# 3.7.3 Material Properties

There are three elements that determine the materials of an object. These are ambient light, diffusion light, and reflected light.

## Ambient Light

As mentioned earlier, ambient light is the color of the shadow of an object.

## Diffuse Light

Unlike the diffuse light previously mentioned, the color of diffuse light comes from the color of the substance itself. The diffuse light becomes brighter as the incident angle gets closer to a right angle.

## Specular Light

How a substance reflects light affects how shiny the object appears. A substance like chalk reflects light in all directions with equal intensity, so it appears dull. On the other hand, a substance like a mirror reflects light in only a certain direction, so it appears shiny. How shiny or dull a surface appears depends on how that substance reflects light. Shiny surfaces show a shiny spot (specular highlight) that is very bright compared to the surrounded parts because most of the reflected light comes off in a single predominant direction.

N64 cannot set these elements, but pseudo expression is possible.

## Example N64 Functions

Use the following N64 functions to set up lighting:

- gSPLight
- gSPLightColor
- gSPNumLights
- gSPDefLights

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Last Updated March, 1999