threejs-materials

To choose the right Three.js material, match the type to your rendering goal: use Standard or Physical for PBR realism, Lambert or Phong for basic lighting, Toon for stylized shading, and Normal or Depth for debugging views.

Apply PBR textures and environment maps in Three.js by assigning color, normal, roughness, metalness, alpha, and emissive maps to the material's properties, ensuring correct lighting response and realistic physical-based rendering results.

You can use custom shaders when built-in Three.js materials are not enough by implementing ShaderMaterial or RawShaderMaterial workflows, allowing fully customized rendering logic and visual effects beyond standard PBR configurations.

Optimize Three.js material performance by reducing draw-call cost, managing transparency settings, and properly cloning or disposing materials at runtime, ensuring performance-sensitive scenes maintain high frame rates without visual artifacts.

Use a Standard material for general PBR rendering, while a Physical material is chosen when you need advanced physical properties like clearcoat or transmission for complex surfaces like glass, balancing visual fidelity against rendering cost.