[big K]

hello juan,

as i reported here: http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6104
the texture maps are not quite working as expected (or at least as i expected )
i wanted to have a closer look and started with the ambient map.
here are my results:





as you can see, there are some weired effects.
- first of all even if you do not use the ambient map, the plastic material of the sphere produces reflections despite the black specular color in the maxwell material properties. (image1)
- the ambient map in white gives the same result as above (image2)
- the ambient map in black turns this effect off, but also has an influence on the diffuse floor. the color is darkened (image 3)
- the effects with an ambient checkerboard map to give a better overview (image 4)
- a maxwell plastic material is also assigned to the floor to see the overall same reflectivity (image 5)
- the specular color in the the floor plastic properties is set to white which results in a total reflection. but only in the white areas of the ambient map.
(to remind: even with black specular color there was a reflection ) (image 6)

not documented with an image: if i use a black color in formZ for the material color i get a dark grey ground (without any reflection maps assigned - havn`t tested with) BUT if i assign a black image map to the color in formZ i get a total black surface (no light shows up at all - which is i think the correct result)
the same example with colors leaves me with similar images (if i use e.g. a yellow image map and the same settings with the formZ color picker)
so only black results in different surfaces. (i will investigate this further - as i will the texture groups which i think do not work (one or more textures assigned to one object))

that´s it ... for now
hope this is of help

michael

[juan]

Michael,

Great analysis again
There are several issues in the maps handling with the current version of maxwell, specially with reflection maps. This is not a bug of the formZ plugin, but a bug in maxwell. We are fixing all this issues (and so much more) for the release. Anyway I am investigating your report to see if some of this behavior are due to the plugin and if so we will provide an update soon. Btw in the current version texture groups are not supported.
Thanks again!

Juan

[big K]

We are fixing all this issues (and so much more) for the release

this sounds so good.
actually, i am pushing my calendar hard to let the days pass faster. i want it to be october !! just kidding. but i am really desperately waiting for THE release.

back to topic. i think at least the fact that there are specular reflections in the sphere with the maxwell spec color set to black and without any maps assigned is supposed to be a plugin bug.
which map is supposed to be the glossy map ? because i wasn´t able to reproduce this effect with any of the maps.
And it is weired and maybe also a plugin thing that a black ambient map has an impact on the maxwell diffuse material.

michael

BTW thanks for your quick anwsers.

[sidenimjay]

it seems to me that the specular component in the shader refers to diffuse reflectance of an object back into the scene and not how much of a scene is reflected in the object


for instance , i have a blue plastic sphere next to a white diffuse wall

if i have a specular of 0,0,0 on the blue sphere, then i should see no blue spill on the white wall . . . if i have a specular of 1,1,1( 255,255,255 ) on the blue sphere then i should expect to see a very intense blue spill on the wall

i further note that this specular value has nothing to do with how much of the environment is reflected in the blue sphere . . . this is controlled soley throught the use of a map nothing more

make sense? is this correct?