> Sorry, this is pointless. But step by step...

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, and I was
actually breaking it by redoing it!

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). And yes,
I had the reflection params swapped (doh!). Thanks for setting me straight.
Which left me with a very simple glass material like I would have made had I
avoided all that confusion:

sphere { 0, 1
   texture {
      pigment { rgbt 1 }
      finish { reflection { 0, 1 fresnel on } conserve_energy }
   }
   interior { ior 80000 }
   photons {
      target
      refraction on
      reflection on
      collect off
   }
}

What I did learn from all of this is the rather obvious (in hindsight) fact that
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.


-------------------------------------------------
www.McGregorFineArt.com

Post a reply to this message

Attachments:
Download 'dielectric.ior.80000.png' (457 KB)

Preview of image 'dielectric.ior.80000.png'