Parallax creates the illusion of depth and volume on a textured surface. By offsetting texture coordinates based on the observer’s viewpoint, parallax mapping simulates the visual effect of depth, enhancing the perception of three-dimensionality in your materials. It requires a grayscale texture to be assigned to it. You can bake this texture inside Toolbag, use one of the textures from the Toolbag’s Library, paint this map using a Texture Project in Toolbag, or create it using third-party apps. This method doesn’t need more model polygons for better quality, making it a great alternative to Displacement.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Texture Slot | Add a parallax texture by clicking on the slot or dragging and dropping one from the Library. |
| Channel Selection | Determines which channel of the texture map will be used. It’s useful when, instead of using multiple single textures, you use one texture with different grayscale maps in the different texture channels: Red, Green, Blue, and Alpha. |
| Depth | Sets the intensity of the parallax effect. |
| Depth Center | Sets the gray point, zero point, or “no-displacement” point of the height/depth map. Values above this threshold will displace outward, while values below it will appear to displace inward. |
| Contrast | Adjust the contrast of the height map. It can be useful to increase the difference between the lowest and highest values. |
| Contrast Center | Adjust the value used for the contrast center of the height map. This setting determines, based on which value changes the contrast of the texture. |
| Offset | Offset the map contents. This setting can be useful for fine-tuning. |
| Quality | Quality of the parallax effect. |
