Material Forge vs PBRgen

Material Forge is a web-based AI creator for PBR materials used with Unreal Engine 5. A surface photo, concept frame, or sample image can guide generation of base-color, normal, roughness, metallic, and emissive maps. The interface shows a cost of 20 credits for each selected map. Controls cover tint, brightness, desaturation, metallic, roughness, normal intensity, clearcoat, opacity, UV scale, rotation, offset, panning, emissive effects, and edge glow. A 3D material preview is available, and complete setups can be saved in a browser-local gallery. Material ZIP exports contain material_config.json, generated texture maps, a preview PNG, and a reference image when supplied. The UE5 plugin connects through a local listener at 127.0.0.1:7842 and places assets in /Game/MaterialForge/. Setup requires enabling the Python Editor Script Plugin and adding two downloaded files to Content/Python/. A UEFN listener workflow places assets under //MaterialForge/. The Free plan costs nothing, with 100 monthly credits and one concurrent generation.

PBRgen is a web-based tool that turns a text prompt or image into a PBR material for 3D software. Generation can use styles, colors, guide maps, presets, and image input. AI seam inpainting can make textures tile seamlessly. The service supports more than 15 maps, including color, roughness, specular, metallic, displacement, normal, and coat. Each map can be adjusted through a layer stack with sources and effects such as blur, levels, brightness, and contrast. Users can download selected maps in a zip, pack maps into one RGBA texture, or export GLB files. Listed export targets include Blender, Unreal Engine, Unity, Substance 3D, and Godot. Materials can be published and shared with one click. The Starter plan is free and provides 100 one-time credits for personal use. The Beta plan has no listed price, provides 1,000 credits per month, permits commercial use and map uploads, and can be canceled anytime. AIxPOLY B.V. makes the service in Amsterdam. Stated security measures include TLS 1.2+ in transit, database encryption at rest, access controls, and regular security reviews.