PBR Test Assets ?

CreativeSheep

In the Physically Based Rendering Encyclopedia (Page 19) it states one of these bullets:

• Make sure that the lighting is setup properly when testing assets (you can use a special asset test level with calibrated lighting).

What does this mean ?

ZacD

Typically means that make sure the lighting setup for your engine is setup correctly and not using unrealistic or silly values. For me, that means using a HDRI image with something like a normal mid day sky and a directional light for the sun. If you're using UE4 or another engine that requires reflection probes, throw one of those in the scene as well. 

With UE4 I'd just use the Advanced Lighting Map included in the starter content. I've seen studios recreate a conference room that's in their office as a reference scene as well. 


What you don't want to do is use a setup that won't allow you to really check if the assets look correct. Don't use an HDRI night scene or an overcast day with lava near by, or an HDRI of space or another planet. Also don't make the sun or sky too much brighter or darker than natural.

CreativeSheep

@ZacD You mean shader balls within the render ?

musashidan

CreativeSheep said:

@ZacD You mean shader balls within the render ?

Yes, 50% grey and 100% chrome reflective. You can also use a colour calibration chart. This is similar to vfx/film look dev.

If you look in the starter content folder in UE4>maps there is the Advanced Lighting scene with all of this set up.

Also, Blender has this built into it's shading tab look-dev mode using EEVEE, by default.

CreativeSheep

Thanks for the info.