Glass and shadows-help

[m735]

Hope this is the right forum.

I just bought vray basic and am rendering a table that I had designed. I just wanted to get some feedback on how to improve the image...as well as a question of why the glass casts a solid shadow. When I turn off caustics i get the shadow I want, but when I turn it on I don't. Just want to know what I'm doing wrong.

The link below is the image as well as all the settings.

any help and comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

http://www.re-evolve.ca/vray

[zeromancer1972]

i think this is cause your IOR is too high for a plane like this. try to use a 1,0 value, this should help

[vlado]

There is an "affect shadows" setting in the VRayMaterial...

Best regards,
Vlado

[m735]

I've tried setting the ior to 1...still the same problem, except now i get no edge definition in the glass. I have selected the affect chadows options in my glass material....is there another place that this option should be checked?

Thanks for the prompt response.

[zeromancer1972]

sometimes i had the phenomenon that max's materials aren't correct - try to set the renderer to scanline and then to vray again. this might help - or start with a new scene where you switch to vray FIRST before adding content to your scene...

theres is no rational answer to this behaviour...

[RErender]

Re: Glass and shadows-help

When I turn off caustics i get the shadow I want,...

When you turn on Caustics, they overide "affect Shadow" so to get light through the Glass you have to shoot some photons through it.

[m735]

REreder I have set the main spot to shoot photons should I set GI to global photon map?

Again thanks for all your suggestions and prompt response.

[flipside]

No GI is needed. You have to enable caustics for the light in the light settings in system rollout of vray. Then also enable caustics in the caustics rollout. However rendering with caustics just to get transparant shadows is a bit painfull. I wish the caustics didn't override the affct shadows option... Just render without caustics and set affect shadow on, with a color in the fog box and a low fog multiplier.

[Baby Thomas]

m735, I saw your page where you described ALL the settings about your scene. I tryed to make same exact glass, but nothing happened. Are you using some map for "Reflect"?
10x in advance!!!

[andtheniran]

Baby Thomas,

If I am not mistaken, the "M" next to the Reflect option (in his screen shots of settings) indicates there is a map being used for reflections.