Specular maps in Mia_material_x

#1

Hello everyone,

[color=white]I am creating a wooden floor using a mia_material_x shader and I have encountered a problem regarding the specular map. I have been investigating on the web and some people say that the mia material shader doesn´t need a specualr map. Is that correct? [color=white]Then, how can I specify what areas must be reflective and which not?

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When I see other peoples wooden floor work, you can see the difference on reflection and brightness depending on the wood grain. How can I achieve the same result? I have tried putting my specualr map in the reflection color or on the reflection slot but muy results are far from perfect.

I am rendering an exterior seen with a mid day summer sun, perhaps my illumination is to bright?
But the same thing happens in areas that are not directly affected by the sun.

Thank you!

#2

mental Ray Arch&Design/Mia_x material is physically accurate so it dosn’t have a specular(faked lightsource reflection) component,but rather uses fully ray-traced reflections.

so as well as putting maps in reflection and glossiness to break up the reflection, a bump/normal map will play a big role in how your reflections are broken up.

also, for flat surfaces like walls/floors/etc there is a setting called interpolate reflections which works very well for fast, decent glossy reflections.

I’m not sure what the setting is called in Maya as I use Max but Arch&Design/Mia_x have the exact same settings.

#3

Actually it does have a specular component otherwise there would never be highlights from lights. It’s controlled by the “Specular balance” attribute found in the advanced section if i remember correctly. Turning this to 0 removes any “fake” spec and forces the mia to rely solely on raytraced reflections.

Depending on if you want to drive the specular colour or specular amount you would usually plug the map into reflection colour or reflectivity. The reflectivity attribute relies on luminance values only so make sure to tick on “Alpha is luminance” in the texture node first or it won’t work as you expect it to.

#4

Yeah, my mistake. I suppose I assumed that mia_x didn’t have any spec settings as Arch&Design dosn’t and they’re essentially the same shader(I’m a Max user)

cheers.

#5

Thanks for your help.

I´ve seen in some tutorials that they turn the Specular balance value to 0 as it is not real.
I think I havent ticked Alpha is luminance

Thank you!

#6

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