Simple Mirror

Cyberdactyl · Post by **Cyberdactyl** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 5:17 am

I have been away from Indigo since version 7. I now have loaded 9 and have read through the manual but am still confused.

I try to make a simple perfect mirror, but all I now get is a slightly reflective black object. I pick 'specular' and make the color white or blue or red, but it always renders black. When I set the materials to a anything other than metal, I DO get that color and its proper surface. The only way I can achieve a color surface with specular is to turn the transparency to almost zero, but then, of course, it's transparent.

Whaat · Post by **Whaat** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 6:45 am

Welcome back Cyberdactyl!

You should know this one!

Maybe you haven't gone through the SkIndigo tutorials... A specular material is a perfect dielectric. The amount of reflection is determined by the IOR. Your IOR is probably 1.5 (default). Increase it to at least 20 for a nice mirror. Have you forgotten about the presets?? If you would have tried selecting the mirror preset, you would have immediatley seen what the problem was.

For Specular and Glossy Transparent materials, the color of the material and the opacity setting controls the absorption of the material. If you want a material with a colored surface, use a Phong material. Again, to make it more reflective, increase the IOR. That's it!

http://www.indigorenderer.com/joomla/fo ... php?t=2317

Cyberdactyl · Post by **Cyberdactyl** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 6:50 am

Ahh, Thanks, that was it.

Oh my, you're right, I need to read more closely.