Groundplane Reflections

[smartise]

I am wondering if there is a way to exclude a groundplanes reflection from objects. This way i can have
a shadow on the groundplane without getting a white glow on the objects I'm looking to render.

^This is what I get with the render. Notice the white plane reflections in the bottom of the sphere.

^This is what I want. To get this image i rendered two separate images, one with the groundplane on
and one with it off, and then combined them in photoshop. This takes a lot more time though because I
essentially have to render every image twice to get this effect.
Any suggestions or workarounds on how to do this with one render would be great.

Thanks

[dalomar_cg]

Re: Groundplane Reflections

Currently this is not possible... this has been a big wish though, so we'll be looking to get it into vfr at some time in the future. If you have any ideas on how you'd like to see this implemented (interface wise) that would be helpful...we've got a few ideas, but some of the UI ideas that we've had haven't been too pretty.

[smartise]

Re: Groundplane Reflections

I was afraid that might be the case. I don't know how possible it might be, but a check box in the material options that would disable that material from reflecting in other objects of the scene might work.

[dalomar_cg]

Re: Groundplane Reflections

Yea, thats one of the more simple options but some of our other users have been asking for certain objects to be visible in some reflections and not in others rather then a global on/off switch.

In thinking about it a little more, maybe there could be reflection groups and you would assign a group to an object. There would be an uneditable default group that was automatically assigned to each object as it was created (ie without having to worry about it). Then if you wanted to take the groundplane for instance out of the reflections you could just make a new group with all of the objects enabled except for the groundplane. Then assign that group to whichever object you want. That way you could have multiple groups and then assign those to the object which needed each specific group. I guess there would have to be a separate reflection group editor, but I think it might work. Any thoughts on that?..does it sound too confusing?..does it even make sense?

[Micha_cg]

Re: Groundplane Reflections

My suggestion is, that we get a new object properies UI like Rhinoman at Rhino 3. At this page could be placed all object related options like cast/receive shadows, visible in reflections/refractions, visible for camera ... .
We could get two kind of options - general options that for example hide the object and "linked" options, that are related to other, selected objects only. For example the ground get an object ID and at the sphere I could set "don't reflect" and the object ID of the ground.
For example the Rhinoman UI allow to add custom commands from a list of commands. So, if we would use this UI, we could enable several times the option "don't reflect" and set an object ID.

I like the command list UI of Rhinoman - it allow to choose from many options and keep the interface simple. Also not so complicated for the programmer or?

Is it confusing? My english and strange suggestions ...

[joe_b]

Re: Groundplane Reflections

We will have a way to exclude other objects soon enough. And other per-object properties will be making their way to VfR - its on our radar