Are there diferences in the physically based shader implementation in Unreal Engine 4, Unity 5, and three.js

Question

Are there differences between the physically based shader implementations in Unreal Engine 4, Unity 5, and Three.js implementation?

If yes, what are they and how do they differ in terms of visual appearence?

Answer 1

Since you or someone else here is asking this question again, I will try to give it an answer.

With PBR there is not just this one Shader to implement and everything looks awesome:

PBR is more of a concept than a strict set of rules, and as such, the exact implementations of PBR systems tend to vary.

I recommend reading some articles about PBR , for example:

• http://www.marmoset.co/toolbag/learn/pbr-theory
• http://www.marmoset.co/toolbag/learn/pbr-practice

Three.js is slowly advancing in terms of Materials, Lighting, Reflections and some more techniques to create realistic looking scenes. If you are interessted how things are going you can follow or contribute to the various Issues and Pull-requests on Github regarding the new MeshStandardMaterial / MeshPhysicalMaterial :

• https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/issues/5847
• https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/issues/7397
• https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/pull/7381

tldr ; yes, dont try to compare a mature Game-Engine versus a webGL Library in terms of rendering Quality.