# PBR and cell data for metallic & roughness

**URL:** https://discourse.vtk.org/t/pbr-and-cell-data-for-metallic-roughness/8867
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [July 5, 2022, 11:45am UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/pbr-and-cell-data-for-metallic-roughness/8867 "2022-07-05T11:45:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![andreasbuykx](https://discourse.vtk.org/user_avatar/discourse.vtk.org/andreasbuykx/32/8137_2.png) [@andreasbuykx](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/andreasbuykx)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2022, 11:45am UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/pbr-and-cell-data-for-metallic-roughness/8867/1 "2022-07-05T11:45:06Z")

</div>

With PBR, is it possible to use cell data to specify metallic and roughness properties, instead of in the vtkProperty of the actor? Our actors typically have a vtkCompositePolyDataMapper2 taking as input vtkMultiBlockDataSet with blocks of varying materials. If each material (or material class, e.g. concrete, masonry, soil, rock, … ) would require its own actor this would increase the number of actors considerably.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Thiago\_Neves](https://discourse.vtk.org/user_avatar/discourse.vtk.org/thiago_neves/32/4886_2.png) [@Thiago\_Neves](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/Thiago_Neves)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2022, 3:02pm UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/pbr-and-cell-data-for-metallic-roughness/8867/2 "2022-11-14T15:02:37Z")

</div>

Hi Andreas, did you find a solution? Im having the same issues here.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![andreasbuykx](https://discourse.vtk.org/user_avatar/discourse.vtk.org/andreasbuykx/32/8137_2.png) [@andreasbuykx](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/andreasbuykx)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2022, 9:01am UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/pbr-and-cell-data-for-metallic-roughness/8867/3 "2022-11-15T09:01:13Z")

</div>

No I haven’t. Maybe @Michael has some suggestions?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Timothee\_Chabat](https://discourse.vtk.org/user_avatar/discourse.vtk.org/timothee_chabat/32/3234_2.png) [@Timothee\_Chabat](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/Timothee_Chabat)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2022, 8:41am UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/pbr-and-cell-data-for-metallic-roughness/8867/4 "2022-11-28T08:41:47Z")

</div>

you can see answers [here](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/pbr-materials-in-a-multiblockdataset/9816) for what is supported and what is not.

> [@andreasbuykx](#):
>
> If each material (or material class, e.g. concrete, masonry, soil, rock, … ) would require its own actor this would increase the number of actors considerably.

I think that should still be fine performance wise, even though it is clearly not the cleanest way to tackle this issue.