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The basic setup of this issue is as follows: I have one floor, and one half-circular wall/roof to make a tunnel of sorts. The half-circle mesh is assigned a glass material and uses flat shading with about 50 vertices. There are several material-based light sources outside this tunnel.

When rendering, the light penetrates the glass material just fine, provided that flat shading is used. If I use smooth shading on the glass, the amount of light that makes it through is almost nothing. I know that some light still comes through, because I see a difference between a smooth-shaded render with and without the light source available.

While I'm fine with flat shading and I don't have a real problem with it, I'm more curious as to why this happens in the first place

EDIT: I've also noticed that smooth shaded objects don't reflect light as well as with flat shading, regardless of material transparency.

Hiigaran
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  • I presume you are working in cycles. The default glass material will not let light through. Read: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/2558/how-to-illuminate-the-darkness-inside-glass-objects-in-cycles –  Apr 02 '17 at 14:03
  • I've made an edit regarding reflections on opaque surfaces. It seems the two are somehow related – Hiigaran Apr 02 '17 at 18:55
  • please add images to illustrate the issue and your current material settings. –  Apr 02 '17 at 18:56

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