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Specular

The Specular node controls how bright and wide the highlights on a material seem. The location of the viewpoint is significant: the specular highlights are the brightest along the direct angle of reflection.

Inputs and Controls

Connection Type	Connection Name	Function
Input	mapsh	An optional mask for varying the shininess value. Where the mask is black, the shininess is set to min shininess. Where the mask is white, the shininess is set to max shininess. Values in between (where the matte is gray) are attenuated accordingly.
	map	The image used to modulate the specular properties of the material.
	unnamed	Either: • The 2D image you’re using for the surface texture, or • Another shader node, such as Diffuse, Specular, or Emission. Adding several shader nodes one after the other allows you to produce more complex effects.

Control (UI)	Knob (Scripting)	Default Value	Function
Specular Tab
channels	channels	rgba	The effect is only applied to these channels. You can use the checkboxes on the right to select individual channels.
white	white	0.18	The brightness of the specular highlight. The higher the value, the shinier the material seems.
min shininess	min_shininess	10	The shininess value controls the width of the highlights. The higher the value, the wider the highlights. If you have connected a mask to the mapSh input of the node, pixel values in the mask are used to vary the shininess value. Where the matte is black, the shininess is set to min shininess. Where the matte is white, the shininess is set to max shininess. Values in between (where the matte is gray) are attenuated accordingly. If you’re not using the mapSh input, the average of min shininess and the maxshininess value is used as the shininess value for the material.
max shininess	max_shininess	10	The shininess value controls the width of the highlights. The higher the value, the wider the highlights. If you have connected a mask to the mapSh input of the node, pixel values in the mask are used to vary the shininess value. Where the matte is black, the shininess is set to min shininess. Where the matte is white, the shininess is set to max shininess. Values in between (where the matte is gray) are attenuated accordingly. If you’re not using the mapSh input, the average of min shininess and the maxshininess value is used as the shininess value for the material.
shininess channel	shininess_channel	luminance	Select which channel from the mapSh input is used to map the black and white values to the minshininess and maxshininess controls. Choose: • red to use the red channel for the mapping, • green to use the green channel, • blue to use the blue channel, • alpha to use the alpha channel, • luminance to use the luminance, or • averagergb to use the average of the red, green, and blue channels.