What is up with the new shader in 5.4.2 the specular and the roughness are both active at the same time and it is unable to take the compressed three map set up as the speclar alters the sheen. Why has this differred from the set up in previous versions and i can’t seem to find any infomation about this on anyones youtube feeds or anywhere on the ■■■■■■■ internet.
What you mean? Specular and roughness were always active at the same time, they are not mutually exclusive.
Specular is not glossiness. In the PBR shading setup, Specular 0-1 roughly defines dielectric materials with IOR Range of about 1 to 2, so the default specular of 0.5 roughly means IOR of 1.5, and roughness is what defines reflection roughness/scattering. Specular just defines the amount of reflection, and how much reflection fades from the edges towards facing angles. Roughness doesn’t modify the amount of reflection, but how wide the reflection scatters.