What are specular and deffusion maps?

As I understand it specular maps are like environment maps but with only specular light. Is this right? What is their function? What are deffusion maps?

Specular maps can be used for things like skin where certain layers of the skin and areas of the skin have different specularities because of the amount of oil on the skin and transparency of the skin. By using a specular map you can simulate areas that are more oily and therefor have more specularity. I’m not sure about diffusion maps, but I assume they are the opposite of specular maps in that they make the area look like the light hitting it is more diffuse i.e. not a single point of reflection but more of a general area of reflection.

Hope this helps!

hmmm…
i’m also not sure.

diffuse reflects the light in all directions. this is important that you don’t
get black renderings. the light vector does not only hit exactly one point.

specular reflects the light like you would expect from a mirror material.
but only a perfect mirror is reflecting light in only one direction.
so you can adjust the angle of the reflection.

florian

Diffuse = the “Hardness” property in the material buttons (F5)