reflection without using a flat plane?

[Michael Earley]

I have a train that I need to have a reflection of the landscape in the window and in the body of the train. I cannot use a flat plane with a image mapped to it as this will be for VRML and the user will see the plane when they swing around the train. I have tried to put the image in the glass material.. but that gives me the same reflection in every window. Is there a way to put a image in the environment that does not show the image as the background when rendered? Or a way to put in a skydome that only shows as a reflection?
thanks
Michael

[JamesTaylor]

import an image you want to use as an environment into the material editor, then set it as to be an environment and change it to either a cyclinder or sphere mapping.

you'll find these settings at the top of the scrollable settings area in the material editor

hope this makes sense!

[Michael Earley]

thanks I did all.. and still no reflection. Do I need to apply the enviroment to something? I have dark windows, I made the ambient and diffuse to black and put a flat mirror in the reflection slot in the maps. Is there something else I should be doing?
Michael

[chuck]

I'm pretty sure you need to apply it to something. I just create a geosphere (and click hemisphere), then apply an image to it, cylindrically mapped.

Here are some high res free skies made for domes:
http://www.got3d.com/non-members/42-...-sky-textures/

This way your glass will have something to reflect, no matter the angle, and it will change with the animation correctly.

Chuck

[Michael Earley]

thanks.. but that wont work, I need to have an enviroment that cannot be seen by the camera when the camera is pointing at it. I have to bring the train into wirefusion, and it has to have a black background. I need the reflection to be in the glass .. but the sphere cannot be seen. The user will spin the train around and look at the top and bottom.. so there cannot be a image visible in the background.. hope this makes sense.

[oluv]

render a cubemap and apply it to the train as multitexture with cubemap. i am not sure how this works within wirefusion, but it works with vrml when you use blaxxun's vrml-multitexturing extensions and it works with other 3d-engines too.

[Michael Earley]

Thank you,
I cant find anything about blaxxun's vrml-multitexturing exten. I looked on their site and did a google search and found nothing. Is it one of thier programs or a plugin they have? I have been rendering and not had a chance to find anything on cubmaping.. but will do so as soon as this render is finished.. thanks for the info.
michael

[imgumbydammit]

Not sure if this is what you're after but in max 7 there's a map called "Camera map per pixel" that allows you to take an image of your environment and project it from your camera...you might have to play with the reflectivity of the train materials to get the look you're after but the environment will appear as a reflection on the whole train if done right .Maybe a "mask map" to remove the projection from the actual background if needed

Hope this helps

Peace