Sorry - I got busy on an assignment. I'm in Milwaukee. I had planned to write some instructions last night, but the people I'm working for took me out to dinner and I got to the hotel very late. I hope to start posting some instructions tonight, but they may pull me out again.

Here's something to try hoping you discover some things on your own.

The mortar width defines the fraction of each tile devoted to the mortar area. Included in this area is a transition, or softness, which is also a parameter. 

So - with mortar width at, for example, .1, .1 of each tile will get the mortar color. If you set softness to 1, that entire area will be a blend of the mortar and tile color.

Now - set mortar color to black, which is the number 0. Set both tile colors to white, which is a 1. Use this as a displacement map, and plug it into the displacement channel, with a depth of .5 inch.

Set the rest of the material to be a single diffuse color, something a mid-dark orange or peach, or any color you like, just not super bright and saturated. Set the Specular_Color white, highlight size .002, and Specular_Value to 1. The goal is no tiling of color - just a simple material where shape is easily revealed.

Place this all on a Poser one-sided square or similar simple prop. Render with displacement on. Try different settings of mortar width and softness. What do you learn?

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Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)