PBR Materials & the Spot On Glow Fader Script

PBR Materials & the Spot On Glow Fader

1. The glow fader still works in PBR Viewers, just like it always did.
2. ​The glow fader is NOT compatible with PBR Materials at this time.  This means, if you try to use it on an object with PBR Materials, it will not hide or fade with the glow fader.  (This is likely to fail with most show/hide scripts in SL, as they all work in pretty much the same way).
3. ​New solutions for PBR Materials will likely come in the future, and will be integrated into future versions of the product.

What are PBR Materials?
“Physically Based Rendering” is a new type of texture added to Second Life.   It allows for advanced reflections and rendering effects.  Linden Lab can explain it far better than I can:  https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/PBR_Materials

OK, So What if I Just Don't Use PBR Materials?
If you stick to legacy (Blinn-Phong) materials, the glow fader will work exactly as it always has.  But, now that the PBR Genie has been let out of the bottle, more and more creators will be using PBR materials in their creations.   I think it will become difficult to avoid PBR in the future.  I fully expect Creators to embrace PBR, as it allows them to create richer and more detailed content.

How do I Know if an Object has a PBR Material Applied to It?
Edit the object and look at the "PBR" tab under the Texture Tab in Firestorm.  If it's Grey X's, you probably don't have PBR Materials on this object.

Then How Do I Fade/Show/Hide Objects with PBR Materials?
Due to some complicated (and somewhat shortsighted) design choices made by Linden Lab, this is going to be difficult for a while.  Existing show/hide/fade scripts are highly unlikely to work with PBR materials.  You don’t want to hear this, but there’s not a good “generic” solution right now.  

So What Happens Now?
I’m confident this issue will be addressed by Linden Lab at some point, as this is a real pain for content creators.  As new solutions emerge, I’ll be updating the Glow Fader to handle these things using best practices and new technology as it becomes available.

Martin Yeats
Spot On