Category: mental ray > Materials
Shader Family: Surface Material
When looking at water from above, the surface's transparency and reflectivity changes according to the viewing angle. When looking up from below, this effect is amplified: some areas are completely reflective while others are completely transparent, with little transition between them.
The WaterSurface shader simulates these effects, and more, to give a realistic appearance to the surface of water.
| Name |
The name of the shader node displayed in the render tree. Enter any name you like, or leave the default. |
| Surface Material |
An input color computed by an illumination shader and modified by the WaterSurface shader. |
| Transparency |
The multiplier used to mix the input Surface Material color and the water surface effect. |
| Index of Refraction |
A physical property of transparent solids. It controls how far light is bent when entering the object, how transparent the object is, how the reflectivity shifts with viewing angle, etc. The Index of Refraction of water is 1.33; glass is 1.5; diamond is 2.4; alcohol is 1.36. |
| Looking Into Water |
Set this parameter when the camera is outside the water looking in. |
| Looking Out of Water |
Set this parameter when the camera is inside the water looking out. |
| Stain Underneath |
Makes this shader act like the Stain shader, which makes it ideal to use with the Wet shader. With this option selected, objects with the Wet shader applied will show their "Wet" texture when seen through the surface of the water. |
