Am 12.02.2011 20:06, schrieb Robert McGregor:

> LOL, thanks Ive, I guess I got so caught up in what I was reading about
> dielectrics I didn't take into account that POV already does all that...

;)


> Which is pretty funny to me because I already knew this (re: fresnel, etc), but
> was somewhat thrown off by Mental Ray jargon and the equations I was looking at
> (and the problem compounded by this video: http://vimeo.com/18586657).

that was what I assumed as you have already shown that you do know better ;)


> higher reflectivity corresponds to less light transmission, and that a
> dielectric material does in fact become "opaque" at around ior=80,000 (at 4
> decimal places of accuracy) because the reflectivity hits 100% and light can
> no longer pass through. The attached image uses the above material.

Not so sure about the usefulness of such high values but anyway glass 
(and diamonds for that matter) are actually quite boring dielectrics. My 
favorite personal challenge is still porcelain where the refracted light 
does not simply travel along but gets scattered. I own a tea set made of 
Chinese porcelain (and have made a digital model of some parts of it) 
and I can render it and it might be even be recognized as porcelain but 
yet I do completely fail to capture the *beauty* of the light 
interacting with it.

-Ive

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