The Texture Generator tool is designed to quickly create custom textures for your meshes through text prompts. You can select a mesh or Model made up of several meshes¹, type in any prompt to preview results within a few seconds, then generate full textures.
Texture Generator is best suited for custom 3D assets where the desired texture is contextual to the asset itself. To generate repeating or tiled images for texturing surfaces like a wood floor or cobblestone pathway, Material Generator may produce better results.
Generating Textures
To begin generating textures, navigate to the Model tab and open the Texture Generator tool.
With the tool's window open:
In the tool's preview pane, click and drag to set a generation angle that highlights the significant features or surfaces for texturing.
Focus on the primary faces of a tower mesh, visible to players
Bottom of tower mesh will not likely be visible to players
Enter a prompt describing your desired texture, for example:
- "Rusted Charred Metal Castle"
- "Mossy Stone Fortress"
- "Snow Covered Ice Sculpture"
Using more descriptors in your prompt and iterating can help you find a texture that suits your needs. For more information, see Best Practices.
Click Preview to create a texture preview in real time. This process typically takes about 20 seconds but may take longer during peak periods.
When you've found a texture that looks suitable, use the "rotate" buttons to rotate the view 90° around the mesh. To return to the prompt input to iterate and/or create a new preview, click the "back" button.
At this point, the texture may not appear visually consistent from all four views. However, the model will create a texture that's more consistent during the texture generation process.
When you're satisfied with the texture, click Save & Apply to create a full texture for your mesh. This process typically takes a few minutes but may be longer during peak periods. When complete, the new texture will be applied to the mesh through a SurfaceAppearance instance.
Final generated textures will be a close match to what you observe in the preview pane, but may not be an exact match. You can continue to iterate on a style prompt and compare previous versions as outlined in Managing Textures.
Managing Textures
Generated textures appear in the Saved Textures section of the tool's window. For each texture, you can click the ⋯ to access various options.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Insert Mesh with Texture | Inserts a copy of the textured mesh/model into the workspace. |
| Show in Inventory | Opens your Images inventory on the Creator Dashboard where you can inspect the texture image. |
| Export | Exports the mesh to your local system as a .obj file. |
| Remove | Removes the texture from the Saved Textures list. |
Advanced Options
Expanding the Advanced Options section in the tool's window allows you to configure the following aspects.
Seed Control
You can choose to either randomize the seed or set a specific seed for texture generation. Setting a specific seed before generating a texture ensures you get consistent results each time you use a specific prompt.
Generation Angle
Allows you to set a primary generation angle to prioritize during the preview generation phase to ensure the most important areas of your mesh are visible and able to be textured. This angle is also controlled by clicking and dragging the mesh in the preview window.
See Best Practices for detailed recommendations on choosing a generation angle.
Smart UV Unwrap
In 3D modeling, a UV map is a 2D representation of the surface of a 3D model, allowing 2D textures to be accurately applied to the 3D model. UV coordinates U and V refer to the horizontal and vertical axes of this 2D space, similar to the X and Y axes in a 2D graph.
For the texture generator tool to create well-formed textures, your mesh's underlying UV maps need to fit a few guidelines. First, all UV coordinates must be within the unit square, as UV maps outside of the unit square will wrap around to the other side of the UV map and create artifacts or seams in the final texture. Second, all UVs must be non‑overlapping, as overlapping UVs will result in inconsistent textures and color placements.
Selecting the Smart UV Unwrap option will take a mesh with no UVs (or incompatible UVs) and apply the necessary UV coordinates for texturing. If your UVs are compatible, they won't be affected and you can use your mesh as‑is.
Specify Front View
When this setting is enabled, the generation angle selected during the preview stage is specified as the "front" of your mesh. This allows the tool to better texture meshes with a clear front and back by identifying each side, resulting in more consistent and coherent textures. This is particularly helpful for objects with a clear front and back, like avatars, animals, and clothing.
"Lab Coat with Badge" prompt with Specify Front View disabled, yielding lab coat "front" on both front and back
Same prompt with Specify Front View enabled, yielding correct "front" and "back" of lab coat
Best Practices
The following prompting tips enable the tool to provide better and more consistent results.
- Provide as much detail as possible in your prompt. Short, vague prompts will lead to inconsistent or unexpected results.
- Include texture attributes like material types, colors, patterns, wear and tear, etc. The more constraints you give the tool, the better it can generate what you have in mind.
- Use descriptive phrases instead of single words for key items, for example "worn leather" instead of just "leather."
- Add styling cues like "cinematic," "photorealistic," "cartoon," or "low poly" to influence the overall look.