was readings something about Tranformers this week.
they didnt raytrace everything on the robots. only where we would noticed the details.
they raytraced only the glass,pipes and the parts that are near the head for close ups.

so i was looking at some screencaps. and i found this. look at the pipe. it doesnt have 2 raytrace bounces. in the mirror it looks like a white pipe.

this is from poser. everything you connect in the raytrace node will be visible in the second raytrace bounce.

-one bounce
-2 bounces

• 1 bounce and the diffuse node connected to raytrace

so if you have carpaint or something similar you can make a cheat. connect something like the diffuse node to the raytrace node. that way you can use 1 raytrace bounce in the rendersettings.

and the reflection will not be just plain black.

what do you think?

Interesting.  Worth a try. 

BTW, that green looks ghastly. 

i made the diffuse green and blue only for the demonstration. you make the color whatever fits better.

Sorry ice-boy, but your edge blend is useless if you have the same color in and out ... I think ...

Try to find the difference ;-)

ignore the other nodes in my screencap. this thread is about how to connect diffuse or any other node in the reflect node to make the second bounce visible.

this is an old silver shader. its not gamma corrected.

Quote - Sorry ice-boy, but your edge blend is useless if you have the same color in and out ... I think ...

then how do you make perfect reflections? how do you make a mirror? edge blend is for fresnel. 

interesting that noone else is interested in this thread.

Quote - interesting that noone else is interested in this thread.

I'm following it. There are lukers who follow along hoping to understand what's being said/done. Screenshots help A LOT.

yeah this is just a cheat and my english is not very good to explain it.

if you dont want perfect realism  with reflections you dont need 2 raytrace bounces in the render settings. with 1 bounce it renders faster.

erm. that white pipe is a white pipe. that's not part of Optimus... the beam that holds the reflection there is infront of his exhaust stack.. so it's reflecting something else white in the scene.

its the silver object next to hes head.

I can see. you mean the bar with the reflection? thats raytraced. look at the other end next to his jaw. the white is reflected concrete pillars.