I know this can be done in a very accurate way with optics programs like Zemax, but wonder if you can do a basic version of it in Rhino?
For example, have a 1 mm diameter “cylinder” of light pass through a window at an angle. The “light cylinder” bends in the window based on snell’s law.
I know that you can simulate light interactions with index as a property, but I thought this was for light scattering/refraction from point and distributed volume sources, not a “beam” source.
i am still unsure if that is what you need…
i set up a scene with a physically based material and a refractive index of 1.52 (glass) anything passing through will be bent depending on the index
Thanks. Maybe we are seeing this a bit differently. The rendering does do index well with two solid objects. But is that red object light or a solid? If you draw a straight line from the center of the top of the red object to the center of the bottom of the red object, it should NOT be a line parallel to the red object if the red object is “beam of light” and not a solid.
hm, so the outcoming light-beam will be physically displaced compared to a solid rod passing directly through just visually bent? interesting… which actually means you would need something like a volumetric light, since laser is probably seen with the help of a medium either i assume?
i am not sure if that can be done with rhino… @nathanletwory ?
here just another render seen from the side, here it just appears bent in the medium but proceeds its incoming path. which is not what you want in that case.