Exteriors sell when materials look like they have lived outside: sun-faded albedo, roughness that changes from eaves to splash zone, and scale that matches brick and board in the drawings. Materials that sell are not the shiniest 8K downloads. They are consistent PBR sets — albedo, roughness, normal, metalness — used at the right size. This guide is for archviz stills and real-time walkthroughs using free CC0 textures from Locker3d.

Scale and weathering beat extra megapixels

A brick that is 3× too large is the fastest way to lose a developer. Set module size from the elevation, then pick a 2K or 4K tileable that matches. Concrete, stone, and facade wood from Locker3d are meant to tile; your job is world scale plus a large dirt mask so the same crack does not march down the block. Map roles: what PBR textures are.

Albedo in sunlight

Exterior HDRIs are harsh. If albedo contains baked shadows or a phone-photo contrast curve, noon looks dirty and dusk looks burned. Keep albedo sRGB, slightly lighter and flatter than a site photo. Fade color on south-facing walls with a gentle multiply (still not a shadow). Painted stucco and raw concrete should stay dielectric: metalness 0. Only zinc, steel, and aluminum use metalness 1 with a dark base color — see metal.

  • No contact AO in albedo; let the renderer or a linear AO map handle it.
  • Grout and mortar darker than the brick face, not a black line.
  • Glass is transmission and roughness, not a sky-colored albedo.

Roughness: dry, wet, and traffic

Roughness (linear) is how you sell rain, irrigation overspray, and plaza wear. Raise roughness on porous stone and aged timber; lower it on polished stone plinths and wet asphalt. A vertical gradient — drier under the cornice, wetter at grade — does more than a second 8K download. Plaza floors need the same treatment as interiors: tile size first, then gloss variation so the repeat disappears.

Connect maps in Blender with the Principled PBR setup. Unreal and Corona will match if you do not mark roughness as sRGB.

Resolution for stills versus walkthroughs

Print and hero stills: 4K on anything in the first 15 m, 2K beyond. Real-time Unreal tours: 2K tileables, 1K trim, streaming mips on. 8K facades are rarely worth the VRAM if the camera never dollies into the brick. Use a detail normal (1K–2K, high tile rate) for pores instead of one huge unique bake.

A small CC0 kit that covers most exteriors

Keep a kit: fair-faced concrete, two bricks, limestone, standing-seam metal, deck wood, asphalt, and a paving tile. Locker3d offers those as CC0 — commercial marketing, competitions, and stills without required credit. Do not claim the scans are your site photos. License: CC0 textures: what you can and cannot do. Download from the catalog; more archviz notes are on the blog.

Frequently asked questions

Which PBR maps matter most on exteriors?

Albedo (sRGB, no baked sun), roughness (linear — this sells wet vs dry), and normal (linear). Metalness is 0 on masonry and paint, 1 on raw metal. Height helps cornices and stone in close camera moves.

What resolution should facade textures use?

Street-level hero walls and plazas: 4K tileables with correct brick or board size. Upper floors and distant wings: 2K or 1K. Do not wrap one 2K brick across a 40 m wall without a second UV or larger variation mask.

Can I use Locker3d CC0 textures in marketing exteriors?

Yes. CC0 allows commercial real-estate and competition images without attribution. You still need rights for the building design and any photographed signage you did not model.