Rendering reflective materials within the Reach profile

Given my relatively poor skill set in driving games, one of my more significant joys in such games is being able to stroll around a virtual car and delight in how the light plays off the smooth curves and elegant paintwork of it all.

Given the inclusion of dedicated viewing modes within games, such as Forza Motorsport and Grand Turismo, I can only assume that I'm not alone in such pursuits.

So how do we achieve similar visual appeal in our own games?

Well, in the case of cars, it's amazing what difference a shiny bit of paintwork can do, and in the case of virtual cars, that means knowing how to achieve reflective surfaces.

Getting ready

This example relies upon the GeometricBuffer and sphere creation classes covered in Chapter 3, Procedural Modeling, for mesh creation, although, any other mesh or form of mesh creation should work equally well.

It also relies upon the inclusion of a texture with the asset name of "Metallic". I would suggest...