Hey Serif , please make a special color mode with a depth channel , like RGBDA for impasto painting.

[kirk23]

Like Corel Painter has  . Only please do it accessible and exportable  in 16 bit at least . And having  depth info for nozzles  too.  

Plus a special separate blending modes for  the depth: add, sub and depth combine/height blend when depth channel mixes using lighter  (MAx) blending and at the same time provides a mask for  other channels. ( the math is simple like 2x2 really)

Plus an auto masking  feature for brushes when they would paint in cavities or bumps  with a curve based tweaks.

It all could almost work that way right now . Well, except nozzles.  Just requires a painful setup  and  insane stack of layers.   So do it a proper and elegant way like  being just an extra channel   please.

ideally 8 bits in RGBA and 32 bit in the depth at the same time.  You are already supporting  exr files for nozzles . just let the soft read the depth  from them too. 

With your nice live lighting filter it could work super  natural altogether.  Well, maybe  an extra feature of casting shadows  from the bumps  could be nice too.

Could be a huge advantage over Photoshop and even Painter where  the depth is inaccessible and mostly  useless . Not sure why they can't do anything right with it for decades.

ps. I am not asking for another Zbrush  here , just simple things really.   would be super helpful not only for impasto painting but for texture works too , focus stacking  etc.