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I have added some textures to objects in blender but the textures don't show up until I render the file. it can be difficult to know what the objects look like without rendering it. is there a way to have textures show in the editor even if they are at a lower res?

In editor:

enter image description here

Rendered:

enter image description here

Carlo
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Qwertie
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2 Answers2

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Switch to Material viewport shading by clicking the icon in the top right of the 3D view:

Textured Suzanne with material shading enabled

If you have an image texture, you can also display textures in solid shading mode by switching to "texture" in the shading mode options drop down:

enter image description here

Blender 2.5x - 2.7x:

Blender internal:

Try setting the viewport shading to Texture (AltZ):

enter image description here

Note that this only works when the object's UV map has the appropriate texture displayed in the UV/image editor: (see this post for more information)

enter image description here

To display the textures used in the material of the object regardless of the texture (or lack of texture) displayed in the UV image editor, enable GLSL in 3D view > Properties region (N) > Shading and set the viewport shading to Texture:

enter image description here

Cycles:

You need a material to display textures in the viewport in cycles.

Set the viewport shading to Texture or Material.

Texture displays the texture of the last selected image texture node:

enter image description here

Material tries to approximate the result of the shader nodes, so if you have two combined textures:

enter image description here

gandalf3
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  • I can't find that last option could you post a larger screenshot. also I am using blender 2.66a if it matters – Qwertie Dec 04 '13 at 08:13
  • @qwertyk31 In blender 2.66a it's under the Display panel IIRC. (Assuming you mean GLSL) – gandalf3 Dec 04 '13 at 08:14
  • yea I did mean GLSL but I will just update blender I don't know why the Ubuntu software center one is out of date – Qwertie Dec 04 '13 at 08:25
  • I have enabled GLSL but still no textures. – Qwertie Dec 06 '13 at 09:55
  • Got it working but is there a way to lower the res of the textures because it lags blender way to much. – Qwertie Dec 06 '13 at 10:01
  • @qwertyk31 AFAIK, No. You could manually create lower resolution versions of the textures. – gandalf3 Dec 08 '13 at 07:50
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    @gandalf3 I'm having real trouble in making this work in Cycles. I think I activated all the options you've mentioned.... Is anyone aware of known issues to make the textures work in realtime in the viewport? i can only see them in "rendered" shading mode. please help! – invicente Dec 12 '14 at 14:45
  • @invicente Do you got it working yet? Everything looks so outdated. I also need to add a Geometry node and connect Position to Vector in the Image Texture node to make it show up in rendered but I still dont have anything in Texture for the viewport shading. – clankill3r Feb 01 '16 at 20:17
  • How do I make it fully lit? Everything looks very dark when I set "Texture" view mode. – Aaron Franke Oct 28 '18 at 00:08
  • @AaronFranke See https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/10943/599 – gandalf3 Oct 28 '18 at 00:11
  • I can't even find the menu where I'm supposed to enable 3D view. – Tomáš Zato Jul 24 '20 at 14:13
  • @TomášZato-ReinstateMonica I've updated my answer for 2.8x, thanks for letting me know! – gandalf3 Jul 24 '20 at 21:30
  • I'm using 2.93.6, and my GUI looks far different. I cannot find some of the settings mentioned in the answer. If anyone knows of a similar explanation for that version, I'd be grateful. – EJ Mak Jul 08 '22 at 14:39
  • @EJMak The first part of the answer should be up to date, which setting are you looking for? – gandalf3 Jul 09 '22 at 03:53
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The object with the texture needs to have its Maximum Draw Type set to Textured. This setting is in Properties Editor > Object settings then the Display section. This applies to Cycles and Blender Internal.

David
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RedKrovvy
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