After extensive testing, confirmed by 2 other people, I've been forced to conclude that poser can't render a mirror under certain circumstances. If someone can point out an error in this, I'll be extrememly grateful. Here's the setup.

Poser 6 - Raytracing ON - Fairly high render settings (manual)

1 x mirror with normal reflect node

4 lights - 3 with no shadows - 1 main light with depth-mapped shadows - map size 1024

Result - Objects near the mirror are reflected, but further away, they're not. For example, the floor of a room can actually be seen to disappear halfway across in the render.

You can replicate this with a mirror and 3 cubes or spheres at different distances.

Getting a reflection

Change the light to raytraced shadows, and the full reflection appears.

Now, am I crazy or is this normal for poser? I didn't believe it at first, because in daz studio, I have no problems at all with the same setup. I'd love for someone to say 'You're an idiot! Here's how it's done!'

TIA

mac

your not crazy. it is a quirk of Firefly.

if something is not visable in the camera view and the shadows are set to depth map then it will cull the things not in the camera view. even if they should be reflected.

Argh!!

Well, it's some consolation to know it's not me, especially after trying every setting known to Man. But it's a total pain since I'm releasing a product with lots of glasses, bottles and a mirror. The rendering is so slow with raytracing that it's painful to endure.

Thanks a lot for the confirmation. It's put me out my misery, at least.

mac

Amazing.

This is the kind of bug you would expect of a renderer in 1994 - not 2007.

This one's fixed in Poser 7.

Thanks, stewer. Unfortunately, it doesn't help me since I'm releasing a commercial product, so it needs to work in all versions.

Bagginsbill told me this only appeared in P6 with SR3? I'm wondering if it affects P5

mac