PBR

PBR (Physically Based Rendering) is a shading approach that simulates how light interacts with surfaces based on real-world physics principles, producing consistent and realistic results across different lighting conditions. PBR materials use standardized texture maps including albedo for base color without lighting information, metallic to define metal versus non-metal surfaces, roughness to control micro-surface scattering from mirror-smooth to completely diffuse, and normal maps for surface detail. This standardization allows materials to work correctly in any lighting environment.

Creating a PBR gold material requires understanding how real gold behaves. The metallic value is set to 1.0 since gold is a pure metal. The albedo color is not yellow but rather gold's specific reflectance color around RGB 255, 215, 0. Roughness varies: a polished gold ring might be 0.1 while brushed gold is around 0.4. Because PBR follows physics, this material automatically looks correct whether lit by warm indoor lighting, cool daylight, or colorful neon, without manual adjustments per scene.