No highlights from glossy material - rendered viewport

Rhino Rhino for Windows
1

The cube objects all have a glossy basic material applied. Anyone know why I’m not getting any indication of a glossy surface on the objects themselves, but it does appear in their reflections on the ground plane material? If I launch a render, same thing… Shouldn’t the environment (basic Rhino sky) create the highlights? If I put a light in the scene that points more or less horizontally, then I get some highlights, but I don’t really want to to that…

http://screencast.com/t/VjgJo6IoiK6e

2

Hi Mitch- if you fillet the top edges, do you get anything? Or ApplyEdgeSoftening.

-pascal

3

Your view angle would have to be just right to see it in a flat surface.

4

Yes, I do get reflections if I fillet the top edges. However, what I’m not understanding is why I’m seeing the highlights in the reflections of the objects in the groundplane, and not the objects themselves… I thought the environment would light things all around down to the horizon… I guess not, the light appears to be coming from the top only…

–Mitch

5

I see what you are saying… looking down at a strong angle, the specular only shows in the reflection.

I need to think a little more… wait, coffee first.

-Pascal

6

It’s the reflection angle. The light hits the curves side, deflects to the reflective ground plane, and comes back to the camera. The box material would need a bumpy texture so some light could bounce back to the camera.

7

Yep, that sounds right.

-Pascal

8

Yeah, that’s what it looks like. I just thought there would be light all around coming from the environment that’s set, but it’s only coming from above. Seems like I need to set up my own lighting then, thanks…

–Mitch

9

There is light all around but not a light source, which is where those specular highlights come from. Use BounceLight, oops, I mean “EditLightByHighlightLocation” > NewLight to see where to place a light to get a hotspot where you want it. (I generally set output to be a line and not a light, just to give an indication of the direction from a particular viewpoint.) On a vertical surface seen from above, the light will need to come from below.

-Pascal