topic Having trouble with making objects translucent in Visualization

lightworks and translucency . . .

__archiben — Thu, 11 May 2023 11:55:08 GMT

is it possible to achieve a true translucency with lightworks? i.e. the light (and shadow) present on one face of the material is visible through on the other face of the material even if that material is opaque . . .

i've been playing around for what seems like an eternity and still can't achieve anything along those lines. i've googled in the desperate hope that someone out there my have some info on it, but all i've found is this from another applications troubleshooting pages:

another wrote:
... For instance, indoor lights will not shine through a glazed window and light up the ground outside. Similarly, light will not shine through a translucent lamp shade, even though you see through it. ...

now lightworks is obviously implemented to varying degrees of complexity in different applications, so i guess my question is: just what is the lightworks engine as implemented in archiCAD capable of? and if we are supposedly able to produce this kind of translucency, please can graphisoft provide us with some materials for the job.

~/archiben

Re: lightworks and translucency . . .

__archiben — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 04:44:34 GMT

okay. it seems as though i'm getting somewhere if not exactly where i want to be . . . the trick appears to be turning the translucency values down rather than up, and boosting the diffuse.

a long way to go yet though . . .

~/archiben

Re: lightworks and translucency . . .

Dwight — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 05:40:33 GMT

quick thoughts:

Start with dialling in transparency if you want light to shine through the glass - no refraction. add a little emission, perhaps, for that glowing look.... and there's always a fine screened white bitmap overlay like we did in the old days as an alternative.... or in addition - now it can be a transparency mask, too!

no mirror factor.

the "translucency" shader is not a light diffuser at all, just a dial-in of a peculiar back shadow reflection.

this is a material that needs the top render method.

Working on crystal and candle light exercise tonite. I will add your material request to my list in the long overdue book. post please your result, yes?

Re: lightworks and translucency . . .

__archiben — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 06:06:14 GMT

Dwight wrote:
the "translucency" shader is not a light diffuser at all, just a dial-in of a peculiar back shadow reflection.

ah! probably why i've gone backwards in leaps and bounds since my last post then. didn't think of using emission and transparency - i've been trying to keep the transparency way down and hope that the shader can handle the diffusion. what do you mean by a 'peculiar back shadow reflection'?

this is a material that needs the top render method.

radiosity? so i need to fake it then? thought so . . .

post please your result, yes?

problem it is not master. posted in soon the fakiosity solution will be.

~/archiben

Having trouble with making objects translucent

Anonymous — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 07:51:57 GMT

I have some frosted glass walls that I'd like to make translucent. I was told that you can adjust the Transmittance settings in the Materials Attributes settings, but it still doesn't seem to work. Can anyone help me with this?

Thanks,
S.

Re: Having trouble with making objects translucent

__archiben — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 08:17:25 GMT

same with me . . . i'm working on it and will post anything i come up with in the thread here:

http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=7097

~/archiben

Re: lightworks and translucency . . .

__archiben — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 08:43:35 GMT

still failing miserably. although i have managed to make something that looks like polycarbonate . . . if you close one eye and squint a bit . . .

~/archiben

Re: lightworks and translucency . . .

__archiben — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 10:18:07 GMT

more....

looks kinda funky but not really right. this one uses the transparency + emission idea, but i think i stuffed up refraction . . .

i don't want to 'see' the slab bulkhead or the columns as clearly as i do. but the people shadows are about what i want. could be softer.

~/archiben

Re: lightworks and translucency . . .

Dwight — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 14:24:22 GMT

have you considered a second scrim behind the facade?

but you'll probably never get the differential od seeing the figures sharper than the back wall.....

Re: lightworks and translucency . . .

Andy Thomson — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 05:58:13 GMT

Do you mean like this?

Re: lightworks and translucency . . .

Andy Thomson — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 06:02:58 GMT

Or darker material, more translucent?

Re: lightworks and translucency . . .

Andy Thomson — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 06:05:41 GMT

Original tinted glass - I don't quite understand the effect you are after, but have wanted a frosted glass for some time...

Re: lightworks and translucency . . .

__archiben — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 22:11:42 GMT

andyro wrote:
Do you mean like this?

yep - more like your 'milky white plastic'. does it have a window light behind it to accentuate the translucency?

i was aiming for a two-skin polycarbonate cladding system. i wanted to see if i could render the translucency before i tried to apply the 'ribbed' effect.

the thing that i dislike about your 'milky white plastic' is the dull grey area in the bottom left - out of direct light. i found that when i boosted the specular or reflectance to compensate, i lost the transmission . . . and with it any translucency i had achieved. by then i had more deadlines to meet so gave up . . .

ben

Re: lightworks and translucency . . .

Andy Thomson — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 00:24:50 GMT

~/archiben wrote:
andyro wrote:
Do you mean like this?
yep - more like your 'milky white plastic'. does it have a window light behind it to accentuate the translucency?

i was aiming for a two-skin polycarbonate cladding system. i wanted to see if i could render the translucency before i tried to apply the 'ribbed' effect.

the thing that i dislike about your 'milky white plastic' is the dull grey area in the bottom left - out of direct light. i found that when i boosted the specular or reflectance to compensate, i lost the transmission . . . and with it any translucency i had achieved. by then i had more deadlines to meet so gave up . . .

ben

Re: lightworks and translucency . . .

Andy Thomson — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 00:25:39 GMT

Hm. Well, all I can say is LW in AC kinda sucks. I have endeavored with it because it is nice that it is just there, and had a meeting tonight where the clients were just floored, by the design and the renderings, but this job is going immediately to Studio or C4D, I too have given up! Again - too many freaking parameters in the LW material interface, and no way to see what the effect is (that tiny litlle preview sphere - is that a joke?) It should be a 4cm (actual) cube!!

Re: lightworks and translucency . . .

Anonymous — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 17:31:24 GMT

hi andyro
do you mind posting the setting of your translucent glass material please?
thank you very much
regards

Re: lightworks and translucency . . .

Andy Thomson — Tue, 01 May 2007 05:02:41 GMT

I've since made a bunch of improvements - you can fine tune to get exactly what you are after, most of the coloured glass casts coloured shadows now too, look for the 'Translucent White' or Milky White plastics.

Just 'append' the .AAT to your file using attribute manager.

Re: lightworks and translucency . . .

__archiben — Tue, 01 May 2007 23:28:11 GMT

Long wrote:
do you mind posting the setup of your translucent milky glass?

long tran,

download the file andy posted above and use your attribute manager to append them to your project file . . . you will then see new materials available to you that andy has already set up - and their settings will be available to you in the materials editor.

andy's included all of his glass materials (08 | <....>) as well as the translucent plastics (06 | <....>). the one you're looking for is called '06 | PE Milky Translucent'

~/archiben

Re: lightworks and translucency . . .

Anonymous — Wed, 02 May 2007 03:32:23 GMT

hi
thanks andyro for posting this. i tried to open it with attribute manager but it didnt turn up, said 'Problem when reading from file glasses.aat' . I dont know what's up with it. Im using educational version (Mac OS 10.4.9) so i guessed this is the problem.

Re: lightworks and translucency . . .

Anonymous — Wed, 02 May 2007 04:16:18 GMT

hi
im sorry for the last post, a bit dummy . i found ACE Materials from your site, andyro then imported into Archicad and it works like charm. anyway, thank you very much for your helps.
cheers mate