stepped reflections in glass

[3DImageWorks]

does anyone know if there is a way in Max / Vray to achieve stepped reflections?

I want to avoid moving the individual panes of glass in and out or changing their angle.

Is there a way of doing it with materials (I don't mind assigning different materials to different panes of glass).

Its easy doing it to the refraction by simply changing the refraction IOR but what about reflections?

 

Below is an image of ours I have photoshoped to show the desired effect.

(the reflection on the left is the result I am looking for)

[Chad Warner]

If the panes of glass are individual, Ted Boardman outlined a quick way to get them out of alignnment....Basically just select the vertices and apply a very slight noise modifier to the vertices. It's really quick, probably more so than making individual materials.

[Tommy L]

Absolutely, but make sure you weld the two polygons that make up the face of the glass, or the reflection will 'step' in a diagonal line along the middle of each pane.

[johnvid]

Hmmm interesting answers I need to look into this because I am not really that happy with flat even & boring reflections, but can someone post a good example of why this would be needed, as this example looks like someone ran out of tinted window film....

 

Which leads me to my obvious solution, to put a black & white texture in one or many of the slots to specify alternate reflection/glass density/transparency or whatever asimple checker pattern set to tile in stripes and then scaled & offset to desired position..

 

If someone has some details about adjusting cut-off values & other glass reflection tips I would love to hear them too..

 

CHeers

[3DImageWorks]

Real world example:

 

Applying a noise modifier to the vertices would change the alignnment, which is what I dont want to do. The mesh must not change in any way.

 

Is there a way of offsetting the reflections?

[Chad Warner]

What about putting a slight noise map in the bump slot of the glass? Or maybe a gradient ramp map applied to different panes? That way you'll get a little variation in the reflection, though it may not be stepped.

[Tommy L]

You could put a tile map in teh glass bump channel which ,atches the spacing of yout curtain walling. Change the fade value or the color offset value in teh tile map, maybe even put a slight noise map in the swatch also.