Cannot figure out Reflection maps.

[cjm771]

Hi Im trying to use this set of bitmap textures (arroway textures) in a school project. I am familiar with vray material editor and have no problem with the diffuse and bump layer, but for some reason I cannot get the reflective bitmap to work. My render (a test one is shown) comes out flat and dull, instead of having a nice varying shine per board. FOr weeks Ive been reading tutorials, forum posts, and manuals on how to do the spec/reflective/glossy maps. I have tried adding the bitmap to the highlight glossiness, reflective, filter, and reflecting glossiness parameters in a reflection layer of the vray material. I have read for weeks on how to get the shine of materials (reflectivity/glossy look), i have tried to bump up / down the multipliers of these parameters as well with no luck. Can someone please assist me?

This example render (not mine) is kind of that shine / realism im talking about..im missing that reflectiveness:



Below are the bitmaps and my wall with the material applied.

Here is the wall:



-In the material I have a diffuse and a reflective layer. All bitmaps UV are tiled 3.
-I have bump bitmap applied in the maps section.
-In reflection layer i have bitmap for reflection param, hgloss param (inverted), and rgoss (inverted) which I did according to some random post from another forum.
Here are the material bitmaps*:

Bump:

Diffuse:

Reflectivity:


*These are arroway texture maps (http://www.arroway-textures.com/en/catalog/0 )

Please anyone who can help I will be very grateful as I am urgently trying to find the solution. I am a student and new to this, but find it fascinating and this one thing will really help my renders. Thanks!

[40th]

Re: Cannot figure out Reflection maps.

Specular map placement:

It's in VfSU but it's the same for VfR.

*Screen-shot is courtesy of StefanQ

[cjm771]

Re: Cannot figure out Reflection maps.

AH yes thank you! works perfectly...I was using bitmap instead of fresnel. I guess somethings wrong with the bitmap option...nonetheless thank you again! On a side note is there any way to blur or distort what is reflected so it is not as crisp?

[Alexander Petrov]

Re: Cannot figure out Reflection maps.

So you should put reflectivity map in :
1. Freshnel color slot
2. Freshnel IOR slot
3. Reflection Glossiness Slot
4. Highlith Glossiness slot

After these steps i'll guarantee you, that you'll get the result like Arroway catalogue

[aufifillah alwi]

Re: Cannot figure out Reflection maps.

wow i also have the same problem...
then i guess this will summed up all of it thx!!!!

[aufifillah alwi]

Re: Cannot figure out Reflection maps.

and another q does this consume much more resources than ordinary setting?

[Micha_cg]

Re: Cannot figure out Reflection maps.

So you should put reflectivity map in :
1. Freshnel color slot
2. Freshnel IOR slot
3. Reflection Glossiness Slot
4. Highlith Glossiness slot

After these steps i'll guarantee you, that you'll get the result like Arroway catalogue

The map at all slots? Sounds like a lot to much for me. For example the IOR of a wood surface is quite constant. I use the fresnel color slot (white color) only to control the reflection intensity.

Fresnel color - reflection intensity (often used)
Fresnel IOR - quite exotic for my taste (never used)
reflection glossiness - allow to control the bluryness (very seldom used here)
Highlight glossiness - allow to control the bluryness (very seldom used here), is needed only if spot/point/dir lights are used

Anisotropy map - it's not implemented and missed by my for brush effects with changing brush direction (circular brush, ...)

[Alexander Petrov]

Re: Cannot figure out Reflection maps.

So you should put reflectivity map in :
1. Freshnel color slot
2. Freshnel IOR slot
3. Reflection Glossiness Slot
4. Highlith Glossiness slot

After these steps i'll guarantee you, that you'll get the result like Arroway catalogue

The map at all slots? Sounds like a lot to much for me. For example the IOR of a wood surface is quite constant. I use the fresnel color slot (white color) only to control the reflection intensity.

Fresnel color - reflection intensity (often used)
Fresnel IOR - quite exotic for my taste (never used)
reflection glossiness - allow to control the bluryness (very seldom used here)
Highlight glossiness - allow to control the bluryness (very seldom used here), is needed only if spot/point/dir lights are used

Anisotropy map - it's not implemented and missed by my for brush effects with changing brush direction (circular brush, ...)

Recently i've tryed many variants, especially with Arroway textures. My advices are inspired from my own experience Without Reflection Glossiness and Highlith Glossiness the finish looks very lustrous, the maps in theese slots suppress that effect, and gives the real patchy glossiness on the wood floor.
Also i'm using Summed area texture filtering, in Arroway's site is wroten that this is the best method ;D

[nerddd]

Re: Cannot figure out Reflection maps.

Hm, if you take a look at the Arroway materials that are made by ASGvis they put the Arroway specular maps only in highlight glossiness and reflection glossiness slots, none in fresnel color. I did other Arroway materials and used these settings and looks good to me. Diffuse map obviously goes in diffuse slot and the bump map in displacement slot.