What maps are included and how do I use them?

Each material is identically scanned, calibrated and processed and thus follows a consistent standard. The maps are prepared for physically based rendering workflows and calibrated for the Disney “Principled” BRDF. Both Metalness and Specular shader workflows are supported, as well as Roughness and Gloss/Smoothness standards. Maps are provided for both real-time and offline rendering contexts. This means the scanned maps plug into Unreal Engine 4, V-Ray, Octane, Arnold, Nuke, Quixel Suite 2, Mari, Unity 5, Maxwell, Cryengine, Redshift, Mizuchi and any other software that supports standard PBR workflows. Below is a full list of the maps provided in the Megascans library.

Below is a list of all maps that are currently supported in the Megascans library.

Albedo

Albedo represents diffuse light color, and is completely void of directional light, ambient occlusion and specular reflections. It’s commonly known as “diffuse color”, “diffuse map” or “diffuse albedo”, however when used in a metalness workflow the albedo map defines both diffuse albedo (for non-metals) as well as specular albedo (for metals). Each albedo is consistently scanned in a controlled mechanically automated environment and calibrated using the Macbeth ColorChecker standard.

Workflow: Metalness / Specular
Renderer: Real-time / Offline
Characteristics: Diffuse Color

Ambient Occlusion

AO represents diffuse light occlusion and is to be multiplied with the diffuse albedo in the shader. This map comprises 100% real-world shadows and is fully separated from the diffuse albedo. The albedo and AO are thus to always be used in conjunction with each other, as they blend perfectly together. This applies to both offline and real-time contexts, as the AO map contains scanned occlusion that cannot simply be derived from displacements alone. If you wish to reduce texture memory or simplify the shading, do not discard the AO but instead multiply it with the albedo beforehand in an image processor and use it as a traditional diffuse map.

Workflow: Metalness / Specular
Context: Real-time / Offline
Characteristics: White = No occlusion, Black = Occlusion

Cavity

Cavity represent specular light occlusion and is used to weaken the specular reflection in tightly occluded cavities and steep areas. This is so that materials shall not exhibit unrealistically intense specular reflections where light would get trapped. This map is primarily used in a real-time context.

Workflow: Metalness
Context: Real-time
Characteristics: White = No cavities, Black = Cavities

Curvature

Curvature maps store the convexity and concavity of a mesh or surface. This map is also referred to as a concavity map, convexity map, and worn edges map. It's most frequently used to create surface detailing that adheres to edges and cavities of a surface. This map can also be used to define where subsurface scattering should appear on a surface, in addition to where dirt should build up.

Workflow: Metalness / Specular
Context: Real-time / Offline
Characteristics: Gray = flat, Light gray to White = Convex, Dark gray to Black = Concave

Specular/Reflectivity

Specular represents base reflectivity (also called F0) when viewing the surface head on, and is primarily used for real-time applications. It is also pre-multiplied with scanned cavity data to weaken specular reflections in tightly occluded areas where specular light would get trapped. For offline rendering, it's advised to let a material specific IOR value dictate the specular reflectance behaviour, and multiplying the specular reflection with the Cavity map if need be.

Workflow: Specular
Context: Real-time
Characteristics: Bright color = Metallic reflection, Dark color = Non-metallic reflection

Gloss/Smoothness

Gloss represents how smooth the surface is, and dictates the sharpness and intensity of specular reflections. It is matched to a GGX BRDF. As a technical note, the gloss is derived from scanned specular albedo and visually approximated. Cavities/occlusion/steep areas yield less reliable results, this is in part countered with the cavity/specular term muting reflections in tight occluded areas.

Workflow: Metalness / Specular
Context: Real-time / Offline
Characteristics: White = Smooth, Black = Rough

Roughness

Roughness represents how rough the surface is, dictating the spread and intensity of specular reflections, and is the inverse of Gloss/Smoothness. It is matched to a GGX BRDF.

Workflow: Metalness / Specular
Context: Real-time / Offline
Characteristics: White = Rough, Black = Smooth

Normal (Tangent-Space)

Tangent normals represent surface normal directions at each pixel. Red, Green and Blue channels of the image represent the normal directions. Normal maps are generally used to replicate the appearance of high resolution detail on a low resolution model. The characteristics of the original high resolution model, such as the angle and shape of the surface are baked down and encoded at a per pixel level. This allows renderers to give the illusion of the original source mesh detail level, however the silhouette of the low resolution geometry isn’t changed. Although this map is primarily used in a real-time context, some offline renderers also support it.

Workflow: Metalness / Specular
Context: Real-time / Offline
Characteristics: Red = +X Green = +Y Blue = +Z

Normal (Object-Space)

Object normals represent surface normal directions at each pixel with a gradient representing the pixel's location in object space, otherwise known as local space. Red, Green and Blue channels of the image represent the normal directions and physical location of the pixel in the XYZ axes, as the orientation of the object determines normal colors. Normal maps are generally used to replicate the appearance of high resolution detail on a low resolution model. Object normals are unique to each model they represent and as such, cannot be used with other models. The characteristics of the original high resolution model, such as the angle and shape of the surface are baked down and encoded at a per pixel level. This allows renderers to give the illusion of the original source mesh detail level, however the silhouette of the low resolution geometry isn't changed. Although this map is primarily (but uncommonly) used in a real-time context, some offline renderers also support it.

Workflow: Metalness / Specular
Context: Real-time / Offline
Characteristics: Individual pixels refer to both model details and physical location of normal vectors.

Displacement

Displacement represents the encoded height differences of a high resolution model, baked into a texture map. It generally contains a fairly wide range of high and medium level detail. It can be used to give the illusion of greater detail to a low resolution model. To minimise displacement tearing, most renderers have an option to enable “crack free displacement” or similar and this may be activated to minimize the impact of these artifacts if they are visible on 3D meshes.

Workflow: Metalness / Specular
Context: Real-time / Offline
Characteristics: White = 10 cm, Gray = 0 cm, Black = -10 cm

Bump

Bump represents height differences in a surface. Bump maps generally encode finer / higher frequency detail, and should be used to enhance the look of high resolution models.

Workflow: Metalness / Specular
Context: Offline
Characteristics: White = 0.25 cm, Gray = 0 cm, Black = -0.25 cm

NormalBump

NormalBump represents high frequency surface detail similar to a bump map. It is an optional map, to be used along with highpoly geometry for extra detail.

Workflow: Metalness / Specular
Context: Offline
Characteristics: Red = +X Green = +Y Blue = +Z

Opacity

Opacity represents the transparency of a material. It is used in material setups for texture atlases, to give elements such as leaf textures their correct cutout and silhouette.

Workflow: Metalness / Specular
Context: Real-time / Offline
Characteristics: White = Opaque, Black = Transparent

Thickness

Thickness resembles Ambient Occlusion (and could easily be confused for it in a thumbnail view) but is more similar to an inverted AO map. Thickness defines the level of lighting that should pass through an object - in this regard, it is essentially a sub-surface scattering map. It can be used with SSS shading real-time and offline to allow light to pass through a model.

Workflow: Metalness / Specular
Context: Real-time / Offline
Characteristics: Black = Thin, translucent surface areas. White, thick, opaque surface areas.

Translucency

Translucency represents the amount and intensity of light scattered through an object when lit from behind. This map should be used in a leaf shader for example, to create a realistic representation of backlit foliage.

Workflow: Metalness / Specular
Context: Real-time / Offline
Characteristics: Bright color = Translucent, Dark Color = Opaque

Fuzz

Fuzz represents a mask for a rough, “fuzzy” surface such as moss. This is an optional bonus map, and can be applied to give extra diffusion to a surface.

Workflow: Metalness / Specular
Context: Real-time / Offline
Characteristics: Bright color = Fuzzy, Dark Color = Clear

Brush

Brush represents samples taken from the high resolution scan data, to be used as stamps in a sculpting application such as Zbrush. Using the provided brushes you can customize or extend scan data to other objects while retaining a similar feel to the original surface.

Workflow: Metalness / Specular
Context: Real-time / Offline
Characteristics: White = up, Gray = flat, Black = down