Specularity

In computer graphics, it means the quantity used in three-dimensional (3D) rendering which represents the amount of reflectivity a surface has.

It is frequently used in real-time computer graphics and ray tracing, where the mirror-like specular reflection of light from other surfaces is often ignored (due to the more intensive computations required to calculate it), and the specular reflection of light directly from point light sources is modeled as specular highlights.

A materials system may allow specularity to vary across a surface, controlled by additional layers of texture maps.

CG Artists, confused by this term discovered by experimentation that the manipulation of this parameter would cause a reflected highlight from a light source to appear and disappear and therefore misinterpreted "specularity" to mean "light highlights".

(of reflected light) directed, as from a smooth, polished surface (opposed to diffuse ).