Topic: Transparent (Translucent) objects are not reflected

[abobrino]

Hi!  

I noticed that using reflection effect the objects with glass material does not appear. I made a square in sketchup and exported it, added the standart material, did the mirror in the "special effects" and he was great. it reflects objects normally, but if something is translucent will not be reflected.  

This is because I am a free user (version 3.2) or is a limitation of the software?  

Note: Sorry for my english, I'm using google translator.

[V.Serge]

Hi
This not a limitation, but export bug, think so. Something similar occurred in earlier versions of Maxwell render and v-ray software using .obj format. An object becomes transparent when light does not stop at the surface, but goes through the object and out the other side. Therefore translucent effect is not appears on "plane" surfaces. Try adding the thickness for each object.

[abobrino]

The object in question has thick, but still remained invisible.

[peterm]

Hi abobrino

No, it's not because you are using the Free version.

Objects that have the Glass Material (contain transparency) cannot be reflected in the Reflection Plane - this is a known limitation of the current Reflection Planes, as well as for other objects with reflection.

Changing the value of the Transparency slider does not change this limitation.  This is because of the way Glass and Reflection Planes get rendered, and not due to the amount of transparency.

Please note I have amended the topic title to add word Transparent.  In Lumion there is no current support for Translucent Materials (although they can be faked).

[TJS]

Does anyone have a work around for this? I have some wine glasses on a countertop, and they look as if they are floating because they are not reflecting in the countertop with everything else. What type of material can I use or make to have them be reflected but still look transparent/glass like?

[peterm]

Two workarounds (and I mean workarounds  ) I can think of, but neither might be suitable to you:

1.  if its image only, then add an inverted image in PS or other image editor and merge in to the scene

2.  cancelled that idea.

And maybe a third: how important to the scene is it that you use wine glasses, will some other objects suffice that are not Glass Material   ?

The base of two of the wine glasses appears very bright/white?

[TJS]

Two workarounds (and I mean workarounds  ) I can think of, but neither might be suitable to you:

1.  if its image only, then add an inverted image in PS or other image editor and merge in to the scene

2.  cancelled that idea.

And maybe a third: how important to the scene is it that you use wine glasses, will some other objects suffice that are not Glass Material   ?

The base of two of the wine glasses appears very bright/white?

I was going to go with the PS route, but wondered if there was an in-program workaround someone has figured out. I haven't tried yet, I'll try today, but would it work to have a 32-bit png with a grey alpha so that when I use the slider on a standard material, it would be semi-transparent?

The wine glasses can be changed, but I can't use only coffee mugs in all the photos. I need some variety.
I think the lights from above are reflecting just right off the base of the glass to turn them white. I need to move the reflection sphere.

Thanks for response anyway. Hopefully sometime soon we can have glass be reflective....

[TJS]

Does the "Clip" portion of the "Reflection/Clip/Bright" slider only support 1-bit alpha? I thought Lumion supported 8-bit alpha. I made a white 32-bit .tga in PS with a 50% grey alpha and the Clip does nothing. I tried with a gradient 100% white to 100% black alpha and it makes the material in Lumion show as half solid and half gone.

Am I doing this wrong or is the Clip portion only "on or off" alpha?

Is it possible to have the "Clip" be 8-bit capable so we can make ANY standard material transparent?

[g1-francisco]

I'm afraid this is one of the big issues that need to be sorted by ACT-3d, hopefully soon

[stucki]

+1 for really true transparent materials 

[Morten]

Hi TJS, I just noticed that your post slipped through the net and didn't get a reply - sorry about that (in August most of us were on holiday).

Does the "Clip" portion of the "Reflection/Clip/Bright" slider only support 1-bit alpha?

That's correct. The only material which supports 8-bit alpha channels is Glass.

[TJS]

That's correct. The only material which supports 8-bit alpha channels is Glass.

Which doesn't show in reflections,  hence the need for 8-bit alpha support to make standard materials transparent. (or would that then make standard materials non-reflective?)

Thanks for replying though. That's what I like about the Lumion community. The users are pretty active on the forums and help out when the ACT3d team is unavailable. The ACT3d team always takes the time (even if it's from an older post) to confirm/deny/clarify/direct the questions.

[Morten]

Thanks for your support, TJS - it's not always easy to be in the trenches between customers and developers - now and then Peter and I have to keep our heads down to survive the crossfire

As far as I know, it will require an upgrade from DirectX 9 to DirectX 11 to resolve the problems with transparent materials. An upgrade would also provide some functionality that would enable better terrain tesselation (more details) and some speed improvements along the way if multi-threading was implemented. The bad news is that it potentially could be a very time-consuming task with a long beta test period.

Nevertheless, I still hope the developers will consider taking the plunge over the coming year. I have seen some mind-blowing proof-of-concept demos made by one of our developers which would really take Lumion to the next level if DirectX 11 were to be implemented, so let's hope this is in the cards sooner rather than later.

DISCLAIMER: I am not implying that Lumion will definitely swith to DirectX 11 in 2013/14, I'm merely explaining what the pros and cons would be if the developers chose to do so.

[TJS]

Ahh... I didn't expect DX11 in the next release, so I figured that some things would have to wait to be improved till Lumion updates to DX11 sometime in the future.

It's nice to hear they are starting to play with DX11 though. Some of the games that take full use of DX11 look amazing! I can only imagine some of the things the Lumion developers are trying out.

Till then, you, Peterm, Arthur, & Remko should invest in some helmets. 

[peterm]

TJS, apologies, that was my bad for missing. 

One aspect on futures and developing in any change of DX is the impact on the product and team over the time, not only to develop but to cleanly incorporate in the product.  Whilst that happens, other features could or need to be put on hold for this base to be done, and it is often almost irrespective of resources thrown at it as well. 

That means users don't see much coming out of the factory  , even after an initial release of something like upgrading to DX11/DX12.  The benefits are only noticed and gained by users much further down stream.