What is a specular map used for?

What is a specular map used for?

Specular maps are used to define the shininess/highlight on a surface. Typically a specular map is a black and white image that maps out the shininess value on an object. The whiter the pixel, the more shiny the object in that specific place on the texture (or on the texel).

Does metal have specular?

When bronze and other reflective metals like it are hit with a ray of light, the reflective properties of the material influence what we humans interpret as color. These properties are often called ‘specular’.

What is the difference between gloss map & specular map?

A gloss map defines the size of the specular highlight per pixel also called specular power, where as a a typical specular map defines the intensity per pixel meaning it represents the amount of light reflected.

How are texture maps made?

Creation. Texture maps may be acquired by scanning/digital photography, designed in image manipulation software such as GIMP, Photoshop, or painted onto 3D surfaces directly in a 3D paint tool such as Mudbox or zbrush.

Does PBR use specular?

PBR Base Material It supports both metal/roughness and specular/glossiness workflows and provides common presets for raw metal materials.

What is the difference between specular and roughness?

Basically the difference is that your specular map controls the amount of sharp reflections you are getting from your material where as the roughness map controls how diffuse the material is.

Is polished metal specular or diffuse?

specularly
Among common materials, only polished metals can reflect light specularly with high efficiency, as in aluminum or silver usually used in mirrors.

Where do I put specular map in VRAY material?

you need to have a reflection layer in your material – use the vray material editor to add it. Then you can add that map as a bitmap in the “Filter” slot. If you want to specify the amount of highlight reflection – you can add that texture in the “Hlight” category separately.

What are AO maps?

An Ambient Occlusion or AO map is a grayscale map which contains lighting data. It is not typically used as its own map, and is instead usually combined with the diffuse map to bake in soft shadows.