Force Low Gloss Materials to Ignore Low Glossiness of Other Materials

[Jackson_cg]

Pretty cryptic topic title I know, but it's not such a cryptic idea.

We all know that using blurred reflective materials (which have low glossiness and high subdivs) is a major render time killer. However, the impact is compounded when a low gloss surface reflects another low gloss surface (which is of course in turn reflecting the first low gloss surface, etc, etc) causing the calculations required to resolve the render to multiply manyfold.

My question is, could we force all blurry materials to ignore the blurred reflections from other materials and just reflect a standard (1.0 glossiness) reflection from them instead? I would be surprised if, in the majority of architectural situations, one could see any difference in the final render (as the first reflection is blurred anyway), so it seems like it would be a very effective (and possibly simple? ;D) way of cutting render times dramatically with very little quality compromise.

Or is this already possible? :-\

Jackson

[40th]

Re: Force Non-Glossy Materials to Ignore Non-Glossiness

This topic is spot on. I'm also very interested if this is possible, cause i have a scene with a large amount of low glossy+highlight material.
This calculation increasing the tender time dramatically.

You know Jackson, now that i'm thinking about it maybe the 'max depth' on global switches can help ???, although it will effect all materials.
Also the cutoff of the specific material can be lowered.

Thats all i can think of...

I hope that one of the experts here have a real solution.

[Jackson_cg]

Re: Force Non-Glossy Materials to Ignore Non-Glossiness

Great to hear I'm not the only one wanting this!

I've wondered if there was already a way to do this buried in some of V-Ray's more obscure settings, but as there's no specific mention of glossiness anywhere else (other than the "Glossy Effects" tickbox under Global Switches) I suspect there's currently no way to specifically force low gloss materials to only reflect high gloss reflections from other low gloss materials.

[thomthom]

Re: Force Non-Glossy Materials to Ignore Non-Glossiness

Great to hear I'm not the only one wanting this!

I've wondered if there was already a way to do this buried in some of V-Ray's more obscure settings, but as there's no specific mention of glossiness anywhere else (other than the "Glossy Effects" tickbox under Global Switches) I suspect there's currently no way to specifically force low gloss materials to only reflect high gloss reflections from other low gloss materials.

The Glossy Effects under Global Switches is the only control.