POV-Ray: Transparency using fade_color

[Niklas Buchmann]

What I think is missing is some 'milkyness' in the transparent parts, some scattering of light inside them to make them glow. This is especially apparent for transparent parts in front of a dark background.  Using a scattering media might be a solution, but that only works on hollow objects.

This is what my current settings give.

Code:

#local ldrawPlasticNor=normal {
bumps 0.001
scale 0.5
turbulence 0
};

#local ldrawPlasticFin=finish {
diffuse 1
brilliance 1
conserve_energy

specular albedo 0.1
roughness 0.01

reflection 0.15
};

#local ldrawPlasticTrans_f=0.75;
#local ldrawPlasticTrans_t=0.25;

#local ldrawPlasticTransInt=interior {
ior 3
fade_power 2
fade_distance 10
};

The hardest part is found tweaking is getting transparency good for all colors as especially red and yellow seem to loose their transparency very fast.

You're still using transmit/filter (which are texture attirbutes) in your example. I want to get rid of a colored texture for transparent parts altogether and use the interior statement to color the parts like this:

Code:

#declare LDXColor46 = material {
    texture {
      pigment {color srgb <1,1,1>        transmit 1        filter 0      }
      finish  { lg_transparent_finish }
      normal  { lg_transparent_normal }
    }
    
    interior {
      ior 1.6
      fade_color srgb <247/255, 241/255, 31/255>
      fade_distance 1
      fade_power 1
    }
}

I like the results of this method a lot, the parts do look more realistic and seem to have more depth. It's just that I'm not happy with the results in all circumstances.