Reflection Maps, Environment Only?

[rhino]

Is it possible to trace the Environment Map only with Vray Material and not the other geometry in the scene? Ignore objects but not the environment?

[RErender]

I don't think that is possible but you can put the environment map only in the environment slot of the vraymtls you want it in and get the same result, real reflections will still occlude the environment .

[percydaman]

ya unfortunately its impossible to completely use faked reflection mapping with the vray material. I cant recall, but seems like you couldn't do it previously with the raytrace material and scanline either... dont quote me on that one though....

[analogueWay]

In VRay:; Global switches, why are we unable to set the max depth for reflection/refraction to 0? This would kick us straight out to the exit color/map, right?

-Jeremy

[percydaman]

In VRay:; Global switches, why are we unable to set the max depth for reflection/refraction to 0? This would kick us straight out to the exit color/map, right?

-Jeremy

dunno..might be the difference in capabilites of a pure raytracer and a scanline renderer. either way, it sucks to not be able to use pure reflection mapping with the vray material.

[rhino]

Most of the time an environment reflection is all that is needed to make a material look convincing especially in animations. Old school reflection mapping is needed!

[percydaman]

what if its in an interior scene that has no access to the environment?

[RErender]

You can always mix it into the diffuse or use a shelac or something

[rhino]

Render a spherical cam, but yes I'm talking mainly about external scenes..

[percydaman]

You can always mix it into the diffuse or use a shelac or something

well mixing it into the diffuse would look like junk since it wouldn't be additive...the shellac idea sounds interesting though... not sure if it wouldn't negate the speed up of using a vray material though... might be quicker to use a standard mat by that point.

ya you can render ANY type of cam, it the object doesn't have access to the environement it aint working...

anyways if your willing to use a standard mat, then you can use a pure reflection map just fine... Of course you need a falloff map set to lighting with your reflection map in the white slot or youll get reflections where you would never see them due to lack of light. Which makes me wonder if by the time you do all that, would it just be quicker to let the damn thing just raytrace...

[analogueWay]

Which is probably why we don't have the option. Raytracing is pretty darn fast in VRay.

-Jeremy