[marked001]

anyone have any recommendations for a material for this plastic on the lights? i tried a blue ags, but it didnt show up really..any tricks like making the flat portions ags and the outer edge a plastic?

i havent touched this in awhile and i'm not on a machine with maxwell at the moment, so i cant remember exactly what i'm using everywhere... but right now i think the fins in the light are a plastic mxm that i downloaded from the mxm gallery and altered the color... i tried using the new sss wizardl, but similar results. the emitter in each is two rectangles...which, now that i think about it..may interect each other...could this cause a problem?

thanks in advance.. (obviously, any other advice is greatly appreciated)

[def4d]

never intersect emitters!

[marked001]

yes! i checked it out and it wasnt the case..i didt think i was that dumb..haha.. the emitters are 3 rectangles in each fixture

[def4d]

could you post a blow-up render and wires?
as my english is not that good, i'm not sure to understand your description

[marked001]

i can try to later again... not on the correct computer.

to describe..the emitters in each fixture are basically an extruded triangle... with those three planes as emitters.. so a triangle in plan..

[def4d]

ok, i think i see, and those emitters intersect with nothing?

[marked001]

no..they are independent of everything. i think the plastic material has to be the culprit...

[def4d]

For the plastic, i would use a standard glass (no AGS, no SSS)
Are the emitter enclosed in a glass cylinder? It seems there's something around them, if yes put them off

[marked001]

i havent tried standard glass...i will give that a go.. .there is no glass around the emitters... they're inside a metal cylinder with a few slots...

[def4d]

As the fixtures produce a lot of caustics, try to Hide the plastic part from GI
You will loose the real effect, but decrease noise and render time
See here, normal glass :


And Hidden To GI:

[marked001]

thanks so much for running that test! really appreciate that.

i do not know how to hide a material/object to GI though... can you let me know how? thaks... again, appreciate all the help.

[marked001]

nevermind...i see it in the plugin.never used it before.. thanks.

[def4d]

[def4d]

results?

[marked001]

i never posted the result! sorry..i swore i had...whoops

nothing spectacular, but hiding it to the GI definitley helped! thank you.