This seamless 3D texture at an impressive 8K resolution presents a highly detailed PBR surface inspired by flickering flames intertwined with dynamic fire smoke swirl effects. The base material mimics an organic substrate, capturing the volatile nature of fire and smoke as natural phenomena. The texture’s composition suggests a layered structure where the “surface finish” emulates a semi-translucent, heat-distorted haze overlaying a glowing embers core, enhanced by subtle variations in opacity and translucency to simulate the ephemeral tongues of flame and curling fire plumes. Fine particulate aggregates and wispy fibers are implied within the smoke swirls, creating a natural flowing pattern that adds depth and realism, while the colorants range from deep oranges and reds to smoky grays and charred blacks, reflecting the complex interaction of pigments and thermal oxidation seen in real fire.
In the PBR workflow, this texture excels by distributing its material characteristics across multiple texture maps. The BaseColor or Albedo channel provides the vivid flame hues and diffuse smoke gradients without baked lighting, maintaining true color fidelity. The Normal map encodes delicate surface undulations that simulate the flickering flame movement and swirling smoke plumes, adding intricate micro-details to lighting interactions. Roughness values vary to replicate the contrast between the softer, diffuse smoke haze and the sharper, glossy fire burst flares, while the Metallic channel remains minimal or near zero to preserve the organic, non-metallic nature of fire and smoke. Ambient Occlusion enhances the depth by shading recessed areas where flames curl and smoke thickens, and the Height or Displacement map offers subtle volumetric effects that emphasize heat distortion and flame elevation, perfect for parallax adjustments in real-time engines.
Designed for seamless tiling and fully compatible with Blender, Unreal Engine, and Unity, this flickering flame 3D texture is ideal for projects requiring dynamic fire and smoke visuals with natural movement and intensity. Its high resolution ensures crisp detail even at close-up views, making it suitable for cinematic effects, game environments, or architectural visualizations involving fire elements. For optimal results, it is recommended to adjust the UV scale to fine-tune the flame size and detail repetition, and to carefully calibrate the roughness map to balance the soft glow of smoke against the sharp, flickering highlights of the flames for a convincing realistic effect.
How to Use These Seamless PBR Textures in Blender
This guide shows how to connect a full PBR texture set to Principled BSDF in Blender (Cycles or Eevee). Works with any of our seamless textures free download, including PBR PNG materials for Blender / Unreal / Unity.
What’s inside the download
*_albedo.png — Base Color (sRGB)*_normal.png — Normal map (Non-Color)*_roughness.png — Roughness (Non-Color)*_metallic.png — Metallic (Non-Color)*_ao.png — Ambient Occlusion (Non-Color)*_height.png — Height / Displacement (Non-Color)*_ORM.png — Packed map (R=AO, G=Roughness, B=Metallic, Non-Color)
Quick start (Node Wrangler, 30 seconds)
- Enable the addon: Edit → Preferences → Add-ons → Node Wrangler.
- Create a material and select the Principled BSDF node.
- Press Ctrl + Shift + T and select the maps
albedo, normal, roughness, metallic (skip height and ORM for now) → Open.
The addon wires Base Color, Normal (with a Normal Map node), Roughness, and Metallic automatically.
- Add AO and Height using the “Manual wiring” steps below (5 and 6).
Manual wiring (full control)
- Create a material (Material Properties → New) and open the Shader Editor.
- Add an Image Texture node for each map. Set Color Space:
- Albedo → sRGB
- AO, Roughness, Metallic, Normal, Height, ORM → Non-Color
- Connect to Principled BSDF:
albedo → Base Colorroughness → Roughnessmetallic → Metallic (for wood this often stays near 0)normal → Normal Map node (Type: Tangent Space) → Normal of Principled.
If details look “inverted”, enable Invert Y on the Normal Map node.
- Ambient Occlusion (AO):
- Add a MixRGB (or Mix Color) node in mode Multiply.
- Input A =
albedo, Input B = ao, Factor = 1.0.
- Output of Mix → Base Color of Principled (replaces the direct albedo connection).
- Height / Displacement:
Cycles — true displacement
- Material Properties → Settings → Displacement: Displacement and Bump.
- Add a Displacement node: connect
height → Height, set Midlevel = 0.5, Scale = 0.02–0.08 (tune to taste).
- Output of Displacement → Material Output → Displacement.
- Add geometry density (e.g., Subdivision Surface) so displacement has polygons to work with.
Eevee (or lightweight Cycles) — bump only
- Add a Bump node:
height → Height.
- Set Strength = 0.2–0.5, Distance = 0.05–0.1, and connect Normal output to Principled’s Normal.
Using the packed ORM texture (optional)
Instead of separate AO/Roughness/Metallic maps you can use the single *_ORM.png:
- Add one Image Texture (Non-Color) → Separate RGB (or Separate Color).
- R (red) → AO (use it in the Multiply node with albedo as above).
- G (green) → Roughness of Principled.
- B (blue) → Metallic of Principled.
UVs & seamless tiling
- These textures are seamless. If your mesh has no UVs, go to UV Editing → Smart UV Project.
- For scale/repeat, add Texture Coordinate (UV) → Mapping and plug it into all texture nodes.
Increase Mapping → Scale (e.g., 2/2/2) to tile more densely.
Recommended starter values
- Normal Map Strength: 0.5–1.0
- Bump Strength: ~0.3
- Displacement Scale (Cycles): ~0.03
Common pitfalls
- Wrong Color Space (normals/roughness/etc. must be Non-Color).
- “Inverted” details → enable Invert Y on the Normal Map node.
- Over-strong relief → lower Displacement Scale or Bump Strength.
Example: Download Wood Textures and instantly apply parquet or rustic planks inside Blender for architectural visualization.
To add the downloaded texture, go to Add — Texture — Image Texture.
Add a node and click the Open button.
Select the required texture on your hard drive and connect Color to Base Color.
