What is PBR (Physically Based Rendering)?
PBR (physically based rendering) is a rendering technique that simulates how light interacts with materials based on real-world physics, producing photoreal surfaces such as polished gold, brushed silver, glass, and gemstones.
The longer answer
PBR materials describe a surface by its physical properties — metalness, roughness, index of refraction, normal map, and base color — rather than by a hand-tuned color. Combined with image-based lighting (IBL) from an environment map and a tone-mapping pass like ACES Filmic, PBR produces renders that match what a camera would capture. PBR is now standard in film, games, and ecommerce 3D.
Why it matters
Jewelry is mostly reflective surface. A flat texture pasted on a video feed reads as fake in under a second because reflections, roughness, and depth are missing. PBR is the only practical way to get a metal that actually looks like metal on a small screen.
How it works
The renderer evaluates a microfacet model at each pixel using the surface metalness and roughness, samples an environment map for reflections (ideally derived from the shopper own surroundings), then applies tone mapping. Gemstones add refraction and dispersion. The output is a per-pixel solution that responds to the light around the piece, not a frozen texture.
Where this fits in WearRoom
WearRoom renders every piece in PBR with a curated material preset per metal type — yellow gold, white gold, rose gold, sterling silver, platinum. The environment map is rebuilt from the shopper camera feed several times a second so reflections track their real room. The AI 3D pipeline supplies geometry; we always own the material.
Questions
Is PBR overkill for ecommerce?
Not for jewelry. Apparel and furniture can ship without PBR. Jewelry without PBR looks like a sticker because the medium is reflection.
Why use an environment map from the camera feed?
Because static studio environment maps produce reflections that do not match the shopper room. A camera-derived environment grounds the piece in the actual scene around it.