When comparing Materialize vs MindTex 2, the Slant community recommends Materialize for most people. In the question“What are the best programs for making height maps, normal maps, and/or other maps?” Materialize is ranked 5th while MindTex 2 is ranked 12th. The most important reason people chose Materialize is:
A few simple presets available, that generally do a good job if you want a quick and dirty generation.
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Pros
Pro Presets
A few simple presets available, that generally do a good job if you want a quick and dirty generation.
Pro Integrated mask feature
You can create up to two masks to define metalness or any area you want the software to look at a little differently.
Pro Clear interface
A nice clean and clear interface, where it is much easier to know what you are doing.
Pro Many tweak controls
You can fine tune the result to achieve the desired look that you need.
Pro Generates more then just a normal map
While this tool can generate normal maps, you can also create maps such as Height, Ambient Occlusion, Specular, and more. You can also input your own maps instead for preview.
Pro 3d View
You can preview your normal map using the built-in 3d viewer and get an idea what you're getting.
Cons
Con Maps are derivative of one another
... Meaning you will always lose some quality. You can test this for yourself in real time by generating a height map from a normal, then clearing the normal and generating a new one based on height, then clearing the previous height map and generating a new one based on the new normal. Obviously, no one would do that, but it effectively demonstrates that Materialize, by its nature, sacrifices the accuracy that other programs can guarantee you.
Con Slow image preview in file browser
Although the texture generation and preview is butter smooth, other GUI things, like image previews in the file browser cause huge slowdowns and jittering.
Con Not Standalone
You need Unity.
Con While the filters are nice, you are limited to two colors
This is easily Materialize's biggest limitation. Even the most basic diffuse maps have more than two tones, so for the third tone and beyond, the height map generator just takes over the wheel and drives over a cliff.
This drawback means the program is only really helpful for basic, one- or two-tone materials like stone impressions, brick walls, simple fabric patterns, etc.
It also means the gloss/roughness generator is operating in completely the wrong frame of mind. If you have a material like tire rubber with sections that are muddy, wet, snow-crusted, blood splattered, etc. Materialize is only going to let you select two tones to make glossy or rough, and the other twelve are anybody's guess as to how reflective or absorbent they'll be.
Con Buy Upfront No Trial
As soon as I downloaded this for the first time and opened the file (which by the way was the free trial version) it said my trial was expired. So expect to pay upfront when downloading this app.
Con Expensire
Costs around $20.