Physical scale and surface filters

Author detail in metres, transfer sizes between assets and filter across UV seams in surface space.

On this page 3 sections

Use physical units to keep detail sizes consistent between assets, and Surface-space filters to continue blur, warp and other neighbourhood effects across UV seams.

Texel density and physical size

The texture set reports the world length represented by one UV tile and the size of one texel. Density is derived from assigned world-space surface area and UV area, so object scale matters. For generated details with a declared real size, set Physical Size, Meters per World Unit and Size Provenance. A measurement, known source units or an explicit assumption records where that size came from. Unknown size is treated as relative, and under-resolved detail is reported.

Author in metres

Select a channel procedural, mask or filter and switch Units from Texture to Physical.
Enter Feature Size for a pattern, Radius for a neighbourhood filter, or Noise Feature Size for a warp. Blender can display convenient units such as millimetres.
Read the resolved repeats or texel radius next to the control, including any range clamp.

Lock Sizes to Metres converts scalable controls across the set while preserving their current appearance. Saving that material and importing it on another asset resolves its sizes for the new geometry. Back to Texture Units preserves the current look and returns to repeats and texels; Resolve Now updates values after an external change.

Resolution, geometry scale, projection and assignment changes re-resolve physical settings. UV patterns use the set's density; triplanar patterns use world units directly.

Surface and UV filter space

Space	Behaviour
Surface (default)	Neighbourhood filters sample across paired UV seams on the mesh. Directional effects use a world-space Direction.
UV	Filters operate in image space with bounded pixel footprints. Island borders can become visible.

The switch applies to blur, high pass, sharpen, smooth mask, dilation/erosion, edge detection, height-to-normal, slope and directional blur, warps and UV distortion. Choose Triplanar for procedural fills that should also follow world-space geometry.

Surface filtering needs whole-image evaluation and can cost more than UV filtering. Non-manifold seams are not paired; multi-island corners and hard folds use an approximation. Generator-internal micro-detail blur still operates in UV space.

See preview performance and export padding. References: physical scale and surface filters.