PBR Workflow & Albedo Chart by Iri Shinsoj (Patreon)

Hey guys, I ran into this really cool and simple to understand explanation regarding the PBR workflow. I know some people get confused by it so this was a great short primer on the subject and it even includes some very useful Albedo values to keep in mind. Check out his Artstation page for the full detailed post. I will post some excerpts below for reference. Enjoy!

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Maps:

• Albedo - Base colors with no lighting/shading data. Most albedo values exist within the midtones. (sRGB)
• Normal - High-res surface detail used for faking the lighting of bumps and dents. (RGB)
• Roughness - Defines reflective surface properties. (Grayscale)
• Metallic - Determines if a material is a metal or dielectric. (Grayscale)
• Ambient Occlusion (AO) - used to calculate how exposed each point in a scene is to ambient lighting. (Grayscale)
• Cavity - Micro-ambient occlusion. (Grayscale)
• Height - Surface elevation information. (Grayscale)
• Opacity - Transparency. (Grayscale)

The distribution of the deviated rays which are important for the reflection can be represented by a cone around the ideal mirror direction. The roughness texture controls the aperture of the cone and thus the blurriness of the reflection. The rougher the surface, the larger the cone. The roughness is the inverse of the glossiness. Sometimes glossiness and roughness are referred to as the microsurface value

Dielectrics have a 0 metallness value and do not require a metallic map. If they are part of an asset that needs one, the non-metal portions should be black. Metallic map properties should represent the top layer of the material, like painted metal, which would not be metallic in this case. Most metals have a value of 1, and the metallic map is multiplied against the base color texture.

Albedo values

Gathered from all around the web, they might be not 100% accurate, but more or less close.

For dielectric, the darkest albedo carbon has with 0.04 value, the lightest ones are the white paint and fresh snow with values around 0.8. 

Values are in Linear RGB (float).

Dielectric values

Ground, sand, rock

• Carbon (Coal, forged iron) 0.04 
• Black soil, wet 0.08 
• Black soil, dry 0.15 
• Bare soil 0.17 
• Grey soil, wet 0.10 – 0.12 
• Grey soil, dry 0.25 – 0.30 
• Dry silt loam soil 0.23 – 0.28 
• Dry clay soil 0.15 – 0.35 
• Dry sandy soil 0.25 – 0.45 
• Dry salt cover 0.5 
• Wet sand 0.23 
• Dry sand 0.4 
• Yellow clay 0.16 
• Rock 0.3 – 0.4

Vegetation

• Conifer Forest 0.08 – 0.12 
• Deciduous trees 0.15 – 0.18 
• Tall wild grass 0.16 – 0.18
• Short green grass 0.20 – 0.25 
• Grain crops 0.10 – 0.25 
• Corn field 0.16 – 0.17 
• Tea bushes 0.16 – 0.18 
• Summer foliage 0.09 – 0.12 
• Autumn foliage 0.15 – 0.3 
• Tundra 0.2

Snow, ice, water

• Melting snow (clean) 0.6 – 0.62 
• Ice 0.5 – 0.7 
• Ice, sea 0.3 – 0.45 
• Ice, glacier 0.2 – 0.4 
• Fresh snow 0.7 – 0.9 
• Water, sun near zenith 0.05
• Water, sun near horizon 0.5-0.8

Asphalt

• New asphalt 0.04 – 0.05 
• Aged asphalt 0.1 – 0.18 
• Wet asphalt 0.06 – 0.08 
• Gravel 0.13

Roofs

• Tar & gravel 0.33 
• Corrugated roof 0.1 – 0.15 
• Red/Brown roof tiles 0.1 – 0.35 
• White asphalt shingle 0.2

Concrete

• Aged concrete 0.2 – 0.3 
• New concrete (traditional) 0.4 – 0.55 
• Polished concrete 0.55 
• New concrete with white portland cement 0.7 – 0.8

Wood

• Batten (fresh wood) 0.35 – 0.42 
• Batten (old, weathered) 0.12 – 0.16 
• Varnished wood 0.13

Tiles, bricks, finishings, etc

• Terracotta tile 0.28 
• Brick 0.2 – 0.4
• Sandstone 0.18 
• Plaster 0.4 – 0.45 
• Magnesium oxide 0.96 
• White gypsum 0.85 
• Alabaster 0.92 
• Granite gray 0.35 – 0.40

Paint

• Black acrylic paint 0.05 
• White acrylic paint 0.8 
• Colored paint 0.15 – 0.35

Misc

• Forged Iron 0.04
• Natural silk fabric 0.35 – 0.55 
• Skin 0.25 – 0.35 
• White paper sheet 0.6 – 0.7

Metallic values

sRGB values are for reference, may vary a little bit.

Metals have black diffuse albedo value and colored specular albedo. In metalness-roughness workflow, for metals (pixels set to white in the metalness map) the specular color and intensity is taken from the albedo map. Metals albedo values are between 0.5 and 0.98. Lower values are for matte, higher are for polished metal.

Iron  = c4c7c7 (198, 198, 200)

Brass = d6b97b (214, 185, 123)

Copper = fad0c0 (250, 208, 192)

Gold = ffe29b (255, 226, 155)

Aluminum = f5f6f6 (245, 246, 246)

Chrome = c4c5c5 (196, 197, 197)

Silver = fcfaf5 (252, 250, 245)

Cobalt = d3d2cf (211, 210, 207)

Titanium = c1bab1 (195, 186, 177)

Platinum = d5d0c8 (213, 208, 200)

Nickel = d3cbbe (211, 203, 190)

Zinc = d5eaed (213, 234, 237)

Mercury = e5e4e4 (229, 228, 228)

Palladium = ded9d3 (222, 217, 211)