2024.11.10 v1.4
- Changed acceptable ranges for metal surfaces, as in the game's Albedo validator.

SQ PBR Debug is a convenient tool I created for Substance Painter that allows you to quickly and accurately identify non-compliant areas on a texture that do not meet PBR standards. While Substance Painter already includes a standard PBR Validate tool, my tool is specifically designed for CS2 skin creators. It features built-in parameters identical to those in CS2 and those recommended by Valve in their official skin creation guide. This makes the texture validation process simple and efficient, giving skin creators confidence in the quality of their work.

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Just drag on top of all your layers

• Blue indicator: The color of the non-metallic surface (Custom Paint) is too dark.
  
• Pink indicator: The color of the metallic surface (Patina) is too dark.
  
• Red indicator: The surface is too bright.

Presets: This section includes two preset configurations for color limits.

• In-Game Validator: This preset displays textures in the same way as the in-game texture validator.
  
• Valve's Recommendation: This preset sets parameters recommended by Valve in their official skin creation guide.

Background: Switching the background.

• Passthrough: Shows your original texture behind the indicators.
  
• Black: Sets a black background, making problem area indicators more visible.

Finish Styles: Choose the skin finish style in the game.

• Custom Paint Job: Disables limits for metallic surfaces and includes an option to disable the metalness map.
  
• Gunsmith Style: Includes full functionality with limits for both surface types.

Limits: Manually set the color range limits separately for metallic surfaces and dielectrics. Presets will adjust these parameters.
Fade: A slider that smooths the boundaries of problem areas. Areas with slight deviations from valid color ranges will be semi-transparent, while areas that do not fit PBR at all will be bright and saturated.
Source Blur: This parameter slightly blurs the result, simulating texture compression within the game. Useful for cases where your texture has small, contrasting noise.

Is a rendering method that aims to reproduce materials and light as they appear in reality. PBR uses physically accurate lighting equations and material descriptions to achieve the highest level of realism. The PBR Workflow relies on the use of the physical properties of materials and lighting models. Using the correct maps and parameters is crucial for materials to look natural under various lighting conditions.

Ensure that the metalness map correctly represents materials as either metal or dielectric, without intermediate values. This means that in the context of PBR, metalness should be binary. A material is either metal or not, as there are no materials that are partially metallic. According to my data, Valve takes this strictly, as in most accepted skins, the developers have changed the metalness map to a two-bit one, with a clear separation between metal and non-metal.


It is important to adhere to color ranges so that skins fit well into the game and render correctly along with the environment. This impacts the overall quality of the game.

Valve's official guide states:
⠀For metallic finishes like Anodized Multicolored, Patina, and the metallic portions of Gunsmith, the effective RGB range is most likely between 180-250. Values as low as 90 may be acceptable depending on the color's saturation.
⠀For non-metallic finishes, the effective reflectance range is between 55-220. Albedo values outside of these values will not respond appropriately to in-game lighting conditions.
⠀Finishes using values outside the effective PBR range are unlikely to be selected from the workshop.

However, as we have observed from the recent case with skins, they do not strictly adhere to this, and most skins do not fall within the PBR range, leading Valve to manually edit the textures to make them compliant. Creating high-quality PBR skins is a personal mark of professionalism.


Following PBR requirements is important for several reasons:

• Realism: PBR allows for more realistic-looking materials, making your content visually appealing and believable.
  
• Compatibility: PBR is the modern standard in the 3D graphics industry. Adhering to these standards ensures your materials are compatible with various rendering engines and platforms.
  
• Quality: Proper use of the PBR Workflow helps avoid visual artifacts and errors, improving the overall quality of your content.
  
• Consistency: PBR ensures a uniform appearance of materials under different lighting conditions and across various devices, which is crucial for the overall user experience
  
• Professionalism: Creating high-quality PBR materials demonstrates your professionalism and commitment to high standards, positively impacting your reputation in the developer community.

Thank you for exploring my tool, SQ PBR Debug. If you want to stay updated on my future developments and updates, please follow my workshop page. I would be happy to have you among my subscribers!

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