Forum: Poser - OFFICIAL


Subject: Behavior of glossy metals at glazing angles of incidence

kawecki opened this issue on Jan 10, 2012 ยท 11 posts


aRtBee posted Wed, 11 January 2012 at 3:14 AM

As stated, reflection is the physical phenomenon which returns the light (and image), and surface roughness is the physical phenomenon which turns reflections into anything from specular to blurred reflection to full mirror.

So, in a physics based renderer, pick metal als the material of choise, adjust its surface roughness and that should do. If not, the metal shader for that renderer needs an upgrade. There should be no need for constructing metal from hard plastic (glossy) and mirror, as it does not work that way in reality either.

In Poser, you need a materials node that reduces specularity with grazing angle to plug into Alt_Specular. This node does not exist yet. And you need a node that reduces reflection with normal angle, which does not exist either, and above that: has no Alt_Reflection channel to be plugged in to. So, no way to get this effect done in FireFly - at least for now.

Is that a problem? Well, Firefly can come close to realistic looking results in a lot of cases, but will always fall short at the detailed level. This metallic specular / reflection thing is one of them. Polarisation is another. Specular and reflection in a no-light full-IDL render is another, and so on.

Will it get fixed? Perhaps one day, next to all other physical incorrect behaviour noted in other areas (cloth and hair dynamics, etc). Point is: SM doesn't see a market for these niche adjustments. So, forking out to another renderer is an option. Render with specular, render with reflection and merge in post is another option. Or building a math nodes construction altering Specular_Value and Reflection_Value with Angle (to camera? to light? to surface normal?) and some roughness and reflectivity parameters might be an option too.

My impression is that you're in search for the latter. Is it?

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Usually I'm wrong. But to be effective and efficient, I don't need to be correct or accurate.

visit www.aRtBeeWeb.nl (works) or Missing Manuals (tutorials & reviews) - both need an update though