Reflection in mirror?

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  • Hi Enscape enthusiast!


    This is my first post. I absolutely love Enscape! Hope to do big things with it this year. First time rendering with it and it's so intuitive!


    Anyway, I've read the threads in regards to my problem but I just want to also point it out.


    The reflection in the mirror has some minor glitches and I hope you can solve this.


    Any tips on how I can fix this? I haven't used Photoshop so I'm presuming I will have to do some post production and learn Photoshop with some cut and paste techniques.


    The green is the grass from outside the building. (I've tried with and without the grass render and it produces the same effect.)


    The hardwood floor is a very hi resolution image. (When I remove the bed the reflection is ok but still not perfect)






    It really makes or breaks my image if you pay real attention it it.


    Any tips would be really helpful. (and yes, I thought about removing the mirror altogether. I even added a tint to the mirror but it lacks the effect I'm after).


    I'm using Revit 2018


    • Official Post

    Geo Glad to hear you're enjoying Enscape! The missing reflections are normal in this scenario - If an object or area is not directly visible on-screen, only the color of the object / area is considered in the reflections (no textures).

  • Geo Glad to hear you're enjoying Enscape! The missing reflections are normal in this scenario - If an object or area is not directly visible on-screen, only the color of the object / area is considered in the reflections (no textures).


    I tried a few test with the reflections to see where the underlying problem is. There must be a straight forward solution to it?


    Excuse me if I don't know the correct terminology for my explanation.


    As I see it, there is a shading problem once direct lighting and shadows are cast in the reflection.


    Direct lighting causes the reflection to generate the model without the rendering of materials etc.

    Once shading is interpreted in the reflection, it generates a correct render.


    Could it be as simple as multiplying the reflection shading into the software?

    Mirror reflections will assume a complete shadow reflection and shading in all areas.


    I tried tinting the mirror and duplicating the model but this didn't work either.


    Hope this makes sense.



  • Could it be as simple as multiplying the reflection shading into the software?

    If that would be true, I promise we would have done it. As Demian has written above, it's regarding off screen reflections that look different. We will improve that in the future, but this is hard to combine with a good performance.

  • Thomas Willberger Please, what isn't good for performance make anyway available for stills and animation. So, it wouldn't be needed to jump between different engines - one for high end renderings and one for RT VR. Good luck for finding a solution.

    I agree, maybe have a button in advanced settings to allow improved reflections that gives a warning when selected that it will effect VR performances, that way people are warned.

  • If that would be true, I promise we would have done it. As Demian has written above, it's regarding off screen reflections that look different. We will improve that in the future, but this is hard to combine with a good performance.


    Hopefully this is at the top of the list in development within the near future. I hate the idea of workarounds just to avoid mirror reflections and having to do some cut and paste through any image editor software.


    Especially unavoidable scenes with mirror wardrobes or full height mirrors across an entire room like a gym or showroom.


    Definitely agree with the above statements from Micha and Solo. Degraded performance is worth the quality in image output. A bit of give and take!


    Good luck team!

  • (I was trying to find the other recent thread about reflections and grass, but this came top of the search)


    (SU) When looking at an imported image in a mirror, the image is not reflected. I'm not sure if this is just for PNGs with transparent bits

    • Official Post

    Enscape does its best to provide as realistic reflections in real-time rendering as possible. Unfortunately, this is a very demanding task for real-time renderers, as you have to maintain the same playback fluency although displaying large parts of the same scene from a different angle, which means up to twice or more amount of rendering tasks to be performed.


    Therefore, Enscape utilizes a complex algorithm that decides what to show in a reflection, taking into account facts such as complexity of models and textures, distance to the camera, etc.


    So I'm pretty sure this particular texture is being disregarded due to resolution & complexity. An approach to improve this could be to reduce overall project- or texture complexity, but there's no way to guarantee it will show up in reflections.


    In general, this is a behavior we're entitled to improve, but fully realistic reflections are still going to be a difficult topic for real-time renderers for the time coming.

  • Kaj Burival Last I have seen a video about Unreal engine and if I understand right, there are used precalculated reflection maps. Could it be a way for the next future?


    If I start a project, my first question to my client is - will we need mirrors and if the answer is no, than I can use Enscape. I wished there could be a way to get better reflections for selected objects. Most only a few mirrors are in the scene.

    • Official Post

    Micha "Baked Reflections", as they are called, are a great tool for games, since - once built - you rarely need to move mirrors there.

    In Enscape, we can't precalculate - or bake - reflection maps, since we want users to be able to move objects, without having to go through the process of recreating their reflection maps.

    So, I'm afraid, it's still the real-time nature of Enscape preventing this solution - we have to calculate everything in real-time so you can change everything using your regular workflows, not having to spend too much time on "3D maintenance tasks".

  • Kaj Burival So, the baked reflections could be used for rendering stills, fly troughs animations and VR only? From an users view not bad, could perfect match the need of my projects.


    The current mode could still be good for interactive scene manipulation, and for the final usage a "bake" button could finalize the scene. The current limited reflections are quite a big problem sometimes ... .

  • Could you at least add an option for reflections in production renders for still images? I understand your point of view as a programmer and I understand the technical limitations. I also imagine that enscape started as a vr and walkthrough software, maybe for large scale projects where one mirror doesn't make a difference. From my point of view as a client, being a small interior design firm enscape is even more important form my workflow helping me save time and money than for a large corporate studio that can afford a graphician. In interior design a mirror is something that is almost always present, it's impossible to render a small bathroom with a mirror without notice bad reflections. Mirrors are present in almost all bars and clothing stores. Without reflections in mirrors in many cases I had to return to my old vray license to do my jobs while paying for enscape subscription. With an option for reflections in the mirrors just in the final render you would let the client decide and it would be up to him waiting longer render times or not. But at least you will give him a complete rendering product. How long would take a render with a large mirror? One hour? I could accept such render time if that would allow me to use only enscape for all my designs and would allow me to make realistic renders without zx spectrum graphics in the mirrors. The workarounds with flipped rooms and fake windows are time consuming in modelling making me personally involved instead waiting for a render to finish makes me free to do another tasks.

    • Official Post

    thank you, jumping_jack , I have upgraded the topic based on your comment, as well

  • Hi, I hope some sort of solution for reflections are being prioritized high as well :) I'm still having to fight the limitations too often, and what should have been a quick render can turn into a photoshop nightmare :) See attached (old) example... I would love a "bake" button as well, or at least a way of forcing correct reflections in given materials (knowing the performance hit i would have to live with).

    • Official Post

    Herbo, thank you for your feedback, we're working on improving this behavior. Please mind it's not about decreased performance, it's also about crashing graphics cards and other issues, but we're aware of your demand for this solution and looking for ways to make it happen.

  • Checking back daily for a solution to this. It has a massive impact on workflow for an interior design studio.

    We primarily use the Stereo pano's with a headset for client presentation and screenshot to file for visuals.


    even if it comes out for still renders first it would make a huge difference

  • The upcoming version 2.2.5 (currently in preview stage) will bring substantial improvements regarding this issue for shading and polycount of the reflections.

  • Looking forward to the improvements.


    I've had to utilise Enscape in different workflows rather than client presentations due to the reflection issue.


    The feedback I get with my work with Revit and Enscape has been 'what's wrong with the reflections'.


    It has been a PS nightmare like Herbo said.


    I still believe in this product. Hoping for a great solution in the near future.