Architectural glass. The bane of my existence.

[Junglejuz]

I am trying to get nice reflections on architectural glass and can't seem to get what I am after. I have several problems maybe some of you geniuses can help me with.

1) I have tried putting an environment map (clouds&trees) in the reflection/refraction environment channel of the vray render dialogue. This works to a degree but the reflections are always flush with the camera's point of view. (ie the reflections do not appear to turn corners!!)

2) Selecting "Fresnel reflections" in the Vray material seems to get rid of reflections altogether. Maybe I have yet to work out the best way of setting up the reflect and refract parameters, but need it really be this difficult!?

3. I have tried over-riding the global reflection environment map through the environment channel in the vray material. Does anyone know how this actually works?? It doesn't appear to work the same way as any other map channel would. When I look at the map interactively in the viewport it is displayed as you would expect, but when I render I cannot see anything. It is like the map is tiled too much or not enough. It is impossible to see anything at all.


All comments and suggestions are welcome as I'm sure there are many others who have issues getting realistic looking glass. Most vray users appear to so architectural viz so I'd say this is pretty important for most of us.

Cheers,

Junglejuz

[egz]

Re: Architectural glass. The bane of my existence.

1) I have tried putting an environment map (clouds&trees) in the reflection/refraction environment channel of the vray render dialogue. This works to a degree but the reflections are always flush with the camera's point of view. (ie the reflections do not appear to turn corners!!)

Sounds like your environment map is screen mapped. Make sure it is set to spherical environment in the material editor.

2) Selecting "Fresnel reflections" in the Vray material seems to get rid of reflections altogether. Maybe I have yet to work out the best way of setting up the reflect and refract parameters, but need it really be this difficult!?

Fresnel reflections will disappear if the camera is perpendicular to the reflecting surface, depending on the IOR. If your IOR is 1 it will not reflect much. There are 3 things you can do:

1. Change the IOR (higher number, more reflection)
and / or
2. Turn off fresnel, and add a falloff map in the reflection slot. Then tweak this to get the look you want.
and / or
3. Use a HDR image for the reflection. The added range will give you stronger reflections than normal RGB maps.

3. I have tried over-riding the global reflection environment map through the environment channel in the vray material. Does anyone know how this actually works?? It doesn't appear to work the same way as any other map channel would. When I look at the map interactively in the viewport it is displayed as you would expect, but when I render I cannot see anything. It is like the map is tiled too much or not enough. It is impossible to see anything at all.

Again, make sure the map is set to spherical environment, or use a VRay Hdr map.

[free4dom]

Hi
I have been trying quite a lot as well with arch glass.
Finally i set the reflection very high, very transparent, and i use a hemisphere dome with a 360 sky mapped on it for the reflections and it works quite well...
I set a falloff on the reflection as well to get more reflection when i look parralel to the glass.

I also used a 'glass frame' map for teh structure of the glass, it helps speeding things up when you have a lot of glass surface.
If you want my setting, give me your email and i will send you a max file.

cu

/free

[Aguel]

Can you send it to me too free4dom. It will be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.


arnelaguel@mydestiny.net

[J_Bug]

One thing I can suggest is to first download the ArchGlass script from scriptspot.com.

This is a material script like the ones egz is so elegantly creating

Take a look at the inner workings and recreate that in the reflection slot. I can't remember the exact order but it deals with a fresnel falloff inside of a light/dark falloff or something like that.

--Jon

[kippu]

just a doubt

when u mean architectural glass.....is it the glass thats transparent and reflective or is it the structural glass....

if its the former ...i an help...the structural glass ..iam ahving problems with that

[Junglejuz]

Re: just a doubt

when u mean architectural glass.....is it the glass thats transparent and reflective or is it the structural glass....

I mean the window glass that is both reflective and refractive. I have had a look at the architectural script but that doesn't use vray maps or materials. It uses the standard opacity setting which vray doesn't seem to like at all from my experience. Whenever I have tried to render anything in vray using the opacity spinner it takes an aeon to render, so you need to either use a vray material or at least a vray map in the refraction channel.

Still, reflections seem to be my biggest difficulty, in lining them up correctly so they are highly visible and yet transparent also.

[free4dom]

message to the ones that requested my glass setting,
i will email you a zip file today or tomorrow...
it's kind of busy in the office right now...

see you

/free

[kippu]

mail me too

i wont mind getting a mail abt vray glass settings...

pls mail to kippu24@yahoo.co.in than u very much

[Da_elf]

what ever happened to black diffuse, white reflection fresnel falloff, and aaaalmost white refraction with affect shadow turned on?

[mclink2000]

free4dom may you send me your settings or scene for arch glass please?
i use vray demo for my project but i have to use standard mat for glass to get good(!) renders but i wanna use vray mat
thx a lot
e.san@fastwebnet.it

[Junglejuz]

what ever happened to black diffuse, white reflection fresnel falloff, and aaaalmost white refraction with affect shadow turned on?

Sounds nice in theory but it's just not that simple. not all glass is created equal. Fake reflections are needed.

[GoncaloP]

Material Index

Flint glasses 1.57-1.75
Heavy flint glass 1.65
Extra dense flint, EDF-3 1.7200
Heaviest flint glass 1.89

This can help a little

Gonçalo

[corey]

Hello Gonçalo

Do you have method (speedy) for frosted glass.
Diffuse: White
Reflect: White with Frensel & Interp (-4/-3) on.
Refract: White with Interp (-4/-2) on, Sub Div 5, Glossi .85, & IOR 1.57

Corey

[free4dom]

Hi,
i seem to have problems with my email account right now, but here are my settings for the arch glass i use.
I think it's quite ok for what i needed it for, but of course other people might want other tweakings....

I used standard material (refraction level 1.00)
- ambient&diffuse : black
- specular : white
- self-illumination : dark blue (6,11,20)
- specular : 80
- gloss : 50

- reflection : 100 : vraymap - perpendicular/parallel falloff on filter color that goes from dark grey to light grey

- refraction : 90 : vraymap, filter color white, max depth 10

This works ok for me, enough reflection, enough transparancy and fast enough (which is important to me...)

when i have to do a big facade of a building that have the same glass module (1,35 m x 4,05 m), i place a simple white map with a black border (jpg) in the filter color of the refraction map, and then you see a small back grid on the facade.

Again, this works ok for me, ...

Goodluck!...

Ps: i still hope to see a material database somewhere one day...