I was wondering if the fact that we can get a nice real-time reflection in Rendered mode in the Groundplane (if the material is reflective) is due to some trickery that allows only planar surface reflection or that has a potential to work on any objects with reflective materials?
I remember in early V5 WIP stage a videocapture was shown with objects being reflective in real-time in Rendered viewport, but then all we got was the ground plane reflection. Is that something that potentially could be implemented in future (not as Raytraced but in OpenGL rendered mode).
Yes it is something that is possible…but there are many situations where it just won’t work, or will look totally wrong… Things like self-reflective objects and surfaces is just one area.
Once things start to settle down with 6.0, I can start looking into things like this…but as of right now, I don’t see this going into the first release of V6.
Good to know this is possible and obviously I did not think anything of that sort can happen before V6, but maybe for future releases. Now with the so well implemented and fast AO in viewport, the render mode became even more real-time presentation and model walk-through ready.
On our long awaited wishlist are still reflections in objects other than GroundPlane (and Environment - @Andy - this is nice btw too and also pays attention to “blurred” reflections - nice touch) and also “FOG” effect with controllable color and intensity.
Good to know these are possible - hope to keep seeing the real-time display improvements beyond V6 : )
I would also be interested in such a rendering feature. I’d be interested to see how sunlight is reflected off facades onto a ground plane or other buildings. Thanks for looking into thie, Jeff
Definitely subtle effect like bounced light and light reflections, refractions, caustics, sss, etc. are what the Raytraced mode should do and not what I was originally asked for with OpenGL rendered mode. The Rendered mode is great for real-time smooth and fast presentations and model evaluations so I was wondering how it could be enhanced in future, in parallel to what Cycles will offer, with its pros and cons.
A gamer changer for real time presentation seems to be the screen space calculation like shown here:
Maybe it will find a way to the Rhino display. The RT Rhino render plugin Enscape is using something like this. If I understand right this are reflections without classic raytracing.