Documentation & User Guide

Everything you need to install, understand and get the most out of TrueDepth V3. Use the contents below to jump to a section.

Contents

1. System Requirements
2. Installation (Windows & macOS)
3. First-Time Setup — Dependencies & AI Model
4. Quick Start — Your First Depth Map
5. Core Features & Controls
6. Perspective & 360° Projection
7. HDRI Dome Studio
8. Seamless Tiling (Make Seamless)
9. Camera Projection (2.5D Parallax)
10. 3D Printing
11. Video Depth
12. Tips for Best Results
13. Troubleshooting
14. Frequently Asked Questions
15. Support & Contact

• Blender: 4.2 or newer (V3 is developed and tested on Blender 5.x).
• Operating System: Windows 10/11 (64-bit) or macOS (Apple Silicon & Intel).
• Disk space: ~8 GB free — the AI dependencies (PyTorch etc.) are a one-time ~2.5 GB download, plus space for models.
• RAM: 8 GB minimum, 16 GB+ recommended for 4K images and video.
• GPU (optional but recommended): An NVIDIA card enables up to 3× faster generation. CPU mode works on any machine.
• Internet: Required once, for the initial dependency and model download. After that, TrueDepth runs fully offline.

macOS note: If macOS blocks the add-on, ensure Blender itself is allowed to run in System Settings → Privacy & Security. TrueDepth installs its Python dependencies into a self-contained folder in your home directory and does not require admin rights.

1 · Install dependencies

In the add-on preferences, choose CPU or GPU, then click Install Dependencies. This downloads ~2.5 GB (PyTorch and friends) one time.

2 · Download an AI model

In the TrueDepth panel, choose a Model Size and click Download Model. A progress bar appears and Blender stays fully responsive — you can keep working while it downloads.

• ViT-S (Small ≈ 99 MB): fastest, great for most work and lower-spec machines.
• ViT-B (Base ≈ 390 MB): a balance of speed and detail.
• ViT-L (Large ≈ 1.3 GB): maximum detail; best on a capable GPU.

Models are stored outside the add-on folder, so updating TrueDepth never deletes them — download once, keep forever.

• CPU / GPU switch — choose your processing device.
• Model Size — S, B or L (see above).
• Precision — Float32 (accurate) or Float16 (faster, lighter).
• Modes — Single Image, Video File, or Batch Images.
• Include Alpha Channel — supports PNGs with transparency.
• Use Color Palette — optional colour-mapped depth (for visual/aesthetic use).
• Tilt Correction — flattens tilt using a plane-of-best-fit.
• Save Location — where depth maps are written.
• Displacement & Detail — control displacement strength, detail passes and smoothing.
• Add Base + End Cap — solidify geometry for 3D printing.
• Boolean Geometry Removal — clean up unwanted geometry.

Flat Relief

The classic TrueDepth mesh: a plane displaced by the depth map, with the full modifier stack (displacement, detail, smoothing).

Perspective

Unprojects the photo through a virtual camera into true 3D geometry — scenes genuinely recede into the distance.

• • Field of View — match the lens the photo was shot with (phones ≈ 60–75°).
• • Depth Mapping — Inverse (dramatic) or Linear (tamer).
• • Near / Far Distance and Grid Resolution.
• • Remove Stretched Faces — cleans depth-edge “taffy”.
• • Detail Bump & Detail Displacement — pull fine surface detail from the photo.
• • Surface Presets — one-click Glossy Floor, Glass, Mirror, Matte (whole mesh in Object Mode, or selected faces in Edit Mode).

360° Dome

For equirectangular / 360° images. Choose HDRI Studio (see next section) for a full backplate environment, or Depth Sphere to displace a full sphere using the depth map for 360° photos with real nearby content.

⚠ Your source texture must already be tileable. Make Seamless fixes the depth so it repeats cleanly, but it can't make a non-repeating photo tile. Start with a proper seamless / tileable texture (the colour image itself must repeat) — then this makes its depth repeat too.

How to use it

1. Load a tileable texture and click Generate Depth Map.
2. Click Make Seamless. The depth map's edges are blended so it tiles.
3. Set your Vertical Blend and click Make Seamless again to see the result — repeat until it looks right (see below).
4. Click Create Mesh, then tile it — the cleanest way is an Array modifier with Merge enabled, so the vertices weld at the join.

Vertical Blend slider

Controls how far the top and bottom edges blend together. It's a trade-off:

• • Low (≈0.02–0.05) — keeps almost all the real texture detail right up to the edge. Best for chunky, high-relief textures like rough stone.
• • High (up to 0.25) — a wider, gentler ramp that guarantees a clean join but flattens detail near the edge. Best for smoother, flatter textures (plaster, fabric, fine gravel).

The horizontal (left/right) edges use a fixed, well-judged blend, so you only need to tune the vertical.

Recalculate & Revert

Make Seamless always works from the original depth map, so you can freely experiment: change the Vertical Blend and click Make Seamless again and it recalculates from scratch — clicks never stack on top of each other.

Revert (next to the button) restores the untouched original depth map at any time. Note: because the seamless depth map is saved to disk, Blender's normal Ctrl+Z won't undo it — use Revert instead.

How it works

For each row, the right edge is blended toward the value of the left edge across a margin, with the influence ramping up as it nears the edge — and the same for the top edge toward the bottom. The outermost pixels are then locked to match exactly, so opposing edges are identical and the tile repeats with no depth step. Only the edge margins are touched; the interior of your depth map is left completely intact.

It's a blend, not a redraw: it makes the depth values match at the seam, but can't invent a stone that continues perfectly across the boundary. On a properly tileable texture the join is effectively invisible.

💡 Feature credit: the Seamless Tiling approach was suggested by TrueDepth user Anthony Attwood, whose own experiments proved the technique. Thank you, Anthony!

Select any TrueDepth mesh and click Setup Camera Projection. This creates:

• TrueDepth_Projector — pins the photo to the geometry (leave this camera in place).
• TrueDepth_ShotCam — the animatable camera, set as the scene camera.

Keyframe a slow drift on the Shot Camera and your still photo becomes a moving shot with real parallax — the classic documentary look.

Convert Your Mesh (recommended)

Turns your Flat Relief or Perspective mesh into a watertight print exactly as displayed — subdivision levels, displacement strength and detail passes all baked in. Tip: set your viewport subdivision to the quality you want before converting. (360° domes can't be converted — they wrap around the viewer.)

Generate from Image

• • AI Relief — depth-driven relief sculpture.
• • Lithophane — brightness-driven; print upright in white filament at 100% infill and backlight to reveal the image.

Settings & Export

Real millimetre Width (height follows automatically), enforced Min/Max thickness, smoothing, invert, optional raised frame, and stand-upright orientation. Detail resolution is chosen automatically from the print size. Click Export STL for a slicer-ready file (Bambu Studio, PrusaSlicer, Cura, etc.), correctly scaled in millimetres.

Set Mode to Video File to generate depth for each frame. You can save the result as a depth video or as a sequence of 16-bit PNG frames, and choose a frame step. Depth frames can then be used to drive displacement or comp work.

• ✔ Use GPU where possible — dramatically faster, especially with the Large model.
• ✔ Start at a lower Grid Resolution while dialling in Perspective settings, then raise it for the final build.
• ✔ For Perspective, matching the Field of View to the original lens is the single biggest factor in realistic proportions.
• ✔ For HDRI studios, use Projection Height and Stretch together to line the horizon up with the floor.
• ✔ Grayscale depth maps project more reliably than colour-palette ones.
• ✔ 360° dome rendering (panoramic camera) and Invisible Mode's shadow catcher require the Cycles render engine.

Blender freezes when I click Install Dependencies

That's expected — it's downloading ~2.5 GB and installing in the background. Wait a few minutes and don't close Blender. On Windows, click Show Console to watch progress.

“Checkpoint not found” / it won't generate

You haven't downloaded a model yet, or the selected Model Size differs from the one you downloaded. Click Download Model for the selected size.

The HDRI looks washed-out / “raw”

Check Render Properties → Color Management → View Transform is set to AgX. Also avoid running another environment/HDRI add-on on the same image in the same scene, as they can change shared colour settings.

Lights don't affect my Perspective mesh

Switch the viewport to Rendered (or Material Preview with Scene Lights on), and turn Shadeless (Emission) OFF — emission ignores scene lights by design.

I updated the add-on and a setting broke

Fully close and reopen Blender after installing an update so the new code loads. Existing scenes remember old slider values — use a section's reset arrow (↺) to restore defaults.

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