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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

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  • $\begingroup$ blender crashed when I tried to use the material viewport $\endgroup$
    – user165246
    Commented Apr 6, 2023 at 17:54

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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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

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  • $\begingroup$ I can't find that last option could you post a larger screenshot. also I am using blender 2.66a if it matters $\endgroup$
    – Qwertie
    Commented Dec 4, 2013 at 8:13
  • $\begingroup$ @qwertyk31 In blender 2.66a it's under the Display panel IIRC. (Assuming you mean GLSL) $\endgroup$
    – gandalf3
    Commented Dec 4, 2013 at 8:14
  • $\begingroup$ yea I did mean GLSL but I will just update blender I don't know why the Ubuntu software center one is out of date $\endgroup$
    – Qwertie
    Commented Dec 4, 2013 at 8:25
  • $\begingroup$ I have enabled GLSL but still no textures. $\endgroup$
    – Qwertie
    Commented Dec 6, 2013 at 9:55
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    $\begingroup$ @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! $\endgroup$
    – invicente
    Commented Dec 12, 2014 at 14:45
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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.

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    $\begingroup$ That is the default and seem not to work. $\endgroup$
    – clankill3r
    Commented Feb 1, 2016 at 20:14

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