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It seems with the PBR materials that some tutorials are using a roughness map. Some say this is an inverted spectacular map but I don't really know that much about it. While is seems that people are using roughness maps I don't know how they are generating them or what programs they are using aside from Substance B2M. If the roughness map seems to be used in Blender then what other programs create a roughness maps?

I don't own Photoshop so that option is out for me.

Thanks

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For Specular based shader system you need:

  • specular texture (effects the reflection color)
  • glossiness texture (effects the reflection sharpness)
    • In Cycles is used roughness, which is inverse of glossiness
    • In Blender Internal it is called hardness

For Metalness based shader system you need:

  • roughness texture (effects the reflection sharpness, inverse of glossiness)
  • metalness texture (effects how much is surface dielectric or metal)

You can make PBR shaders with both systems and you can convert between them too. A good article about this all is on Marmoset's site.

You can create these textures in multiple ways:

  • directly paint them with any 2D capable application (Photoshop, Krita, Gimp, Blender, Zbrush, Substance Painter, just about almost everything.. MsPaint, ..)

  • generate them from photographs (N Render, Substance B2M, Quixel, etc.)

  • generate them from (procedural) material by baking (Substance Designer, Blender, 3DMax, Maya, ..)

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  • $\begingroup$ Thanks for the reply. I did read Marmoset's comments before but need to read it again. This world textures maps has a language all of its own. I am sure I don't get as much out of these articles as someone who is more familiar with the terms. I do have Photoshop 8X but don't have a clue what you mean when you say "paint them". I tried to find some tutorials online for making roughness maps via Paintshop pro and could not find anything. Thanks again for you comments. $\endgroup$
    – Allen
    Commented Feb 26, 2018 at 19:47
  • $\begingroup$ @Allen by paint I mean create from scratch. Either hand paint them, or use bitmap editing tools to create the desired black&white image. It is good to have some experience to know what values for different materials works well. What input for creating the textures do you have? This might help me figure out what you need better. $\endgroup$
    – Jaroslav Jerryno Novotny
    Commented Feb 26, 2018 at 20:01
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks again Jerryno, I will keep working on this. I created some seamless textures via PixPlant but this program along with many others at this time do not create a roughness maps. It will in the future but no time was given. I understand what you are saying and yes it would take some skill as bump maps are also black and white images. I will continue to research this out. $\endgroup$
    – Allen
    Commented Feb 26, 2018 at 21:23

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