Anisotropic Specular Highlights
Anisotropic Specular Highlights (with directional maps) are supported in the Hair Shader as of CRYENGINE 3.6. This old method is deprecated with the introduction of PBR.
Overview
Anisotropic Specular highlights means that roughly the highlight is not the same for all orientations, that is, the highlight has a dependency on the orientation.
- This is often due to 'micro-structures' present in the surface that are aligned predominantly in some direction. That causes some visible patterns on the highlight (usually radial/disk patterns).
- This is usually visible on specific types of materials, like brushed metal, fabric, satin, silk, hair, compact disks (but more complex reflection in this case), etc.
Adjusting the anisotropic specular is very simple, as there are only two parameters:
Property | Description |
|---|---|
Specular multiplier | Defines specular strength. |
Anisotropic Shape | Defines shape of specular highlight. |
You can use Glossiness as usual to define how sharp the highlight gets. Also, you can apply a specular map to mask out specular highlights.
The lower the value, the more evident the disk pattern will be and also the sharper it will become.
The higher the value, the more evident the radial pattern will be and also the sharper it will become.
Please note that at present, Anisotropic Specular does not work for point-lights, only the sun.