I actually still use my own huge library of textures as components in Substances. I still make photo based textures to use in that workflow as well. But yeah they are not generally used by themselves.
I never have touched a subscription based texture site. If they sell large sets on blurays for a fixed price, sure, I would consider it… otherwise “no” in the land of garbage internet.
I always felt that the Quixel’s textures are better than allo textures.
On Mixer and on Quixel suite too.
Allego’s textures are less detailled and more blurred.
I would change the name of topic or atleast move all these beautiful links to some roundup post like “POST YOUR TEXTURE SITE” or something like that and promote it to be ontop and accesible. 
Same for me. The only kind of textures i still use is a large collection of noise, dirt and dirt decals.
When i learned Mari, i realized that one would need more textures since Mari is more like a 3D Photoshop, but working with Substance is just faster and less depended on source materials.
You mean the end result or the textures implemented in the software?
I heard that too, but my grief with Quixel is the speed and workflow, i really dislike it.
The one I have access to and use is Shutterstock, I believe the other is iStock.
Yes, the result after painting/projecting.
On quixel suite I agree with you, too slow, on mixer, it’s way better and fun to use.
its not like renting a tool at all , wrong comparaison
its like paying for tools , and if you dont use them the manufacturer go inside your house and steal them back, even if you paid for it …
if you replaced thoses “credits” with real life money value everyone would see the scam right away , your personal pool of money disappearing if you are not using it … this is ridiculous … it may bee a recurrent practice , im sure quixel or substances use the same type of fraudulent scheme , but consumers shouldn’nt be okay with this
as for the colorramp stuff of the first reason i gave , its quite a personnal one , i said that i could totally understand it ( even if in my case im still thinking they did the move of removing “per map” purchase for only making even more money ) the real thread is about the last two reasons about credits with an expiration date
There is no scam here, you just don’t like the pricing model and you didn’t read the terms of service, that is all.
Some services have credit systems that don’t roll over. For instance, most mobile plans have a fixed amount of internet bandwidth per month, it usually doesn’t roll over, and if you need more bandwidth that month, you pay for it. Alternatively, you get an “unlimited” plan which is even more expensive.
The goal here is to make you spend the maximum amount of money. Maybe the guys at poliigon would make more money without this annoyance. Maybe not. Getting the right price and pricing model is really hard.
Instead of dishonestly calling them scammers, cancel your subscription and tell them the reason is that you don’t like the pricing model. If enough people do that, they will adjust. Again, their goal isn’t to annoy you, it’s to make the most money.
Because it’s simpler that way, you can re-use the exact same material setup. If the texture didn’t exist, it can cause an error somewhere in the pipeline. Of course that setup has an edge case with perfectly smooth or plain colored surfaces, in that case it would be better if the texture was only 1x1.
Also consider that not everybody spends time manually creating or optimizing every single material. In many renderers, texture size is of no concern, because the data is only loaded on demand, at the required level of detail. Blender is a little behind in that regard, as are many GPU renderers.
Substance Source points stay forever, and you can download without an active subscription as long as you have points.
Quixel Megascans points also stay forever, but you can’t download new assets without an active subscription.
I still have points on both sites.
No, in that analogy, Poliigon is breaking into your computer after you have used your credits and removing images from your drives - that isn’t whats happening.
You are paying for access to x-number of assets. It’s up to you if you download them or not. That’s a typical subscription model. Your access expires eventually in that model.
Maybe my analogies weren’t the best and I think others above have found a better one, it’s like a cellphone plan. You pay for a certain plan, that give you access to specific features - many of which aren’t carried over. Like you are given voicemail access up to 3 messages, but if you don’t get three messages over the month, you dont get credit back. Same with data, call time, long distance, etc. Similarly, TV has been like this, you get access to a certain number of channels and shows, but if you dont watch some, or miss some, you dont receive a credit back.
I would assume you dont like the subscription model, which is totally fine, and I can understand why you might not like it - but they aren’t doing anything secretive or malicious like in an actual scam. Words matter, they carry value and weight. You can say Poliigon is not worth it, you can say they have in inferior product, you can say their customer service is garbage, you can say that you don’t like their payment model, etc. Essentially,you can discuss all of your points validly, and with as much distaste as you have in your post without calling it scam. Saying Poliigon is scamming people because you personally dont use all their textures and dont like the subscription model is more deceiving than what you are claiming they are doing.
i used the word scam for describing a “malicious marketing move” mostly
i totally agree that all of this is specified int he FAQ + poliigon dont hide the fact that theres is an expiration date
what im saying is that this technique of marketing is shameful and nobody should support this kind of practice
and i wanted to inform everyone about that , nothing else , and as for the multi maps , as i says agains , that’s my problem
I have edited the title of this topic to better reflect the contents. As discussed above, while you may have you reservations about their methods, nothing you described is an actual scam.
i agree with you , too much of a clickbait title
Substance Source is excellent, although the library is a little thin.
I actually really appreciate this thread OP. The credit system is something we’ve constantly been tweaking, but it’s hard to get right. No promises, but I’m leaning towards an unlimited rollover system myself - only requiring an active subscription to use it (like megascans).
I also agree that the map situation on some materials isn’t ideal. I brought this up with our production manager a few weeks ago. We wanted to make the materials usable in all software and renderers, but the only way to do that is to provide a flat image with a set grey value. We’re thinking to make it a 1px image to save on the memory issue you mentioned.
Anyway, keep the discussion going guys. I’m learning a lot by reading your responses
Can’t you just put a price in dollars/euros next to each material? Credits systems just set off all kinds of warning sirens in my mind. This should be a simple transaction.
Credit system are garbage because the hide real costs behind a layer of abstraction.
Multiplied by the number of shops, the amount of rules becomes extremely confusing and irritating for customers, especially when everybody is doing this.
There is already more than enough “gamification” of money-transactions which instead should be as pure and simple as possible.
hey andrew
I just want to tell you that i enjoyed tons of your videos.
i think that poliigon is actually a great website , until this credit system stole me some money and left me with nothing but frustration.
unlimited rollups and trading expiration dates with credits only usable within a subscription could easely resolve the problem.
no hard feelings
OP has shown very poor ethical skills. Some very bad remarks in first post.