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A PBR material looks like one texture in a preview render, but you are buying a set of images that work together. If one of them is missing, the material still loads, it just looks flat, plastic or wrong under a different light. This guide explains what each map does, which ones you need for your kind of work, and how to read a listing so you know what is in the zip before you pay.
We also read the PBR Materials and Textures & Patterns shelves on Getly, measured October 2026: 583 active listings, median price $5.74. One honest caution first: a single shop holds 91.8% of these listings and writes them from one template. So the shares below mostly describe one seller's habits, not a whole market. They are still useful, because the gaps they show are the same gaps you will meet on other sites.
The maps, one by one
PBR stands for physically based rendering. Instead of painting light into the texture, you describe the surface, and the engine lights it. Each map describes one property.
- Base color (albedo). The color of the surface with no lighting and no shadows baked in. If you see dark crevices painted into the base color, the material will look dirty and double-shadowed under real light.
- Normal map. Fakes small bumps and grooves by bending the light. It is the map that makes bricks look like bricks at a glance. It comes in two flavours, OpenGL (Blender, Unity) and DirectX (Unreal). They differ by the green channel: use the wrong one and every bump looks lit from below. A good pack ships both or tells you which one it is.
- Roughness. How blurry or sharp the reflections are. White is rough, black is glossy. This map is what separates wet stone from dry stone. Some engines want glossiness instead, which is the same map inverted.
- Metallic. Black for non-metal, white for bare metal, almost nothing in between. Wood, fabric, stone and plastic do not need a metallic map at all: a flat black value does the job. Rusty or painted metal does need one.
- Ambient occlusion (AO). Soft shadow in the cracks where light cannot reach. Modern renderers compute some of this themselves, but an AO map still helps in real time engines and adds depth on close shots.
- Height (displacement). Real geometry offset. A normal map only fakes depth; a height map can push the actual surface out, so a stone wall gets a real silhouette at grazing angles. Needed for displacement and parallax occlusion; not needed for a flat floor in a game seen from above.
What the listings on this shelf actually include
Most of these listings name their maps in the description, which is the first thing to look for. Measured October 2026 across the 583 listings:
| What the description mentions | Share of listings |
|---|---|
| Seamless or tileable | 96.6% |
| Roughness map | 92.5% |
| Normal map | 91.8% |
| 2K resolution | 92.3% |
| Metallic map | 7.5% |
| 4K resolution | 1.0% |
| Ambient occlusion | 0% |
| Height or displacement | 0% |
Two things stand out. First, nearly every listing is a base color, normal and roughness set at 2K, tileable, delivered as a zip (92.7% of listings ship one zip archive). That is a sensible core for most game and archviz work. Second, no description on the shelf mentions an AO or height map. If your plan is displacement in Blender Cycles, parallax occlusion in Unreal or close-up product renders, that is the gap to check before you buy, not after.
Which maps you need for your work
- Mobile or stylised games: base color and normal are often enough. Roughness can be a single value. 1K or 2K is plenty.
- PC and console games: base color, normal (in your engine's flavour), roughness, plus AO if your engine uses it. Metallic only for metals. 2K is the usual default; 4K for hero props.
- Architecture visualisation: base color, normal, roughness, and a height map for stone, brick and wood that is seen at an angle. 2K tiles well on a wall; 4K helps on floors seen up close.
- Close-up product or film renders: every map, including height, at 4K or above.
Resolution: 1K, 2K, 4K, 8K
The number is the pixel width of one tile: 2K means 2048 by 2048 pixels. More pixels only help if the camera gets close enough to see them. A 2K tile repeated across a floor already gives you a lot of detail per metre. Higher resolutions also cost memory: a 4K map uses four times the memory of a 2K one, and a full set of six 4K maps adds up quickly in a game. Buy the size you will use; you can always scale a 4K set down, but you cannot scale a 2K set up without losing sharpness.
Seamless means you should not see the tile
"Seamless" is the most common claim on this shelf, and it is easy to test. Tile the preview image three by three in any image editor or in your 3D scene. Look for a hard edge, a repeated stain or a brighter patch that turns into a grid when repeated. A good tileable texture hides its repeat; a weak one shows a pattern of identical spots from across the room.
Engine compatibility, in practice
Most descriptions here list Blender, Unity and Unreal together (91.8% of listings name all three). That claim is almost always true for plain image maps, because every engine reads PNG or JPG. What differs is setup:
- Blender: connect maps to the Principled BSDF. Set every map except base color to Non-Color. Normal maps go through a Normal Map node.
- Unity (URP/HDRP): mark the normal map as Normal Map in the import settings. HDRP expects a packed mask map (metallic, AO, detail, smoothness in separate channels).
- Unreal: uses DirectX normals and often a packed ORM texture (occlusion, roughness, metallic in R, G and B).
If a pack ships only OpenGL normals and you work in Unreal, flip the green channel. It takes a minute, but it is good to know before you see your bricks lit from the wrong side.
What to ask the seller before you buy
- Which maps are in the zip, by name? Is there AO or height?
- Normal map: OpenGL or DirectX?
- Resolution of each map, and file format (PNG, JPG, EXR)?
- Is the texture made from a photo scan, procedurally, or with AI? Each is fine; it changes how close you can get.
- Can you use it in a commercial game or client project? Check the license line on the listing.
On Getly you can ask through the product page before buying, and every new listing is reviewed before it goes live. Purchases have a refund window of at least 30 days if the files are not what the listing describes.
A quick checklist
- Base color has no baked shadows.
- Normal map flavour matches your engine.
- Roughness present, metallic only if it is a metal.
- AO and height present if you need close-ups or displacement.
- Resolution fits how close the camera gets.
- Tile it three by three and look for the repeat.
- License covers your use.
Browse the shelf at PBR Materials, and read the map list before the price.
