How does Surface Translucency Work?

mikethe3dguy

When I apply the Iray Daz Uber water shader to a puddle prop, it becomes translucent, like it should The only two ways I know to create that in Iray are:

1. Reduce Cutout Opacity to less than 1.00
2. Increase Translucency Weight above 0.00

But the shader does neither of those things. What am I missing? How does this shader make the surface see-through?

Gordig

Look for Refraction. You'll need to turn refraction weight up, then refraction index to an appropriate setting (i.e. 1.333 for water).

mikethe3dguy

Okay, I didn't realize that the refraction settings by themselves conferred translucency. Thanks.

Gordig

Translucency is a function of refraction, so it depends on what your objective is. To be honest, I'm not entirely clear (no pun intended) on what the purpose of the translucency setting in the Uber shader is for.

Fishtales

Gordig said:

Translucency is a function of refraction, so it depends on what your objective is. To be honest, I'm not entirely clear (no pun intended) on what the purpose of the translucency setting in the Uber shader is for.

I use Translucency for plant leaves. Set the refraction to 1.45 or 1.33 and translucency between 2 and 8, see what works, to get backlight shining through them. It can also be driven by mapping it with an image, either the bump or displacement maps work, so you can see the veins.