1. I don't see how this relates to video game art.

2. Google comes up with a bunch of results when searching for "water dielectric."

If you're trying to get help with your physics or electrical engineering homework, Polycount is most likely the wrong place to look.

Um, I think shaders have ALOT to do with Dieletric materials Swizzle...inverted Specular colors and such...

As for the question, no idea. I mean in terms of math, yes, but if you're asking in a 'art' level, I'm not sure, I would say water is more of a "I reflect and transport the colors around me" rather then having a single straight up color.

/facepalm

I'm derpin'.

no worries, I was playing with my swamp water when the thought struck. Had just spent 15 min purging materials and other things trying to figure out why the sun was casting a big black splotch across the water. turns out the specular was set to black.

Originally Posted by Paradan

no worries, I was playing with my swamp water when the thought struck. Had just spent 15 min purging materials and other things trying to figure out why the sun was casting a big black splotch across the water. turns out the specular was set to black.

specular is additive, if its making a black dot its being integrated wrong or your specular is a negative value..

I think the general rule is that non conductive materials are dielectric. For our purposes I think you can mostly read that as dielectric = non-metalic.