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diceman83
10-11-2007, 07:30 PM
Hey everyone,

I've been having this problem with some glass that I created. The glass is a simple rectangular box, with an anistropic texture applied. I added a bumpmapping layer to simulate wavy antique glass.

The problem is that when I render looking through the glass, none of the shadows rendered outside are visible. In the image below, I've shifted the glass up so that you can see between the panes, and see that the shadows are calculated and existant, but not visible through the glass. What confuses me is that the far more complex calculations for mentalray's secondary diffuse light bounces are visible, as indicated on the right.

I've tried many different lights, shadow settings and renderers, all with the same annoying result.

Any ideas on the cause or possible fixes to try? Thanks in advance...

~ Dice

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2329/1545010554_29988cf4f5_o.jpg
diceman83
10-15-2007, 12:33 AM
*bump*...

I see that some people have looked, but no suggestions yet?

Oh, I'm using Maya 8.0 for this project. 8.5 screws up one of my models terribly, so it isn't an option. I'm gonna try creating a simple scene to upload (if I can) with the problem illustrated.

The model's origin is as follows:
- I created a house model with windows in a new file, and applied all the textures.
- Then I created a new scene with the landscape and referenced the model with the house.
- Finally I ended up copying the referenced model with a ctrl-d and positioned it where I wanted it.
- The light is an area light a pretty good distance away, with an intensity of 3 in that render.

Any questions?

~ Dice
diceman83
10-15-2007, 05:08 PM
well, I've created a simple version, and it doesn't have the problem. I'm gonna try messing with the rendering settings some more until I run out of ideas again.
diceman83
10-15-2007, 08:06 PM
Ahhhh HA! I found the setting that's causing the problem. It's the "Refractions" checkbox under "Raytrace Options" on the Anisotropic Material I was using. This only affects renders with MentalRay though. In my test scene, it still looks right with the Maya Renderer.

The question is: Why does this happen?

Test scene images:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2411/1580105481_4854c12d77.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2332/1580105473_aab141e73d.jpg
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10-15-2007, 08:06 PM
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