Every now and then I get Megascans questions. I'm posting this here, so I can link to this post.
-== HDRi Setup ==-Megascans use a HDRi named "Pisa courtyard nearing sunset, Italy" as default
You can get this HDRi for free here
http://gl.ict.usc.edu/Data/HighResProbes/If you want to mimic the Megascans preview images, set "U Offset" to -0.57
Remember to set "U Tiling" to -1, since 3dsmax project from the outside and flip our HDRi.
-== Mesh Setup ==-Create a 2x2m Plane and tile it like this
-== Material Setup ==-In this example I will use "Soil_Mud_pjuph20"
After you have extracted the .zip file with Bridge, you can double click the preview image and it will take you to the material folder.
Open Albedo and AO in Photoshop. Copy the AO map above Albedo and change the blending mode to "Multiply". Save it as AlbedoAO.
Megascans is made for PBR engines that use Specular.
0 Specular = 1 IOR
0.5 Specular = 1.5 IOR
1 Specular = 1.79 IOR
Since Corona is based on IOR, we have to convert the Specular map to IOR.
I've made a "Specular to IOR" LUT that gets shipped with Bridge, but it's kinda hidden.
You can find it here "C:\Program Files\Quixel\Megascans Bridge\Bridge_Data\Support\SpecularToIOR.CUBE"
Open the Specular map in Photoshop
Change the mode to 16bit
Add a "Color Lookup" layer and select "SpecularToIOR.CUBE"
Hit CTRL + Shift + E to flatten the layer stack
Change the mode back to 8bit and save it as IOR.
Inisde the material folder there is a ".json" file. Open this file in Notepad++ or whatever you use.
Search for "Height"
In this example the Height value is "0.042 m", convert this value to cm.
Our displacement height should be 4.2cm.
Load the maps like this.
"Flip Green" inside CoronaNormal.
Depending on how you want the displacement to behave, you can use Min 0 Max 4.2. Or Min -2.1 Max 2.1
-== Camera Setup ==-If you want to mimic Megascans, you can place your camera like this.
24mm Focal Length.
-== Render Setup ==-Set size to 1450x816.
Set "Secondary solver" to "Path Tracing"
Reduce "Screen size (px)" until your pc start to smoke, then dial it back a little.
-== VFB Setup ==-Set EV to 2.61 if you are using the same HDRi as me.
Megascans love their Vignette, so set it to 0.8
They also love to overdrive Sharpen, so set it to 10 !!!
-== Test Render ==-Beauty
Direct
Reflection
Displacement
Displacement + Normal