has the answer to your question.
The zip cointains a simple step by step guide and the blend file of how to match a decal to a custom shader node tree.
match_custom_shader.zip (2.74 MB)
Essentially you have to replace the glossy shader node with the same node tree used in the custom material you want to match.
For now this needs to be done by hand.
Post 1.4, I will improve on the material matching and will shift over to use the Principled PBR shader in place of the glossy shader as the core shader for decals.
1.4 - Decal Domination - The Export Release
There are 13 new feature videos you can check out (scroll down).
Complete Decal Export Pipeline
DECALmachine 1.4 is a huge release and the center piece of this update is the export capability. This turns DM from a mere Blender addon, into a complete pipeline for mesh based decals: experiment, create, design in Blender, but then also get your work out into a number of target platforms, if you so choose.
In addition to the ability to export decals, thereās also (W)Step - a tool/workflow to easily create custom vertex normals, which complement the decal workflow beautifully and are used to control hard surface shading without the need for normal maps. Note, itās highly recommended to use (W)Step along side HardOps and its boolean tools.
If you are taking your assets into Unity3D, DM even supplies shaders specifically made to be used with the DM exported decals - itās the whole nine yards.
But it doesnāt stop there. The added ability to bake decal textures down into normal maps, ao maps, curvature maps, etc., unlocks a new approach to hard surface texturing, that could augment and in some scenarios perhaps even replace the traditional high-poly to low-poly workflow.
So, how does this all work? The first step in the export process is the creation of an optimally packed Decal Atlas from individual decal textures. This is in essence completely automated, but does allow for some user input, in that you have the ability to change the scale of individual decals in the atlas as well as adjust the padding between them.
Alternatively, instead of creating a new Atlas pack for each new asset, you can also use an existing packing solution youāve created previously.
The second step is organizing Decals and their parent objects(called targets) via so called Export Groups. With this in place, decals will be joined, decal UVs will be adjusted according to the atlas packing solution and materials using the atlas textures will be applied - all automatically.
Finally, your complete asset(incl. mesh decals) can be either exported to a number of platforms - such as Unity3D, Unreal Engine 4, Substance Painter and Sketchfab - or decals can be baked down, creating texture maps, that can be taken into any tool or engine you choose.
Expanding the Slice Toolset
1.4 introduces an alternative Slice tool called Float Slice, useful in circumstances were the old Decal Slice - renamed to Topo Slice - has trouble or would fail, particularly on dense meshes.
Thereās also Draw Slice which is a precursor tool to Float Slice and enables you to manually draw panel strips, by extruding vertices on the surface of an object.
Concluding the additions to the slice tools is the Panelize tool, which makes adding simple decal strip shapes quick and effortless by turning polygon boundaries into panel strips, instead of the boolean-like approach of intersecting an object with a cutting object.
Improving Usability
Operator Properties
This release adds Operator Properties for the main tools. This makes using DM more interactive, simplifies dealing with unexpected behavior(such as Topo Slice failing) and allows for a greater degree of customizing each tools behavior. Operator Properties can be accessed from the bottom of the T panel or by bringing up the F6 menu.
Automatic Parenting of Projections and Slices
If you project a decal or create a panel strip via one of the Slice tools, the decals will - by default - be parented to the object you project them on or the object you are slicing. This extends to the Decal Sources as well. So, when you change your objects location, orientation or scale and attempt to bring back a Decal Source, it will be properly positioned, just where youād expect it to be.
Keymap Settings to Preferences
Changing DMās keymaps is now extremely easy and can be done directly in DECALmachineās preferences. In addition, all the GPencil tools can now be accessed via CTRL + D, so thereās no longer any keymap overlap between DM and GPencil.
Scene Scale/Unit Settings support
There is a new setting called Force Consistent Scale in DMās preferences, which you should enable, if have experienced very small or big decals when dropping them into a scene in relation to your unit scale settings.
Remove Decal Mode
You can now delete decals from inside Blender, without having to navigate to the Decal Library locations on your hard disk.
Various Improvements
Most tools have received small improvements and refinements in their behavior. Standing out from this is Material Cut which is now much more robust and has received Operator Properties to customize the behavior.
Windows 32bit support
Windows 32bit support through PILwin32.zip has been added thanks to Jordan.
Fixes
Decal Project and through Panel Unwrap the Slice tools will now remove any pre-existing UVs before creating new ones to avoid potential issues.
The main DECALmachine pie menu is from now on keymaped only in Object and Edit modes instead of generally in all 3D Views, freeing the D shortcut for all other modes, such as Sculpt and Paint modes.
An issue where non-tangent base normals would be created when running Instant Decal Creation has been fixed.
Another issue related to hidden geometry causing very dark AO maps has also been resolved.
Furthermore, Remove Duplicates could in some cases replace custom decal materials with their supplied decals counter parts and was fixed.
Finally, split panel decal strips causing Panel Transition to fail was rectified.
HardOps and MACHIN3tools
If you use HardOps alongside DECALmachine, you should run the HardOps Fix in DECALmachineās preferences.
Furthermore, Iād recommend you use at least some of the tools provided by MACHIN3tools, which is a free continuously evolving collection of scripts.
In particular, Mirrror and Shading Switch are particularly useful in combination with DECALmachine and highly suggest you use Red Mode, should you use DECALmachineās custom vertex normal tool (W)Step.
Mirror is the recommended way to mirror Decals across another object. If you are using Rob Fornofās Mirror Mirror and/or my previous Multi Mirror Mirror, Mirror replaces them both.
Amazing upgrade !
Thx !!
Are there any verbal tutorials on using decal?
This 30min, real time demo shows how DECALmachine can fit into a more traditional baking workflow
- Get your surface normals from a highpoly or alternatively bake from a rounded edge shader(not shown)
- Add decals to the lowpoly
- Bake decals down
- Combine mesh bakes and decal bakes
Not by me no. The docs break each individual feature down and are peppered with short videos on each feature.
Thanks for using videos instead of GIFs, much easier to pause and slow down.