Mirror surface?

[ElizaLiffy]

How to make a mirror surface? I wand add simple cube mirror to my house

Edited December 9, 2018 by ElizaLiffy

[Profaitchikenz Haiku]

You can make a surface shiny from the texture tab by clicking the drop-down field that normally says "diffuse texture" and changing it to "specular" and then choosing from a range of values in the further field, but there is no way in SL to actually cause a reflection of the avatar in a surface.  Most of the dressing table or wall mirrors simply use a texture to try and replicate the glaze of a mirror.

 

If you want to create a snapshot of your avatar apparently looking at their reflection in the mirror you will have to do it outside of SL using image-manipulation software.

[ElizaLiffy]

2 minutes ago, Profaitchikenz Haiku said:

You can make a surface shiny from the texture tab by clicking the drop-down field that normally says "diffuse texture" and changing it to "specular" and then choosing from a range of values in the further field, but there is no way in SL to actually cause a reflection of the avatar in a surface.  Most of the dressing table or wall mirrors simply use a texture to try and replicate the glaze of a mirror.

 

If you want to create a snapshot of your avatar apparently looking at their reflection in the mirror you will have to do it outside of SL using image-manipulation software.

That's a pitty.. Thank you. 

[Whirly Fizzle]

You can fake a mirror using projectors but it won't reflect your avatar. The effect is pretty cool though. You must have ALM enabled for these projector mirrors to be visible.
Instructions here: https://modemworld.me/2018/05/12/projectors-as-mirrors-in-second-life/

Real mirror reflections *are* possible, but it would require code changes to the viewer.
There is proof of concept code given on STORM-2055 - Real mirror reflections on prims
It's fun to play with if you can self compile your own viewer - see video below.
Unfortunately LL don't seem  very interested in adding real mirror reflections to SL.

 

[animats]

It's not hard to implement in software, but it takes an extra rendering pass, like shadows, so it slows down the frame rate. It's rarely seen in video games.

One of the few working mirrors in a video game - from Hitman. When games do have mirrors, they're usually not too big, and the number of objects they reflect is kept low. Big shiny building reflecting images of a city off the glass, no.

If you want mirrors which can reflect image from other mirrors, another rendering pass.

Or ray-tracing hardware. The NVidia GeForce 2080 has ray-tracing hardware. Costs over $1000. Nothing supports this yet.

So it can be done, but not on a large scale cheaply.

There was a fashion show in SL within the last year where the entire build was repeated, upside down, underneath a transparent prim, to get a reflecting pool effect.

 

[Klytyna]

11 hours ago, animats said:

It's not hard to implement in software, but it takes an extra rendering pass, like shadows, so it slows down the frame rate. It's rarely seen in video games.

"Sims 2" had working mirrors more than 12 years ago.

11 hours ago, animats said:

When games do have mirrors, they're usually not too big, and the number of objects they reflect is kept low

One of the expansion packs added "ballet school" full height wall mirrors, so you could build an entire wall covered in reflective glass. Custom content makers added mirrored floor and ceiling tiles too.

11 hours ago, animats said:

The NVidia GeForce 2080 has ray-tracing hardware. Costs over $1000. Nothing supports this yet.

Sims 2 Mirrors ran on standard nvidia cards that cost $60-$100, 12 years ago...

11 hours ago, animats said:

There was a fashion show in SL within the last year where the entire build was repeated, upside down, underneath a transparent prim, to get a reflecting pool effect.

Actually, that "trend" is more than 7 years old, there was one merchant who made a mirrored version of their entire store.

Unfortunately, she also made her own mirrored vendor boards, complete with scripts, so her place lagged like a swine...

 

[Resi Pfeffer]

2 hours ago, Klytyna said:

Actually, that "trend" is more than 7 years old, there was one merchant who made a mirrored version of their entire store.

A minimum of 9 years, i would say. As much as i can remember, Tempura Island always had the mirrored ballroom.

[Louise Fyrewik]

3 hours ago, Klytyna said:

"Sims 2" had working mirrors more than 12 years ago.

And working mirrors in Sims 2 also lagged your system as hell if your system wasn't on par.

3 hours ago, Klytyna said:

One of the expansion packs added "ballet school" full height wall mirrors, so you could build an entire wall covered in reflective glass. Custom content makers added mirrored floor and ceiling tiles too.

And the more mirrors you added, the more lag was caused.

3 hours ago, Klytyna said:

14 hours ago, animats said:

Or ray-tracing hardware. The NVidia GeForce 2080 has ray-tracing hardware. Costs over $1000. Nothing supports this yet.

Sims 2 Mirrors ran on standard nvidia cards that cost $60-$100, 12 years ago...

Not relevant. Sims 2 didn't use ray tracing.

[Louise Fyrewik]

There is a way to make a working mirror in SL for pictures, though. But it involves building your entire set on its side, using SL water as your mirror, and adapting your windlight settings to craete a mirror in the water.

It's all explained in Strawberry Singh's blog. Do note the post is over 6 years old, this method may have been broken by software updates since.

https://strawberrysingh.com/2012/08/11/mirror-mirror/

[Resi Pfeffer]

5 minutes ago, lavalois said:

There is a way to make a working mirror in SL for pictures, though. But it involves building your entire set on its side, using SL water as your mirror, and adapting your windlight settings to craete a mirror in the water.

Nice idea... if i forget to detach my avatars physics, some body parts will look pretty windswept.
 

11 minutes ago, lavalois said:

And working mirrors in Sims 2 also lagged your system as hell if your system wasn't on par.

We already can choose in the graphic settings and within the "photo tools", if we want to use shadows or the advanced lighting model, for example. Why that wouldnt work with a mirror surface? Leave it up to the user, if he/she wants to toggle a mirror button, or not.

[Coby Foden]

Mirror, mirror... on water surface... it works well and is not even laggy.

Here is a real reflection of the avatar on water surface. No photoshop tricks.

And here is a real mirror reflection using Linden water as the mirror surface. No photoshop tricks.

One more. Again real reflection on water.

When sailing I always keep all water reflection on. Does it cause lots of lag? No it doesn't. How it reduces fps is barely noticeable. In all above picture cases the fps drop is also barely noticeable. So mirrors are possible in SL. And they wouldn't cause lots of lag if used wisely. And naturally if LL made mirror surface available, then the viewer should have the possibility to turn mirror reflections On/Off, just like it is now possible to do that with water reflection.

Why LL doesn't give us mirrors? It must be something else than the often mentioned lag.

[Resi Pfeffer]

Wow, i didnt expect it to look that good.
But talking about you sitting in front of the mirror... That might work for pictures, as you have proved, but you know what happens when you stand up from that seat