[Nuno Faria]

Hello all,
With the release of the new 3ds max plugin (07-Dec-2006), i came across of a nice and pretty fast
solution for showing caustics through glass/water.
Next i'll describe how i made this image (just SL 11 and some nice water caustics):



This is how i did:

1- for the water i modeled it, then applied a noise modifier.(lets call it water01)
2- Next i applied a water material
3- Then i duplicated the water mesh (lets call it water02)
4- Unchecked 'visible to camera' option (object properties) for the water01 mesh
5- Then i applied an AGS material for the water02 mesh
Thats all... Hope you guys enjoy it.

(Maybe in the future Maxwell Render wil do this automatically for us...
It could internally do this as i described above)

Best regards,
Nuno

[Frances]

That looks wonderful. Very nice scene. Great tip.

[Fernando Tella]

Great tip! Making water01 invisible to camera makes it still render the caustics produced by it and see through it at the same time.

It's a pity AGS does not produce the fresnel effect of water unless it has a refractive layer which will hide the caustics, right?

[Nuno Faria]

That looks wonderful. Very nice scene

thanks

Great tip! Making water01 invisible to camera makes it still render the caustics produced by it and see through it at the same time.

yes....thats the 'trick' behind all this

It's a pity AGS does not produce the fresnel effect of water unless it has a refractive layer which will hide the caustics, right?

i guess you are right... but in situations like clean/crystal pool water, that isnt to much of a problem, imo.

[thxraph]

nice trick, but i still prefere the gerets style + with your technic we cant see the pool depth deformation effect that should be generated from the ND 1.33 water...

Raph

[juan]

Great tip Nuno!

Juan

[DrMerman]

Nicely done mate

[Hervé]

Superbe tip !!

[tom]

Very inventive! I think it only doesn't have total internal reflections but caustics and surface reflection.

[Nuno Faria]

of course, this might doesnt work for every situation, but i think it works good enough for the above example.
glad you guys liked it

[abgrafx3d]

Very nice tip! Thanks.

[jdp]

excellent tip. thanks a lot.

[misterasset]

Has anybody else had problems with their caustics looking pixelated? I'm using planes that are 200x200 faces and my caustics look extremely pixelated. Any help?

[Nuno Faria]

Has anybody else had problems with their caustics looking pixelated? I'm using planes that are 200x200 faces and my caustics look extremely pixelated. Any help?

try to use "subdivide" modifier with a size of 10cm (0.1m) and then "noise" modifier... if this isnt enough, use "mesh smooth" modifier.
i never run into this kind of issue. hope this help!

nuno

[sandykoufax]

I can't doing that.

Nuno, can you share your scene file (.max) with just water and pool object and material ?