Gloss Map (Vehicle)

A gloss map, also referred to as a specular map, is a texture used for simulating highlight and sheen on a vehicle's surfaces. SimCity 2013 uses this map to decide where highlights and lowlights will be added. Gloss maps have varying shades of green and purple which indicate how shiny parts of the texture are. In Ultra lighting mode (changed in Settings), gloss map will also add simulated sky reflection to a vehicles surfaces in addition to gloss and highlights.

Components of a Gloss Map
A gloss map has two distinct parts:
 * Specular strength (R & B)
 * Specular gloss (G)

These two components are used to add an extra level of detail to a 3D vehicle model. This map is similar to a color map in that it requires a UV mapped object to be applied to.

Specular Strength (R & B Channels)
Specular strength is defined by the saturation and lightness of a specific area. The HSB hue remains at a value of 300 while the saturation and lightness change and determine how bright a surface highlight is.

The brightest sections of a gloss area use the following color value:





The darkest sections of a gloss area use solid black:





Specular Gloss (Green Channel)
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