The challenge is: Quixel Bridge is a perfect asset browser that shows excellent previews. It has also filter options and categories. (if you don’t know Quixel Megascan: it offers the best quality textures on earth). The problem when we export material (surface) from Quixel Bridge to Blender, there is no or not a good mapping applied. So it takes a lot of time to prepare you materials before you can use them. That’s why the Quixel Helper Addon gives a hand. Here a screenshot Quixel Bridge:
Quixel Bridge Browser
The Solution: Quixel Helper Addon
With one button click you can add tri-planar mapping Quixel’s material. No need to UV-unwrap.
You can scale the texture in the addon, so no need to go in the node-editor or properties panel and search for the mapping properties.
If you still wish, you can also add UV-mapping with one button click.
Apply tri-planar mapping with one click
What else the Quixel Helper Addon offers:
A Purge button to Purge data you don’t need anymore in the scene. Handy when you try a lot of texture and RAM gets full.
Three useful snap-presets to block out a scene a bit faster: Sticky snap, Edge snap and Increment Snap.
Add better primitives (cube and cylinder) that has an origine at the bottom. Now you don’t need to go in Edit mode, make selection, cursor to selected, object mode origin to cursor. So now we can just add a primitive on the ground and scale it. Also very handy with Sticky Snap (surface).
Camera tools. Now that we want to work as fast as possible, we will want to have the most used tools at hand: lock to view, unlock to view, passe-partout, add DOF with one click, and F-Stop.
Color management: Choose Render-engine, Contrast, View Transform, Exposure.
Settings for Camera, Snapping, Colormanagement and Primitives
There are loads of ideas for the Quixel Helper Addon, for example:
Tools to speed up particle system.
Tools for Decals
AntiTile
Random variations
At the moment I don’t know yet what is most important, but I will add more features coming months.
FAQ
Can I use the addon also for other materials?
What the addon does qua mapping is, it looks for textures and connect it to a mapping node and a texture coordinate on the object socket. Then it puts the projection per texture on box. If you have standard pbr material where the texture are outside of a nodegroup, then you can use it. For example, you can use it with Extreme PBR Pro. But at the moment you cannot use it with Materialiq because the textures are hidden in a nodegroup.