MaterialX.PBRSpec.md

MaterialX Physically Based Shading Nodes

Version 1.39
Niklas Harrysson - Lumiere Software
Doug Smythe - Industrial Light & Magic
Jonathan Stone - Lucasfilm Advanced Development Group
December 22, 2025

Introduction

The MaterialX Specification describes a number of standard nodes that may be used to construct node graphs for the processing of images, procedurally-generated values, coordinates and other data. With the addition of user-defined custom nodes, it is possible to describe complete rendering shaders using node graphs. Up to this point, there has been no standardization of the specific shader-semantic nodes used in these node graph shaders, although with the widespread shift toward physically-based shading, it appears that the industry is settling upon a number of specific BSDF and other functions with standardized parameters and functionality.

This document describes a number of shader-semantic nodes implementing widely-used surface scattering, emission and volume distribution functions and utility nodes useful in constructing complex layered rendering shaders using node graphs. These nodes in combination with other nodes may be used with the MaterialX Shader Generation system.

Table of Contents

Physical Material Model
 Scope
 Physically Plausible Materials
 Quantities and Units
 Color Management
 Surfaces
  Layering
  Bump and Normal Mapping
  Surface Thickness
 Volumes
 Lights

MaterialX PBS Library
 Data Types
 BSDF Nodes
 EDF Nodes
 VDF Nodes
 PBR Shader Nodes
 Utility Nodes

Shading Model Examples
 Autodesk Standard Surface
 UsdPreviewSurface
 Khronos glTF PBR
 OpenPBR Surface

References

Physical Material Model

This section describes the material model used in the MaterialX Physically Based Shading (PBS) library and the rules we must follow to be physically plausible.

Scope

A material describes the properties of a surface or medium that involves how it reacts to light. To be efficient, a material model is split into different parts, where each part handles a specific type of light interaction: light being scattered at the surface, light being emitted from a surface, light being scattered inside a medium, etc. The goal of our material model definition is to describe light-material interactions typical for physically plausible rendering systems, including those in feature film production, real-time preview, and game engines.

Our model has support for surface materials, which includes scattering and emission of light from the surface of objects, and volume materials, which includes scattering and emission of light within a participating medium. For lighting, we support local lights and distant light from environments. Geometric modification is supported in the form of bump and normal mapping as well as displacement mapping.

Physically Plausible Materials

The initial requirements for a physically-plausible material are that it 1) should be energy conserving and 2) support reciprocity. The energy conserving says that the sum of reflected and transmitted light leaving a surface must be less than or equal to the amount of light reaching it. The reciprocity requirement says that if the direction of the traveling light is reversed, the response from the material remains unchanged. That is, the response is identical if the incoming and outgoing directions are swapped. All materials implemented for ShaderGen should respect these requirements and only in rare cases deviate from it when it makes sense for the purpose of artistic freedom.

Quantities and Units

Radiometric quantities are used by the material model for interactions with the renderer. The fundamental radiometric quantity is radiance (measured in Wm⁻²sr⁻¹) and gives the intensity of light arriving at, or leaving from, a given point in a given direction. If incident radiance is integrated over all directions we get irradiance (measured in Wm⁻²), and if we integrate this over surface area we get power (measured in W). Input parameters for materials and lights specified in photometric units can be suitably converted to their radiometric counterparts before being submitted to the renderer.

The interpretation of the data types returned by surface and volume shaders are unspecified, and left to the renderer and the shader generator for that renderer to decide. For an OpenGL-type renderer they will be tuples of floats containing radiance calculated directly by the shader node, but for an OSL-type renderer they may be closure primitives that are used by the renderer in the light transport simulation.

In general, a color given as input to the renderer is considered to represent a linear RGB color space. However, there is nothing stopping a renderer from interpreting the color type differently, for instance to hold spectral values. In that case, the shader generator for that renderer needs to handle this in the implementation of the nodes involving the color type.

Color Management

MaterialX supports the use of color management systems to associate colors with specific color spaces. A MaterialX document typically specifies the working color space that is to be used for the document as well as the color space in which input values and textures are given. If these color spaces are different from the working color space, it is the application's and shader generator's responsibility to transform them.

The ShaderGen module has an interface that can be used to integrate support for different color management systems. A simplified implementation with some popular and commonly used color transformations is supplied and enabled by default. An integration with the relevant portions of OpenColorIO (http://opencolorio.org) is planned for the future.

Surfaces

In our surface shading model the scattering and emission of light is controlled by distribution functions. Incident light can be reflected off, transmitted through, or absorbed by a surface. This is represented by a Bidirectional Scattering Distribution Function (BSDF). Light can also be emitted from a surface, for instance from a light source or glowing material. This is represented by an Emission Distribution Function (EDF). The PBS library introduces the data types BSDF and EDF to represent the distribution functions, and there are nodes for constructing, combining and manipulating them.

Another important property is the index of refraction (IOR), which describes how light is propagated through a medium. It controls how much a light ray is bent when crossing the interface between two media of different refractive indices. It also determines the amount of light that is reflected and transmitted when reaching the interface, as described by the Fresnel equations.

A surface shader is represented with the data type surfaceshader. In the PBS library there is a <surface> node that constructs a surface shader from a BSDF and an EDF. Since there are nodes to combine and modify them, you can easily build surface shaders from different combinations of distribution functions. Inputs on the distribution function nodes can be connected, and nodes from the standard library can be combined into complex calculations, giving flexibility for the artist to author material variations over the surfaces.

It is common for shading models to differentiate between closed surfaces and thin-walled surfaces. A closed surface represents a closed watertight interface with a solid interior. A typical example is a solid glass object. A thin-walled surface on the other hand has an infinitely thin volume, as with a sheet of paper or a soap bubble. For a closed surface there can be no backside visible if the material is opaque. In the case of a transparent closed surface a backside hit is treated as light exiting the closed interface. For a thin-walled surface both the front and back side are visible and it can either have the same material on both sides or different materials on each side. If the material is transparent in this case the thin wall makes the light transmit without refraction or scattering. By default the <surface> node constructs a surface shader for a closed surface, but there is a boolean switch to make it thin-walled.

In order to assign different shaders to each side of a thin-walled object the <surfacematerial> node in the standard library has an input to connect an extra backside surface shader. If any of the sides of a <surfacematerial> has a thin-walled shader connected, both sides are considered to be thin-walled. Hence the thin-walled property takes precedence to avoid ambiguity between the sides. If only one side has a shader connected this is used for both sides. If both sides are connected but none of the shaders are thin-walled the front shader is used. The thin-walled property also takes precedence in the case of mixing surface shaders. If any of the shaders involved in the mix is thin-walled, both shaders are considered to be thin-walled.

Note that in order to have surface shaders set for both sides the geometry has to be set as double-sided. Geometry sidedness is a property not handled by MaterialX and needs to be set elsewhere.

Layering

In order to simplify authoring of complex materials, our model supports the notion of layering. Typical examples include: adding a layer of clear coat over a car paint material, or putting a layer of dirt or rust over a metal surface. Layering can be done in a number of different ways:

• Horizontal Layering: A simple way of layering is using per-shading-point linear mixing of different BSDFs where a mix factor is given per BSDF controlling its contribution. Since the weight is calculated per shading point it can be used as a mask to hide contributions on different parts of a surface. The weight can also be calculated dependent on view angle to simulate approximate Fresnel behavior. This type of layering can be done both on a BSDF level and on a surface shader level. The latter is useful for mixing complete shaders which internally contain many BSDFs, e.g. to put dirt over a car paint, grease over a rusty metal or adding decals to a plastic surface. We refer to this type of layering as horizontal layering and the <mix> node in the PBS library can be used to achieve this (see below).
• Vertical Layering: A more physically correct form of layering is also supported where a top BSDF layer is placed over another base BSDF layer, and the light not reflected by the top layer is assumed to be transmitted to the base layer; for example, adding a dielectric coating layer over a substrate. The refraction index and roughness of the coating will then affect the attenuation of light reaching the substrate. The substrate can be a transmissive BSDF to transmit the light further, or a reflective BSDF to reflect the light back up through the coating. The substrate can in turn be a reflective BSDF to simulate multiple specular lobes. We refer to this type of layering as vertical layering and it can be achieved using the <layer> node in the PBS library. See <dielectric_bsdf> and <sheen_bsdf> below.
• Shader Input Blending: Calculating and blending many BSDFs or separate surface shaders can be expensive. In some situations good results can be achieved by blending the texture/value inputs instead, before any illumination calculations. Typically one would use this with an über-shader that can simulate many different materials, and by masking or blending its inputs over the surface you get the appearance of having multiple layers, but with less expensive texture or value blending. Examples of this are given in the main MaterialX Specification "Pre-Shader Compositing Example".

Bump and Normal Mapping

The surface normal used for shading calculations is supplied as input to each BSDF that requires it. The normal can be perturbed by bump or normal mapping, before it is given to the BSDF. As a result, one can supply different normals for different BSDFs for the same shading point. When layering BSDFs, each layer can use different bump and normal maps.

Volumes

In our volume shader model the scattering of light in a participating medium is controlled by a volume distribution function (VDF), with coefficients controlling the rate of absorption and scattering. The VDF represents what physicists call a _phase function, _describing how the light is distributed from its current direction when it is scattered in the medium. This is analogous to how a BSDF describes scattering at a surface, but with one important difference: a VDF is normalized, summing to 1.0 if all directions are considered. Additionally, the amount of absorption and scattering is controlled by coefficients that gives the rate (probability) per distance traveled in world space. The absorption coefficient sets the rate of absorption for light traveling through the medium, and the scattering coefficient sets the rate of which the light is scattered from its current direction. The unit for these are m⁻¹.

Light can also be emitted from a volume. This is represented by an EDF analog to emission from surfaces, but in this context the emission is given as radiance per distance traveled through the medium. The unit for this is Wm⁻³sr⁻¹. The emission distribution is oriented along the current direction.

The <volume> node in the PBS library constructs a volume shader from individual VDF and EDF components. There are also nodes to construct various VDFs, as well as nodes to combine them to build more complex ones.

VDFs can also be used to describe the interior of a surface. A typical example would be to model how light is absorbed or scattered when transmitted through colored glass or turbid water. This is done by layering a BSDF for the surface transmission over the VDF using a <layer> node.

Lights

Light sources can be divided into environment lights and local lights. Environment lights represent contributions coming from infinitely far away. All other lights are local lights and have a position and extent in space.

Local lights are specified as light shaders assigned to a locator, modeling an explicit light source, or in the form of emissive geometry using an emissive surface shader. The <light> node in the PBS library constructs a light shader from an EDF. There are also nodes to construct various EDFs as well as nodes to combine them to build more complex ones. Emissive properties of surface shaders are also modelled using EDFs; see the EDF Nodes section below for more information.

Light contributions coming from far away are handled by environment lights. These are typically photographically-captured or procedurally-generated images that surround the whole scene. This category of lights also includes sources like the sun, where the long distance traveled makes the light essentially directional and without falloff. For all shading points, an environment is seen as being infinitely far away.

MaterialX PBS Library

MaterialX includes a library of types and nodes for creating physically plausible materials and lights as described above. This section outlines the content of that library.

Data Types

• BSDF: Data type representing a Bidirectional Scattering Distribution Function.
• EDF: Data type representing an Emission Distribution Function.
• VDF: Data type representing a Volume Distribution Function.

The PBS nodes also make use of the following standard MaterialX types:

• surfaceshader: Data type representing a surface shader.
• lightshader: Data type representing a light shader.
• volumeshader: Data type representing a volume shader.
• displacementshader: Data type representing a displacement shader.

BSDF Nodes

oren_nayar_diffuse_bsdf

Constructs a diffuse reflection BSDF based on the Oren-Nayar reflectance model.

A roughness of 0.0 gives Lambertian reflectance.

An energy_compensation boolean selects between the Qualitative Oren-Nayar¹ and Energy-Preserving Oren-Nayar² models of diffuse reflectance.

Port	Description	Type	Default	Accepted Values
weight	Weight of the BSDF contribution	float	1.0	[0, 1]
color	Diffuse reflectivity or albedo	color3	0.18, 0.18, 0.18
roughness	Surface roughness	float	0.0	[0, 1]
normal	Normal vector of the surface	vector3	Nworld
energy_compensation	Enable energy compensation for the BSDF	boolean	false
out	Output: the computed BSDF	BSDF

burley_diffuse_bsdf

Constructs a diffuse reflection BSDF based on the corresponding component of the Disney Principled model³.

Port	Description	Type	Default	Accepted Values
weight	Weight of the BSDF contribution	float	1.0	[0, 1]
color	Diffuse reflectivity or albedo	color3	0.18, 0.18, 0.18
roughness	Surface roughness	float	0.0	[0, 1]
normal	Normal vector of the surface	vector3	Nworld
out	Output: the computed BSDF	BSDF

dielectric_bsdf

Constructs a reflection and/or transmission BSDF based on a microfacet reflectance model and a Fresnel curve for dielectrics⁴. If reflection scattering is enabled the node may be layered vertically over a base BSDF for the surface beneath the dielectric layer. By chaining multiple <dielectric_bsdf> nodes you can describe a surface with multiple specular lobes. If transmission scattering is enabled the node may be layered over a VDF describing the surface interior to handle absorption and scattering inside the medium, useful for colored glass, turbid water, etc.

Implementations are expected to preserve energy as the roughness of the surface increases, with multiple scattering compensation⁵ being a popular implementation strategy.

The tint input colors the reflected and transmitted light but should be left at white (1,1,1) for physically correct results. Setting the ior input to zero disables the Fresnel curve, allowing reflectivity to be controlled purely by weight and tint.

The scatter_mode controls whether the surface reflects light (R), transmits light (T), or both (RT). In RT mode, reflection and transmission occur both when entering and leaving a surface, with their respective intensities controlled by the Fresnel curve. Depending on the IOR and incident angle, total internal reflection may occur even when transmission modes are selected.

Thin-film iridescence effects⁶ may be enabled by setting thinfilm_thickness to a non-zero value.

Port	Description	Type	Default	Accepted Values
weight	Weight of the BSDF contribution	float	1.0	[0, 1]
tint	Color weight to tint the reflected and transmitted light	color3	1.0, 1.0, 1.0
ior	Index of refraction of the surface	float	1.5
roughness	Surface roughness along the tangent and bitangent	vector2	0.05, 0.05	[0, 1]
thinfilm_thickness	Thickness of the iridescent thin-film layer in nanometers	float	0.0
thinfilm_ior	Index of refraction of the thin-film layer	float	1.5
normal	Normal vector of the surface	vector3	Nworld
tangent	Tangent vector of the surface	vector3	Tworld
distribution	Microfacet distribution type	string	ggx	ggx
scatter_mode	Surface Scatter mode, specifying reflection and/or transmission	string	R	R, T, RT
out	Output: the computed BSDF	BSDF

conductor_bsdf

Constructs a reflection BSDF based on a microfacet reflectance model³. Uses a Fresnel curve with complex refraction index for conductors/metals. If an artistic parametrization⁷ is needed the <artistic_ior> utility node can be connected to handle this.

Implementations are expected to preserve energy as the roughness of the surface increases, with multiple scattering compensation⁵ being a popular implementation strategy.

The default values for ior and extinction represent approximate values for gold.

Thin-film iridescence effects⁶ may be enabled by setting thinfilm_thickness to a non-zero value.

Port	Description	Type	Default	Accepted Values
weight	Weight of the BSDF contribution	float	1.0	[0, 1]
ior	Index of refraction	color3	0.183, 0.421, 1.373
extinction	Extinction coefficient	color3	3.424, 2.346, 1.770
roughness	Surface roughness	vector2	0.05, 0.05	[0, 1]
thinfilm_thickness	Thickness of the iridescent thin-film layer in nanometers	float	0.0
thinfilm_ior	Index of refraction of the thin-film layer	float	1.5
normal	Normal vector of the surface	vector3	Nworld
tangent	Tangent vector of the surface	vector3	Tworld
distribution	Microfacet distribution type	string	ggx	ggx
out	Output: the computed BSDF	BSDF

generalized_schlick_bsdf

Constructs a reflection and/or transmission BSDF based on a microfacet model and a generalized Schlick Fresnel curve⁸. If reflection scattering is enabled the node may be layered vertically over a base BSDF for the surface beneath the dielectric layer. By chaining multiple <generalized_schlick_bsdf> nodes you can describe a surface with multiple specular lobes. If transmission scattering is enabled the node may be layered over a VDF describing the surface interior to handle absorption and scattering inside the medium, useful for colored glass, turbid water, etc.

Implementations are expected to preserve energy as the roughness of the surface increases, with multiple scattering compensation⁵ being a popular implementation strategy.

The color82 input provides a multiplier on reflectivity at 82 degrees, useful for capturing the characteristic "dip" in the reflectance curve of metallic surfaces. Setting it to (1,1,1) effectively disables this feature for backward compatibility.

The scatter_mode behavior matches that of dielectric_bsdf: in RT mode, reflection and transmission occur both when entering and leaving a surface, with intensities controlled by the Fresnel curve. Total internal reflection may occur depending on the incident angle.

Thin-film iridescence effects⁶ may be enabled by setting thinfilm_thickness to a non-zero value.

Port	Description	Type	Default	Accepted Values
weight	Weight of the BSDF contribution	float	1.0	[0, 1]
color0	Reflectivity per color component at facing angles	color3	1.0, 1.0, 1.0
color82	Reflectivity multiplier at 82 degrees	color3	1.0, 1.0, 1.0
color90	Reflectivity per color component at grazing angles	color3	1.0, 1.0, 1.0
exponent	Exponent for Schlick blending between color0 and color90	float	5.0
roughness	Surface roughness along the tangent and bitangent	vector2	0.05, 0.05	[0, 1]
thinfilm_thickness	Thickness of the iridescent thin-film layer in nanometers	float	0.0
thinfilm_ior	Index of refraction of the thin-film layer	float	1.5
normal	Normal vector of the surface	vector3	Nworld
tangent	Tangent vector of the surface	vector3	Tworld
distribution	Microfacet distribution type	string	ggx	ggx
scatter_mode	Surface Scatter mode, specifying reflection and/or transmission	string	R	R, T, RT
out	Output: the computed BSDF	BSDF

translucent_bsdf

Constructs a translucent (diffuse transmission) BSDF based on the Lambert reflectance model.

Port	Description	Type	Default	Accepted Values
weight	Weight of the BSDF contribution	float	1.0	[0, 1]
color	Diffuse transmittance	color3	1.0, 1.0, 1.0
normal	Normal vector of the surface	vector3	Nworld
out	Output: the computed BSDF	BSDF

subsurface_bsdf

Constructs a subsurface scattering BSDF for subsurface scattering within a homogeneous medium. The parameterization is chosen to match random walk Monte Carlo methods as well as approximate empirical methods⁹. Note that this category of subsurface scattering can be defined more rigorously as a BSDF vertically layered over an <anisotropic_vdf>, and we expect these two descriptions of the scattering-surface distribution function to be unified in future versions of MaterialX.

The radius input sets the average distance (mean free path) that light propagates below the surface before scattering back out, and can be set independently for each color channel.

The anisotropy input controls the scattering direction: negative values produce backwards scattering, positive values produce forward scattering, and zero produces uniform scattering.

Port	Description	Type	Default	Accepted Values
weight	Weight of the BSDF contribution	float	1.0	[0, 1]
color	Diffuse reflectivity (albedo)	color3	0.18, 0.18, 0.18
radius	Mean free path per color channel	color3	1.0, 1.0, 1.0
anisotropy	Anisotropy factor for scattering direction	float	0.0	[-1, 1]
normal	Normal vector of the surface	vector3	Nworld
out	Output: the computed BSDF	BSDF

sheen_bsdf

Constructs a microfacet BSDF for the back-scattering properties of cloth-like materials. This node may be layered vertically over a base BSDF using a <layer> node. All energy that is not reflected will be transmitted to the base layer. A mode option selects between two available sheen models, Conty-Kulla¹⁰ and Zeltner¹¹.

Port	Description	Type	Default	Accepted Values
weight	Weight of the BSDF contribution	float	1.0	[0, 1]
color	Sheen reflectivity	color3	1.0, 1.0, 1.0
roughness	Surface roughness	float	0.3
normal	Normal vector of the surface	vector3	Nworld
mode	Selects between conty_kulla and zeltner sheen models	string	conty_kulla	conty_kulla, zeltner
out	Output: the computed BSDF	BSDF

chiang_hair_bsdf

Constructs a hair BSDF based on the Chiang hair shading model¹². This node does not support vertical layering.

The roughness inputs control longitudinal (ν) and azimuthal (s) roughness for each lobe, with (0,0) specifying pure specular scattering. The default ior of 1.55 represents the index of refraction for keratin. The cuticle_angle is in radians, with 0.5 representing no tilt, and values above 0.5 tilting the scales toward the root of the fiber.

Port	Description	Type	Default	Accepted Values
tint_R	Color multiplier for the first R-lobe	color3	1.0, 1.0, 1.0
tint_TT	Color multiplier for the first TT-lobe	color3	1.0, 1.0, 1.0
tint_TRT	Color multiplier for the first TRT-lobe	color3	1.0, 1.0, 1.0
ior	Index of refraction	float	1.55
roughness_R	Longitudinal and azimuthal roughness for R-lobe	vector2	0.1, 0.1	[0, ∞)
roughness_TT	Longitudinal and azimuthal roughness for TT-lobe	vector2	0.05, 0.05	[0, ∞)
roughness_TRT	Longitudinal and azimuthal roughness for TRT-lobe	vector2	0.2, 0.2	[0, ∞)
cuticle_angle	Cuticle angle in radians	float	0.5	[0, 1]
absorption_coefficient	Absorption coefficient normalized to hair fiber diameter	vector3	0.0, 0.0, 0.0
normal	Normal vector of the surface	vector3	Nworld
curve_direction	Direction of the hair geometry	vector3	Tworld
out	Output: the computed BSDF	BSDF

EDF Nodes

uniform_edf

Constructs an EDF emitting light uniformly in all directions.

Port	Description	Type	Default
color	Radiant emittance of light leaving the surface	color3	1.0, 1.0, 1.0
out	Output: the computed EDF	EDF

conical_edf

Constructs an EDF emitting light inside a cone around the normal direction.

Light intensity begins to fall off at the inner_angle and reaches zero at the outer_angle (both specified in degrees). If the outer_angle is smaller than the inner_angle, no falloff occurs within the cone.

Port	Description	Type	Default
color	Radiant emittance of light leaving the surface	color3	1.0, 1.0, 1.0
normal	Normal vector of the surface	vector3	Nworld
inner_angle	Angle of inner cone where intensity falloff starts	float	60.0
outer_angle	Angle of outer cone where intensity goes to zero	float	0.0
out	Output: the computed EDF	EDF

measured_edf

Constructs an EDF emitting light according to a measured IES light profile.

Port	Description	Type	Default
color	Radiant emittance of light leaving the surface	color3	1.0, 1.0, 1.0
normal	Normal vector of the surface	vector3	Nworld
file	Path to a file containing IES light profile data	filename	empty
out	Output: the computed EDF	EDF

generalized_schlick_edf

Adds a directionally varying factor to an EDF. Scales the emission distribution of the base EDF according to a generalized Schlick Fresnel curve.

Port	Description	Type	Default
color0	Scale factor for emittance at facing angles	color3	1.0, 1.0, 1.0
color90	Scale factor for emittance at grazing angles	color3	1.0, 1.0, 1.0
exponent	Exponent for the Schlick blending between color0 and color90	float	5.0
base	The base EDF to be modified	EDF	zero
out	Output: the computed EDF	EDF

VDF Nodes

absorption_vdf

Constructs a VDF for pure light absorption.

The absorption input represents the absorption rate per distance traveled in the medium, stated in m⁻¹, with independent control for each wavelength.

Port	Description	Type	Default
absorption	Absorption rate for the medium	vector3	0.0, 0.0, 0.0
out	Output: the computed VDF	VDF

anisotropic_vdf

Constructs a VDF scattering light for a participating medium, based on the Henyey-Greenstein phase function¹³. Forward, backward and uniform scattering is supported and controlled by the anisotropy input.

The absorption input represents the absorption rate per distance traveled in the medium, stated in m⁻¹, with independent control for each wavelength.

The anisotropy input controls the scattering direction: negative values produce backwards scattering, positive values produce forward scattering, and 0.0 produces uniform scattering. Both absorption and scattering rates are specified per wavelength.

Port	Description	Type	Default	Accepted Values
absorption	Absorption rate for the medium	vector3	0.0, 0.0, 0.0
scattering	Scattering rate for the medium	vector3	0.0, 0.0, 0.0
anisotropy	Anisotropy factor for scattering direction	float	0.0	[-1, 1]
out	Output: the computed VDF	VDF

PBR Shader Nodes

surface

Constructs a surface shader describing light scattering and emission for surfaces. By default the node will construct a shader for a closed surface, representing an interface to a solid volume. In this mode refraction and scattering is enabled for any transmissive BSDFs connected to this surface. By setting thin_walled to "true" the node will instead construct a thin-walled surface, representing a surface with an infinitely thin volume. In thin-walled mode refraction and scattering will be disabled. Thin-walled mode must be enabled to construct a double-sided material with different surface shaders on the front and back side of geometry (using <surfacematerial> in the standard library).

If the edf input is left unconnected, no emission will occur from the surface.

Port	Description	Type	Default
bsdf	Bidirectional scattering distribution function	BSDF	zero
edf	Emission distribution function for the surface	EDF	zero
opacity	Cutout opacity for the surface	float	1.0
thin_walled	Set to true to make the surface thin-walled	boolean	false
out	Output: the computed surface shader	surfaceshader

volume

Constructs a volume shader describing a participating medium.

If the edf input is left unconnected, no emission will occur from the medium.

Port	Description	Type	Default
vdf	Volume distribution function for the medium	VDF	zero
edf	Emission distribution function for the medium	EDF	zero
out	Output: the computed volume shader	volumeshader

light

Constructs a light shader describing an explicit light source. The light shader will emit light according to the connected EDF. If the shader is attached to geometry both sides will be considered for light emission and the EDF controls if light is emitted from both sides or not.

Port	Description	Type	Default
edf	Emission distribution function for the light source	EDF	zero
intensity	Intensity multiplier for the EDF's emittance	float	1.0
exposure	Exposure control for the EDF's emittance	float	0.0
out	Output: the computed light shader	lightshader

Note that the standard library includes definitions for displacement and surface_unlit shader nodes.

Utility Nodes

mix

Mix two same-type distribution functions according to a weight. Performs horizontal layering by linear interpolation between the two inputs, using the function "bg∗(1−mix) + fg∗mix".

Port	Description	Type	Default	Accepted Values
bg	The first distribution function	BSDF, EDF, or VDF	zero
fg	The second distribution function	Same as bg	zero
mix	The mixing weight	float	0.0	[0, 1]
out	Output: the mixed distribution function	Same as bg

layer

Vertically layer a layerable BSDF such as <dielectric_bsdf>, <generalized_schlick_bsdf> or <sheen_bsdf> over a BSDF or VDF. The implementation is target specific, but a standard way of handling this is by albedo scaling, using the function "base*(1-reflectance(top)) + top", where the reflectance function calculates the directional albedo of a given BSDF.

Port	Description	Type	Default
top	The top BSDF	BSDF	zero
base	The base BSDF or VDF	BSDF or VDF	zero
out	Output: the layered distribution	BSDF

add

Additively blend two distribution functions of the same type.

Port	Description	Type	Default
in1	The first distribution function	BSDF, EDF, or VDF	zero
in2	The second distribution function	Same as in1	zero
out	Output: the added distribution functions	Same as in1

multiply

Multiply the contribution of a distribution function by a scaling weight. The weight is either a float to attenuate the channels uniformly, or a color which can attenuate the channels separately. To be energy conserving the scaling weight should be no more than 1.0 in any channel.

Port	Description	Type	Default
in1	The distribution function to scale	BSDF, EDF, or VDF	zero
in2	The scaling weight	float or color3	1.0
out	Output: the scaled distribution function	Same as in1

roughness_anisotropy

Calculates anisotropic surface roughness from a scalar roughness and anisotropy parameterization. An anisotropy value above 0.0 stretches the roughness in the direction of the surface's "tangent" vector. An anisotropy value of 0.0 gives isotropic roughness. The roughness value is squared to achieve a more linear roughness look over the input range [0,1].

Port	Description	Type	Default	Accepted Values
roughness	Roughness value	float	0.0	[0, 1]
anisotropy	Amount of anisotropy	float	0.0	[0, 1]
out	Output: the computed roughness	vector2	0.0, 0.0

roughness_dual

Calculates anisotropic surface roughness from a dual surface roughness parameterization. The roughness is squared to achieve a more linear roughness look over the input range [0,1].

Port	Description	Type	Default	Accepted Values
roughness	Roughness in x and y directions	vector2	0.0, 0.0	[0, 1]
out	Output: the computed roughness	vector2	0.0, 0.0

glossiness_anisotropy

Calculates anisotropic surface roughness from a scalar glossiness and anisotropy parameterization. This node gives the same result as roughness anisotropy except that the glossiness value is an inverted roughness value. To be used as a convenience for shading models using the glossiness parameterization.

Port	Description	Type	Default	Accepted Values
glossiness	Glossiness value	float	0.0	[0, 1]
anisotropy	Amount of anisotropy	float	0.0	[0, 1]
out	Output: the computed roughness	vector2

blackbody

Returns the radiant emittance of a blackbody radiator with the given temperature.

Port	Description	Type	Default
temperature	Temperature in Kelvin	float	5000.0
out	Output: the radiant emittance	color3

artistic_ior

Converts the artistic parameterization reflectivity and edge_color to complex IOR values. To be used with the <conductor_bsdf> node.

Port	Description	Type	Default
reflectivity	Reflectivity per color component at facing angles	color3	0.947, 0.776, 0.371
edge_color	Reflectivity per color component at grazing angles	color3	1.0, 0.982, 0.753
ior	Output: Computed index of refraction	color3
extinction	Output: Computed extinction coefficient	color3

chiang_hair_roughness

Converts the artistic parameterization hair roughness to roughness for R, TT and TRT lobes, as described in ¹².

Port	Description	Type	Default	Accepted Values
longitudinal	Longitudinal roughness	float	0.1	[0, 1]
azimuthal	Azimuthal roughness	float	0.2	[0, 1]
scale_TT	Roughness scale for TT lobe14	float	0.5
scale_TRT	Roughness scale for TRT lobe14	float	2.0
roughness_R	Output: Roughness for R lobe	vector2
roughness_TT	Output: Roughness for TT lobe	vector2
roughness_TRT	Output: Roughness for TRT lobe	vector2

deon_hair_absorption_from_melanin

Converts the hair melanin parameterization to absorption coefficient based on pigments eumelanin and pheomelanin using the mapping method described in ¹⁵. The default of eumelanin_color and pheomelanin_color are lin_rec709 color converted from the constants¹⁵ via exp(-c). They may be transformed to scene-linear rendering color space.

Port	Description	Type	Default	Accepted Values
melanin_concentration	Amount of melanin affected to the output	float	0.25	[0, 1]
melanin_redness	Amount of redness affected to the output	float	0.5	[0, 1]
eumelanin_color	Eumelanin color	color3	0.657704, 0.498077, 0.254107
pheomelanin_color	Pheomelanin color	color3	0.829444, 0.67032, 0.349938
absorption	Output: the computed absorption coefficient	vector3

chiang_hair_absorption_from_color

Converts the hair scattering color to absorption coefficient using the mapping method described in ¹².

Port	Description	Type	Default	Accepted Values
color	Scattering color	color3	1.0, 1.0, 1.0
azimuthal_roughness	Azimuthal roughness	float	0.2	[0, 1]
absorption	Output: the computed absorption coefficient	vector3

Shading Model Examples

This section contains examples of shading model implementations using the MaterialX PBS library. For all examples, the shading model is defined via a <nodedef> interface plus a nodegraph implementation. The resulting nodes can be used as shaders by a MaterialX material definition.

Disney Principled BSDF

This shading model was presented by Brent Burley from Walt Disney Animation Studios in 2012³, with additional refinements presented in 2015¹⁶.

A MaterialX definition and nodegraph implementation of the Disney Principled BSDF can be found here:
https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/MaterialX/blob/main/libraries/bxdf/disney_principled.mtlx

Autodesk Standard Surface

This is a surface shading model used in Autodesk products created by the Solid Angle team for the Arnold renderer. It is an über shader built from ten different BSDF layers¹⁷.

A MaterialX definition and nodegraph implementation of Autodesk Standard Surface can be found here:
https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/MaterialX/blob/main/libraries/bxdf/standard_surface.mtlx

UsdPreviewSurface

This is a shading model proposed by Pixar for USD¹⁸. It is meant to model a physically based surface that strikes a balance between expressiveness and reliable interchange between current day DCC’s and game engines and other real-time rendering clients.

A MaterialX definition and nodegraph implementation of UsdPreviewSurface can be found here:
https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/MaterialX/blob/main/libraries/bxdf/usd_preview_surface.mtlx

Khronos glTF PBR

This is a shading model using the PBR material extensions in Khronos glTF specification.

A MaterialX definition and nodegraph implementation of glTF PBR can be found here:
https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/MaterialX/blob/main/libraries/bxdf/gltf_pbr.mtlx

OpenPBR Surface

This is an open surface shading model that was designed as a collaboration between Adobe, Autodesk, and other companies in the industry, and is currently maintained as a subproject of MaterialX within the Academy Software Foundation¹⁹.

A MaterialX definition and nodegraph implementation of OpenPBR Surface can be found here:
https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/MaterialX/blob/main/libraries/bxdf/open_pbr_surface.mtlx

Shading Translation Graphs

The MaterialX PBS Library includes a number of nodegraphs that can be used to approximately translate the input parameters for one shading model into values to drive the inputs of a different shading model, to produce the same visual results to the degree the differences between the shading models allow. Currently, the library includes translation graphs for:

• Autodesk Standard Surface to UsdPreviewSurface
• Autodesk Standard Surface to glTF

References

Footnotes

1. Michael Oren, Shree K. Nayar, Generalization of Lambert’s Reflectance Model, https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/192161.192213, 1994 ↩

2. Portsmouth et al., EON: A practical energy-preserving rough diffuse BRDF, https://www.jcgt.org/published/0014/01/06/, 2025. ↩

3. Brent Burley, Physically-Based Shading at Disney, https://media.disneyanimation.com/uploads/production/publication_asset/48/asset/s2012_pbs_disney_brdf_notes_v3.pdf, 2012 ↩ ↩² ↩³

4. Bruce Walter et al., Microfacet Models for Refraction through Rough Surfaces, https://www.graphics.cornell.edu/~bjw/microfacetbsdf.pdf, 2007 ↩

5. Emmanuel Turquin, Practical multiple scattering compensation for microfacet models, https://blog.selfshadow.com/publications/turquin/ms_comp_final.pdf, 2019. ↩ ↩² ↩³

6. Laurent Belcour, Pascal Barla, A Practical Extension to Microfacet Theory for the Modeling of Varying Iridescence, https://belcour.github.io/blog/research/publication/2017/05/01/brdf-thin-film.html, 2017 ↩ ↩² ↩³

7. Ole Gulbrandsen, Artist Friendly Metallic Fresnel, http://jcgt.org/published/0003/04/03/paper.pdf, 2014 ↩

8. Naty Hoffman, Generalization of Adobe's Fresnel Model, https://renderwonk.com/publications/wp-generalization-adobe/gen-adobe.pdf 2023 ↩

9. Per H. Christensen, Brent Burley, Approximate Reflectance Profiles for Efficient Subsurface Scattering, http://graphics.pixar.com/library/ApproxBSSRDF/ 2015 ↩

10. Alejandro Conty, Christopher Kulla, Production Friendly Microfacet Sheen BRDF, https://fpsunflower.github.io/ckulla/data/s2017_pbs_imageworks_sheen.pdf, 2017 ↩

11. Tizian Zeltner et al., Practical Multiple-Scattering Sheen Using Linearly Transformed Cosines, https://tizianzeltner.com/projects/Zeltner2022Practical/, 2022 ↩

12. Matt Jen-Yuan Chiang et al., A Practical and Controllable Hair and Fur Model for Production Path Tracing, https://media.disneyanimation.com/uploads/production/publication_asset/152/asset/eurographics2016Fur_Smaller.pdf, 2016 ↩ ↩² ↩³

13. Matt Pharr et al., Physically Based Rendering: From Theory To Implementation, https://www.pbr-book.org/, 2023 ↩

14. Stephen R. Marschner et al., Light Scattering from Human Hair Fibers, http://www.graphics.stanford.edu/papers/hair/hair-sg03final.pdf, 2003 ↩ ↩²

15. Eugene d'Eon et al., An Energy-Conserving Hair Reflectance Model, https://eugenedeon.com/pdfs/egsrhair.pdf, 2011 ↩ ↩²

16. Brent Burley, Extending the Disney BRDF to a BSDF with Integrated Subsurface Scattering, https://blog.selfshadow.com/publications/s2015-shading-course/burley/s2015_pbs_disney_bsdf_notes.pdf, 2015 ↩

17. Iliyan Georgiev et al., Autodesk Standard Surface, https://autodesk.github.io/standard-surface/, 2019. ↩

18. Pixar Animation Studios, UsdPreviewSurface Specification, https://openusd.org/release/spec_usdpreviewsurface.html, 2019. ↩

19. Andersson et al., OpenPBR Surface Specification, https://academysoftwarefoundation.github.io/OpenPBR/, 2024. ↩