Specular color map

Specular Color Map

A texture that controls the intensity/color of the specular highlights from real-time lights.

Usually a specular map simply controls the brightness of the highlights, at a per-pixel level. If the shader supports RGB the specular map can be used to colorize specular highlights, useful for surfaces that have more complex reflective properties like metals, beetle shells, etc.

Sometimes a shader will also support per-pixel control for the width or power of the specular highlights, this is often called the Specular Gloss Map.

Specular Tutorials

• specular maps and normal maps archive thread from Polycount has tons of tips and information about specular maps.
• Creating Models in Quake 4 by Raven Software has a great section on creating specular maps for Quake 4 characters.
• Hard Surface Texture Painting by Stefan Morrell has some information on painting a specular map for metal surfaces.
• How to Hand Paint Convincing Metal Textures by 'racer445' has some tips about creating specular maps.

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