- Mon Sep 06, 2010 3:34 pm
#330022
Hello Dubir,
I'm glad to hear that you are happy using the AGS materials.
Knowing that you may use them often, I'd like to share with you the "recipe" of AGS (Architectural Glass Solution).
AGS were created to provide a fast rendering materials that may look like dielectric glasses, but doesn't have the problems that dielectrics glasses often cause (often related to caustics and refraction).
So, AGS have reflection and transparency. But they doesn't present refraction (magnifying lens effect) or caustics.
Whenever you may need a glass that doesn't present refraction (magnifying effect) nor caustics, and want them to render fast, you could use an AGS (i.e. for window panes, or the material you are showing here).
But the more interesting thing in AGS are that they are not coded with any special algorithm inside the Maxwell core. The AGS are created using the common BSDF capabilities, but in a very smart way.
In fact, an AGS is a variation of the simple Mirror material.
I will show you how to create your own AGS and how to easily customize them:
Create a Mirror: as you may know, you just have to set the Roughness to 0, Refl0º and Refl90º to pure white and ND to a high value (20 or 30) to increase the reflections.
Now you have a perfect mirror.
The only point to get something usable as a window pane is to apply some amount of transparency. Instead of adding some Transmittance (which will convert your object into a dielectric glass), simply reduce its Layer Opacity value. Try first something like 10 or 15%.
This way you will get a "half-invisible" mirror, which is in fact an AGS.
Smart, no?
Now, you may find that it is easy to make your AGS more or less transparent (by adjusting its Layer Opacity value), tint it with any color, or even create a "frosted" more diffuse AGS (by increasing the Roughness value, to something like 20%).
I hope you find this information useful for you and for your projects.
Best regards
Dario Lanza
Next Limit Team