This seamless 3D texture captures the complex form of a smoky explosion with dense black smoke and volatile gases intricately interwoven into a dynamic smoke plume. The base material can be understood as a volatile fume cloud composed primarily of airborne particulate matter suspended within gaseous combustion products. The underlying structure is amorphous and turbulent, lacking rigid geometric patterns but instead featuring fluid, swirling forms that simulate the chaotic movement of smoke and fire. This texture mimics the layering of fine carbon soot particles and combustion byproducts, which create a granular yet diffuse surface, conveying the depth and density typical of incendiary smoke clouds.
From a materials perspective, the texture visualizes a substrate of microscopic soot grains and combustion residues bound by volatile gases and heat-driven chemical reactions. The “adhesive” here is the heat-induced turbulence that holds the smoke plume together temporarily before dissipating. The surface finish appears matte and soft, representing the diffusive scattering of light through smoky layers, with no metallic or glossy reflections but subtle variations in roughness that highlight thick versus thin pockets of smoke. The color palette centers on deep blacks and grays with occasional warm amber hues hinting at residual heat and incendiary effects. This nuanced interplay of pigments simulates combustion soot and gas ionization, contributing to realistic shading and shadowing in the texture.
Mapped to PBR channels, the BaseColor (Albedo) conveys the dark, smoky tones with subtle color gradations to emphasize depth and volume within the plume. The Normal map encodes the turbulent folds and eddies of the smoke’s surface, adding volumetric complexity despite the texture’s 2D nature. Roughness values are generally high, reflecting the matte, non-reflective quality of smoke, but vary to show denser versus thinner areas of particulate matter. Metallic is zeroed out, consistent with non-metallic airborne particles. Ambient Occlusion enhances the perception of depth in overlapping smoke layers, while Height/Displacement maps provide subtle volumetric cues that support realistic parallax effects in rendering engines.
Rendered at an ultra-high 8K resolution, this texture ensures exceptional detail and crispness when applied to surfaces in Blender, Unreal Engine, and Unity. Its seamless design allows for infinite tiling without visible borders, perfect for large-scale environmental effects or close-up shots involving smoky explosions and incendiary phenomena. For practical use, it is recommended to carefully adjust UV scale to maintain the natural flow and turbulence of the smoke plume, avoiding repetitive patterns. Additionally, tuning roughness maps can enhance the contrast between thick black smoke pockets and thinner volatile gas regions, while blending height and normal maps can improve the perceived volumetric depth critical for realistic fire and explosion simulations.
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.
