PBR Exports

Default Export

colormass materials are exported as ZIP files. An exemplary export would contain the following data:

Exemplary ZIP file contents of an exported dataset

Tie info.txt file contains meta information regarding the material and the export settings:

Article ID: 6713402
Width: 127.00 cm
Height: 127.00 cm
Exported for workflow: Metallness / Roughness
Normal map orientation: +Y up
Resolution: Original

The other files are image files, named according to the following schema:

• [id]-[name]-diffuse.[ext]

• [id]-[name]-normal.[ext]

• ...

[id] refers to the internal colormass material ID

[name] refers to the material name

[ext] refers to the file extension (JPEG, TIFF, EXR)

Custom Export

The zip file above in regular circumstances exported using default settings. There is however a possibility to export a material with various settings on the platform. These possibilities include the following options:

• Workflow:

  • Metallnes / Roughness

  • Specular / Glossiness

• Render Engine:

  • colormass

  • Corona

  • VRay

  • Cycles

• Normal direction:

  • Engine default

  • +Y up

  • +Y down

• File type:

  • .exr

  • .tiff

  • .png

  • .jpg

• Resolution:

  • Original

  • 72 dpi

See screenshot of where these settings can be chosen:

Custom PBR export setting

Map Types

We currently provide the following maps:

Metalness	Grayscale	linear	Describes which parts of the surface are metallic (represented as white) or non-metallic/dielectric (represented as black). Also grayscale values in-between are possible representing mixtures of metallic and dielectric surfaces.
Roughness	Grayscale	linear	Describes the surface irregularities that cause light diffusion. Black represents a completely smooth / shiny surface and white represents a completely rough / diffuse surface. In-between grayscale values allow for different roughness values.
Diffuse	RGB	"all file formats except EXR: sRGB EXR files: linear"	RGB map that can contain two types of data: diffuse reflected color for dielectrics and reflectance values for metals. It is devoid of any lighting information such as ambient occlusion.
Specular	Grayscale	linear	Describes Fresnel reflectance for dielectric materials. Black represents 0% reflectance and white represents 8% reflectance. Most real-world dielectrics have around 4% reflectance, so the values of this map will mostly be around mid-gray
Normal	RGB	linear	"Map describing the surface orientation by an RGB encoding. We use the standard tangent space format, identified by the dominant purple color, corresponding to a vector facing directly out from the surface. Rendering engines differentiate between 2 types of formats: OpenGL (Y+ up) DirectX (-Y down) We always provide the OpenGL (Y+ up) format. It can be transformed to DirectX (-Y down) by simply inverting / flipping the green color channel if required."
Anisotropy (strength)	Grayscale	linear	Describes the strength of the anisotropic highlight. Black represents a completely isotropic surface (circular, directionally independent highlight), white represents a completely anisotropic surface (elongated, directionally dependent highlight). In-between values define different levels of anisotropy.
Anisotropy (rotation)	Grayscale	linear	Describes the orientation of the anisotropic highlight. We use a clockwise encoding where black represents a 0°, mid-gray represents a 180° and white represents a 360° rotation of the anisotropic highlight.
Displacement	Grayscale	linear	"Describes small-scale geometric detail of the surfaces. Black represents zero modification, white represents the surface being fully pulled ""outwards"". In-between values allows different levels of displacement. The (metric) value of how far the surface should be displaced outwards for a white color value is currently not made available and up to artistic control."
Mask/Alpha (optional)	Grayscale	linear	Describes a simplified version of transparency. Black represents a completely transparent region of the surface, where light passes through unperturbed. White represents a (usually opaque) region where the rest of the maps have full influence over the behavior, and no blending occurs. Intermediate values result in a blending between the shaded surface and full transparency.
Transmission (optional)	RGB	"all file formats except EXR: sRGB EXR files: linear"	Describes the amount and color of light transmitted through the surface of a material. When this originates from the colormass scanner, this is assumed to represent diffuse (scattering) transmission. (Because the scanner cannot distinguish between areas that are fully transparent and areas that have very high scattering transmission, this usually needs to be combined with a mask. The mask may be derived from the transmission map by picking a threshold which identifies high-transmission areas as fully transparent.)

Exported Maps

Assuming that you selected Engine default option for the normal map these are the maps that will be exported for various workflows and render engines.

Metalness / Roughness Workflow

colormass

• Maps: diffuse, normal, metalness, roughness, specular, anisotropy, displacement

• Anisotropy: As one map

• Normals: y+down

Cycles

• Maps: diffuse, normal, metalness, roughness, specular, anisotropy-strength, anisotropy-rotation, displacement

• Normals: y+up

• Anisotropy: anisotropy-strength: 0 ... 1.0, anisotropy-rotation: Counter-clockwise

V-Ray

• Maps: diffuse, normal, metalness, roughness, specular, anisotropy-strength, anisotropy-rotation, displacement

• Normals: y+down

• Anisotropy: anisotropy-strength: 0 ... 1.0, anisotropy-rotation: Clockwise

Specular / Glossiness Workflow

VRay

• Maps: diffuse, reflect, normal, gloss, fresnel-ior, anisotropy-strength, anisotropy-rotation, displacement

• Normals: y+down

• Anisotropy: anisotropy-strength: 0 ... 1.0, anisotropy-rotation: Clockwise

Corona

• Maps: diffuse, reflect, normal, gloss, fresnel-ior, anisotropy-strength, anisotropy-rotation, displacement

• Normals: y+down

• Anisotropy: anisotropy-strength: 0.5 ... 1.0 (?), anisotropy-rotation: Clockwise