From one texture to a material you can use.

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What PBRica does

PBRica turns one surface texture into four maps: albedo, normal, roughness and height. It works inside Blender's Image Editor, so you can go from a source image to a material set without leaving the file.

The panel handles the whole pass: load the source, choose the output, generate, review the four maps, refine the height if it needs it, and export the result. The result is a set of ordinary PNGs that work in any material setup.

Before installing

Requirements

Installation

Install the extension

1. Download the installable ZIP (or build it from source; see the repository README).
2. In Blender, open Edit → Preferences → Get Extensions.
3. Use Install from Disk and select the ZIP.
4. Enable PBRica if Blender does not enable it automatically.
5. Open an Image Editor, press N, and choose the PBRica tab.

PBRica is an extension, not a legacy add-on folder. Let Blender install the ZIP; do not unpack it into the add-ons directory by hand.

First material

Your first generation

1. Open an Image Editor and select a surface texture in the PBRica tab.
2. Choose Output Size and Aspect. 2K is a good first run.
3. Choose Performance. Fastest if you are on supported Windows hardware; otherwise Quality.
4. Leave Relief Finish at Raw for the first pass.
5. Press Generate PBR Maps and wait for the four maps.
6. Use the eye buttons in Generated Maps to inspect each result.

If you like the base result, try a Relief Finish profile and press Apply Height Finish. If you want the normal to follow the finished height more closely, set Normal Blend and press Apply Normal Blend.

The source

Choosing an input texture

PBRica expects a surface texture, the same kind of image you would plug into a Base Color socket. A clean, evenly lit photo or a tileable texture works best. Strong directional shadows, baked highlights and heavy colour casts can show up in the result.

• Tileable textures: enable Seamless so the boundary is treated as a repeat.
• Ordinary photos: leave Seamless off. The result is a single surface, not a repeating tile.
• Aspect: use Preserve aspect for the full image, or Square to center-crop.
• Size: the source can be larger or smaller than the output; PBRica resizes it as needed.

Orientation

The panel

PBRica is organized from top to bottom in the order you usually need it.

Controls

Settings, one by one

Output Size

1K, 2K, 3K or 4K. Higher sizes take longer and use more memory. Start at 1K or 2K while you are exploring a texture.

Aspect

Preserve aspect keeps the source proportions; the long edge becomes the chosen size. Square center-crops to a square before generating.

Performance

Quality is the reference mode and works across platforms. Fastest uses supported GPU acceleration on Windows and is dramatically quicker on compatible hardware. If Fastest is not available, the generation falls back to Quality automatically.

Device

Auto uses the best available option, CPU forces the processor, and GPU asks for GPU acceleration when present. After the first generation, Device and Performance are fixed for that Blender session; restart Blender to change them.

Seamless

Enable this for textures that should repeat. It treats the image as a tile and helps the edges agree. Leave it off for photos and single surfaces.

Normal

OpenGL (Y+) is the usual Blender convention. DirectX (Y−) flips the green channel for pipelines that expect it.

Roughness

Choose 8-bit for a compact map or 16-bit when you want smoother gradients for look development.

Overlap

How much neighbouring regions share when the image is larger than one processing pass. The default is 128; 3K and 4K are capped at 64 automatically. Lower values are faster and can show seams; higher values cost more time.

Auto-show albedo

When enabled, the albedo is pushed into the Image Editor when generation finishes. Disable it if you want to keep inspecting another image.

Height only

Relief Finish

Relief Finish adjusts the height map without changing albedo, normal or roughness. Use it when a surface looks too wavy, too spiky at the top, or slightly disconnected at the edges.

The controls

• Drift Cleanup: removes a slow slope or broad drift across the surface. Keep it low for terrain.
• Peak Softening: calms only the highest points. Leave it at zero when peaks are part of the shape.
• Edge Blend: softens only a narrow border band to settle the last seam.
• Micro Grain: adds a very small amount of surface texture to the height. Keep it subtle.
• Fine Smoothing: a Custom-only final blur for small noise or banding; start low.

Apply and restore

Apply Height Finish replaces the visible height map with the selected finish. The original is kept as a base, so applying again does not stack. Restore Raw Height returns to the generated height.

Normal only

Normal Blend

Normal Blend changes only the normal map. At 0 the generated normal is kept exactly. At 1 the normal follows the current height completely. In between, the two are mixed.

A value around 0.2–0.5 is the useful range after a strong Relief Finish: it brings the normal back into agreement with the displaced shape without throwing away all the fine surface detail.

• Apply Normal Blend replaces the current normal.
• Restore Raw Normal returns to the generated normal.
• If you change the height afterwards, apply Normal Blend again so the normal follows it.

Running the pass

Generate

Press Generate PBR Maps. The work runs in the background, so Blender stays responsive. You can cancel between steps; the panel returns to its previous state.

When it finishes, four maps appear in Generated Maps: Albedo, Normal, Roughness and Height. The albedo is shown automatically if Auto-show is enabled.

Results

Maps and export

Each row in Generated Maps has an eye button. Press it to show that map in every Image Editor. Show Input returns to the source texture.

Export Maps

Press Export Maps, choose a base filename, and PBRica writes four files in the selected folder:

• <base>_albedo.png
• <base>_normal.png
• <base>_roughness.png
• <base>_height.png

The files are copied exactly as they are in the add-on, so real bit depths and any applied finish or blend are preserved. The original input image is not included.

If a cache file is missing, the export is cancelled and the status lists the missing map. Regenerate that map and try again.

Expectations

Performance

Speed depends on output size, performance mode and hardware. The reference figures below are from a Windows laptop with an RTX 3050; your times will vary.

Fastest is only available with supported GPU acceleration on Windows. Quality is the reference mode and works on CPU as well, but it can take substantially longer — especially at 3K and 4K. On macOS, Linux or a machine without supported Windows GPU acceleration, expect Quality timings, not Fastest timings.

If a first test is taking too long, lower the output size before changing the performance mode. 2K is usually the best balance for look development; 4K is for the final asset.

Read before buying

Platform support

Fastest is a Windows-only path. On macOS and Linux, use Quality. It is slower but is the mode we can describe with confidence across platforms.

When something is off

Troubleshooting

Fastest is not being used

Fastest needs supported GPU acceleration on Windows. Check Device and Performance, then restart Blender if you changed them after a generation. Without the required hardware, Quality is expected.

Quality inference is unstable or Vulkan is interfering

Switch Blender's GPU backend to OpenGL where available, then restart Blender. Vulkan can interfere with PBRica inference on some systems, especially in Quality mode; OpenGL is the recommended backend for that configuration. On macOS, keep the default Metal backend.

Generation is slow

Use a smaller output size and Quality on CPU. 4K Quality is a long run by design; 1K or 2K is better for iteration.

The height is too flat

Use Terrain or Natural, lower Drift Cleanup, or set Peak Softening to zero. Restore Raw Height and start again if needed.

The normal looks too soft

Lower Normal Blend, or press Restore Raw Normal. Values near 1 follow the height closely and intentionally reduce the fine normal detail.

Export Maps does not write a file

A cache map may be missing. Regenerate that map, then export again. The export stops instead of writing a partial set.

Device or Performance will not change

Those settings are fixed after the first generation in a Blender session. Restart Blender to choose again.

The texture has a seam

For a repeating texture, enable Seamless before generating. For a photo, leave it off and use Edge Blend in Relief Finish only if the border needs it.

The small print

License and support

PBRica is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later. Maps you create with it are yours to use in personal and commercial projects.

For the marketplace listing and updates, use the SuperHive or BlenderKit links in the site footer. For the complete feature overview, return to the PBRica home page.