This Sunset seamless 8K PBR 3D texture captures the intricate material qualities and dynamic form of a vibrant sky dome at dusk. The base material can be considered a layered atmospheric substrate, where the "surface" is composed of volumetric gaseous layers with suspended cumulus clouds formed by condensed water vapor aggregates. These cloud clusters exhibit soft, billowing forms with varying density, creating natural variations in opacity and translucency. The substrate gradient transitions smoothly from warm orange and magenta hues near the horizon to cooler purples and blues higher in the dome, simulating the scattering of sunlight through atmospheric particles at sunset. This gradation is reflected in the BaseColor (Albedo) channel, providing a realistic and seamless color flow across the texture.
Structurally, the texture’s form is defined by the three-dimensional interplay of cloud volumes and sky gradient, represented in the Normal and Height/Displacement maps. The Normal map captures subtle surface undulations and the soft contours of cumulus clouds, enhancing depth without harsh edges. The Height map emphasizes volumetric layering, allowing for parallax effects that simulate real-world cloud elevation and atmospheric depth. Roughness values vary across the texture to mimic the diffuse, matte quality of clouds contrasted with the smoother, slightly glossier sky background, while the Metallic channel remains near zero, reflecting the non-metallic nature of the atmospheric materials. Ambient Occlusion enhances shading in denser cloud areas, adding realistic shadowing and form definition suitable for realistic lighting models.
Colorants in this texture are digitally crafted pigments replicating atmospheric light scattering, with no physical binders but simulated optical effects. The seamless patterning ensures tileable continuity, essential for skyboxes and panoramic environments. This texture is optimized for 8K resolution, providing exceptional detail for close-up renders in Blender, Unreal Engine, and Unity, supporting multiple PBR workflows. The high resolution allows artists to adjust UV scale finely, maintaining crisp cloud edges without pixelation or repetition artifacts, important for large-scale environment mapping.
For practical use, it is recommended to fine-tune the roughness channel to balance the diffuse scattering of clouds against the smoother sky dome, enhancing realism under different lighting conditions. Additionally, blending the Height/Displacement map with Normal maps in your engine can create convincing depth and volumetric feel to the clouds, especially when combined with subtle parallax effects. This approach improves immersion in real-time applications and offline renders alike, making this texture a versatile choice for photorealistic sunset sky backgrounds and detailed sky panoramas in 3D scenes.
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.
