Roughness Map Generator

NormalMapAI (normalmapai.com) is a free online roughness map generator that converts any 2D photo into a calibrated grayscale roughness map (or inverted smoothness map) in your browser. It runs 100% locally via WebGL2 with live 3D specular highlight preview and zero server uploads.

In a standard PBR roughness map, white (1.0) means completely rough and matte with wide, diffused reflections, while black (0.0) means perfectly smooth and mirror-like with sharp specular highlights. Mid-gray values in a roughness map produce natural satin or semi-gloss breakup.

Smoothness (also called glossiness) is the mathematical inverse of a roughness map: Smoothness = 1.0 − Roughness. In the NormalMapAI roughness map generator, you can toggle Invert or select the Unity export preset, which automatically converts your roughness map into Smoothness and packs it into the Metallic alpha channel.

Upload your JPG, PNG, or WebP texture into the NormalMapAI roughness map generator and orbit the 3D shader ball under studio lighting. Adjust base roughness, contrast, and invert so wet, polished, or worn high points appear darker on the roughness map while dusty crevices and mortar appear brighter.

A roughness map controls the micro-surface scatter (blurriness vs sharpness) of reflections across both dielectrics and metals. A metallic map tells the shader whether a pixel acts as an electrical conductor (1.0) or insulator (0.0), while a specular map directly scales reflection intensity in non-metal workflows.

Export your roughness map PNG from NormalMapAI, load it into a Blender Image Texture node, and switch Color Space from sRGB to Non-Color. Connect the Color output directly to the Roughness input of your Principled BSDF shader (and optionally insert a ColorRamp node to fine-tune wet vs dry contrast).

A plastic or overly glossy look usually happens when your roughness map has too many dark pixels (values below 0.2) or when Color Space is accidentally left on sRGB instead of Linear / Non-Color. Set the roughness map to Non-Color and raise minimum roughness values into the 0.35–0.85 range for stone, wood, or fabric.

In Unreal Engine 5 and Godot 4 ORM textures, the Green channel stores your roughness map, the Red channel stores Ambient Occlusion, and the Blue channel stores Metallic. Choosing the Unreal or Godot preset in NormalMapAI packs your roughness map into the ORM Green channel automatically.

Yes, the NormalMapAI roughness map generator includes an interactive 3D viewport where you can rotate the camera and light direction across a shader ball, sphere, cube, or plane to watch how your roughness map breaks up specular highlights in real time.

Large high-contrast stains in a roughness map repeat noticeably across tiled floors and walls. First make your base photo seamless in the NormalMapAI Seamless Texture tool with lighting removal enabled, then generate your roughness map with moderate contrast.

Yes, NormalMapAI generates your roughness map alongside tangent-space normal, 16-bit height, displacement, ambient occlusion (AO), metallic, and specular maps from one source image, available as individual PNGs or a packed engine ZIP.

Yes, all roughness map exports and PBR packs from NormalMapAI are 100% royalty-free for commercial games, archviz, VFX, and client work. Every calculation runs locally in your browser via WebGL2, so your source images are never uploaded to a server.