Metallic and specular workflows

Prebuilt Unity shaders have two different ways of calculating reflections, known as workflows:

Metallic workflow. Set a value for how metallic the material is, where 0 is non-metallic and 1 is fully metallic. Unity calculates the strength and color of reflections, and tints them with the base color.
Specular workflow. Set a color value to directly control the tint and intensity of reflections and highlights.

The workflow controls two types of reflections:

Specular reflections, which are bright spots that reflect light components.
Environment reflections, which reflect the surrounding environment, for example the skyboxA special type of Material used to represent skies. Usually six-sided. More info
See in Glossary.

In both workflows, you can also adjust the blurriness or sharpness of reflections using a smoothness value.

Note: You can use either workflow for any material. The metallic workflow isn’t only for metallic materials.

Metallic workflow

In the metallic workflow, the following applies:

A value of 0 means the surface is non-metallic, also known as dielectric. The base color is visible as matte color, also known as diffuse reflection. Specular highlights are the color of the light source.
A value of 1 means the surface is metallic. There’s no diffuse reflection. The base color defines the color of the specular reflections and environment reflections.

Values between 0 and 1 blend these two results.

Spheres with a range of metallic values from 0 to 1, and a constant smoothness value of 0.8. The reflection of the environment becomes more visible.

For more information, refer to Configure reflections in prebuilt shaders.

Specular workflow

In the specular workflow, a specular color value directly controls the intensity and color of reflections on the surface. This makes it possible to have a specular reflection that’s a different color to diffuse reflection.

A black specular color means no reflections, while a white specular color means full reflection.

Spheres with a range of specular colors from black to white. Rubber, dirt, rough plastic, and mud have a dark specular color, and faint reflections. Brushed metal has a light specular color and a clear, bright reflection.

For more information, refer to Configure reflections in prebuilt shaders.

Smoothness

In both workflows, a smoothness value controls the clarity of the specular effect.

Smoothness represents the microsurface detail of the material. A low smoothness value means the surface is microscopically rough with many different surface angles, so light rays bounce off at a wide range of angles, and fewer reflections reach the camera. A high smoothness value means the surface is microscopically smooth like a mirror, so light rays bounce off at a narrow range of angles, and more reflections reach the camera.