/3/ - 3DCG

>>777016
>>777027
(posting reply here too just in case)
>But it doesn't really have anything to do with gloss.
It actually does.
Think about what roughness actually means/does.

IRL, the more rough a surface is, the more "bumpy" (for lack of a better term) it is on a small scale, which means that light rays don't bounce and reflect to the eye, but instead get trapped and disperse in different directions.
This is what the roughness value in 3d represents. The lower the roughness, the more things bounce back, the higher it is, the more things get dispersed.

Now think real good, what does a normal map do? It emulates surface displacement.
The more displaced a surface is, the more rough it is. Which means it's less glossy.
The more you crank up a normal map, the less glossy something will get.