Rhino 8 Architectural Perspective Renderings for Reflective surfaces

Rendering
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GIVEN: A multi-story building with a central atrium open to the sky.
A reflective rectangular panel on the roof on the north side of the atrium.
The reflective panel is angled off the normal to the ground plane to reflect sunlight down into the atrium.
The angle of the panel together with the angle of incidence of the sun with the panel and the angle of reflection have been designed to reflect light from the sun off of the panel into the south wall of the atrium…
In the perspective view (rendered) with the sun at 45 degree elevation a shadow on the roof on the north side of the panel is clearly defined (OK!)

QUESTION: … Unfortunately, there is no visible reflection into the courtyard and specifically the south wall of the atrium from what should be the reflection of the sun off the reflective panel. ?? Suggestions ??

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Rhino doesn’t do caustics like that at the moment.

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Hi Nathan:

Thanks for the prompt reply

Unfortunate that native Rhino 8 ray tracing is limited to primary ray and not secondary reflections.

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You can get a very crude approximation by checking out the diffuse lighting. Replace the mirror material with the default material and then see how the diffuse lighting works - it isn’t perfect by any means but it should tell you if any light bounces around.

Here a simple directional light (the sun), lighting a panel that is at a 45deg angle to the ground plane, but behind a wall. No other lighting and background set to black to highlight how this works.

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The same scene as above, but seen from the lit wall side

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I don’t know if this is useful at all, but thought worth sharing it.

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Thank you Nathan

Much appreciated.

My apologies for taking so long to reply.