The above image (firefly, all options on) isn't exactly what I was expecting, but I thought it looked kinda neat anyway ;). There seem to be some issues with rendering reflections (none depected in this image)... - if you use a 'UV tiled' plane as the reflector, there are problems (I think the reflections end up being tiled?). - if you use the 'square' prop from the library, but then scale it up, the reflection seems to get scaled as well. - sometimes 'artifacts' just end up in the reflection... with no visible source. - transmapped items (P4 hair, for example) doesn't render properly either (though there may be a work-around setting fix that I'm missing). Of course, there's zero about reflections in the manual (did I miss a tutorial somewhere?), but there seem to be issues not related to user ignorance as well... I hope a future patch will help. In general, (artifacts and bugs aside) I'm really pleased with the quality of render you can get straight out of the program now - I think once we learn how to use it and some of the bugs get fixed we'll have a seriously powerful app in our hands. - Keith

One of the things I've noticed with the reflection shader is that the background color is black. Why they chose that, I don't know. I've had much better success with it as full white then tinkering with the reflection dial. Also, try using a glossy shader attached to the diffuse color to bring up the shine on the floor.

Thanks.. I've been playing around with various colors for the reflection node background (and the reflection background color setting on the root node) but haven't really figured it out yet ;). I'll give the glossy thing a try too.

Keith Can you give us a shot of the material room settings? You have done better than me so far. Thanks! Ron

...just posting to monitor the thread...:)

Is the figure Vicky or Judy?

Looking good. Something I don't understand from working with Poser for 3 years is why they never made reflections as easy as it is in Bryce, since there seems to be a lot of users who use both. Just my 2 cents.

I believe their initial philosophy was to make it a program for artist so they could pose and paint with out the expensive of hiring a model. Wasn't meant to be a rendering program. It has evolved that way at users request. Like Rhino, which began as a modeling app now they are expanding into a rendering app to. Even look at how Truespace has evolved. For that matter LightWave or Max. Hey by the way I still get my best stills out of Bryce bar none. Ron

"Hey by the way I still get my best stills out of Bryce bar none." me too ron and without jumping through too many hoops (just pack a lunch) but I love many of the new features in poser enough to realize that though I wan't deperately to transfer all my poser scenes to bryce to render it ain't gonna work... Yet.

jerr3d - it's a Vicky-based character that I'm working on... so far, I've been unable to create a Judy-based face that I'm happy with (not enough built-in nose morphs and lack of nose (bridge width)control in the face room). I do like Judy's body (below the shoulders) though. Ron - Yours looks great... I didn't save my settings, but was only attatching a reflection node to the Reflection_Color slot. I see that you hooked them up all over ;). I'll play around with that some more. I did finally get closer to the 'highly laquered wooden floor' look that I was after, but don't have a new render yet, due to other problems.

I'm really starting to dig this new Material Room... I wanted to create a 'planked floor' based on my previous floor material, so I inserted a Color_Math node and piped the original texture through there to make a darker version, then piped both textures through a Tile node to create the planks. Since this is done at runtime, I don't have to create a new texture in PSP... similarly, since you can dynamically scale the UV values around, I can now use a bunch of my seamless tiles without first creating a correctly sized tile (will cut down on disk-clutter).

Well, I don't know about the Material Room rocking, but you all on this thread definitely do. I've learned more today about how to use this part of Poser 5 than I did all last night staring at the handbook. Great job, Poser Gurus! You are awesome!!

Thanks.. actually, in my plank example, I could have left out the Color_Math node and just plugged the original texture into the Tile_2 slot in the Tile node and adjusted the color there (since the default operation is 'multiply'), but I was playing with other math functions before I decided on multiply (you can use white for value_2 and square root to make it lighter, for example).

Alas, I understand nothing about the math functions, but the examples are extremely clear and I am going to enjoy experimenting with them. This is definitely a "must have" thread for the tutorial bookmarks. There have been so many complaints about what doesn't work with Poser 5 that it is a relief to find out about the things that do!! :)

Spanki Your cooking now. I love this stuff! It is to cool. Ron

This is great stuff guys. perhaps you could post your findings over at the new P5 tricks and tips forum at Poserpros for the benifit of those who can't get in here. or with your permission I could transcribe it Using your pictures?

Wdupre You may post my stuff there. I have some tuts I am working on also. They are more in the hair and cloth stuff. Ron

bookmark :)

You got farther than I did. Upon rendering, Poser 5 turned my graphic into a line drawing and then froze. I tried again and got an error messages that I suspected meant if I continued I'd probably permanently corrupt the program. So I remain a graphic vampire without reflection. :( It looks as if some of us are doomed to stay in the audience watching everyone else's possibilities. Maybe those magic patches will help. I am losing confidence....and inclination to continue trying.

Bill, the problem with the hair color appears to be a bug in P5 (both draft and production render modes), related to rendering transparent items in reflections... it's using the backgroung color.

Keith How did you get the hair to show up in the one pic above? Been playing with trans hair all morning. Thought I got it to work but not really. Also tried the new dynamic hair which does not show up at all in the reflection. Ron

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=879720

Ron, the dynamic hair is really Vampire hair. ;) It has no UVs.

Ron, in the dialog box, under properties. Did you check "Visible in Ray Tracing" for the dynamic hair? Every time I do that and try to render, Poser 5 stops responding.

Interesting... I'll have to play with this some more.. could you show us your mirror material?

Yes I did. Ron

I cant get trans hair to work at all. But it could be a setting I have not hit on yet. Keith its the same one as used above. I dont think that makes a difference. I think any of the settings above would work. Ron

Dang! I'm still dealing with tech support. They answered just now about an error code I got when I tried to start Poser 5 after the first time I tried it. The error code wasn't connected to it, but I have already fixed that. I found the answer on their support page. Needless to say, they didn't answer the part about Poser not responding after I try to render the hair with Ray Traces checked.