HDRP Specular Occlusion

So in the Shader Graph for a Lit shader there is Specular Occlusion option(from AO or AO+bend normals). The reflections from my reflection probes do seem to be occluded based on my ambient occlusion map, but any specular highlights from direct lighting seem to show up and not be effected by my AO map. Is this the intended behavior? I would think that if we were going to occlude specular from cubemaps, direct light specular would also be occluded since it is really just approximating a reflection from a light.

I only ask because I noticed some bright highlights in the crevices of my character where AO would be- such as inbetween the lips and in the ear.

 

I am wondering the same thing, did you get an answer?

 

Nope

 

This sounds like the environment lighting from your sky rather than directional night.

Similar to normal bias when making a room to prevent light leaking.

Provided your texture maps and lighting are balanced to a degree (PBR valid using HDRP)

Have a look into your Sky exposure in the debugger.
if you're using an HDRI and change the target exposure you will likely see the specularity change too