This is a test of several things:
(1) Tiled Textures
(2) Smooth shading
(3) PBR Shaders
1 - I have explored large continuous textures rather than tiled textures. This is a look at tiled textures. For small areas like this, it is okay. But, I really prefer the large-scale variations possible with larger textures.
2 - You can see that the smooth shading causes artifacts on the edges. I don't like this, but it looks much better than flat shading. I found that the best result is to minimize the smooth shading with edge loops. Subdivision smoothing shrinks and curves the blocks, which isn't good since all the blocks should touch.
I don't want it having a bevel when placed next to a different type of block. This is also why microdisplacements were rejected. Changing the geometry's shape doesn't look good. This is another problem with the smooth shading.
The top block on the left is another object. The top block on the right is an extrusion of the bottom geometry. The block on the left has shading artifacts at the bottom like a bevel. That doesn't look good. So, I will use smooth shading, but I also must make the geometry solid. I can't just place blocks next to each other.
(3) I like how this last version of my custom PBR shaders worked out. The Fresnel effect is just right. It reacts to the roughness in a very convincing way. I think this truly looks like real stone of some kind.
