When Ag sculptured thin films (STFs) were grown with glancing angle deposition by ion beam sputtering at either room temperature or elevated substrate temperatures T_S, an enormous topographical difference could be observed. The incident particle flux reached the silicon substrate at a glancing angle β ≥ 80° as measured to the substrate normal . A slit aperture was used in order to reduce the particle beam divergence. At room temperature, columnar structures were formed, irrespective of the presence of the slit aperture. At elevated temperatures (300° C, 350° C) and collimated particle flux in the presence of the slit aperture, however, accelerated surface diffusion causes the growth of nanorod- and nanowire-like structures. In the absence of the slit aperture, the flux beam divergence is higher, leading to island- and mountain-like crystalline structures that were found at elevated temperatures. The density of the nanorods and nanowires was observed to be higher on the planar Si substrates in comparison to honeycomb-like pre-patterned substrates with different pattern periods. On the patterned substrates, the nanorods are not necessarily found to be evolving on the seed points, but can rather also be observed in intermediate pre-pattern spaces. The glancing angle deposited films were observed to be polycrystalline, where the (111) crystal orientation of the film is dominant, while the presence of the less intense (200) reflection was noticed from XRD measurements. In contrast, the closed films deposited with β ≈ 0° at high temperatures were found to be epitaxial with (200) orientation.