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modeling light fixtures


MikeB

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I've been trying to model some light fixtures with translucent lenses. If I create the fixture with the light source inside a lense with the plain glass shader making it slightly opaque, it will not allow any light throught the lense. I have also tried to use a white image as the material and again make it slightly opaque. This dosen't work either.

Can RW not support what I'm trying to do. I know I can fake it by putting the light source in front of the lense, but this dosen't create an accurate spread of light.

Thanks

Michael Becherer

Omni Architects

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RenderWorks should be able to do what you are describing. What "type" of object are you using as your light object? A 3D Polygon, Mesh, Sweep or Extrude? What are your RayMaker settings? What type of light are you using? A point, directional or spot?

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I've tried both a sweep and just a simple 3-D poly as the lense. The engine is set to ray trace with 1 bounce, smooth edges and textures with the transparency and shadows on. It is point source. It seems if I set the Material transparency to the max it works but if I slide the bar at all to the left it won't.

I'll send you the file tomorrow

Thanks

Michael Becherer

Omni Architects

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You might want to try creating a lens with any of the glass textures (such as Plain Glass), then moving the transparency slider over to the right much of the way, not unlike your own suggestion. Doing this with glass makes the glass texture actually less transparent and more translucent, creating a "glow" effect when a light fixture is place inside. HTH

Dan Jansenson

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Sorry, I forgot to add (since you had already tried this) that it sometimes requires placing a maximum-strength light behind the lens in order to observe the translucency effect. Note that in certain cases the slider in the OI palette belonging to the light will only slide to 100%, but you can physically type in more than that, for increased light strength (such as 500% for example).

Dan J.

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  • 3 months later...

While the RW manual would imply that this is possible, I have never been able to make it happen, even by boosting the light's output beyond 100% as suggested by danielj1.

As an experiment, extrude a rectangle to create a sheet of material. Apply a transparent shader to that, so you have, in effect, a plate of glass. Put a solid object (cube, cone, whatever) on one side of this, a light aimed at the object on the other, a floor of some kind under it all to catch the shadows, and please please please tell me if you can ever find a way to get that 'plate of glass' to allow light to pass. Amuse yourself by coloring the light, 'glass', or solid object to help sort it all out. Turn off ambient light if it helps you to see things.

And please tell us if you can make it work.

I have never been able to create a transparent object that would not cast a shadow. Sure, you can see through it. But I have been unable to get light to pass through.

You can find a similar setup that also doesn't work as advertised (in my experience) on page 6-2 of that goofy RenderWorks manual ('Projecting Images').

-ajs

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Hi ajs,

In the Object Info Dialog the cast shadow option for the light must be OFF. Then it works. Is this Logic? Yes & No. Don't color the glass - no effect. Color the light.

Cheers

--Dieter

[This message has been edited by Dieter (edited 10-27-2000).]

[This message has been edited by Dieter (edited 10-27-2000).]

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