Creating the Texture
This doc goes over how to create Tileable Textures...
Last updated
This doc goes over how to create Tileable Textures...
Last updated
The tileable texture itself depends on the result you are after including stylized textures or realistic textures. Good, free, PBR resources for textures include :
These are all usually tileable already and don't need any editing.
Note how the above textures are not square, but they are 2:1 at 512x1024 pixels each.
If you are making your own textures or have acquired non tileable textures and want to make them tileable, you may need to update them.
A common way to make sure the textures that are tileable is to use something like the Offset filter in Photoshop. If you have a 512x512 texture, offset both the vertical and horizontal axes by 256. Remove any elements that make the texture not tile using the Stamp tool or manual editing.
Open the image in Affinity Photo.
Use the 'Filter menu > Distort > Equations...'
Add half the width and height of the image to the Vertical and Horizontal parameters.
Set the 'Extend Mode' to 'Wrap'.
Update the image to tile correctly.
Apply the offset again to confirm that your updates don't break the original tiling.
Open the image in Photoshop.
Use the 'Filter menu > Other > Offset...'
Add half the width and height of the image to the Vertical and Horizontal parameters.
Update the image to tile correctly.
Apply the offset again to confirm that your updates don't break the original tiling.
You will need to make sure all the textures such as the metallic, roughness, and normal are aligned as well. An approach to this might be to use masks.
Copy all the different texture types into the one file.
Apply the Offset filter as above.
Duplicate each texture onto its own layer.
Select the duplicate layers and move them over the tile line.
Use masking tools to fade out most of the Diffuse layer to make the texture tile correctly.
Copy the mask from the diffuse to the other textures such as Metallic, Roughness, and Normal.
If you are planning to get your assets into a game engine such as Unity you may need to combine the Metallic and Smoothness (not roughness) textures together into one texture.
In Unity, Metallic is on the Red Channel, and Smoothness is in the Alpha channel.
You will need to invert the Roughness map to create a Smoothness texture as many resources, such as the CC0 texture sites mentioned above, only offer Roughness textures.
Open a new image at the desired resolution.
Make sure the base layer is transparent (this will be important later).
Copy the Metallic texture, into a layer above the transparent layer.
In the Roughness texture, go to 'Image Menu > Adjustments > Invert' or use [Ctrl + I].
In the 'Channels' window, add a new Layer at the top right icon.
This will most likely be labeled 'Alpha 1' by default.
Copy the (now) Smoothness texture, and paste it into the new Alpha channel.
Ctrl + left click the alpha channel to select the smoothness levels.
Apply the Selection to a Metallic layer Mask, or copy the Metallic texture into a folder and apply the Layer Mask to the folder.
As you have a transparency layer underneath it should be easy to see the alpha results.
Save the result as a PNG file.
