New Corona Physical Mat (separating reflections from refractions)

[pokoy]

I think there's an intent to keep the physical material definition pure - only a rough surface will lead to rough (more diffuse) transmission. You can't have a non-glossy 'internal matter' without a rough non-glossy surface per definition, and vice versa, you can't have a clear perfectly transmissive 'interior' with a rough surface. In other words, the surface finish defines what happens internally, it is the terminal that sends ray through the object. The ray enters and travels through the object depending on its surface properties.
That's why this definition needs a coating layer, which they provide. But it has to be an individual layer of a coating material and must not interfere with the aforementioned principle.

If I understand correctly, that is...

The current shading model doesn't account for other effects, such as varying dispersion, varying IOR within a medium etc, too, but we don't care because it's really a tiny fraction of the materials that Corona is used for in a typical situation.

Please continue to provide examples for something that you can't do with the physical material. I'm sure that it's going to help if it's a valid request.

[mmarcotic]

Yes, as Mike says.

Corona Legacy material is here to stay, if you prefer Legacy in some scenarios and Physical in other, feel free to do so!

Thanks for the feedback, we are closely monitoring it for future tweaks and updates.
Jan

So for the record, does the Corona team _not_ want to allow for control of reflection {color,glossiness/roughness,IOR} independently of that of refractions in the Physical Material?

It was mentioned in another topic as well - we are working on improvements to Physical material (I'm not confirming that we'll add the ones you've mentioned) and while we try to keep it as realistic as it gets, we might make some adjustments and additions in time.

Please note that development of such scale takes time and we do not want to neglect other features, bugs, etc.

Thanks,
Jan

[Cinemike]

What I am missing is to subtly cheat with a specular map to dim highlights.
Besides that, I am content with the physical material in the majority of all cases.