A simple and stupid question about Metallic Map in PBR workflow

[ArtemisLin]

Hi, everyone, I was taught that Metallic Map is always white or black, but can it be gray in the PBR workflow?

[_Scribbler]

That’s generally true, and it tends to be taught like that because people are prone to abusing the metallic map, and breaking the PBR workflow.

There are some limited situations where it’s reasonable to have ‘inbetween’ (grey) values in a metallic map. Tarnished, dirty, greasy or partially oxidized metal, for instance. However, the vast majority of materials are either fully metallic, or fully dielectric, and most metallic maps will therefore be almost entirely binary.

if you’re commonly creating metallic maps that are mostly grey… you’re doing PBR wrong, and probably have other issues with your lighting (particularly the skylight) or reflection captures.

[ArtemisLin]

@_Scribbler

That’s generally true, and it tends to be taught like that because people are prone to abusing the metallic map, and breaking the PBR workflow.

There are some limited situations where it’s reasonable to have ‘inbetween’ (grey) values in a metallic map. Tarnished, dirty, greasy or partially oxidized metal, for instance. However, the vast majority of materials are either fully metallic, or fully dielectric, and most metallic maps will therefore be almost entirely binary.

if you’re commonly creating metallic maps that are mostly grey… you’re doing PBR wrong, and probably have other issues with your lighting (particularly the skylight) or reflection captures.

Thanks！That‘s really helped!