Glass VEX node

Simulates a translucent material such as glass, and returns the combined color, opacity, and alpha.

See also: Bump Noise, Refracted Light, Rest Position,

This operator simulates a translucent material such as glass, and returns the combined color, opacity, and alpha.

The index of refraction (eta) is the most important parameter because it controls the amount of the transmission (ie. refraction) of the surface. Its neutral value is 1. The environment color is ignored unless you specify a valid environment map. The reflection bias is used to help eliminate self-reflection, and is typically a small number.

In order to prevent the renderer from computing standard transparency (i.e. non-refracted transparency), as is the case with glass-like surfaces, the opacity is set internally to 1 to make the surface “opaque”.

If the Position (P) input and the Normal (N) input are not connected, the global variables by the same names will be used instead. Typically you will use Rest Position or UV Space Change as inputs for “P”, and will not touch “N” unless you want to apply additional displacement to the glass surface using an operator such as Bump Noise. If you need need to access the global variables directly, they are available from the Global Variables operator.

See how to create an environment/reflection map.