Ben writes:
"In AutoCAD I can make glass that is a transparent mirror, e.g. it reflects whatever I put in front of it. I can't seem to make anything like that in Viz,
I can get glass to reflect maps, but not objects. I figure if anyone knew the answer, it would be you."
My reply:
Reflections in Max are a pain in the ass. They hardly even existed before Max r2. It isn't easy, but here is what you do.
You have to use a "flat mirror" in the reflection map. Where you have been putting the bitmap, choose 'new' instead of bitmap select 'flat mirror'. The trick with this map is it has to be applied to a planar object.
The best thing to do if you have a wall of windows, is to create one new plane in the center of the wall and apply this material. Make sure the map is applied with the planar mapping.
Can't use a box, or a sphere, etc. Must be a plane.
If you are applying to a complex object that you imported you may have to bust out the faces to their respective planes, making each it's own object with it's own mapping coordinates.
However, reflective glass can be very rendering intensive. Sometimes it may even be faster to take a reverse camera angle and map that bitmap back onto the reflection map of the material.
Good luck!
