Rudy Daverveld Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 Is it possible to simply turn off shadow for objects? it seems the object attributes or layer attributes are not seen by the maxwell renderer? Kind Regards Rudy Daverveld Visual 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pylon Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 Rudy, The "hide" options for Maxwell are a bit different than formZ native renderers, so they are located in their own area. See Maxwell Attributes. Click Hide from Global Illumination and the object will not cast shadows (or reflect light back onto other objects). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudy Daverveld Posted November 25, 2014 Author Share Posted November 25, 2014 Great, that did the trick! thnxs Rudy Daverveld Visual 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew West Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 Is there a way to give a material in my scene a constant reflection and not receive shadows similar to the Form.z does? I have a reflection map that I need placed carefully in the windows of a large project. I can turn off the attribute for it to not cast shadows but I am wondering how to get it to not receive shadows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pylon Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 Not that I know of, directly. However, here are a few other Maxwell features to investigate. One might help solve the problem in another way: Layer Channels. These are very powerful; you can make alpha channel mattes out of one or more layers in your project for easily compositing elements in post. http://support.nextlimit.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=16810285 IBL, Background Channel. http://support.nextlimit.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=16810291 Emitter Textures. Depending on what you are doing, making a large light-emitting texture plane may work (and will not receive shadows) http://support.nextlimit.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=16810292 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew West Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 That is really too bad. Hopefully that is a function you can add in the future. In every exterior model I have created in the past 25 years I tilt up an image plane for the reflection and turn off its shadow casting and shadow receiving (and give it a constant reflection). That way I can place it exactly where I want it to get the best and most accurate reflection in the glass. This morning I tried to create a light emitting texture using and EXR file I created. Crashed the program immediately. Tried again. Crashed again. I have the IBL channel on for reflections but I have no ability to physically move that around to get the reflection I want -where I want it. I will try the Layers channels next. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew West Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 Just to clarify the importance of this feature let me explain further. I deal almost exclusively with resort architecture. These buildings usually have large amounts of glass facing a view such as a ski resort or a distinctive mountain range. Since I am usually looking away from the view toward the architecture I need to accurately reflect the view in the windows. To do this I take a panorama image of the views and map them onto a partial cylinder outside my view and then move it and its texture map until the reflection is perfect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pylon Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 I see what you are doing now. There is no need to create a cylinder to do this with Maxwell. Use the IBL (Image Based Lighting) light type. You can independently specifiy and control the maps for background, reflection, refraction, and illumination (or use the same map and parameters for each). Scale (tile) and rotate the spherical map using the parameters here: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew West Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 Yes, I got that part. I just don't have the kind of control over the placement of the reflection that I am used to. Using an arbitrary rotation of the IBL map with no reference point requires a lot of trial and error as I repeatedly rotate, render, rotate, render etc............ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pylon Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Move rotation slider with Fire active to preview. Turn off unnecessary layers to improve performance. Perhaps set a matte white master material for the architecture layer group; it will preview redner very quickly. Or, set a Layer Channel on the glazing, and then just composite in whatever you'd like as a reflection in post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew West Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Both are really ugly solutions to a simple problem. I deal with complicated buildings and previewing with Fire while having a few layers turned on has been very problematic. I can barely begin to explain the complications as I deal with adjusting the reflections on a very large building that is reflecting several different directions. On the Layer Channel solution I was able to composite in a reflection that matched part of the reflection for one view. However, this particular building has multiple angled features that reflect different environments in one view. Lets say the east side reflects the main ski hill, then there is the 45 degree angled great room that reflects the valley view and another wing that reflects something else. Your solution would require the glass on each wing to be on a different layer so that it could be rendered out on a separate channel and then post processed with the correct reflection. Awkward to say the least and time consuming in both modeling and rendering. Attached is a quick low res ( meaning 3 hours ) render of a building I am working on. It is shown prior to me trying to correct this in Photoshop. The clients first reaction was WTF is up with the glass reflections. Totally Bizarre. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pylon Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Andrew, Again, the solution for correct reflections is to use an IBL environment. Everything will look as it would in the real world. You had asked for a cheat to create artistic (incorrect, but for aesthetic reasons) reflections--that is why I had suggested the Layer Channels option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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