Physical scale and surface filters

Keep grain and scratches at a consistent physical size and filter across UV seams.

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 work in image coordinates. Use this for texture-space patterns and image adjustments.

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.

Choose Surface for detail that should continue across the model, such as softened wear or a directional streak. Choose UV when the texture layout itself should guide the effect. Cache a finished filtered layer when working on details above it.

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