Shader Family: Surface Material
The Water Surface Shadow shader is the shadow version of the WaterSurface shader. It uses the same parameters. 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 the two.
The Water Surface Shadow shader generates a varying shadow strength that allows creates the impression of caustics without the technical overhead of real caustic photons. The shadow effect is less precise, but much faster to compute.
| 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. For the shadow case, this can be a constant color too. |
| Transparency |
The multiplier used to mix the input Surface Material color and the WaterSurface 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 for water is 1.33; glass is 1.5; diamond is 2.4; alcohol is 1.36. It has an influence on the intensity of the shadow. |
| Looking In |
Set this parameter when the camera is outside the water looking in. |
| Looking Out |
Set this parameter when the camera is inside the water looking out. |
| Stain |
Not used by the shadow shader. |
