New to CGcookie question about a particular PBR texture

[nosfero32]

Hey everyone! I hope this is the right place for this sort of question, apologies if it is not.

I recently discovered PBR textures and have been learning how to set them up with the principled bsdf shader. However, I got this one particular texture from poliigon.com which I cant seem to figure out. It includes a map labelled “distance” which is a type I have never seen. Anyone know how this map should be connected? (attached a picture of the map types)

[Thibaut Bourbon]

Hi @nosfero32  I don’t see any “distance” label in your picture so I assume you refer to the “direction” one.

Since it’s a metallic shader you’re working with I would strongly suspect it has to do with anisotropy. Basically which is the privileged directions the reflection goes (very common in brushed metals). So try linking it to the Anisotropic input of the principled shader ?

/Thibaut

[spikeyxxx]

Hi nosfero32, I am quite sure that Thibaut is absolutely right, but if you want to know for sure, ask this question at Poliigon.com, they will be glad to help, I guess…

[nosfero32]

Thanks for the replies guys. Whoops, yeah I meant direction. I tried Poliigon but never heard back, figured I would ask here as well. 

I asked around on a few other forums and did some more experimenting. It appears to produce the best results plugged into the tangent socket.

[Thibaut Bourbon]

@nosfero32 I should have been more accurate sorry: the texture is not in greyscale so it has to go to a vector input (blue dot). The tangent input  of the anisotropic shader is  exactly doing the job I referred to, showing the direction where the reflection goes.

The anisotropic and anisotropic rotation are here to control the “intensity” and the “deformation” of the reflection (i use quotation mark since it’s not the correct terms – I forgot them – but it’s basically what they do)

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