CGBookcase vs Mextures

CGBookcase is a free web resource for physically based rendering textures and material guidance. Its catalog lists 566 free textures with filters for 1K, 2K, 4K, 6K, and 8K resolutions. Textures use the CC0 1.0 license, allowing free use without credit, including commercial work. A listed Manhole Cover 16 material includes Base Color, Height, Mask, Metallic, DirectX Normal, and Roughness maps. The site also provides the open-source Texture Tiling Tool, which helps make photoscanned surfaces seamless and repeatable through surface-aware blending, clone patches, and lighting equalization at seams. Guides cover Blender and Unreal Engine setup. The Blender guidance notes that DirectX normal maps need green-channel inversion for Blender’s OpenGL format. Sample Rock and Bark downloads are offered in 4K and 8K, with file sizes from 118MB to 958MB. Patrons can access a Google Drive folder containing all textures.

Mextures offers photo-editing textures, overlays, film presets, and apps for creating film-like effects. Its iOS editor supports unlimited layers that can be moved, hidden, rotated, and adjusted for opacity. The product page lists more than 200 stackable textures, including grain, dust, light leaks, and color gradients, along with 30 film presets and more than 300 Formulas. Formula Manager lets users import Formulas from others and export their own to share. Console is a free Photoshop plugin in beta; it works with Photoshop CC 2016–2023 on Windows 10 or newer and macOS 11 or newer. The maker warns that the current Console version crashes with the latest Photoshop and macOS Sonoma. Film Presets are compatible with Console, Lightroom CC 2021/2022, Final Cut Pro, and Adobe Premiere, with separate software-specific versions required for separate purchases. They are not conversion LUTs, so RAW or LOG footage needs to be normalized first. Listed options include the iOS app at 1.99 USD once and the X-Film Overlay Pack at $10 a month.