Texture PSD to PNG: seams, color space, and channel semantics matter more than “it opens”
`texture-psd-png` moves painted work into an engine-friendly interchange before GPU compression. UV seams come from discontinuous edge pixels, not PNG magic; normal maps need different handling than albedo. Document linear versus sRGB textures explicitly or PBR lighting drifts. PNG is a stopover—plan the BC/ASTC/ETC target with your TA.
How to Use
- Tile-check in-engine, fix four-way continuity in Photoshop with offset filters, add UV padding, and strip unused alpha unless the shader needs cutouts.
- Import the PNG into the target renderer, inspect mips and filtering for seams before blaming the file bytes.
- Record texture version, color space tag, and importer settings in the asset ledger—never reuse one filename for both tileable 1K bases and 4K hero stills.
PSD to PNG (texture) FAQ
Seamless texture still shows seams—resolution?
Seams usually trace to UV splits or discontinuous edge colors, not PNG encoding; tile inside the engine, then use Photoshop offset to align opposite edges and add adequate UV padding for mipmaps.
Normal/roughness maps through PNG preview flow—risk?
Feeding normal or ORM data through UI-style gamma tweaks scrambles lighting; give each map class its own export preset and validation—never share a one-click marketing PNG pipeline with technical maps.
Linear vs sRGB textures?
Albedo often loads with sRGB→linear conversion while data maps stay linear; swapping them crushes contrast. Tag files LINEAR or sRGB in names and lock importer defaults so artist tool resets do not silently retune entire material libraries.
Huge 4K texture PNGs—what to do?
4K RGBA PNGs are fine for exchange but brutal at runtime—pipeline them into BC/ASTC/ETC with agreed block sizes and record those parameters beside the asset so streaming budgets stay honest.
Tileable vs hero art sharing one PSD—risk?
Tileable materials need conservative detail and perfect continuity, while marketing heroes need aggressive sharpening—forcing both from one PSD yields visible repeats or mushy close-ups; fork the files and name them distinctly.