Quote - i made a mistake. in the second pic the camera is basicly behind. and the light is in front. its twisted. the apollo shader is now on the left. the original VVS shader on the right. 

Aha. Now that I understand what I'm seeing, I went and tested it myself.

My friend, you are absolutely right. Thank you for pointing out this special case.

My "trick" to superimpose specular effects onto the Diffuse node (to avoid violation of conservation of energy) relies too much on sufficient diffuse light coming from the Diffuse node. Simply converting the texture color to white only works when the light is coming in at a high angle. When the light arrives at a low angle and there is no other diffuse light illuminating the rim, the Diffuse node is severely suppressed - therefore does not honor the instructions from the Blinn to lighten the area.

I stand before you in shame for having tried a cheap trick. This shader is not versatile, by definition.

I will find a new way to conserve energy.

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Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)