Specular controls the size, intensity, and color of specular highlights on a material. It also supports Fresnel reflections, where surfaces appear more reflective at glancing angles and less reflective when viewed directly. This creates a natural transition from the material’s base color to stronger edge highlights.
This shading model uses a Specular Map (RGB), which defines the color and intensity of specular reflections across the surface.
Use cases include:
- Using Fresnel effects for realistic transitions on curved or glancing surfaces.
- Controlling highlight size and intensity for metals, plastics, or glossy surfaces.
- Adding colored reflections for materials such as coated metals, gemstones, or pearlescent finishes.
Specular maps can be generated in several ways:
- Bake Projects in Toolbag: Create maps from high-resolution data.
- Toolbag Library: Use pre-made textures.
- Texture Projects in Toolbag: Paint or procedurally generate specular maps.
- Third-Party Applications: Author maps externally.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Specular Map Texture Slot | Add a specular texture by clicking on the slot or dragging and dropping one from the Library. |
| Channel Selection | Determines which channel of the texture map will be used. It’s useful when, instead of using multiple single textures, you use one texture with different grayscale maps in the different texture channels: Red, Green, Blue, and Alpha. |
| Intensity | Sets the intensity of the specular reflections. |
| Specular Color | Sets the color of the specular reflections. Darker colors mean less reflections. |
| Fresnel | Sets the intensity of the Fresnel effect, or how reflective surfaces are at grazing angles. |
| Fresnel Color | Sets the color of the Fresnel effect. Darker colors mean less Fresnel effect. |
| Conserve Energy | Energy conservation darkens the albedo map to ensure that the sum of diffuse and specular light is not greater than the amount of light that hits the object. |
