Converting Cook–Torrance material to radiance (RGB, specularity, roughness) material model?

There are two issues here. First, the Cook-Torrance model is not implemented in Radiance. Second you want to apply a spatially variant model. As Greg mentioned, this is not really addressed by Radiance. However, depending on how much effort you can dedicate, there may be some approximations:

  1. You can implement the C-T-model as a cal-file and compile it into a data-driven model by bsdf2ttree.

  2. You can use mixpict to switch between surface properties based on pixel information. If you just blend between two (or few) parametrisations of the C-T model, this would allow you to e. g. linearly interpolate between two data-driven representations of the CT-models as an approximation.

I am using the second approach sometimes to simulate an alpha channel, e. g. blending between reflective surfaces and void. One example is the mapped image of a flame here: Views on ancient lighting: Modelling lighting devices and their effects in architecture | Zenodo . Axel Jacob’s brilliant “Radiance Cookbook” has a similar example about transparent textures on pages 27-34.

Best regards, Lars.

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