PBR (Physically Based Rendering)
PBR is a shading model that simulates how light interacts with surfaces in the real world, producing realistic materials across all lighting conditions.
What is PBR?
Physically Based Rendering (PBR) is a rendering approach that models how light behaves in the real world. Instead of faking materials with arbitrary values, PBR uses physically accurate surface properties, so a material looks correct under any lighting. A standard PBR material combines several maps: base color/albedo, a normal map for fine detail, a roughness map for reflection sharpness, metallic, and ambient occlusion, all aligned to the mesh through its UV mapping.
Why It Matters
PBR is the industry standard because assets look consistent across every engine (Unity, Unreal, Godot, web) and every lighting setup, with no per-scene tweaking. It's why a model made once works everywhere. To go deeper on how the individual maps are authored, read our beginner's guide to 3D textures.
