Multiresolution Modifier¶

The Multiresolution modifier (often shortened to “Multires”) gives you the ability to subdivide a mesh similarly to the Subdivision Surface modifier, but also allows you to edit the new subdivision levels in Sculpt Mode.

Note

Multiresolution is the only modifier that cannot be repositioned in the stack after any modifier that will change geometry or other object data (i.e. all Generate, some Modify and some Simulate modifiers cannot come before the Multiresolution).

Deform modifiers will be applied onto the Multires subdivision levels instead of the base mesh, if they come after the Multires.

Tip

This is especially useful for re-projecting details from another sculpt with a Shrinkwrap modifier. For the best result make sure to set the wrap method to Project, snap mode to Above Surface and enable Negative.

Options¶

../../../_images/modeling_modifiers_generate_multiresolution_panel.png — The Multiresolution modifier.¶

Levels Viewport: Set the level of subdivisions to show in the viewport.
Sculpt: Set the level of subdivisions to use specifically in Sculpt Mode. While in Sculpt mode use Alt-1 to decrease the level or Alt-2 to increase.
Render: Set the level of subdivisions to show when rendering.
Sculpt Base Mesh: Deform the unsubdivided base mesh instead of the higher levels. Meanwhile the set level will be previewed. This allows you to make much broader changes in visual context to higher sculpted details without creating surface noise and artifacts.
Optimal Display: Only display the edges of the original geometry. So when rendering the wireframe of this object, the wires of the subdivided edges will be skipped.

Subdivision¶

Subdivide: Creates a smooth level of subdivision (using the default Catmull-Clark algorithm).
Simple: Creates a level of subdivision with unsmoothed base mesh edges (using a simple interpolation by subdividing edges without any smoothing).
Linear: Creates a completely unsmoothed level of subdivision (using linear interpolation of the current sculpted displacement).

Unsubdivide: Rebuild a lower subdivision level of the current base mesh.

Delete Higher: Deletes all subdivision levels that are higher than the current one.

Shape¶

Reshape

Copy the shape of another object onto the multires levels by copying its vertex coordinates.

To use it, first select a different mesh object with matching topology and vertex indices, then Shift select the object you wish to copy vertex coordinates to, and click Reshape.

Apply Base: Modifies the original unsubdivided mesh to match the form of the subdivided mesh. This operation applies a heuristic to the base mesh vertices that assumes that a Subdivision Surface modifier will be added to the mesh.
Conform Base: Modifies the original unsubdivided mesh to match the form of the subdivided mesh. The resulting positions of the base mesh vertices will match their subdivided positions.

Generate¶

Rebuild Subdivisions: Rebuilds all possible subdivisions levels to generate a lower resolution base mesh. This is used to create an optimized multiresolution version of a preexisting sculpt. This option is only available when no subdivision level have been created through the modifier.

Save External: Saves displacements to an external .btx file.

Advanced¶

Quality

How precisely the vertices are positioned (relatively to their theoretical position), can be lowered to get a better performance when working on high-poly meshes.

UV Smooth

How to handle UVs during subdivision.

None:: UVs remain unchanged.
Keep Corners:: UV islands are smoothed, but their boundary remain unchanged.
Keep Corners, Junctions:: UVs are smoothed, corners on discontinuous boundary and junctions of three or more regions are kept sharp.
Keep Corners, Junctions, Concave:: UVs are smoothed, corners on discontinuous boundary, junctions of three or more regions and darts and concave corners are kept sharp.
Keep Boundaries:: UVs are smoothed, boundaries are kept sharp.
All:: UVs and their boundaries are smoothed.

Boundary Smooth

Controls how open boundaries (and corners) are smoothed.

All:: Smooth boundaries, including corners.
Keep Corners:: Smooth boundaries, but corners are kept sharp.

Use Creases

Use the Weighted Edge Creases values stored in edges to control how smooth they are made.

Use Custom Normals

Interpolates existing Custom Split Normals of the resulting mesh.

Usage¶

Baking¶

Baking converts high-resolution geometry details, such as sculpted displacement or surface normals, into 2D texture maps. These maps can then be applied to a lower-resolution mesh to reproduce the appearance of fine surface detail without the performance cost of dense geometry.

This process is essential for workflows where high-resolution sculpting data is transferred to low-resolution meshes for rendering or game engines.

To generate a normal or displacement map, use the Bake from Multires option in the Render panel. This feature compares two resolution levels of the Multiresolution modifier:

Viewport Levels: Used as the low-resolution base mesh.
Render Levels: Used as the high-resolution detail mesh.

The difference between these two levels is baked into a texture map.

Bake Types¶

The Bake Type determines what kind of surface information is extracted from the Multiresolution modifier.

Normals: Bakes surface normal direction differences between the base and detailed levels. The resulting normal map encodes lighting information that reproduces fine sculpted detail in shading without modifying the actual geometry. Ideal for use with normal-mapped materials in Cycles, Eevee, and real-time engines.
Displacement: Bakes height differences between the base and high-resolution mesh as a grayscale image. Lighter areas represent raised regions and darker areas represent recessed areas. This map can be used for true displacement in render engines or for parallax/height-based shading.
Vector Displacement: Bakes 3D displacement vectors representing the full spatial offset from the base to the detailed surface. Unlike regular displacement, this method can capture overhangs and non-vertical displacements, providing a more accurate representation of complex sculpted details.

The resulting texture encodes XYZ displacement in the RGB color channels.

Important

To ensure a correct bake:

Set the Viewport Levels of the Multiresolution modifier to 0, so the base mesh is truly low-resolution.
Set the Render Levels to the highest sculpt level that contains the desired detail.
The object must have proper UV unwrapping and a selected Image Texture node in the Shader Editor to receive the baked map.

If the Viewport Level is higher than 0, part of the sculpted displacement will already be applied, resulting in incorrect bakes.

Tip

Use 16-bit or 32-bit image formats (e.g., OpenEXR or TIFF) for displacement or vector displacement maps to preserve precision.
Always verify that the image’s color space is set to Non-Color in the Image Editor or Shader Editor.