Skyscraper glass material?

[melviso]

How best can one simulate skyscraper glass. Looking at several images it looks almost completely opaque with no transperency, some are transperent but I did notice the IOR is much higher. Most glass materials are around 1.2, so skyscrapers have more thickness or IOR hence they should be about 1.8?
Does anyone know how best u can replicate skyscraper glass without it being transparent? I intend to add reflection and gloss maps as well.

Thanks.

[borisquezadaa]

There should be no problem to reproduce it exactly as a picture reference in Corona.
There is a tint involved (you could treat that both as refraction color or more physic as absortion) and sometimes a coating (for UV) you can add a gradient ramp to reflection slot to mimic some specifics.
If you manage to create some surface noise on top for each glass panel you have it done.

This is a good place to start. This guys knows his stuff... MUST CHECK!::
http://forum.corona-renderer.com/index.php/topic,3451.msg25353.html#msg25353

[melviso]

Thanks for replying,borisquezadaa.
A gradient ramp. Never thought of that before. Thanks for the link. From what he said, Lighting, camera angle do play a big role in defining the way the glass would and should look.

I have learnt for sometime now that nothing beats using photo reference as base for understanding and creating materials. Some people feel like its cheating, or don't even bother or they try and replicate what they think it should look like. I have been using references for a good while now and I am beginning to see improvements.
Thanks again.