{{tag>graphic skin texture heightmap}}
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[[:start|Start Page]] >> [[:gamedev|Game Development with the Drag[en]gine]] >> [[gamedev:skinproperties|Skin Texture Properties]] >> [[gamedev:texturepropertylist|Texture Property Database]] >> **height**
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====== Skin Texture Property: height ======

Defines the height of surface points.

|Excepted Data Source|1 component image|
|Data Range|0 to 1|
|Default Value|0.5|
|Affected Modules|Graphic|
|Linked Properties|[[gamedev:textureproperties:height_scale|height.scale]], [[gamedev:textureproperties:height_scale|height.offset]]|

====== Description ======

The **height** texture property defines the height of the surface. This allows Graphic Modules to improve lighting by taking small scale elevations on the surface into account.

This is also a special texture property similar to the normal map one but this time the height of a surface relative to the mesh surface is stored. This height can be used for different purpose depending on the graphic module used. One usage is to derive a normal map from the height difference. Another usage is to dynamically increase the detail level of a mesh. The new vertices are then offset using this height. Terrain meshes can also use this height information to provide LODing (level of detail reduction over distance).

A value of 0.5 indicates no surface height alteration. Values below 0.5 indicate a dent in a surface while values above 0.5 indicate a bump in a surface. The strength and offset of the height alteration can be set using the [[gamedev:textureproperties:height_scale|height.scale]] and [[gamedev:textureproperties:height_scale|height.offset]] property.

The source is typically an 8 bit image with 1 color components inside the range from 0 to 1. 0 represents a point located at the lowest point underneath the surface. 0.5 represents a point on the surface. 1 represents a point located at the highest point above the surface. Using high definition range images values beyond can be used as well.

The default value for this texture property is 0.5 .

====== Examples ======

( TODO: example image )