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General => Terragen Discussion => Topic started by: WAS on August 08, 2018, 12:16:15 PM

Title: Reflections Quality
Post by: WAS on August 08, 2018, 12:16:15 PM
I'm trying to improve reflection and refraction quality but despite GI settings, 360 crop region, I just get jagged polygons. Also is transparency and refraction fake in TG? Seems close objects, colour, and lighting doesn't interact except in reflections. Additionally, I can't seem to achieve coloured shadows with a sphere (double sided objects?).

MPD 0.6 AA 6 GI Cache 8, GI Quality 8, GI Blur Radius 16, Occlusion Weight 3, Bounce to the Ounce 3, Voxel Scattering Quality 300.
Title: Re: Reflections Quality
Post by: Hannes on August 08, 2018, 01:20:21 PM
For refraction/reflection set the ray detail multiplier (Render/Advanced/Subdiv Settings) to 1. Colored shadows is a different animal. There are no caustics (yet) in TG.
Title: Re: Reflections Quality
Post by: WAS on August 08, 2018, 02:10:11 PM
Quote from: Hannes on August 08, 2018, 01:20:21 PM
For refraction/reflection set the ray detail multiplier (Render/Advanced/Subdiv Settings) to 1. Colored shadows is a different animal. There are no caustics (yet) in TG.

Oh cool, I'll check it out, thanks.

I can't wait until we have these features. Even just for semi transparent surfaces like skin like subsurface scattering would be cool. I imagine it could be done by making objects "solid" with "blackness" inside (stopping light) and than being able to apply a scattering shader/default shader which has a "subsurface scattering" feature. Decay distance, maybe light power and colour function. Coupled of course with some sort of transparency shader like default.
Title: Re: Reflections Quality
Post by: Hannes on August 08, 2018, 03:16:46 PM
Well, coloured shadows are possible. Uncheck "cast shadows" of your original object. Make a copy of your object, make it invisible and check "cast shadows". In the opacity slot of your copied object create a default shader and set a value of less than 1. Additionally you can choose some colour. Not the same as real caustics, but with a lightsource placed right above the shadow you can at least fake it...
Title: Re: Reflections Quality
Post by: WAS on August 08, 2018, 03:44:24 PM
Does't work. Already tried duplicating the sphere with a fresh default shader and inverted colour for opacity.  Like I mentioned, may be a issue with objects that are solid (two sides). Dunno.
Title: Re: Reflections Quality
Post by: Hannes on August 08, 2018, 04:44:02 PM
Sorry, I wrote something, that didn't make sense. Create a default shader for the shadow casting object, and in the opacity slot use a value of less than 1.
Try 0.5 for example...
Title: Re: Reflections Quality
Post by: WAS on August 08, 2018, 04:49:44 PM
Quote from: Hannes on August 08, 2018, 04:44:02 PM
Quote from: Hannes on August 08, 2018, 03:16:46 PM
In the opacity slot of your copied object create a default shader and set a value of less than 1

Try 0.5 for example...

My original starting point for glass opacity was 0.1, and still nothing. Tried with 0.5 down to 0.1, all gray. Tried even 0.01.
Title: Re: Reflections Quality
Post by: Hannes on August 08, 2018, 04:57:48 PM
In your screenshot the opacity is still at 1.

Quick, dirty and ugly example below...
Title: Re: Reflections Quality
Post by: WAS on August 08, 2018, 05:06:36 PM
Sorry that was the previous screenshot. I accidentally copied the screenshot instead of saving it I think. But assured, it's 0.1.

Try with Terragen's sphere. That's what I'm using.
Title: Re: Reflections Quality
Post by: WAS on August 08, 2018, 06:42:17 PM
To clarify, it works with a imported sphere. Just not TG's sphere. Interesting.

Also, the reflections on a obj compared to the sphere are a bit different. Brighter.
Title: Re: Reflections Quality
Post by: Hannes on August 09, 2018, 01:12:22 AM
Quote from: WASasquatch on August 08, 2018, 06:42:17 PM
To clarify, it works with a imported sphere. Just not TG's sphere. Interesting.

Confirmed. That's indeed strange... ???
Title: Re: Reflections Quality
Post by: Dune on August 09, 2018, 01:45:52 AM
An internal sphere is a displacable object, an imported sphere is not. Calculations are different, no doubt.
Title: Re: Reflections Quality
Post by: WAS on August 09, 2018, 02:22:58 AM
Quote from: Dune on August 09, 2018, 01:45:52 AM
An internal sphere is a displacable object, an imported sphere is not. Calculations are different, no doubt.

That would make sense. Instead of using a non displaced object for a fixed shadow, the object is of course displacable and could have any shape, probably has it's own shadow emitter of sorts.

Would also explain the bizarre distortion when I forget it's a TG sphere and try to scale it instead of using it's radius.
Title: Re: Reflections Quality
Post by: luvsmuzik on August 09, 2018, 09:49:25 AM
On the old clunker, did this double sphere, glass shader on sphere. Then applied Hannes' formula for the colored shadow. YAY me! :)
Does the opacity color have to be the bright green for this to work correctly?

WAS I got yours to work okay, but getting messages about a missing ORB?
Title: Re: Reflections Quality
Post by: Hannes on August 09, 2018, 09:59:38 AM
It has to be the complement color for some reason.
Title: Re: Reflections Quality
Post by: luvsmuzik on August 09, 2018, 10:09:30 AM
Quote from: Hannes on August 09, 2018, 09:59:38 AM
It has to be the complement color for some reason.

Aha! Got it! Thanks!
Title: Re: Reflections Quality
Post by: WAS on August 09, 2018, 11:29:23 AM
Quote from: luvsmuzik on August 09, 2018, 09:49:25 AM
On the old clunker, did this double sphere, glass shader on sphere. Then applied Hannes' formula for the colored shadow. YAY me! :)
Does the opacity color have to be the bright green for this to work correctly?

WAS I got yours to work okay, but getting messages about a missing ORB?

The orb is just another sphere object with the shadow default shader. I tried packing two objects in a single TGO. Worked on my end. Obviously not with someone without original resource. Woops!
Title: Re: Reflections Quality
Post by: WAS on August 09, 2018, 11:52:15 AM
Quote from: Hannes on August 09, 2018, 09:59:38 AM
It has to be the complement color for some reason.

I'm not sure about it's brightness but it needs to be an opposite of exact nature to really get a perfect shadow color.

Will share three new marble TGO's in a bit. Rendering preview.

Edit: https://planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,25389.0.html