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PBR - Bright highlights in low-light scene

Discussion in 'General Graphics' started by hausmaus, May 28, 2018.

  1. hausmaus

    hausmaus

    Joined:
    Dec 9, 2011
    Posts:
    105
    Is there any way to reduce the brightness given to a light that is reflected in a PBR material in a low-roughness spot? The attached screenshot shows the effect.

    unity_pbr_bright_highlight.jpg

    I find that even in very low-light scenes, there is a bright halo around lights (directional, in this case) that are reflected in any low-roughness PBR materials. The light gets a visible disc, roughly similar to the procedural sun disc, which is visible in these reflective areas, seemingly regardless of how the reflection probes are set up. This applies at all "wet" roughness levels, as you can see with the bright/hazy mud.

    These bright highlights do taper off a bit at extremely low light levels, but at this point the light is too weak to cast visible shadows. The reflection does also track the color of the directional light somewhat, but it looks pretty much white unless the light color is very strongly tinted. I'm trying to light a gloomy interior in a way that retains some shadows, but ideally without having pops of this pure white disc reflecting around a weak yellow-orange directional light.

    I am using a custom blend shader here, but the same effect is visible in the Standard/Standard(Metal) shaders. I don't see a way to modify this default light reflection on the light inspector, material, Lighting panel, mesh renderer, graphics settings, or in a Surface shader directly.

    Any insight would be appreciated!
     
    Last edited: May 28, 2018