We want to know if its possible to be done in engine using Emissive Materials on the bulb and a Translucent/SSS surface on the case, meaning we can have the model with out without the case and the engine does all the rendering, e.g. No emissive case if its on the floor, as there is no emissive light source behind it.
That is using emissive bulbs but with a modified version of the glass translucency material, I’m know just entirely unsure whether the effect im after is Sub Surface Scattering or Translucency, all in all im curious as to how we may go about getting effects like this and : http://goo.gl/w3td0B
I’m not even sure this is possible in engine, but It would be a nice effect if we could achieve it, and would just help keep the flow of our game more dynamic,
SSS definitely works for the case, and you can use an emissive material for the flourescent tube, but you still need to use a point light at the diameter and length of the tube so that SSS works properly. However, SSS can be a bit expensive for this if it is for in-game and you have too many lights around.
Thanks for the reply , I see, i had a feeling what we were planning to do was a bit too… expensive
So your saying that Emissive lighting does not word with SSS, I will still need a source of actual light to create the effect,
I suppose it is just better to paint in an emissive to the case and power that by the brightness, and if its detached just set it to 0, then it will just be the flat diffuse,
Emissive is used as light source with LPV, but then it is still a work-in-progress and i havent tried to see if it works with SSS. Other than that normal emissive doesnt transmit light through an SSS material. So your best bet(and the most efficient one) is using an emissive material for the case as you suggested.