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jonoiii
Known Participant
February 2, 2026
Question

How to paint height/displacement and set a mid value of 0.5?

  • February 2, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 8 views

I am attempting to projection paint or tile procedurals in the height channel to use as displacement in my dcc. Coming from Mari, I am used to setting a base colour of 0.5, otherwise 50% grey. In Painter, I have configured my height channel to 32f, and loaded a tiling image that is already set to a 0.5 mid value. However, when viewing the height channel in isolation, everything is black and white, and similar on export. How can I appropriately configure my height channel and painting so that it is representative of a 0.5 mid value? 

    2 replies

    davescm
    Community Expert
    davescmCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    February 2, 2026

    To add to Cyril’s reply, you might find it useful when viewing and painting a height map in Painter to go to Display settings and, under channel display, turn on ‘Use+/- color for HDR values’. That will show the height values as red and green for +/- (you can change those display colour options if you wish). That way you can see the values below the middle zero point as shades of red rather than all black

    Dave

      J
      jonoiiiAuthor
      Known Participant
      February 2, 2026

      Hi ​@davescm. Thank you very much for the suggestion. I have tried it but it seems to sort of crunch the values, regardless of changing the colours. Looks like adding a levels and lifting 0.5 is the closest representation I can get of Mari. 

      Cyril Dellenbach
      Community Manager
      Cyril DellenbachCommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      February 2, 2026

      Hello ​@jonoiii,

       

      Thank you for the message. Could you specify exactly where and how you’re importing your image and how you’re exporting it?

       

      For the information, Painter kind of has its own way of dealing with the Height channel, and it can be complicated to fully get it at first. 

      • The most important thing to understand is that Painter “natively” converts Height in Normal. That’s the reason why you can actually see the result in the 3D viewport of editing a Height value, even if the Displacement isn’t enabled in the Shader.
         
      • Considering the Height channel is converted into a normal, you need a workflow to push out but also to push in (The height is used to push vertices out, but Normal defines the bump, so in and out). Therefore, the height value is defined as so:
        -1 = Fully white (push in)
        0 = Fully Black (neutral) 
        1 = Fully white (push out)

      To summarize, Painter’s neutral is 100% black where other software have 50% grey.

      However, Painter doesn’t export the same value! At export, Painter convert the 100% black neutral in 50% grey and make sure all conversions are working.

      Same thing goes when importing a Heigh map. It’s being converted for Painter, but will be back to normal at export.

      That being said, make sure you’re exporting the Height Channel and not the Height from Baking.
       


      Hope this helps.

       

      Cyril Dellenbach (Micro) | QA Support Artist | Adobe
        J
        jonoiiiAuthor
        Known Participant
        February 2, 2026

        Hello ​@Cyril Dellenbach. Thank you for your reply. To answer your questions, this is what I am doing. 
         

        1. File > Import Resources - I select my texturing XYZ map and set to texture. 
        2. Create a new fill layer
        3. Disable every channel except for height
        4. Drag my imported tiling image into the height channel
        5. Press ‘c’ to view the channel where the map is black and white only
        6. File > Export Textures with 2d view to isolate height channel only

        Also, my height channel is set to 32bit float in the shader settings.

        My imported map.

         

         

         


        As you can see, the viewport display is not showing a mid value of 0.5, nor on export.

         

        Exported map.

         

        So I am not sure why Painter is regrading the map that I am putting in when it is already clearly defined. The only workaround I found last night was to add a levels and lift it by 0.5. Is this basically what I will need to do moving forward or is there another way to maintain the imported texture values/define the mid value? Thanks.

         

        Appreciate any assistance you can provide.

          Cyril Dellenbach
          Community Manager
          Cyril DellenbachCommunity Manager
          Community Manager
          February 2, 2026

          The 2D view export preset exports exactly what’s in the 2D view and considering how Painter treats the Height channel, every values under 50% grey are gonna be black, hence the “mostly” black map you’re seeing.

           

          Try exporting the Height map instead of 2D view! No need to edit the value in the layer stack.

          Cyril Dellenbach (Micro) | QA Support Artist | Adobe
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