Specular maps go where?

[toniboni]

Hi there,

Can anybody tell me where so-calles specular maps go in vray? Because sometimes a lot of materialtextures come with specularmaps and I really experimented a lot with the reflectivity/ highlight/glossiness mappings but I could not get the perfect result I was looking for.

Thanks
Toni

[Dana Arts]

Not sure, but I googled it and found a few topics that may help. Not sure if it's good advice or not, but it's something more to look into.

http://sketchucation.com/forums/view...?f=322&t=41046
http://forums.cgarchitect.com/66771-...ular-maps.html

[toniboni]

Hey Dana,

Thanks for your reply, but it seems it is an unsolved mystery for everyone. Probably a staff member can help me out?

Best
Toni

[Micha_cg]

If you like to control the intensity of the reflection for example for wood, than you need to set the map at the reflection color -> fresnel -> white color (perpendicular) -> place map here.

[toniboni]

Hey Micha,

Great! Now I'm already getting very close to my desired result. What's about the highlight and reflection glossiness channels? Do I just have to play with the values or are there any recommendations?

Best
Toni

[Micha_cg]

Very seldom used here, since it allow to vary the roughness only. Not missed so much yet. Last I used it for a rough plastic part, where glossy letters was embossed.

[fpedrogo]

Great! Now I'm already getting very close to my desired result. What's about the highlight and reflection glossiness channels? Do I just have to play with the values or are there any recommendations?

The highlight is to control the shape of the highlight and reflection glossiness is to control the blurriness on the reflections. To produce the physical correct result we should have the same value. So some time you could use the same specular texture that you use on the fresnel mapping in the highlight and in the reflection glossiness to control the blurriness.

Best

[toniboni]

Ok thanks for explaining the concept behind the slightly confusing technology. I already tried a lot, but I did not achieve total accuracy. BUt pretty close. Thanks a lot for your help, guys. I've learned a lot.