Window pane reflection distortion


Hello
Is there a software or a software procedure
to help display realistic of distortion of reflections in the glass panes of buildings
for more realistic renderings?

That would be interesting. In reality it is due to the glass not being flat. I suppose you could subdivide the faces in the model and distort them slightly.

Many rendering applications can output your materials on separate layers, making it easy to apply postprocessing, like the suggested Liquify filter to only desired parts of the image.

Modern glass is produced with higher accuracy ( ‘flat bed’ methods ) then in the old days. The distortion you seek may not be that significant, compared to older buildings, where, besides the ‘wrinkeled’ surface, inaccuracies in the (lead!) framework are even more responsible for these typical reflections.

Can you guess which ones I had to replace when my son started playing hockey?

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The slightly wavy glass produced by either straightening out a blown cylinder or, later, in a roller process, is still available for restoration purposes. I recently had new widows made for my cabin and chose not to have them with float glass. Also, the glass is iron-free so that it doesn’t have the slightly greenish tint that you will notice in most float glass when you see it alongside old glass. And I love the way sunlight, when coming from a low angle, refracts and blurs through the uneven glass

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Nice! We have this available too, even with coatings for energy loss to meet some regulations :slight_smile:

With growing kids, you have to make other decisions, though.

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Unfortunately my photo was taken before the windows were replaced. The glass in the new ones is not as uneven as this, dating perhaps from sometime after 1850.

Thank you so much for all your advice.
I do use PS and liquefy (here is a texture) that involved liquefy after other filters etc.from a photo near our home of new screens they put along a park to divide from private property called “Linear Park”
Interesting exchange of stories. I am surprised that Our top of the range high rises by the water have glass panes that NOT the flattest.
I guess a PS Paint Daub and some smoothing etc will do the trick but I was hoping for a ready made plugin I guess I’ll have to wait longer. The bump map I have to work on as I am not that good at rendering yet
Lovely Cabin, could not guess looking at the glass but looked at the putty , not easy would guess bottom middle right window, looks a bit more sharp? Bingo?
My mother, now passed, was the European right arm for the CEO for Japan’s largest sheet glass factory Nippon Sheet Glass after being the manager for world Champion Moto Cross Joel Robert for Suzuki. He was a “speudo CEO” on top, but she died all the wheeling and dealing across Europe and Middle East.Getting approvals for all the imported cars test crashes etc. Getting to drive the Merc C 111 (I think it was called) on a race track near Paris with some engineers of St. Gobain. We were even invited to the Persepolis festivities and I came a long as they had build a huge glass making plant in the area. One wonders if it’s still standing. I was a teenager. Due to her job my final Interior Exam was a sliding door holding a curtain columns moulded of prisms rotating on their axes moulded into one column. I manged to get them cut for me and had them glued together by an artist friend
I only made a sample 25x75cm. Naturally over the decades it got lost but I still have the 2D tracing plan in a roll.

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It’s been a while since I played with LightUp. One of its abilities is to do what you want in real time.

Hello

OMG I only see your reply now. That is like three years. I am very sorry and do appreciate
it very much as the issue is still apparent in most models
I do my renderings in Lumion 10
Especially with massive flat glass walls like in this model I built during Covid to enter a contest
just out of pride to have that on my resume :slight_smile:

Now please excuse for my maybe stupid questions.
What is “lightup” ?
It looks absolutely stunning
Where do I find it and how do I apply it?

Thank you very much for your time and information

Since then I have started to learn Unreal Engine5.2
Which is a totally new ballpark and learning curve

LightUp has improved in the last three years. Here is the web site:

Thank you very much will check it out. kind regards Vic

WOW that is EXPENSIVE!
Beside your treatment of the one pane of glass
I can’t see its value per year or full licence nearly the price of SketchUP
Thanks

I apply a normal map with a wave in it to do this kind of thing.

If you take almost anything with a noisy normal texture and make it like 100x larger ; that will give you a similar effect.

If you compare to other rendering engines like Vray, it’s a lot cheaper, Vray doesn’t sell perpetual licenses anymore and the subscription costs more than the perpetual license of light up.

The best option I’ve found is a rendering engine called Brighter 3D, it offers perpetual licenses with free lifetime upgrades and it costs less than light up, it’s $175 for the perpetual license or $75 for the annual license, getting the perpetual license is a no brainer for me.