# What's with the name MeshStandardMaterial?

**URL:** <https://discourse.threejs.org/t/whats-with-the-name-meshstandardmaterial/208>\
**Category:** Questions\
**Tags:** materials\
**Created:** [April 18, 2017, 3:15pm UTC](https://discourse.threejs.org/t/whats-with-the-name-meshstandardmaterial/208 "2017-04-18T15:15:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![looeee](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discourse.threejs.org/looeee/32/59_2.png) [@looeee](https://discourse.threejs.org/u/looeee)\
**Post date:** [April 18, 2017, 3:15pm UTC](https://discourse.threejs.org/t/whats-with-the-name-meshstandardmaterial/208/1 "2017-04-18T15:15:21Z")

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This has been bugging me for a while, but I haven’t wanted to pollute any github feed by asking there 😁

Most of the other Mesh\*\*\*\*\*\*Materials name’s are related to their reflectance or shading models:

- **MeshLambertMaterial** : Lambertian reflectance, Gouraud shading
- **MeshPhongMaterial** : Blinn-Phong reflectance, Phong shading
- **MeshPhysicalMaterial** : physically based reflectance, Phong shading
- **MeshStandardMaterial** : Also physically based reflectance (just without the `reflectivity` parameter of the MeshPhysicalMaterial), Phong shading

So what is it about MeshStandardMaterial that is so _standard_?

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**Author:** ![mrdoob](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discourse.threejs.org/mrdoob/32/22417_2.png) [@mrdoob](https://discourse.threejs.org/u/mrdoob)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 4:01pm UTC](https://discourse.threejs.org/t/whats-with-the-name-meshstandardmaterial/208/2 "2017-04-19T16:01:32Z")

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Seems like the discussion is spread around many PRs…

Here’s probably the most relevant one:

> <https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/pull/7381>

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**Author:** ![looeee](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discourse.threejs.org/looeee/32/59_2.png) [@looeee](https://discourse.threejs.org/u/looeee)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 7:02am UTC](https://discourse.threejs.org/t/whats-with-the-name-meshstandardmaterial/208/3 "2017-04-20T07:02:22Z")

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I see, I see. Everything becomes much clearer.

There is one aspect of the name I disagree with though - it’s not really the “standard” material if we are still recommending people to use Phong as the default (as in [this recent PR](https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/pull/11190/commits/e04f031ea8e7a7319b8b7762691048eb338820fb) ).

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**Author:** ![mrdoob](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discourse.threejs.org/mrdoob/32/22417_2.png) [@mrdoob](https://discourse.threejs.org/u/mrdoob)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 3:21pm UTC](https://discourse.threejs.org/t/whats-with-the-name-meshstandardmaterial/208/4 "2017-04-20T15:21:26Z")

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Yeah, that’s a good point. I guess eventually it’ll become the recommended, but currently it’s still a bit expensive compared to phong…