portals

[ruthenoid]

Hi,
I'd like to ask whether there was some development/plans according to PMC:portals.
Sinse the beginning of PMC there is a post in the docs stating that portals don't work well with glass/windows.

Currently, portals cannot be placed in openings which are not open, eg a window with a portal cannot contain glass at this time. In some complex scenes and situations, portals might slow down the render, so a bit of experimentation with/without should be done.

Did something change about it recently. I'm specifically asking about portals+windows.
Is there a possibility to use singlesided materials on windows, which would not affect the portals.
I have heavy interiour scenes which need portals, but have window glass visible all over the place.
Thank you

[roeland]

It depends, portals are mainly effective in interior scenes with small windows, and where most of the light still comes through those small windows.

Currently you can put both portals and glass in the openings, but you have to enable the "fake shadows" option in the window glass material (that's what some renderers call architectural glass).

--
Roeland

[bepeg4d]

Hi ruthenoid,
in my experience, instead of portals, it is far better to use a not intersecting plane few millimeters away from the glass inside the room. In this way you can use an emitter node with opacity 0 to better simulate the indirect lighting coming through the windows.
About the singol side glass, you can use a Glossy material with falloff in opacity as described here:
viewtopic.php?f=21&t=23483
ciao beppe

[ruthenoid]

Great! Thank you both!