This page provides a brief overview of the Glass materials in Twinmotion. For information on the settings for Glass materials, see Settings for Glass Materials.
The Glass Materials in Twinmotion are divided into the following categories: Basic, Standard and Colored.
Basic, Standard, and Colored glass materials.
Basic, Standard, and Colored Glass
Basic glass materials are a simplified version of Standard glass materials. They have fewer parameters and are mainly designed to simulate basic clear glass (for example, the windows on a building). They are ideal when texture and imperfections such as fingerprints or dust are not required. As Basic glass materials have fewer parameters to process than Standard or Colored glass materials, they are ideal when you want to reduce the rendering time.
The Standard glass materials are translucent, and are designed to meet the needs of architectural glazing. You can use them to simulate glass that is very transparent, and you can customize them to, for example, simulate very reflective glass. The materials in the Standard glass category show distortion when an index of refraction higher than 1.0 is used, and feature screen printed, etched, and frosted glass. You can tint Standard glass, but it has a low level of color transmission compared to Colored glass.
The materials in the Colored glass category are more useful in the product design industry. They offer an exceptional level of color transmission and render colored shadows. They feature lacquered, tinted, and polychromatic glass. Colored glass does not, however, show distortion when you use an index of refraction higher than 1.0.
You can fully customize all glass materials and they share the same parameters. If you customize a glass material, you can switch between Basic, Standard, and Colored and keep the same applied parameter settings.
You can find the Glass materials in the Twinmotion assets Library under Materials in the Glass category.
You can create your own custom Glass materials in Twinmotion using the Glass base material type. For information on how to create materials, see Creating Materials.
Limitations
Glass materials currently have the following limitations. These are subject to change but include:
Refraction and frosted glass effects are not supported in the Real time rendering mode (Standard and Lumen).
Backwards compatibility for customized glass brick colors is not guaranteed.
The resolution of shadows cast on surfaces with glass materials can be of lower quality. This is less noticeable on surfaces that have very transparent glass materials and a high level of metallicity.
When working in the Real time rendering mode (as opposed to Path tracer mode), geometries that are superimposed and have surfaces with glass materials may not handle display priority correctly.
Artifacts are visible on shadows projected by complex geometries that use glass materials.
Increasing the Metallic intensity of Colored glass materials also increases the opacity of the glass. We do not recommend using the Metallic setting on Colored glass.
FAQ
How can I adjust the reflectivity of a glass material?
The more opaque the glass is—the closer the Intensity value for Opacity is to 100%—the more Specular intensity influences reflectivity.
The more translucent the glass is—the closer the Intensity value for Opacity is to 0%—the more Index of refraction influences reflectivity.
If the Intensity value for Opacity is at 50%, the Specular intensity and Index of refraction both influence reflectivity equally.
If the Opacity value is at 100%, the Index of refraction is hidden and has no effect.
The nearer the Opacity value is to 0%, the more Specular contribution is managed by the Index of refraction value.
If the Index of refraction value equals 1.0 and the Opacity value equals 0%, the surface is invisible.
If the Index of refraction value is higher than 1.0 and the Roughness intensity is higher than 0%, objects behind the surface are blurry.
If the Index of refraction value is higher than 1.0, refraction is increased (except when using the Colored glass material).