accurate light bounce off mirror underwater

[deano]

I need to fairly accurately show the amount of light bouncing off a mirror (correct angle and intensity) with the light source above water and the mirror below water... Is there any way to accomplish this with justifiable results, or do I need to place light sources along the mirror surface and estimate their bounce strength after calculating their correct angle?
Thanks in advance for any assistance!

[Morne]

just do it physical correct and it will be fine. You WILL have to use caustics for this, otherwise the light won't bounce of the mirror. It's a bit of a mission, but can be done. I had to do somehting similar for a solar tube going down 3 floors in a building few months back.

[deano]

Thanks for the tip. I had my settings too low but seem to be getting better results.
baie dankie!

(hey, just saw your location...I was born and grew up about 30 minutes from where you are in Jo'burg...small world!!)

[joconnell]

There was a thread a while back about a thing called the vray bp tracer - seems along the lines of what you're doing? http://www.chaosgroup.com/forums/vbu...light=bptracer