Edge lit glass

[Penry]

Anyone got an idea as to how I can create the light fitting as the image? It's a series of acrylic/perspex discs with an internal illuminated cylinder.I have tried various methods of achieving edge lit glass with vray materials but it just doesn't look right! Also, the quantity and proximity of the discs results in renders with no transparency through them-I just get blackness!

Loosing the will to live on this one.......all help greatfully received.

[Macker]

Well to begin with the blackness is probably due to the VRay material having the max depth of refractions (and possibly though unlikely reflections too) set too low. Set it to a higher value such as 15 or 20 and you'll probably get the transparency back.

[robdeja]

Yeah, the blackness will be max depth.

I'd try and achieve the lit edges by applying a different material to just the edges - a VrayBlendMtl with your glass material in the base and a VrayLightMtl in the coat and just blend enough light material over so that you get some self illumination whilst still keeping a bit of transparency. You might need to experiment with the balance of the light material intensity verses its blend amount to get it looking right.

[Penry]

cheers guys...I'll try these suggestions

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

High reflection/refraction depth
Caustics

[IVOR_IP]

Why not just use multi/sub with two materials, Vrayblend is an overkill and slow.

Set one with refraction with no or little glossiness, one with medium glossy refraction. In reality, that the lit edge is caused by rough refraction from the cut. Don't blend in Vraylight, that's not correct.

[robdeja]

Whilst it is not physically correct, it will probably be an easier approach than relying on total internal reflections to achieve the effect as per reality.
So long as the method achieves the effect it doesn't matter if it is physically accurate

[Macker]

If you do want to go down the physically accurate route, make sure "reflect on back side" is checked. This will help bounce light around inside the material, causing total internal refraction/reflection.