architectural glass - what is it? and ...

[gordonrobb]

I see in the Standalone release notes architectural glass is in it.

Can someone tell me what architectural glass is exactly, and how I do it in the Plugin? I was assuming it was a node or something, but can't see anything.

[juanjgon]

I see in the Standalone release notes architectural glass is in it.

Can someone tell me what architectural glass is exactly, and how I do it in the Plugin? I was assuming it was a node or something, but can't see anything.

To enable "architectural" glass you need to enable the "Fake Shadows" option in the specular material node. This allow use transparent surfaces with Direct light kernel and get colored shadows.

-Juanjo

[gordonrobb]

Is that all it is? I had thought it was stuff like automatically reducing reflections when viewed straight on etc. Using the 'fake shadows' option is needed with any kind of glass surfaces and DL I thought, wheter a bottle a cup or a window. What makes it architectural glass?

[FooZe]

One of the reasons we sometimes call it architectural glass is because that's where we see it to be of most use. In most arch-vis for the windows you don't want them to cast shadows or produce proper caustics (which is slow), all you want is for the light to get through into the room quickly/easily.

Even with PT or PMC, without fake shadows, the only light getting through a specular material is the caustics which is very accurate, but very slow to render/calculate.

To control the reflection amount based on viewing angle use the index slider. (so the specular material naturally does this anyway). If you want even more control, you can use a falloff node for the reflection parameter.

Thanks
Chris