Frequently Asked Questions

SURFACE is a specialized, standalone desktop application designed to be a complete texturing pipeline for 3D artists and game developers. It allows you to take any source image, precisely extract a specific part of it while correcting for perspective distortion, and then generate a full set of PBR (Physically Based Rendering) material maps from that extraction. It combines a non-destructive workflow with powerful features like seamless tiling, AI upscaling, and a real-time 3D previewer to dramatically accelerate material creation.

It's built for anyone who works with 3D materials and textures. This includes Game Developers (both indie and AAA), 3D Artists, Technical Artists, VFX Artists, Architectural Visualization Specialists, and Hobbyists. If your work involves creating realistic materials from real-world photos or other image sources for use in engines like Unreal Engine, Unity, or renderers like Blender Cycles, then SURFACE is designed to be an essential tool in your arsenal.

SURFACE is currently available for Windows 10 and 11 (64-bit), while compatible with latest ARM devices packing (Snapdragon X Elite). For the best experience, the following is recommended:

• A modern, dedicated graphics card (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 / AMD Radeon RX 580 or better) is highly recommended for the 3D preview and fast PBR generation. Although we have tested SURFACE on machines with modern integrated graphics cards, and while stable and working, we cannot promise REAL-TIME experience.
• The AI Upscaling feature requires a GPU with up-to-date drivers and support for the OpenGL 4.0 / Vulkan API.
• At least 8GB of RAM is minimum, with 16GB or more being ideal for working with very high-resolution source images. For working with AI Upscaled Images runtime 32GB of RAM is recommended.

For standard plans (Free, Indie), an internet connection is required for the initial login and periodic license validation check-ins. After login, standard builds can run offline for up to 30 days before requiring a brief online check-in.

If you purchase the Studio Plan, the software runs 100% offline with zero internet requirements or check-ins ever. Activation is handled entirely offline using a hardware-locked license key generated from your machine properties.

A perpetual license means you pay once and receive lifetime access to SURFACE. You can use the app forever, and all future updates, improvements, and bug fixes are included at no additional cost.

There are no subscriptions, no upgrade fees, and no hidden charges. One purchase gives you permanent access to the full application and every update we release.

Each plan comes with a limit on the number of devices you can be logged into simultaneously (e.g., a desktop and a laptop). If you reach your limit and try to log in on a new machine, you will be notified. To free up a slot, simply visit your user dashboard on our website, where you can see a list of your active devices and unregister any you are no longer using. Steam version handles this automatically as you can use only 1 instance running simultaneously.

No. The Free plan is intended for personal, non-commercial use and for educational purposes. To use any assets created with SURFACE in a commercial project, you must purchase the Indie license.

SURFACE can generate a complete set of PBR maps for the Metallic/Roughness workflow. This includes: Albedo (delighted base color), Normal (OpenGL/DirectX compatible), Displacement/Height (16-bit), Ambient Occlusion (AO), Roughness, and Metallic. It can also generate an Emission map for glowing parts of a texture and Opacity.

Absolutely not. The entire workflow is non-destructive. Your original source images are never modified or overwritten. All cropping data, image adjustments, and PBR settings are stored in a .json project file. This means you can always go back and make changes, tweak your settings, or re-export your textures with different parameters at any time.

ORM packing is a critical optimization technique used in modern game engines. It involves packing three separate grayscale maps into the Red, Green, and Blue channels of a single RGB texture. SURFACE supports the standard convention:

• Red Channel = Ambient Occlusion.
• Green Channel = Roughness.
• Blue Channel = Metallic.

Using a single ORM texture instead of three separate textures saves a significant amount of video memory and reduces the number of texture samples required by your material's shader, leading to better performance in your game.

This is a very common issue caused by different standards for the green channel of a normal map. Game engines like Unreal Engine use the DirectX format, while others like Unity use the OpenGL format. The only difference is that the green channel is inverted.

In SURFACE, you can easily fix this. Go to the PBR Editor, expand the Normal section, and check the Invert Y Axis box. This will flip the green channel and ensure your normal map renders correctly in your target engine.