# specular An object that manages the material’s specular response to lighting. ``` var specular: SCNMaterialProperty { get } ``` ## Discussion Specular shading describes the amount and color of light reflected by the material directly toward the viewer, forming a bright highlight on the surface and simulating a glossy or shiny appearance. You adjust the sharpness of specular highlights using the material’s [`shininess`](/documentation/SceneKit/SCNMaterial/shininess) property. By default, the specular property’s [`contents`](/documentation/SceneKit/SCNMaterialProperty/contents) object is a black color, causing the material to appear dull or matte. Changing the specular property’s contents to a brighter color causes specular highlights to appear in that color, making the surface appear shiny. When you apply a texture to the specular property, the texture image becomes a *specular map*—the brightness of each pixel in the image determines the tendency of each point on the material’s surface to create specular highlights when lit. The figure below shows a material (with a texture for its [`diffuse`](/documentation/SceneKit/SCNMaterial/diffuse) property) before and after providing a specular map image. Notice that the bright specular highlights appear only on portions of the surface where the specular map image is white.  The material’s [`lightingModel`](/documentation/SceneKit/SCNMaterial/lightingModel-swift.property) property determines the formula SceneKit uses to combine its specularity and other visual properties with lights and other contents in a scene to produce the final color for each rendered pixel in the rendered scene. For details, see `Lighting Models`. This material property does not apply to physically-based materials (see [`physicallyBased`](/documentation/SceneKit/SCNMaterial/LightingModel-swift.struct/physicallyBased)). ## See Also [`normal`](/documentation/SceneKit/SCNMaterial/normal) An object that defines the nominal orientation of the surface at each point for use in lighting. [`emission`](/documentation/SceneKit/SCNMaterial/emission) An object that defines the color emitted by each point on a surface. --- Copyright © 2026 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. | [Terms of Use](https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/terms/site.html) | [Privacy Policy](https://www.apple.com/privacy/privacy-policy)