Seeking advice for making metal more "shiny"

[tinybot]

I have a small, enclosed bathroom scene, where I've applied shiny metal materials to the plumbing finishes (faucets, shower head, etc.). However, as you can see in the attached image, they appear quite dull:



I've tried various different metal materials, but they all seem to give a similar, dull effect. I think I have plenty of light in the scene?

Anyone have tips on how to improve the shininess and give these metal objects more pop?

Does creating additional lights that only affect these metal objects make sense?

[viscorbel]

Can you show your metal shader setup?

[davision]

Is your ref.gloss turned up toward 1. That should make them look more chrome/shiny versus brushed. The tub faucet in particular, looks to have an overly low gloss. Use black diffuse too

[Neilg]

turn off fresnel in the material. or raise it to 10

[tinybot]

The metal shader I'm using is from VMPP:





I amped the RGlossiness up to 1 and also added a few invisible lights that only affect the metal objects, and here's a preview from VFB:



I guess a bit better but hoping there's an easier way without adding artifical, invisible lights?

[Neilg]

make your own, get rid of the map in the reflection slot & read this - http://viscorbel.com/vray-materials-theory/

[davision]

Yeah, I'm curious what is in the reflection slot now? Just turn off that map and jack up reflection to white. start there.

Fresnel at ior 10 as Neil said.

[Ihno]

Since its the siger ball, I guess it is the complex fernel osl. If this is an original siger shader, the metal material is most likely pretty accurate. I think its probably the scene.
Show us your camera settings.

[tinybot]

Thanks for all the help and tips, folks!

For those asking, here is what was being used for the Reflection map:



I will try the tips and read through the reading materials provided and will be back with some results and follow-up!

[tinybot]

Since its the siger ball, I guess it is the complex fernel osl. If this is an original siger shader, the metal material is most likely pretty accurate. I think its probably the scene.
Show us your camera settings.

Here are the camera settings!

[Ihno]

I think this camera settings would pobably work.
Keep listening to what neilg writes, which is never a bad idea.

[Morbid Angel]

the reflections in your render look clamped do you have by chance subpixel mapping on?

In any case vray's frenel function works just fine if you use it correctly. Usually metal is less diffuse and more reflective. If your other objects in scene look fine and metal does not, I don't think its the camera. Try stay as physically accurate as possible to real world and you won't have to fake your way around it.

[squintnic]

ditch the VMPP and make your own, much nicer and easier
you could try a basic blend material with a slightly glossy base layer to help make them shinier

[mitviz]

i think alot of people are now using vmpp shaders alot and alot of the time they dont seem to work well without tweaking and i think its a result of overthinking the shaders much like what Grant does sometimes in his tutorials, its really complex for no reason, dont mean to make anyone mad but its easier to make your own shaders, i agree with the advice below with the link to VISCORBEL, some of the best tutorials i have ever seen it just works, renders fast and simple, i think when settings up softwares with presets like vmpp they didnt give rendertimes or complexity much thought, i have ended up tweaking yesterday some files from someone who used it too much and i must say, one metal shader was there rendering for god knows how long with a stuck bucket, i deleted the whole thing, simple material with fresnel did the same thing

[Raven]

Metals are all about what they are reflecting. If you have nothing interesting behind your camera to reflect, you will see nothing interesting in them.
Your wall tiles look like they are a matte material. That will also reduce the secondary reflections.