MeshCoat vs Surface Labs

MeshCoat is free 3D texture-painting software for game developers and 3D artists. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, operates locally, needs no account or subscription and loads textures from folders on disk. Brush strokes are mapped from 3D camera space into UV coordinates in real time with hardware-accelerated shaders. A non-destructive layer stack supports hiding, reordering, opacity changes, duplication, merging and live blending. Tools include brush, stamp, eraser, fill bucket, effects brush, eyedropper and face selection. Edge-wear and crevice-dirt generators provide real-time previews with colour presets. A screen-space stencil displays reference images for painting or decal projection, and a texture shelf browses local PNG and JPG files. MeshCoat imports OBJ, GLB and glTF models and exports composite maps as PNG. The maker says composite results update at 60 FPS, with 100-step undo and redo. The app is in development, contains no telemetry or network calls, and has no runtime AI or machine-learning models. It is licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later and accepts optional contributions.

Surface Labs is a node-based application for building procedural textures and materials by connecting operations in a graph. Its node library includes generators, filters, blends, transforms, normals, channel operations, and math nodes. A GLSL editor supports custom nodes that compile to the native Rust engine; the maker says most nodes render in under 2 ms. Desktop authoring supports up to 8192 × 8192 in 32-bit float, while iPadOS and Android are capped at 4096 × 4096. A headless command-line tool can evaluate graphs and export textures for batch work and CI. The built-in MCP server lets compatible assistants inspect and edit projects, render nodes, and export textures. It is opt-in, binds to loopback, requires a generated token, and rejects non-local Origins, but file arguments can access files available to the user account rather than staying within a project directory. A portable project file bundles materials, subgraphs, images, fonts, a preview model, and export settings. Surface Labs is free while in early access; its iPad build is distributed through TestFlight, where builds expire on the usual 90-day cycle.