Setting Up PBR Materials for Your Fabrics in Konfiwear

PBR (Physically Based Rendering) are what make your garments look realistic in the 3D customizer. By uploading texture maps and tuning render settings, you control whether a fabric looks like a smooth satin, a rugged mesh jersey, or a soft brushed

Before You Begin

Before adding a fabric material, make sure you have:

  • Admin or owner access to your Konfiwear account

  • A fabric ready to create or edit

  • Texture map images for the fabric

  • Optimized image files for web use

You can use fabrics from your own library or download fabric textures from external sources such as Poly Haven.

When choosing a fabric texture, try to use light and optimized files. Large files can slow down the customizer.

Recommended Texture Maps

For a basic fabric setup, we recommend starting with these maps:

Map

Purpose

AO

Adds shadow and depth to the fabric

Normal

Adds surface detail such as weave, bumps, or texture

Roughness / Gloss

Controls how shiny or matte the fabric looks

The normal map is usually the most important one because it creates the visible fabric texture on the 3D model.

The roughness map can be used in the Gloss slot in Konfiwear.

1. Open the Fabrics Section

Go to the Fabrics section from the Customizer area.

From there, you can either open an existing fabric or create a new one.

2. Create a New Fabric

Click Add Fabric.

Enter a clear name for the fabric.

Example:

Fabric Test

Then create the fabric.

Once the fabric is created, open its detail page to upload the texture maps and adjust the render settings.

3. Prepare and Compress Your Texture Files

Before uploading texture files, check their file size.

Texture files downloaded from external libraries can be large. For example, a single texture can be several megabytes.

For a web application, it is better to compress the files before uploading them.

Try to keep texture files lightweight while keeping enough quality for the 3D preview.

You can use an online image compressor to reduce the file size.

For example, a texture set can often be reduced from around 9 MB to around 1 MB after compression.

This helps the fabric load faster in the configurator.

4. Upload the Texture Maps

Inside the fabric detail page, upload the texture maps into the correct slots.

Recommended setup:

Konfiwear slot

Upload

AO

Ambient Occlusion map

Normal

Normal map

Gloss

Roughness map

Alpha

Optional transparency map

Displacement

Optional height map

You do not need to upload every map for every fabric.

For most fabrics, starting with AO, Normal, and Gloss/Roughness is enough.

5. Adjust the Render Settings

After uploading the maps, adjust the render settings to get the right look.

Common settings include:

Setting

Description

Repeat

Controls how often the texture repeats on the garment

Normal Scale

Controls how strong the surface detail appears

Roughness

Controls whether the fabric looks matte or shiny

AO Intensity

Controls the strength of the shadow effect

Repeat

The repeat value controls the size of the texture on the garment.

A lower value makes the texture appear larger.

A higher value makes the texture appear smaller and more repeated.

Start with a simple value and adjust until the fabric looks correct.

Normal Scale

Normal scale controls the strength of the fabric relief.

Increase it if you want the weave or surface detail to appear stronger.

Reduce it if the fabric looks too sharp or too bumpy.

Roughness

Roughness controls how the fabric reacts to light.

A higher roughness value makes the fabric look more matte.

A lower roughness value makes the fabric look more shiny.

6. Preview the Fabric

After uploading the maps and changing the settings, check the 3D preview.

Use the preview to confirm that:

  • The fabric texture appears correctly

  • The repeat value looks natural

  • The normal map is not too strong

  • The fabric is not too shiny or too flat

  • The material looks close to the real fabric

You can rotate and zoom the preview to inspect the fabric from different angles.

7. Save the Fabric

Once the fabric looks correct, save the changes.

8. Save a Preview Thumbnail

You can create a preview image directly from the 3D fabric preview.

Click the preview or thumbnail button to capture the current render and save it as the fabric preview.

This preview is what users will see in the fabric selector.

9. Test the Fabric in the Customizer

After saving the fabric, open the customizer and refresh the page.

Go to the Fabric section and select the new fabric.

Check that it appears correctly on the product.

If needed, return to the fabric settings and adjust values such as repeat, normal scale, or roughness.

Best Practices

When setting up fabrics:

  • Use lightweight texture files

  • Compress large images before uploading

  • Start with AO, Normal, and Roughness/Gloss maps

  • Use square texture maps when possible

  • Adjust one setting at a time

  • Use the 3D preview before testing in the customizer

  • Save a clear thumbnail for the fabric selector

  • Test the fabric on a real product after setup

Troubleshooting

The fabric looks flat

Upload a normal map and increase the normal scale slightly.

The texture looks too large or too small

Adjust the repeat value.

Increase the repeat value for a finer texture.

Decrease it for a larger texture.

The fabric is too shiny

Increase the roughness value.

The fabric is too matte

Decrease the roughness value.

The fabric loads slowly

Compress the texture files and avoid using very large images.

Summary

To create a realistic fabric in Konfiwear, upload optimized PBR texture maps, adjust the render settings, preview the result, and test it in the customizer.

A good fabric setup usually starts with AO, Normal, and Roughness maps. These maps help create depth, surface detail, and realistic lighting behavior on the 3D garment.