Exterior windows eat all the reflections from inside

[vermu]

Hi,

I am doing an exterior shot and was wondering why all my stuff inside looked boring and lifeless. Then I noticed that windows are eating all my reflections from the object inside. If I remove window glass I have all these nice reflections in my objects. When I put window glass back all the reflections just disappears. Does it have something to do with window glass material?

[cheerioboy]

what's your reflection depth set to, on both the window glass and objects inside?

[vermu]

All the materials in the scene have the default 5. I tested with 10 and 20 and it solved the problem. Thx alot. Is refraction depth value important when doing exterior shots?

[cheerioboy]

It's only important when you have overlapping layers of reflective/refractive objects. Having a lower depth keeps the rendertime down. So I'd only push the depth higher in situations like what you just had.

[alexyork]

Yes, reflection and refraction depth have a HUGE effect on rendertimes often. I use the VMC script to set all scene materials to 2 reflection and 10 refraction, usually, then increase as required per material. I sometimes use different versions of the same material, such as glass, for certain areas of a space, with more depth, and keep general/small scale objects with less, as needed. Keeps rendertimes manageable.