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Does anyone have a suggestion on how to create a realistic looking clear lightbulb? I have tried using AGS glass -default settings but I think it becomes unrealistically dark:
Click for large view - Uploaded with Skitch

well the first thing you have to do is model the thickness of the glass -- meaning there should be an empty vacuum inside the bulb with a very thin glass shell.

However it should be said up front that this is a really bad idea in Maxwell as it stands -- the reason is everything will then be lit with caustic light and will take forever to clear (if ever)... and truthfully how often does one actually see a bare light bulb. Even then if you take into account very few bulbs are made completely "clear" it is much smarter to simply assign a MXI emitter based material to the outside of the "bulb" if you need to see it... seeing into and through the bulb is not necessary in most cases.

If you are not looking at the bulb (on camera) and you are just looking for a specific lighting effect then IES emitters are a much better way to go.

That said, if you do have a need to see (and see through) the bulb itself then I would suggest modeling it as accurately as possible and using a render farm to get the high SL required.

Best,
Jason.

That is what I feared. And yes I do need to see the bulb and the lightsource as per my -poor- illustration...

Hmm...

The reason why AGS won't work "realistically" is because it is in fact a partially invisible metal -- it is not really transparent in the way a dielectric material is... the bottom line is in order to be solid enough to show reflections it will also block some light.

AGS is a compromise and a thoroughly "unrealistic" solution to a problem that does not exist in reality -- that is that there is no difficulty in using dielectric materials in the real world (and given enough processing power and time, in Maxwell as well).

Best,
Jason.

For the benefit of anyone else fighting the same problems the Clear option in the AGS wizard seemed to fix the issue...

Love to see a screenshot when you get something presentable.

-brodie

brodie_geers wrote:Love to see a screenshot when you get something presentable.

-brodie

+1

Love to see it as well.

bug thread says there is someting broken with AGS in this 2.5 release-- would that be why its not lookin clear?

a quick test (low poly and only sl13.5) using real glass hidden to GI (with physical sky)

Very clever solution! -- not necessarily perfectly realistic but certainly more-so than AGS.

Best,
Jason.

There's a bug confirmed with AGS in 2.5 release, so this MIGHT be your problem.

It has been explained a bit in here:
http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/view ... 13&t=35866
Here's an example:

with all the lil bugs and hicups in 2.5 showin up.. its probably gonna be months before a patch is released just to address the ags problem(i count this as a serious issue)

numerobis:
very nice alternate solution to get lightbulbs!!

thanks Jason and 3dtrialpractice
yes, this works quite good with v2.5