Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Fresnel Reflections and Material intensity

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Fresnel Reflections and Material intensity

    So I war reading the other thread
    http://forums.chaosgroup.com/showthr...ss-(yes-again)
    and made some tests I would like to dicuss with you guys.
    My assumption from these tests regarding fresnel reflections. Our materials (walls and anything that is not glass) are "wrong"
    Actually this could fix some problems I red over the past here in the forum. Those are:
    The sky is to dark. To less reflection. Overbright scene while the same exposure of a realworld camera gives a darker result.

    First let´s look at a photo I just took from a window.
    So this is how a reflection looks like in realworld.



    Now I made a test setup in Vray using a Physical Sun and Sky and I ´m using just the "multiplier" of Reinhard Tonemapping to expose the scene.
    The Reinhard Multiplier is the same as when using a physical camera. It´s linear. It´s easier to understand this way.
    No Linear Workflow or other tonemappings where used as it doesn´t
    make a difference to the problem I want to discuss.

    The basic idea is to stay as physically correct as possible. Every material except the glass has a grey Vray Material with a value of 128 mid grey.
    In the final rendering I want to have this grey material as close as possible to it´s initial value.. mid grey.

    So this is the first rendering. As I said before A Physical Sun/Sky was used in conjuntion with Reinhard Tonemapping (Multiplier only). To get the exposure down to a level
    where my mid grey material also will become mid grey in the final rendering I had to turn the Reinhard Multiplier down to 0.02.
    The glass material is pretty much standard. Diffuse black. Reflections white, Refraction white, IOR 1.6.



    As we can see the reflections are much to low compared to the photo. But why ? We have a physical sky. We have a physical correct glas
    with a correct IOR. (some may argue at that point that real glass can´t have a pure white reflection.. but this doesn´t matter as lower reflection
    values even makes the problem worse)

    Now there are actually 2 non physical ways to come across this. Either you turn up the fresnel IOR or modify the falloff incase a falloff was used instead of fresnel.
    Resulting in more reflections but on the other hand you´ll have a wrong falloff curve. The other way is to use an environment on this material with a much higher value
    than the actual background wich also result in a stronger reflection but brings us other problems. For example when you have a window, where you can see the sky behind.
    Because you cranked up the environment map it will also effect the refraction resulting in an overbright area. Environment maps at the moment can only be split global
    in reflection/refraction.. not locally on a material.

    Anyway for my part both ways are acceptable as long as the image looks good. But in this example we try to stay as physically correct as possible.

    Now my assumption is, if the Sun/Sky is correct and if the glas material is correct as well there is only one factor left that must be wrong. All the other materials !
    Let´s give it a try. So I will now turn down the intensity of my mid grey material from 128 to 64 wich means half the intensity. In exchange for that I ´ll double the multiplier
    of my Reinhard Tonemapping from 0.02 to 0.04

    This is the result.



    As you can see, the sky is now brighter and doesn´t look as dull as before and most important we have much more reflection going on while my
    grey material is still pretty much the same.

    Let´s go a step further and again I take half the intensity of my material from 64 down to 32 while I double the multiplier of Reinhard to 0.08

    The result.



    And now our intensity of the reflection is much closer to the one of the real photo while the glas material was not touched
    and our grey material still has the same value (in the final rendering) in all 3 pics.
    The sky became a bit overbright but this is quite common when working linear (linear not linear failflow )

    It would be cool to have a global switch to turn down the intensity of every diffuse component of a scene during rendering.
    Because it ´s not quite fun to work with such low values in the material editor. Well in case soemone does not want to fake it.

    cheers

    tl:dr if you turn down the intensity of your materials in the same way as you turn up the exposure.. reflections look better.

  • #2
    Eh, I quick tried to setup something similar and I think the results look fine... not sure what you're doing but there might be something going on with your gamma/color mapping setup. If I had a nice cloudy HDRI in the scene I think it would look pretty spot on.

    also you should attach your file for people to help troubleshoot. Here's my take, attached
    If I'm wrong, or there's a better way, I'd be happy to hear how I might improve it.

    max file (2012), https://www.dropbox.com/s/fxf16jxocx...setup_v001.max

    Click image for larger version

Name:	render_test_001.jpg
Views:	1
Size:	151.6 KB
ID:	850194
    Last edited by cheerioboy; 28-10-2013, 07:48 AM.
    Brendan Coyle | www.brendancoyle.com

    Comment


    • #3
      What cheerioboy said, V-Ray materials are pretty close to the real thing. But your test images seem way off in terms of gamma and general exposure.

      Best regards,
      Vlado
      I only act like I know everything, Rogers.

      Comment


      • #4
        Hey I just checked your scene. Your diffuse slot from the walls uses a Vray color map with a value of 0,22 means it´s roughly an intensity value of 64. Means it s pretty dark allready.
        If you clear this map and just use a diffuse color (wich basically doesn´t make a difference) with a value of 128 and you render your scene, the walls in the front will be overbright
        with values even above white (roughly 1,2)
        to get it down to a mid grey again you´ll need to set your fstops to something like 3,7 wich darkens the sky and you´ll lose a lot reflections again.
        This problem is not really connected to color mapping, gamma or exposure settings. It´s just a general thought about how the intensity of the diffuse component
        affects the realism of reflections. In production I usually fake all of this. I just wanted to share this idea with you guys.

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by samuel_bubat View Post
          If you clear this map and just use a diffuse color (wich basically doesn´t make a difference) with a value of 128 and you render your scene, the walls in the front will be overbright with values even above white (roughly 1,2) to get it down to a mid grey again you´ll need to set your fstops to something like 3,7 wich darkens the sky and you´ll lose a lot reflections again. This problem is not really connected to color mapping, gamma or exposure settings. It´s just a general thought about how the intensity of the diffuse component affects the realism of reflections.
          You are correct about that; people often use diffuse values picked by eye that are too bright compared to the properties of actual materials.

          Best regards,
          Vlado
          I only act like I know everything, Rogers.

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by vlado View Post
            What cheerioboy said, V-Ray materials are pretty close to the real thing. But your test images seem way off in terms of gamma and general exposure.

            Best regards,
            Vlado
            Sorry but I disagree It ´s not connected to gamma at all. This is pic 1 and 3 from my previous post rendered with gamma 2.2


            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by vlado View Post
              You are correct about that; people often use diffuse values picked by eye that are too bright compared to the properties of actual materials.

              Best regards,
              Vlado
              Yep that´s exactly what I´m trying to say. And I wonder if it would be possible by comparing materials to fresnel reflections to determine their actual intensity needed for a
              more physically correct rendering.

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by samuel_bubat View Post
                Hey I just checked your scene. Your diffuse slot from the walls uses a Vray color map with a value of 0,22 means it´s roughly an intensity value of 64. Means it s pretty dark allready.
                If you clear this map and just use a diffuse color (wich basically doesn´t make a difference) with a value of 128 and you render your scene, the walls in the front will be overbright
                with values even above white (roughly 1,2)
                to get it down to a mid grey again you´ll need to set your fstops to something like 3,7 wich darkens the sky and you´ll lose a lot reflections again.
                This problem is not really connected to color mapping, gamma or exposure settings. It´s just a general thought about how the intensity of the diffuse component
                affects the realism of reflections. In production I usually fake all of this. I just wanted to share this idea with you guys.
                The reasoning for the vraycolor map is to re-align the color, chosen by eye in screen space, to match what is desired in the scene when using a linear workflow. See attached how my scene changes if I remove the vraycolor map and apply the 128 grey color in the diffuse color selector.

                Click image for larger version

Name:	render_test_001_comparisons.jpg
Views:	1
Size:	471.3 KB
ID:	850197

                I guess there might be ways to streamline this or integrate the adjustments directly within the color selector. I know this has been discussed before. But I imagine this type of issue might cause confusion in people's material creation overall.
                Brendan Coyle | www.brendancoyle.com

                Comment


                • #9
                  "The basic idea is to stay as physically correct as possible"

                  Proceeds to break all physicality instantly lol....Sorry to be a dick :P
                  Last edited by grantwarwick; 29-10-2013, 06:32 PM.
                  admin@masteringcgi.com.au

                  ----------------------
                  Mastering CGI
                  CGSociety Folio
                  CREAM Studios
                  Mastering V-Ray Thread

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Uhh this topic is a little bit off in my eyes. If you want to do proper test you need to start from beginning. 1St of all measure environment. The window picture you took. What camera did you use. What lens settings etc etc. Second you should take HDR picture with at lest 9 stops-preferably 18+ 360 degree envi. Did u wash down the window to make sure its as clean as possible? Best way is to take HDR based window for more pixel information. Also take picture with black curtain, white curtain, lights on and so on so you can reproduce different scenarios. Then once you have accurate HDR for reflections, good backplates with as clean as possibly can be window. Then we can do tests. Also you need to do them properly with 2.2 gamma and linear color mapping with no subpixell enabled. Then remodel the part of backplate to match it as closely as possible to camera shoot. Then match camera settings. So far this topic is just bunch of assumptions and statements like : " I think " where as it should be "The fact says...".

                    Sorry to be buzz kill but its CGI and if you want to get better results unfortunately your tests has to be as accurate as they can be. Its good you started doing this but push a little bit further on a accuracy side.

                    Thanks, bye.
                    CGI - Freelancer - Available for work

                    www.dariuszmakowski.com - come and look

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      grant: where did i break all physicality instantly ?

                      Dadal: Gamma 2.2 is not physically correct at all it adds a curve to you image that a Realworld camera doesn´t have to come around problems every realworld
                      photographer has to face. Or does a photographer pre gamma 2.2 realworld materials before he takes a photo.. probabely not. Usually a realworld camera is
                      pretty much linear, that´s also waht a Vray Physical Camera is. Unless a camera uses s-log or similar solutions.
                      http://pro.sony.com/bbsccms/assets/f...log_manual.pdf

                      Also the basic idea behind my test wich is purely theoretic is trying to get more physical correct materials. Wich we do not have at the moment.
                      And this is not a Vray related problem but counts for all renderes.
                      As I asked before. Under wich lighting and wich exposure settings do you photograph a texture to get a correct physical behaviour in your rendering ?
                      Can you answer this question ?
                      Last edited by samuel_bubat; 30-10-2013, 08:23 AM.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Im not diving in to gamma subject.

                        I use this to extract pure diffuse collout out of my texture. http://www.tandent.com/lightbrush/ or I use HDR based approach to get textures.

                        We do have physically accurate materials now.
                        CGI - Freelancer - Available for work

                        www.dariuszmakowski.com - come and look

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by cheerioboy View Post
                          The reasoning for the vraycolor map is to re-align the color, chosen by eye in screen space, to match what is desired in the scene when using a linear workflow. See attached how my scene changes if I remove the vraycolor map and apply the 128 grey color in the diffuse color selector.
                          I'm so tired of this. It's been, what, six or seven years since the whole gamma debate started and I still do things the wrong way apparently. I tried out Corona renderer this summer and it was such a blast compared to how things are with the one engine I pay to use. Hey wanna try LWF? ok go through this fucking checklist starting from your 3DS Max preferences. Then, run your bitmaps through Color Correction map. No, not every map, just the diffuse and reflection channels. Also, don't use the diffuse slot if you're just trying to get a constant diffuse color because that won't work, or to be more specific, it will "work" but you need to understand the result won't be correct and there's no way of knowing this if you don't read the forums - just use the Vray Color map.
                          Ville Kiuru
                          www.flavors.me/vkiuru

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by yyk View Post
                            I tried out Corona renderer this summer and it was such a blast compared to how things are with the one engine I pay to use.
                            What makes you think that Corona does anything differently with regards to gamma? It has the exact same issues and it does not do anything whatsoever to solve them (which is probably the most sensible thing a render engine could do). If you choose to ignore them, that's fine. Even with V-Ray things will mostly work correctly out of the box now.

                            Best regards,
                            Vlado
                            Last edited by vlado; 01-11-2013, 04:17 AM.
                            I only act like I know everything, Rogers.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by vlado View Post
                              What makes you think that Corona does anything differently with regards to gamma? It has the exact same issues and it does not do anything whatsoever to solve them (which is probably the most sensible thing a render engine could do). If you choose to ignore them, that's fine. Even with V-Ray things will mostly work correctly out of the box now.

                              Best regards,
                              Vlado
                              I prepared a simple scene in both Corona and Vray 3 beta so you'd see for yourself. No tricks, no color corrections, rendered it and ended up with 99% same image. I apologize. I need to look into why I get such mixed results from more complex scenes. At the end of the day I'm certain it's a user error which makes this all the more frustrating.
                              Ville Kiuru
                              www.flavors.me/vkiuru

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X