Materials

Unity Standard Shading — Study Notes

Unity's Standard Shader is a physically based shading system (PBR — Physically Based Rendering) designed to make materials react to light in a realistic and consistent way.

1. Albedo

What is it?

Albedo = the base color of the surface.

It describes the color of the material before lighting is applied.

Albedo Texture

An albedo texture contains the base colors of different parts of an object.

2. Specular

What is it?

Specular = direct reflection of light from a surface.

When light hits a surface, some of that light can reflect toward your camera.

That produces the bright highlight you see on objects.

Specular vs Smoothness

These are related but different.

Specular

How much light is reflected.

Smoothness

How concentrated/sharp that reflection is.

3. Normal Map

This one is extremely important in game development.

What is a Normal Map?

A normal map makes a surface appear to have small bumps and details without actually changing the mesh's geometry.

4. Height Map

A Height Map describes how high or low different areas of a surface should appear.

It's usually represented using grayscale:

White = higher

Gray  = middle

Black = lower

Height vs Normal Map

This is an important distinction.

Normal Map

Changes the perceived direction of the surface.

Height Map

Describes the actual height/depth of surface details.

Height Map = information about surface depth/height.

5. Occlusion

Occlusion describes how much ambient/environmental light can reach different parts of a surface.

In Unity's material system, an Occlusion Map is generally a grayscale texture.

Quick Reference Sheet