In article <Xns### [at] povrayorg>, ingo wrote:

>... The thing is that the refractive index is a 
>complex number. For transparent materials the real part of it has much 
>bigger influence than than the imaginary part, so the latter is usualy 
>neglected in calculations. For example for metals the opposite is true. 
>The real part of the refractive index has "no" influence.

>POV-Ray only uses the real part of the ior in its model, so adding an 
>ior to a metal would result in an unrealistic reflection.

For dielectrics (opaque or transparent) though, the position is the
opposite from that of metals, isn't it? The refractive index will be
dominated by the real component (no free charge carriers) and POV's
implementation of the Fresnel model is perfectly adequate from a
realism, er, POV. No glaze is necessary, except as far as the modelled
object might have one.

Thanks,

Tom

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