Hi everybody, hope all of you have a nice week, :wink:

Unfortunately, i got a problem with a mantra surface rendering. I've started to create a mantra surface for water (so mainly created with reflection and refraction). When i render the flip fluid with the mentra surface, I get a transparency and clear surface (more or less). But when i add a light (distant light) in my scene, i got a black and thick shader (see the picture bellow), it looks like there is no more refraction.

When i try to change the values of the refraction there is nothing happens…The refraction doesn't works anymore when the light is active.
I also discovered when i turn of the shadows in the light settings, the mantrasurface comes back well (is it the way to go ? :? )

So the probleme looks come from shadow and refraction, no ?

So if there is someone here who knows how could i manage to have correctly my shader and the same time have a light in my scene, because at this time i'm not able to have my shader with shadow and light.
I put some pictures and my scene bellow

Thanks in advance, Cordially

Is it adding an Env light an option?

Hey, thx for your reply, when i add an env. light it does exactly the same probleme. With every kind of light I got the same probleme, i think the issue is about shadow and the materiel refraction….Because it seems when the shadows is active, the refraction became passive. :cry:

marles
Hey, thx for your reply, when i add an env. light it does exactly the same probleme. With every kind of light I got the same probleme, i think the issue is about shadow and the materiel refraction….Because it seems when the shadows is active, the refraction became passive. :cry:

Really? That's strange, I did a quick test today and it seemed to work.
I'll give it another try tomorrow.
Hope someone more experienced will jump in.

Ok thx a lot for your time. Yeah it's relally strange, maybe i have a mistake in my shader (mantra surface). Why it would work in your scene and not in mine ? What kind of shader did you use for your quick test from today ?
If you can post your test scene, I would be grateful to you.

Thx again

Not much time unfortunately, but I did another test.
I didn't investigate the Distant Light though, I actually never use that type of light.
With Area Light no issues:



Then the shader needs tweaking for sure, but shadows are there.
One thing, I ended up using the Glass shader as I've found it faster to tweak than the Mantra Surface for what concerns Refraction.

I guess it won't be much useful as you're using Distant Light, anyway, here's the file just in case…

http://wikisend.com/download/357250/Houdini.zip [wikisend.com]

Hi verysame, thanks again for your help and your time.
You got a really good idea to start with a glass shader, i did like you and now it works, i think i made a mistake on my mantra surface.

After tweaking the glass shader it's all good, so thx a lot for your help

marles
Hi verysame, thanks again for your help and your time.
You got a really good idea to start with a glass shader, i did like you and now it works, i think i made a mistake on my mantra surface.

After tweaking the glass shader it's all good, so thx a lot for your help

That's a great news, I'm glad that it did work!