Quote - There is far too much detail in most specular maps - I always thought they should be quite simple, delineating areas of higher specularity fairly roughly.

One other question relating to the Blinn lighting model as used in PR3 with Shine, shine spread and shine level. Is it useful to have specific control maps for each of these (for an ultra realistic effect).

I doubt it. I provided all three knobs, but two of them are actually built into the third. Sigh... this is a complicated subject, one I'm hoping to tackle in my book. It needs about 30 pages to explain.

Here it is in a nutshell.

Specular reflections that are blurred cause small bright things in the environment (e.g. light bulbs) to appear in reflections to weaken in luminance and to spread out. The exact pattern of the spreading out varies, in addition to the size of the spread. In all cases, however, as the spread increases, the value (or luminance) decreases.

In the VSS shader, I made an attempt to produce a single numeric parameter (PM:Shine) that simultaneously controls shine spread and shine value. So you can say this: A shiny area should have a higher PM:Shine. A less shiny (more dry) area should have a lower PM:Shine. This also means for a wetter look use less spread - for dryer look use more spread. Wetter = more value/level/luminance, dryer = less value/level/luminance.

I made the separate parameters for spread and value so that you could push my entire response curve up or down if it isn't to your liking - particularly you would do this if you have intentionally mis-configured your lights to deal with some other prop in the scene, and you'd like to adjust the VSS skin shader to compensate. In and of itself, if there is no need to adjust my shine spread or shine level (value, or luminance). The ability to configure impossible highlights is there when you use these parameters, so I prefer you do not use them. They are there as secondary controls to try to balance your skin with other approximations in the scene. Remember, the apparent size of lights when seen through the specular effect is arbitrary. In Poser, all infinite, spot, and point lights are point sources having no dimension at all.

---

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)