Cool! Please add this to material variants as well! 
7 Likes
Its all cool and everything but when are we getting emission maps? 
12 Likes
This sounds useful, but I am not sold on this specific implementation. Relegating the tint mask properties to the alpha channel may make it hard to use with some image software.
When saving the image, be sure to preserve color in the transparent regions and turn off options such as pre-multiplied alpha that darken the color in transparent areas. You may also need to change the view settings in your image editor so you can see the color in the transparent areas.
That we have to configure options in the image editing software (that may be missing or work differently between applications) in order for the transparent regions to work as intended, may make it difficult for people whose software doesn’t let them use the transparency channel in this way.
Additionally, it would be nice if there was a way to use multiple tint masks, or a way to use tint masks in parallel with the other alpha modes rather than having to be one or the other.
I feel like the ability to recolour multiple parts of the texture instead of just one part would be useful, though I can see how that may get convoluted with an undefined tintmap quantity.
Also, as other people have said, I think we do need this feature available for MaterialService materials, so we can use it with regular parts and not exclusively meshparts.
8 Likes
Good update, but glancing at this and just seeing “SurfaceAppearance” and seeing it wasn’t emission map support was like that gif of the dude opening the fridge
14 Likes
This is cool, but when it comes to SurfaceAppearance I feel like emission maps have way more of a demand.
Here is an example issue I had under the most popular feature request post for it:
People use excessive RGB values to mimic emission, albeit it’s not usable for SurfaceAppearance in a controlled way. Hoping to see this soon.
36 Likes
That’s very cool, I hope we get emission maps added to SurfaceAppearance aswell, that’d be super useful
11 Likes
Problems would occur I believe, since custom materials may require some sort of extra feature WITHIN the design process /:, but we’ll see.
2 Likes
Yes, it was possible during the First SurfaceAppearance Beta.
4 Likes
Really cool update not gonna lie. I hope we get to see emissive maps released though… That’s a feature that’s long overdue and is kind of needed for modern day uses.
10 Likes
this is a banger update, i dunno what the last one was though.
someone asked about it’s implementation in Custom Materials and I think it’s pretty important
keep listenin’ to the community 
4 Likes
It has to be soon. We need it so bad.
3 Likes
this is awesome! builders are gonna have a field day. i wonder if we’re able to do this with Granite and make it look like it has veins? hopefully i’m stating the right material lol. either way, great update!
2 Likes
Does this mean that emissive textures are coming soon?
7 Likes
Facts, why don’t they do this? Surface Appearance is literally the same as material variants but slightly different
4 Likes
PLEASE bring this to material variants
6 Likes
Always glad to see updates, but I feel like this is one of those things, like with Terrain Grass. It just sort of came out of nowhere, and was hinted that we would be able to have custom meshes associated with Terrain, such as pebbles on a Ground Material, etc… Then nothing ever came of it.
I really wish this wasn’t using the Alpha of the Color Map, and I really hope this is just the beginning to Emissive maps and Custom Material integration.
7 Likes
Absolutely agree! I feel like naming this feature “mask” is a little misleading too. I would expect a mask to be a separate image which then gets translated into the expected changes or modifications on the mesh’s texture.
Masking is a really powerful creative tool and I don’t think this implementation remotely fills that role. I believe this feature should have been thought through a little more before being announced.
5 Likes
Dropping good news before bad news is a good tactic I would use anyways 
2 Likes
Shaders soon???
Nice to see this being added but at the same time it would be way more useful if it was using a seperate image and if it worked on materialvariants, also a shame to see this prioritised over emission maps which we have been asking for since pbr was released
2 Likes