Understanding PBR fundamentals

In this section, we will learn how Unreal Engine interprets materials and what PBR means. Every rendering software adopts specific rendering rules to achieve the most accurate final frame. These software use Materials to show how objects look when they are hit by a light.

What does PBR mean?

First, we need to understand what a material is. A material is an asset applied to a mesh to control its final visual look. In simple terms, it is like a “paint” with several properties, such as color or reflectivity. When the rendering process starts, materials define how light interacts with the surface it is applied to.

Unreal Engine 5 is a real-time rendering software based on PBR.

PBR (Physically based rendering) “means that surfaces approximate the way light behaves in the real world, as opposed to the way we intuitively think it should. Materials that adhere to PBR principles are more accurate and typically more natural looking...