Why does my tessellated terrain show cracks between patches?

Adjacent patches tessellate at different factors, producing T-junctions that displacement amplifies. Match tessellation factor across shared edges, and use Edge Length mode so neighbors stay consistent.

What's Edge Length tessellation?

HDRP tessellation mode that subdivides based on world-space edge length. Patches with the same edge length get the same tessellation regardless of distance, removing seam mismatches.

Should I bake heightmap normals?

Yes for tessellated displacement. A pre-baked normal map matches the high-poly displacement; without it, lighting on tessellated faces looks flat. Bake from a 4x denser source mesh.

Fix: Unity HDRP Tessellation Displacement Cracks at Mesh Seams

Quick answer: Set tessellation mode to Edge Length so neighboring patches share factors. Smooth the heightmap at patch borders. Bake a high-poly normal map for lighting consistency.

HDRP terrain with tessellation displacement shows visible cracks where two terrain patches meet. Each patch is fine alone; the seam diverges.

The Symptom

Visible vertical cracks or pinches at mesh boundaries. Worse at high displacement amplitude. Disappears at low tessellation factor.

The Fix

Material (Lit / HDRP):
  Tessellation Mode:        Edge Length
  Tessellation Factor:      8–16
  Triangle Cull Epsilon:    0
  Max Displacement:         0.5

Edge Length mode uses world-space edge length to decide tessellation. Adjacent patches sharing an edge get matching factors; cracks vanish.

Heightmap Edge Smoothing

If you author your terrain heightmap as multiple textures (one per patch), blend the edges. A 4-pixel feather at borders prevents discontinuities. Smaller feather = sharper cracks.

Bake Normals

Tessellated displacement creates new vertex positions but Unity uses the source mesh normals. The lighting goes flat. Bake a normal map from a high-poly version (Blender, Marmoset) and assign in the material.

Verifying

Walk the camera close to a patch boundary. Cracks should be invisible. Lighting should match across patches.

“Edge Length mode. Smooth heightmap. Baked normals. Cracks close.”

Related Issues

For Shader Graph vertex displacement shadows, see vertex shadows. For SRP Batcher, see SRP Batcher.

Edge Length. Match factors. No seams.