Sand Materials

Sand materials cover a surface in sand: a matte, powdery color with soft tonal patches, wind ripples across every upward-facing area and a scatter of single grains that glint as the camera moves. Nothing is a photo or a repeating tile; the ripples, dunes and grains are generated across the surface, so a sand floor can be as large as you like without a visible repeat. There are ten variants, from golden desert to black volcanic beach, Martian and lunar soil and a raked zen garden.

How it works

Three layers of relief are combined. Broad, slow undulations give the impression of dunes, a finer grit sits on top, and on surfaces that face upward the wind ripples form: parallel crests running across the wind, each with a gentle slope on the windward side and a steep face on the lee, wavering and fading the way real ripples do. Ripples only form on the flats; steep sides keep the dunes and grit but stay unrippled. When Wind Speed is above zero the whole ripple pattern slowly crawls downwind.

The relief is shaded rather than modeled, with a rough, matte lighting typical of powders, and the troughs are slightly darker. Each variant carries its own sun and sky: a sun direction, color and strength, plus a sky color from above and a ground color from below for the shadow side. That is why the same material reads as midday Sahara or orange dusk without touching the scene lights. On top, a small fraction of grains catch the sun and twinkle; far away, where single grains are too small to see, the glints fade out instead of flickering.

The ten variants

• Sahara Dune: warm golden desert under a high sun, the reference look.
• White Sands: near-white gypsum, bright and chalky with a strong sky bounce.
• Black Volcanic: near-black basalt with the densest glitter, under a low sun.
• Red Outback: deep iron-red with steep, strong ripples.
• Pink Coral: soft blush shell sand, calm and fine.
• Martian Regolith and Lunar Regolith: rust dust under a butterscotch sky, and gray Moon dust under a black sky with no wind.
• Wet Shore: darker beach sand at golden hour with fine, even ripples.
• Dune Sea Dusk: tall dunes under a very low orange sun, on the strongest wind.
• Zen Garden: pale, deep, still grooves for a raked garden.

How to choose

Choose by color and light first: the sun and sky are part of each variant, so pick the one closest to the time of day you want, then adjust Color. Then tune the relief:

• Ripple Scale: ripple spacing. Higher packs the ripples tighter.
• Ripple Strength: how deep the ripples read.
• Ripple Asymmetry: from even, symmetric ridges to a long windward slope and a sharp lee face.
• Wind Dir and Wind Speed: the direction the crests face and how fast they crawl. Zero holds them still.
• Grain Density: how many grains glint and how fine they are.
• Color Variation and Scale: the size and strength of the warm and cool patches and the dune undulation.
• Sun Direction, Sun Color, Sun Intensity, Ambient: the built-in light.

Sand works best on large flat or gently curved surfaces such as floors, plinths and terrain. For moving sand rather than a sand surface, see the sandstorm and the sand object effects.