Real looking glass (yes, again)

[sherridge101]

'The only difference is maxwell computes the caustics as standard, you cant turn them off. vray has them as a separate feature.'

Just for your info, you can now switch off direct and/or indirect caustics in maxwell, or use the AGS glass or switch off GI for glass (which I think turns off caustics inside/behind this geometry).

I think you're right, the caustics always get calculated internally, but they can be switched off for the final output.

cheers,

Steve

[ValeroStudio]

I agree with what has been said earlier in this discussion. Sh*tty environment = Sh*tty Glass. Afterall, its thin and clear. The only thing that makes us realize its there is the reflection. Most of those "bad examples" all illustrated this point. Each one of those had awful low res HDRI environments or less for a reflecting environment. All of the examples being claimed as great, have their environments modeled. I would look into hi-res HDRI environments coupled with some nice high quality tree proxies instead of glass settings.

[samuel_bubat]

It should also be considered that Glas is never perfectly flat and nowadays you usually have double panes resulting in a double reflection.
Double reflections can either be achived by modeling a double pain or with a single pane and "reflect on backside" turned on.
Also the reflection of Glass can vary when it´s coated.

[glorybound]

I was thinking about this post on my drive in this morning, so I payed special attention to glass, and it seems that all the glass I saw was basically black. I saw little reflection, and very little did I see inside the houses and buildings.

[greysheep5]

i suppose all of you guys are linking the reflection/refraction IOR - so the reflection IOR is also between 1.5 and 1.6? i agree with everything said about black diffuse, IOR 1.5, refraction white and all that... but i think the reflections are way to strong when nearly white - and if reflection have a IOR of about 1.5 they produce very strange distortion effects i don´t remember to have seen ever in reality?

how do you guys deal with that?

as an architect, coming from that side i tried things like modeling realistic double glazings with the correct thickness and air inbetween, but most of the time i end up unlinking the IOR of the reflection and lowering it, and also giving the reflection a more middle grey color and a slight glossieness to break up the perfect and strong and unrealistic results i am getting otherwise.

despite that, i don´t know whats wrong with the glass in vray. i guess nothing. glass is, as said from many others, very boring in itself and as bobby said during daylight seen from the outside mostly black with a little tint from the sky and surroundings and because of the falloff angle not so much and strong reflections.

cheers,

chris.

[ValeroStudio]

I sent Peter Guthrie an email and invited him to this discussion. In the meantime, there is a nice discussion on V-Ray glass here on CGA
http://forums.cgarchitect.com/74105-...-frontier.html

[peterguthrie]

I don't have much to add I'm afraid.. mostly I guess it depends on what you are reflecting. Most of the projects on my (brand new!) website were pretty much complete 3d environments which means the glass always looks pretty good. For Teglverksgata I used a hdr sky and a photo of the tree (with opacity map) for the reflections, which turned out ok as well. http://www.peterguthrie.net/#/teglverksgata/

on this one the rendered parts match the photographic parts well I think, although I didnt spend much time on it http://static.squarespace.com/static.../Cam02%20A.jpg

[ValeroStudio]

Peter, Could you share your glass settings just to settle the whole FallOff / Fresnel thing?

[Lupaz]

Why are we still talking about what settings are good to use for glass? Are we in 1999?

If glass is as simple and boring as some believe, why is someone interested in settings??

Why are some of you still making glass in post?

If 99% of our projects have glass, why doesn't vray come with a glass material instead of all of us having different settings for a generic material and spend time in 3d and post to make it look like glass?

And very important I shall add...Why are there other software (Maxwell) with glass material that gives a very convincing result in much much less time than all of what you guys are talking about. After all, we have the technology now to render out of the box, ready to ware glass, unbiased.

So the point here isn't either we can or we can't make good glass with vray, but how much of our intervention the computer needs. because instead of trying to be an artist by tweaking the glass settings (or in post), I much rather focus on the framing, colors, textures, etc.

Secondly, I do think that in general glass on renderings made with vray looks as if you touch it, it will brake. like made of candy or something. With Maxwell it looks as good quality expensive glass. Why? I don't think it's the environment. please see these images from Maxwell's and vray's galleries


http://www.maxwellrender.com/index.p.../images/1/4/27
http://www.maxwellrender.com/index.p...images/1/2/280
http://www.maxwellrender.com/index.p...images/1/2/279
http://www.maxwellrender.com/index.p...images/1/2/277

http://www.chaosgroup.com/en/2/details.html?p=7
http://www.chaosgroup.com/en/2/details.html?p=58
http://www.chaosgroup.com/en/2/details.html?p=59
http://www.chaosgroup.com/en/2/details.html?p=109
http://www.chaosgroup.com/en/2/details.html?p=171
http://www.chaosgroup.com/en/2/details.html?p=174

[Lupaz]

oh, and this rendering too.
http://www.peterguthrie.net/#/allandale/

it's very nice, but the glass looks like it's 1mm thick. My clients want a thick expensive glass. Not double (plastic looking) glass as someone else suggested.

[Pixelcon]

With Maxwell it looks as good quality expensive glass.

I regret having wasted time posting in this thread after reading this.

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

I think the problem is that you guys dont like the physically result you are getting and are asking for it to look better where as what you need to do is give it to proper retoucher and get it correctly retouched.

[squintnic]

Lupaz mate u are a joker!
Best of luck with your glass and have fun using maxwell - I hear it is AMAZING FOR ARCHITECTURAL GLASS!!!!!

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

Lupaz mate u are a joker!
Best of luck with your glass and have fun using maxwell - I hear it is AMAZING FOR ARCHITECTURAL GLASS!!!!!

Dont be mean :C, hes just new to CGI...

[grantwarwick]

Looks like we all need to stop being retarded and make the switch to good ol Maxwell!