When comparing Sculptris vs Substance Painter, the Slant community recommends Substance Painter for most people. In the question“What are the best 3D texture painting softwares?” Substance Painter is ranked 2nd while Sculptris is ranked 10th. The most important reason people chose Substance Painter is:
Since Substance Painter allows users to paint in full 3D, it can be used not only to paint full textures, but can also paint masks which can then be used in other tools (like Substance Designer) for material filter generators (like the ones used to make edge wear and dirt)
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Pros
Pro Free
Sculptris is provided free of charge from Pixologic.
Pro Sculpting allows for easier creative expression
Sculptris has great editing tools that allow designers to concentrate on sculpting and completely immerse themselves into making models, forgetting about all the complex methods modelers usually have to use in their daily business.
Pro Works on Lower-End Devices
Sculptris is essentially a lesser version of ZBrush that works on low-end PCs.
Pro Allows you to paint in full 3D
Since Substance Painter allows users to paint in full 3D, it can be used not only to paint full textures, but can also paint masks which can then be used in other tools (like Substance Designer) for material filter generators (like the ones used to make edge wear and dirt)
Pro Painting and procedural editing of textures
Cons
Con Small scope
Doesn't do much besides sculpting.
Con No Linux version
Only for Windows and Mac.
Con Limited sculpting toolset
Con Expensive and impossible to run without an expensive graphics card
The free trial is the only thing free. You'll have to pay a lot of money for the full version, and even if you do get it, you will have to pay for an expensive graphics card to use it, which means a lot more money flying out of your wallet and/or bank account.
Con Cannot export in a procedural format
You can not export substance (sbsar) files in Painter.