Toolbag Refraction Shader problem

Greg_X

In the attached picture, I've used the refraction shader on a water surface. It generally looks great, but there is one issue with it. It refracts the white edge, even though this edge is front of the water. Is this a limitation of the shader?

EarthQuake

Yes, unfortunately this is a limitation of the shader. The refraction shader is a screen space shader, which means it can only refract what is on the screen, this can be problematic when other objects occlude the refracted material, and this is a good example of that.

Greg_X

Thanks for the reply! I had a feeling it was a limitation, but I wanted to check to be sure. My workaround is to create two renders, one with all objects and one where the front objects are hidden. Then I'll put it together in photoshop. Toolbag renders quickly, so this is not too much hassle. 

Do you have any plans to create a liquid shader for Toolbag? It would be cool to have a shader that controls color and transparency based on how far the line of sight penetrate the material. E.g. shallow water light green and 50% transparent, deep water blue and 0% transparent. Like.. comparing the the z-buffer value of the transparent pixel with the pixel it occludes.