Glass Shader Quality

Started by WAS, March 26, 2018, 07:40:44 PM

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WAS

Is there a way to improve the quality of the glass shader? When I render a sphere, lets say, it's incredibly jagged and the reflections almost swirly warped. I want to play with glass more, and had ideas for gems, but I can't afford to pay for "preview" renders just to get by quality. So kinda wondering my options here.

Is it the quality of the polygons being translated over to lighting/reflections?

Note: I am on Free version Micropolygon Detail 0.6 AA 6

Oshyan

This should be entirely dependent on the Ray Detail Multiplier in Subdivision settings. This is an internal node inside the Render node. It is not created by default, if you don't see it once you go into the internal node network of the Render node, you can use the Check Animation Settings button and even if you say No to changing to "optimal animation settings", it will still create the Subdiv Settings node. The default is 0.25 to save on render time. This means that the detail in reflections and refractions (in this case refraction) is 1/4 of the full, normal detail setting. You can try a value of 0.5 and see if it's good enough but you may need 0.75 or even 1.0 (same detail in reflections/refractions as main detail). The needed value for a good result will depend on how much refraction/distortion there is and how reflective your object is. For highly reflective, highly transparent and refractive objects with a smooth surface, like your test sphere, you'll need high values to get a "perfect" result because any imperfection is more visible. For objects that distort the reflection/refraction more due to displacement or other effects, lower Ray Detail works OK because the imperfections are hidden by the distortion.

Keep in mind the same multiplier affects all reflection and refraction, including in transparent water.

- Oshyan

WAS

Thanks Oshyan, this is good information to know. Even for windows on a house object I wanted to use (changing windows from the normal solid like plane to glass shader) won't have noticeable dark marks I'm hoping.