Substance Designer: do you let a thin layer of dust affect roughness and metalic maps?

oraeles77

imagine you are making a flat sheet of white plastic, but its covered in a layer of fine dust.

would the dust affect the roughness or the metalic?

firstly, its a pain in the ass  so Im sure game designer people wouldnt mind me skipping it.

but I was thinking that the dust would affect the surface's reflection of light a tiny amount, so possibly it could affect the roughness map a tiny, tiny amount but the dust could also affect the metalic a tiny amount (by 0.0000001 percent) if know what I mean...

rexo12

If your object is plastic you'd have a black metal map no? General rule with dust is that it is dielectric, so black metallic there. You would probably use some kind of grunge mask with say +.05 roughness to simulate the layer.

radiancef0rge

gradient map, 2 points. 1 at a value of 255 with alpha of 0 for the metal areas. second point with a value of 0 with an alpha of 255 for the metallic areas. metal/rough 
for spec/gloss same thing but the metal areas are the spec color of the metal.

also, don't over think it - its not that complicated.

oraeles77

radiancef0rge said:

gradient map, 2 points. 1 at a value of 255 with alpha of 0 for the metal areas. second point with a value of 0 with an alpha of 255 for the metallic areas. metal/rough 
for spec/gloss same thing but the metal areas are the spec color of the metal.

also, don't over think it - its not that complicated.

sorry for the late reply. thank you