Procedural Height Map
Procedural Height Map presses a grayscale pattern into the surface as a normal map, so the mesh looks carved without adding any faces. Pick a preset such as wood grooves, planks, scratches or hammered metal, or upload your own image. Use it for wood grain on planks and posts, dents on props, and strands on a swept rope. The mesh needs UVs, from Smart UV or Extrude Along Curve.
Inputs
Section titled “Inputs” Mesh
The mesh to add surface detail to. It needs UVs, so add a Smart UV or Auto Unwrap first unless it comes from Extrude Along Curve.
Outputs
Section titled “Outputs” Mesh
The same mesh with the pattern baked into its normal map.
Parameters
Section titled “Parameters”| Parameter | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
Apply to | Which faces get the effect: Everywhere, or a named selection. Invert flips the choice. | Everywhere |
Effect | The grayscale pattern pressed into the surface: white is raised, black is deep. Pick a preset or upload your own image. Presets: Wood grooves, Sporadic grain, Planks, Scratches, Hammered, Rock, Weave, Rope, Stipple, or your own image. | Wood grooves |
Projection | How the pattern is laid onto the surface. Auto picks for you; Triplanar projects from the three world directions with no seams; UV follows the mesh's UVs, so a pattern winds along a swept tube. Options: Auto, Triplanar (world), UV | Auto |
Scale | How big one repeat of the pattern is. Smaller gives denser detail. | 0.5 |
Rotation | Turns the pattern, in degrees, to steer the direction of grain or grooves. | 0 |
Offset | Slides the pattern across the surface, to move a groove off an awkward spot. | 0, 0, 0 |
Blend sharpness | How crisply the pattern switches between projection directions at corners. High suits hard-edged props. Only matters with Triplanar projection. | 4 |
Depth | How deep the pattern reads at full white. Negative turns grooves into ridges. | 0.02 |
Resolution | How detailed the texture is. Only the first texture node in a chain sets it; later ones use the same size. Options: 256, 512, 1024, 2048 | 1024 |
See also
Section titled “See also”- Smart UV: give the mesh UVs first.
- Extrude Along Curve: its tubes carry UVs a pattern can wind along.
- Paint Fill: color the surface the pattern shapes.
- Texture nodes: the other nodes that unwrap, paint and bake.