Joe Lertola

OK I think I figured it out. I put a rampparm node after the edgefalloff node and worked on the chart to get a falloff I like.

Thanks for the help.

-Joe

Thanks jsmack,

I tried to follow your steps but I am such a beginner that I am still not getting it. The attached image shows how I have tried to implement your setup. I put the metal grate on the grid below the sphere because they removed the checkerboard material in Houdini 16. I am glad to know about the Classic Shader Core. I would like to set the index of refraction very low but it seems that if I try to set it below 1.1 the sphere object turns white. Also I am not understanding how to use the edge falloff for emission. When I connect it it seems to brighten the center of the object. I would like to be able to brighten the edges instead. But I don't see any controls to invert the effect.

Thanks,
-Joe

Thanks Rob. But I am still struggling with this. I don't think Opacity Falloff is what I need. In the attached example you can see that Opacity Falloff does not provide any refraction. If I try to use just Refraction then there are no controls for edge opacity. If I try to use both Refraction and Opacity Falloff I get an odd double exposure look. What I would like to do is make two surfaces. One just refraction and one that is bright luminous white and then mix them based on the incidence angle. Is there any way to do that?

Thanks for any help
-Joe