How do i set up albedo values for materials in Cycles?

As far as i know albedo is texture which define amount of reflected light. How do i set up albedo value for material in Cycles?

There is an albedo coheficient in the sky shader but its meant to be used as world light I think.

The reflectivity of the surface in cycles is defined by difuse, glossy and anisotropic shaders ( I may have missed some I dont know and use)

When you use a difuse shader that is red the material reflect red and it will impact other material around and make your material look red. Glossy is used for highlight and mirror efect, anisotropic for metalic materials reflection. Well thats what I anderstanded so far. Maybe somone else can respond more eficiently.

I didnt used BI for to long to help on this one.

As far as i know, albedo value, (or albedo texture) manage the amount of light, which surface or material, can reflect. It is strange, that it placed in world settings, because different materials have different albedo values.

Albedo, as you’re referring to it, would just be the mix factor between a diffuse and a glossy node. Albedo in the world settings is a completely different thing.

Ok. What is it then, albedo in world settings? And what for do we need albedo textures for materials?

From my understanding your definition of albedo is incomplete. Albedo is a measure for the diffuse reflectivity of a surface, as opposed to its specular reflectivity. In other words: As the diffuse reflectivity is mainly determined by an object’s color, Albedo is the pure diffuse color information of a surface, separated from any light effects.

Albedo = diffuse color - directional light/specularity/reflection/ambient occlusion/etc.
Think of a diffuse color pass in Cycles.

But, in this case, why would we need it? If it is just, in a manner of speaking, another one diffuse?

Exactly: Albedo is just another word for a plain diffuse map, that has no lighting effects “baked in”. See also here for reference.

Thank you. Then what is the point of albedo in world settings, in Blender? We just set up amount of reflectivity for the whole scene?

If I anderstand it well, it’s the climatology / geographic use of the term albedo. It set how much the ground is reflective when you are using the world as a light and by that way defin the color of the sky. Or it define the angle the sun ray touche the ground wich will have mostly the same efect anyway as the more pointy the angle is the less light the groud has to reflect.

Anyway it’s useful to set the color of your sky. That’s why it is used in the sky node that can be used as a world node.

No idea if the optical / climatology behind it realy matters, you can easyly see what it do by testing the node and slyding the albedo value until the sky looks like you want it.

I ended up using a mix of blures, gradiant and a color ramp instead of the sky node as you have more freedom this way and can aim higher than just realism.

Albedo in the sky settings refers to the overall average reflectivity of the planet/moon/etc. That you’re stimulating an atmosphere for.