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The Reflect node has attributes that control how light is reflected from a surface. Reflect nodes never exist by themselves; they are part of the makeup of other shading nodes, such as Blinn or PhongE.

Aside from the attributes described here, the Reflect node inherits many attributes from its parent Lambert node.

In the table below, important attribute have their names indicated in bold in the description column.

This node is abstract

This node is MP safe

Node nameParentsClassificationMFn typeCompatible function sets
reflectlambertrendernode

Related nodes

lambert, phongE, phong, blinn, anisotropic, volumeShader, simpleVolumeShader, surfaceShader, displacementShader, layeredShader, useBackground, defaultShaderList, shadingMap

Attributes (15)

reflectedColor, reflectedColorB, reflectedColorG, reflectedColorR, reflectionLimit, reflectionSpecularity, reflectivity, specularColor, specularColorB, specularColorG, specularColorR, triangleNormalCamera, triangleNormalCameraX, triangleNormalCameraY, triangleNormalCameraZ

Long name (short name)TypeDefaultFlags
reflectionLimit (fll) short1outputinputconnectablestorable
reflected ray depth limit
specularColor (sc) float3outputinputconnectablestorable
Specular Color is the color of the specular reflections (also called 'hot spots') on the material. The final color of a specular reflection is a combination of the Specular Color and the color of the light.

By making the Specular Color brighter or dimmer, you can control the brightness of the specular reflections on an object.

Tip: To make a material look more plastic, use white for the specular color. To make a material look more metallic, make the specular color similar to the surface color.

specularColorR (sr) float0.5outputinputconnectablestorablekeyable
specular color red value
specularColorG (sg) float0.5outputinputconnectablestorablekeyable
specular color green value
specularColorB (sb) float0.5outputinputconnectablestorablekeyable
specular color blue value
reflectivity (rfl) float0.5outputinputconnectablestorable
Reflectivity is used to make an object reflect light like a mirror. Set this to 0 is you do not want your material to reflect at all. Increase the value to make brighter reflections. Note that brighter reflections hide more of the base surface color.

This attribute is only meaningful if there is a reflection map, or if you are doing Ray Tracing.

Here are some useful values for Reflectivity:

    Car Paint: 0.4
    Glass: 0.7
    Mirror: 1.0
    Chrome: 1.0

Note: If you are doing Ray Tracing, and you want other objects in the scene to be seen in reflections, then you must turn on the Visible In Reflections attribute of those objects.

reflectedColor (rc) float3outputinputconnectablestorable
Reflected Color affects the color of light reflected from the material.

You can map an image or texture or environment map to this attribute in order to make 'fake reflections', which are less expensive than ray-tracing. This is called Reflection Mapping.

Reflection Mapping and raytracing may be used together, in which case the reflection map is used as 'background', and raytraced reflections appear in the 'foreground'.

reflectedColorR (rr) float0.0outputinputconnectablestorablekeyable
reflected color red value
reflectedColorG (rg) float0.0outputinputconnectablestorablekeyable
reflected color green value
reflectedColorB (rb) float0.0outputinputconnectablestorablekeyable
reflected color blue value
triangleNormalCamera (tnc) float3outputinputconnectablehidden
Triangle Normal In Camera Space This is the normal of the visible triangle in the camera space.

This normal is used to check the reflection direction is not in the opposite direction of the normal of the visible triangle.

triangleNormalCameraX (tnx) float0.0outputinputconnectable
triangle normal x value
triangleNormalCameraY (tny) float1.0outputinputconnectable
triangle normal y value
triangleNormalCameraZ (tnz) float0.0outputinputconnectable
triangle normal z value
reflectionSpecularity (rsp) float1.0outputinputconnectablestorable
Reflection Specular controls the contribution of the specular component when dealing with reflection rays for ray tracing. I.e., the specular contribution when seen as a mirror reflection.