Rendering White in USDZ files

Question

Problem: USDZ files appear at about 80% white (light grey) even if perfect (0,0,0) is set on the texture files.

Troubleshooting: with/without AO files, tested our own USDZs and also created a simple project in Reality Converter with a primitive object at full white glossy paint.

Q: Is it possible to render bright whites in AR in ARKit Quicklook?

Answer 1

ARKit in QuickLook uses PBR (Physically-Based Rendering) to render your models. In real life, white objects never really look fully white because they only reflect the light they receive, so I'm not surprised you can't get a fully white object.

There is an exception to this, both in PBR and real life, and that is light sources.

PBR shaders have an "emissive" channel. Try setting that channel to white and it'll probably look a lot whither.

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Doing a bit of googling, I found this Sketchfab resource that suggests exactly this:

Quick Look does not have a Shadeless mode, so 3D scans and other models set to Shadeless may look darker than expected. A workaround could be to duplicate the base color texture in the emission channel.