Mextures vs Poly Haven

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.

Poly Haven is a curated public library of HDRIs, textures, and 3D models for visual effects artists and game designers. Its assets use a CC0 license and can be used commercially. The library describes its HDRIs as 16k+ resolution and unclipped, and its photoscanned seamless PBR textures as at least 8k. The public collection costs nothing, with no paywall or signup required. A Blender add-on brings assets into the software's asset browser and provides organized catalogs, resolution switching, automatic texture scaling, and one-click displacement setup. Poly Haven also offers an API whose default endpoints are free for personal, academic, and commercial use without login or an API key. Live API users must provide clear attribution and a unique User-Agent header. The organization says its assets are made by humans, avoiding generative AI and overreliance on procedural methods. Optional paid offerings include Vault access for $3 a month, a Blender add-on via Patreon for $5 a month, or an identical add-on via Superhive for $49, paid once.