Texture & PBR Glossary

Comprehensive definitions of texture mapping, PBR workflows, and 3D rendering terminology. Master the language of digital art and game development.

This glossary covers essential texture mapping terms, PBR workflow concepts, and 3D rendering terminology used in game development, architectural visualization, and digital art. Whether you're learning about normal maps, bump maps, albedo textures, or roughness maps, this reference guide will help you understand the technical language of modern 3D workflows.

PBR Maps

Albedo

The base color texture that defines the surface color without lighting or shadows. Also known as diffuse map or base color map.

Normal Map

A texture that stores surface normal information to add detail without increasing polygon count. Uses RGB values to encode X, Y, Z surface directions.

Bump Map

A grayscale texture that simulates surface height variations. Creates the illusion of bumps and indentations through lighting tricks.

Height Map

A grayscale texture representing surface elevation. Used for displacement mapping to physically modify geometry.

Roughness Map

A texture that controls how rough or smooth a surface appears, affecting light reflection and scattering.

Metallic Map

A texture that defines which parts of a surface are metallic (white) or non-metallic (black) for realistic material properties.

AO Map

Ambient Occlusion map that simulates soft shadows in crevices and contact points, adding depth and realism.

Displacement Map

A texture that physically moves vertices of a mesh to create real geometric detail, unlike normal maps which only simulate it.

Rendering

PBR

Physically Based Rendering - a shading model that simulates how light interacts with materials in a physically accurate way.

Mipmap

Pre-calculated, optimized versions of a texture at different resolutions to improve rendering performance and quality.

Subsurface Scattering

The effect of light penetrating and scattering within translucent materials like skin, wax, or marble.

3D Concepts

UV Mapping

The process of projecting a 2D texture onto a 3D model by unwrapping its surface into a flat coordinate system.

Tangent Space

A coordinate system used for normal maps that is relative to the surface, making normal maps work correctly when the object is deformed.

Object Space

A coordinate system for normal maps that is relative to the world or object, used for non-deforming objects.

Texturing

Seamless Texture

A tileable texture that can be repeated without visible seams or edges, commonly used for large surfaces.

Tiling

The repetition of a texture across a surface. Can be 1x1 (no repetition) or higher values like 2x2, 3x3.

Texel

A texture element - the smallest unit of a texture, similar to a pixel but in texture space.

Material Properties

Specular

The shininess or reflectivity of a surface. High specular values create mirror-like reflections.

Diffuse

The scattered light that gives an object its base color. Diffuse lighting is non-directional and even.

Fresnel

The phenomenon where surfaces become more reflective at grazing angles, creating realistic material behavior.

Missing a Term?

Can't find what you're looking for? We're constantly updating our glossary with new terms and definitions.