This has probably been done before, but if so I've not seen it:-)

I wanted to create a 1-way mirror for use in Vue.
Now, why would I want to do that? If I look from 1 side it's a mirror, from the other it's glass and I can't see both sides at once...

Except if there's another mirror behind the 1-way mirror...

In that case then anything between the two would get reflected ad-infinitum, whereas anything the other side of the 1-way wouldn't get reflected.

I couldn't find any way to do that directly in Vue, so I created a simple box prop and gave it material zones for Front, Back and Edges.
I imported this into Vue and textured it with a mirror surface on the Back and a simple glass on the Front. (The Edges don't matter, they're just opaque.)
The trick was to make the Back surface (the mirror) 1-sided. Now looking from the front, you can see through the back, but looking from the back you see reflections.
Then I put a plane behind the 1-way glass, tilted it vertical and mirrored it.

Boxed the whole thing off with planes, put some stuff between the two mirrors (red ball, some lights), added a (green) ball in front and...

Well, you can see the result. I haven't bothered to tidy it up properly..

Cheers,
Diolma

Attached Link: http://science.howstuffworks.com/question421.htm

The trick will be to simulate the "half-silvered surface" of the real thing and the lighting conditions that make the idea work (see attached link).

Hi nruddock,

I think I'll stick with my own method. It seems to work, it doesn't involve any "exotic functions" or special lighting and it's quick'n'easy to do.

It'll be good enough for what I want to do, and I'm happy with it :-)
It does what I want it to: Doesn't reflect the green sphere (not very much, anyway - I might want to increase that a little in the glass front) and I get the semi-infinite reflections for the enclosed objects. ("Semi" infinite 'cos I only upped the no. reflections to about 15 - that was enough for this simple test.)

I only posted in case anyone else was wondering "how to". If anyone is and can't understand my somewhat terse explanation of what I've done I'll be happy to explain in better detail.

Cheers,
Diolma

Hey, that looks interesting.  Thanks for sharing.

hm, reminds of "Pepper's Ghost" which I think is a tutorial on Bryce Tech?? :)

cool trick! :)

Very cool - thanks for sharing :)

Very nifty.  Good idea and thx for sharing