Frequently Asked Questions
A height map (also called a displacement map) is a grayscale image where each pixel stores elevation. White is the highest point, black the lowest. Unlike a bump map, a height map can physically move mesh vertices, so silhouettes and self-shadowing are real.
An 8-bit PNG has only 256 height steps. Under real displacement those steps show up as visible terracing on smooth slopes. A 16-bit PNG stores 65,536 steps, which is why terrain and displacement pipelines in Unreal, Unity, Blender and World Machine expect 16-bit input.
Yes. Export at 16-bit and use a power-of-two square source image. Unity terrain imports 16-bit RAW or PNG heightmaps, and Unreal accepts 16-bit grayscale PNG in the Landscape import dialog.
They are the same kind of grayscale data used two different ways. A bump map only perturbs shading, so the silhouette stays flat. A height map drives real geometric displacement or parallax. Use our bump map generator if you only need cheap shading detail.
No. That slider only controls how far the 3D preview mesh is pushed so you can judge the map. The exported PNG always contains the full 0–1 height range produced by the contrast, smoothing and levels settings.