---
title: reflective
framework: scenekit
role: symbol
role_heading: Instance Property
path: scenekit/scnmaterial/reflective
---

# reflective

An object that defines the reflected color for each point on a surface.

## Declaration

```swift
var reflective: SCNMaterialProperty { get }
```

## Discussion

Discussion You can simulate a mirrored or chromed finish on a surface by causing it to reflect its environment. SceneKit does not render real-time reflections of the objects in a scene, but it can use an environment map texture to simulate reflection of a static or animated image. When rendering each pixel on the surface, SceneKit traces the light from that point to a pixel in the environment map as if the surface was reflecting that image. By default, the reflective property’s contents object is a white color, causing the property to have no visible effect. Setting the reflective property’s contents to any solid color adds uniform shading to the material. To create a reflective effect, set the property’s contents to an image or other texture-mapped content. To produce a mirror-finish effect using an environment map, the texture image should take one of two forms: A sphere map, a square image whose content depicts an environment as reflected by a mirrored sphere. A cube map, an array of six square images which together form an imaginary cube enclosing the scene, whose inner surfaces are reflected by the material. You create a cube map by setting the reflective property’s contents object to an NSArray instance containing six images, each corresponding to a direction in the scene’s world coordinate space in the following order: +X, -X, +Y, -Y, +Z, -Z (or Right, Left, Top, Bottom, Near, Far). The figure below shows a material (with a texture for its normal property) before and after providing a cube map for the reflective property.

This material property does not apply to physically-based materials (see physicallyBased). Instead, such materials reflect environment-based lighting (see the SCNScene lightingEnvironment property) based on their metalness and roughness properties.

## See Also

### Related Documentation

- [normal](scenekit/scnmaterial/normal.md)
- [emission](scenekit/scnmaterial/emission.md)

### Visual Properties for Basic Shading

- [diffuse](scenekit/scnmaterial/diffuse.md)
- [ambient](scenekit/scnmaterial/ambient.md)
- [specular](scenekit/scnmaterial/specular.md)
- [multiply](scenekit/scnmaterial/multiply.md)
- [transparent](scenekit/scnmaterial/transparent.md)
- [shininess](scenekit/scnmaterial/shininess.md)
- [fresnelExponent](scenekit/scnmaterial/fresnelexponent.md)
- [locksAmbientWithDiffuse](scenekit/scnmaterial/locksambientwithdiffuse.md)