PBR textures explained: base colour, metallic, roughness

"PBR textures included" appears on every 3dpolyx product page. If you are new to 3D, it can sound like marketing jargon. It is not: PBR is the reason a model looks right in your scene instead of looking pasted in. Here is what it means in plain language.

What PBR means

PBR stands for physically based rendering. Instead of painting light and shadow directly into the texture, a PBR material describes what the surface is made of. The renderer then calculates how light should behave on that surface.

The practical result: the same model looks correct in a bright outdoor game level, a dark studio render or a web page with a simple light setup. You do not need different versions of the texture for different lighting.

glTF, the standard behind our GLB files, uses the metallic-roughness workflow. It is built on three main maps.

Base colour

The base colour map (also called albedo) is the pure colour of the surface. It contains no shadows, highlights or reflections, only the colour you would see under perfectly even, neutral light.

This is the most common beginner mistake in texturing: painting shadows into the colour map. With PBR, the renderer adds the shadows itself, so baked shadows end up doubled and the model looks dirty.

On the Velvet Club Armchair, the base colour holds the deep fabric tone. The softness of velvet comes from the other maps and from your lights.

Metallic

The metallic map tells the renderer which parts of the model are metal. In most cases it is close to black and white:

• Black (0) — non-metal: wood, plastic, fabric, ceramic, paint.

• White (1) — bare metal: copper, brass, steel, chrome.

Metals and non-metals reflect light differently. Metals tint their reflections with their own colour; non-metals reflect light mostly white. That is why the copper envelope of the Copper Hot Air Balloon or the shade of the Brass Desk Lamp picks up warm reflections from its surroundings.

Roughness

The roughness map controls how sharp or blurry the reflections are:

• Low roughness (dark) — smooth and glossy: polished metal, glazed ceramic, varnish.

• High roughness (light) — matte: raw wood, fabric, unglazed clay, rubber.

Roughness is often what makes a material believable. The enamelled body of the Red Dutch Oven has a soft gloss, while its handle and rim behave differently. Same colour family, different roughness, and suddenly it reads as a real kitchen object.

Other maps you may meet

Our models focus on the three core maps above. In other assets you may also see:

• Normal map — fakes small surface details like grooves or stitching without adding geometry.

• Ambient occlusion — darkens crevices where light struggles to reach.

• Emissive — makes parts glow, such as screens or lamps.

All of these are supported by glTF, and engines read them automatically when they are present.

Tips for using PBR models

1. Use proper lighting. PBR materials shine with an HDRI environment or image-based lighting. A single flat light makes any material look plain.

2. Do not "fix" colours by brightening the base colour. Adjust your lights or exposure instead.

3. Keep the colour space right. Base colour is a colour (sRGB) texture; metallic and roughness are data (linear). GLB importers set this up correctly. Just be careful if you extract and reconnect textures by hand.

4. Tweak roughness for mood. Slightly lower roughness gives a fresh, new look; slightly higher gives a worn, matte feel.

Why it matters

PBR lets you mix models from our catalogue with your own assets and get a consistent result. Light a scene once, drop in a sofa, a lamp and a pot, and they all respond to the same light in the same physically plausible way.

Open any model in the store and orbit around it in the viewer. Watch how reflections move across the metal parts: that is PBR at work.