Adobe has released Substance 3D Painter 12.2, introducing several workflow improvements intended to reduce the repetitive setup, selection, and troubleshooting involved in texturing detailed 3D assets.
The update’s biggest addition is cage painting, which gives artists more direct control over projection distances during baking. Painter uses a cage to determine how far it should search beyond a low-poly mesh when capturing detail from its high-resolution counterpart. A cage that is too close can miss details, while one that extends too far can capture information from unintended surfaces.
Artists can now paint the cage distance directly onto their model with per-pixel brush control or use Polygon Fill to adjust complete sub-objects. This should make it easier to identify and correct local projection problems before committing to another bake instead of repeatedly changing the entire cage and checking the result.