I have now fixed the behavior with specular materials too but it is like pushing water uphill (i.e. the classic result of inconsistent features like this one: physic has always the advantage of being consistent).
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I can clearly understand your POV, Dade, but this kind of features are more than welcome as we're always faking when we do rendering.
I mean that, except scientific purposes, some degree of faking is necessary to cut down working time and try to have as much feedback from the rendering in the same amount of time.
You're right that the a full physic approach is more "consistent" but it required also more computation power and, more the scene become complex, more computation power is needed and , in my opinion, at the moment, we're not yet ready (with hardware) to cut down the faking features and go full realistic mode (that it will be always an approximation of the real world = we'll faking forever, so by my side I've abandoned the dream to replicate the reality and I'm more inclined to evaluate the best compromise faking/simulating).
So, LuxCore it's made by the devs they're working on and it depends by their point of view...but let me say to you that these kind of opening to the users is really appreciated.
Dade wrote: ↑Sun Jul 05, 2020 6:40 am
I have now fixed the behavior with specular materials too ...
Noooo....
It was better like before..in my opinion. More useful... For example I have a scene (a simple ShopInShop , the last one I've sent many weeks ago) where I used some big area light to faking the lighting of the mall. In this shop there is a wall mirror. In this mirror I can see reflected part of the floor and then , before your last fix, I can see the background color of the scene (and it's fine for me).
With your last fix I'll see the area light shape.
Is it possible to have a boolean switch to choose "visible in specular"? It should be super because it will give the flexibility to setup the area as it fits best. If not, in my opinion it should be mopre useful to not have the reflection of the area in the specular material.
Dade wrote: ↑Sun Jul 05, 2020 6:40 am
The fix has broken the original purpose of this feature: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1474
I have now fixed the behavior with specular materials too but it is like pushing water uphill (i.e. the classic result of inconsistent features like this one: physic has always the advantage of being consistent).
I think the problem comes from the fact that we are using one feature for two different things here, and they are not compatible:
Original purpose: Let certain rays ignore glass to have something similar to architectural glass, but with still visible refractions for camera rays
The purpose of this thread: An area light that is invisible to camera rays and does not cast a shadow (neither in direct nor indirect light), but is visible in reflections/refractions to ensure it still creates reflective highlights
If the original purpose of the shadow color feature has been lost as you say, it might be a good idea to revert to the old behaviour and think about a different way to implement the second feature request.
The orange juice scene is now broken (it uses white shadow color for the glass).
I think, especially since we're in beta phase, we should revert the changes to the shadow color feature, and look into the area light topic once v2.4 is released.
Just a question.
As Dade was able (unintentionally) to make the area invisible for specular material and now it fixed making area visible ... is it undoable to "split the code" -> if Visible to spec mat = true run the last fixed code, else run the unfixed code?
marcatore wrote: ↑Mon Jul 06, 2020 12:15 pm
Just a question.
As Dade was able (unintentionally) to make the area invisible for specular material and now it fixed making area visible ... is it undoable to "split the code" -> if Visible to spec mat = true run the last fixed code, else run the unfixed code?
It is already possible to make a light source invisible to specular materials, there is a dedicated flag for visibility on diffuse, glossy and/or specular materials
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marcatore wrote: ↑Mon Jul 06, 2020 12:15 pm
Just a question.
As Dade was able (unintentionally) to make the area invisible for specular material and now it fixed making area visible ... is it undoable to "split the code" -> if Visible to spec mat = true run the last fixed code, else run the unfixed code?
It is already possible to make a light source invisible to specular materials, there is a dedicated flag for visibility on diffuse, glossy and/or specular materials
yes there is for lights in light tab when a light object is selected
marcatore wrote: ↑Mon Jul 06, 2020 12:15 pm
Just a question.
As Dade was able (unintentionally) to make the area invisible for specular material and now it fixed making area visible ... is it undoable to "split the code" -> if Visible to spec mat = true run the last fixed code, else run the unfixed code?
It is already possible to make a light source invisible to specular materials, there is a dedicated flag for visibility on diffuse, glossy and/or specular materials
But in the case of an area light, isn't the current behaviour of this setting to lead to a black mesh being visible in reflections, instead of being invisible?