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Transparency and reflections in Ray-traced 3D?
This is interesting behaviour I’ve discovered while playing with Ray-traced 3D. I’m hoping someone can explain why this is handled the way it is and/or a way around it if I don’t want this behaviour.
Say I have
A -a layer with Reflection Intensity at 100%
B -a layer set to Appears in Reflections Only
C -a layer set to Appears in Reflections Only and transparency at 50%And they are arranged such that I can see both B and C reflected in A with C in front of B.
Since C is transparent, you might expect to see B through C. You would be wrong. Instead, the transparency of C seems to create a transparent hole in A, precisely where C’s reflection appears on A.
If you switch B to Appears in Reflections On instead of Only, then you can see B through C.
I guess it is something like the renderer doesn’t treat seeing B through C in a reflection as B appearing “only in reflections” because it’s also being seen through a transparency? Or something?
Now, being able to add transparent spots to the reflective object like that could have its uses, but what if I did just want the reflection of a transparent object, rather than the transparent reflection of an object?
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1 Reply
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[Ryan Hill] “I guess it is something like the renderer doesn’t treat seeing B through C in a reflection as B appearing “only in reflections” because it’s also being seen through a transparency?”
This sounds like a bug to me, and your explanation here seems like a reasonable theory as to its nature.
I’d suggest you file a bug report [link], and maybe include a link to a project file that illustrates the problem.
Walter Soyka
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