[Fernando Tella]

I have not solved all my problems with glass but I've found some things that may help you understand something about it. In reality, as in maxwell, the glass reflections depend on how light hits glass and the reflected object. Usually when lighting a building we try to give some direct light to the visible facade which usually makes the reflected object stay in shadows. If we add this to the fact that the typical Nd of glass for fresnel effect will darken the reflections a bit we've got a nearly black reflections on glass. If we change the light direction so it illuminates the reflected object and leaves the main building in shadows you'll see clearly the reflections. I think that's how it works in reality too.
If you anyway want to see more clearly the reflections you can make the glass act more as a mirror increasing the material Nd to something between 1,5 and 20. The nearer it gets to 20 more mirror like it will be but won't be so natural as with 1,5.

Hope this helps.

[Tim Ellis]

Are you using the AGS glass or normal glass? AGS will give better results for what you want.

If you want to try AGS it's in the A Team's Special folder.

Tim.

[Fernando Tella]

Fernando i was talking about faking my reflections using a poly with an image , hidden from camera.

I think it works the same way.

[Tim Ellis]

Also load up a HDRI or MXI in the reflection channel.

AGS also lets sunlight through glass behave correctly because ordinary dielectric glass will not.


Tim.

[JCAddy]

Can you show a photo or screen shot of where you placed your HDR image to get that reflection? I'm a bit lost, sorry.

In the MXI/HDR channels rollout?

I thought using those slots didnt work with sunlight / physical sky on?

Thanks

[Tim Ellis]

Giancarlo and Hyperballad, I'll answer both of your questions in the same explanation.

To use sunlight with HDRI/MXI, firstly open up the physky settings and enable sunlight.
Adjust time of day etc to suit. Now switch to the HDRI/MXI lighting page.

Any channel that is disabled will use your selection made in the drop down box at the bottom of the window. None, Skydome or Sky & sun. In your case select sky & sun.

For ease of HDRI/MXI positioning load the same map into the background slot, as well as those you require. Reflection in this case. (Don't use screen mapping though, as the other channels can't use it.)

Now to adjust the position of the HDRI?MXI map using the offsets.
Go back to the background channel and make sure the viewport is using the camera you will render with.
Now press and hold your middle mouse button over the offset X numeric value and drag up or down. You will see the HDRI?MXI move accordingly in the viewport, either left or right.
Set it where you want and remember that 1.000=360' So if you have entered 360', or any whole number, there will be no change in the HDRI/MXI's position.
Repeat for the Y offset.

Now copy and paste these values in the reflection map offset, so they will be positioned as the background is. The disable the background channel if you don't want it to show.

I hope this explains.

One last thing, right clicking the numeric data to copy and paste, will not work. You need to left click drag and then CTRL+C & CTRL+V for it to work. (This is a known bug.)

Tim.

[Tim Ellis]

Glad to help.

Have you tried cloning the whole building and placing it across the street. That would help the reflections in the near ground.

Or perhaps knock up a few quick low poly builidings for that purpose. If you have this month's 3DWorld mag, there are free building models included on the cd.


Tim.