Basic PBR setup

[Josh]

In Leadwerks there was one skybox to set. In Ultra there are up to three different environment maps you can use, but most of the time you will just use two textures in three places.

This tool can be used to turn an HDR file into a specular and diffuse environment map. I plan to provide a large collection of free skyboxes from free sources ready-to-use once I have this finalized. You can load the outputted KTX2 textures with the appropriate plugin, or you can convert them to DDS and load them without any plugin. I am including one ready-to-use environment map in the default template. BC6H is the best compression format for these images.

Set the world environment maps with the command below. ENVIRONMENTMAP_BACKGROUND is the skybox. SPECULAR is the specular reflections that appear on objects. DIFFUSE is the diffuse PBR lighting.

#include "UltraEngine.h"

using namespace UltraEngine;

int main(int argc, const char* argv[])
{
    //Get the displays
    auto displays = GetDisplays();

    //Create a window
    auto window = CreateWindow("Ultra Engine", 0, 0, 1280, 720, displays[0], WINDOW_CENTER | WINDOW_TITLEBAR);

    //Create a world
    auto world = CreateWorld();

    //Create a framebuffer
    auto framebuffer = CreateFramebuffer(window);

    //Create a camera
    auto camera = CreateCamera(world);
    camera->SetClearColor(0.125);
    camera->SetPosition(0, 0, -2);

    auto specmap = LoadTexture("Materials/Environment/Storm/specular.dds");
    auto diffmap = LoadTexture("Materials/Environment/Storm/diffuse.dds");

    world->SetEnvironmentMap(specmap, ENVIRONMENTMAP_BACKGROUND);
    world->SetEnvironmentMap(specmap, ENVIRONMENTMAP_SPECULAR);
    world->SetEnvironmentMap(diffmap, ENVIRONMENTMAP_DIFFUSE);

    auto mtl = CreateMaterial();
    mtl->SetRoughness(0.25);
    mtl->SetMetalness(0.5);

    auto ball = CreateSphere(world);
    ball->SetMaterial(mtl);

    //Main loop
    while (window->Closed() == false and window->KeyDown(KEY_ESCAPE) == false)
    {
        camera->UpdateControls(window);
        world->Update();
        world->Render(framebuffer);
    }
    return 0;
}

Note there are no lighting created, the material is just reflecting the sky, which is quite bright:

It looks good, but would seem very unnatural if the sphere was inside a building. Voxel ray tracing solves that problem by inserting geometry into the reflection before the skybox is sampled.

[Josh]

If you don't have the specular and diffuse maps set, your PBR models will appear unnaturally dark, metals especially.