index_of_refraction.md

Index Of Refraction

For a transparent object, we can change its refraction, so that the object looks like a window glass or a frosted glass.

To do this, we use ior in StandardMaterial.

commands.spawn(PbrBundle {
    material: materials.add(StandardMaterial {
        ior: 1.,
        ..default()
    }),
    ..default()
});

The value of ior is at least 1 and can be up to infinity. The larger the value, the more it looks like a frosted glass (or more blurry).

In the following example, we create three cubes. From the left to right, their ior are 1, 2 and 3 respectively. To make the difference obvious, we set all specular_transmission and thickness to 1. We also create an orange plane with a texture board.png and disable all shadows.

The full code is as follows:

use bevy::{
    app::{App, Startup},
    asset::{AssetServer, Assets},
    core_pipeline::core_3d::Camera3dBundle,
    ecs::system::{Commands, Res, ResMut},
    math::Vec3,
    pbr::{DirectionalLight, DirectionalLightBundle, PbrBundle, StandardMaterial},
    render::{
        color::Color,
        mesh::{
            shape::{Cube, Plane},
            Mesh,
        },
    },
    transform::components::Transform,
    utils::default,
    DefaultPlugins,
};

fn main() {
    App::new()
        .add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)
        .add_systems(Startup, setup)
        .run();
}

fn setup(
    mut commands: Commands,
    mut meshes: ResMut<Assets<Mesh>>,
    mut materials: ResMut<Assets<StandardMaterial>>,
    asset_server: Res<AssetServer>,
) {
    commands.spawn(Camera3dBundle {
        transform: Transform::from_xyz(0., 2., 3.).looking_at(Vec3::new(0., 0.5, 0.), Vec3::Y),
        ..default()
    });

    // left
    commands.spawn(PbrBundle {
        mesh: meshes.add(Cube::new(1.).into()),
        material: materials.add(StandardMaterial {
            specular_transmission: 1.,
            thickness: 1.,
            ior: 1.,
            ..default()
        }),
        transform: Transform::from_xyz(-1.25, 0.5, 0.),
        ..default()
    });

    // middle
    commands.spawn(PbrBundle {
        mesh: meshes.add(Cube::new(1.).into()),
        material: materials.add(StandardMaterial {
            specular_transmission: 1.,
            thickness: 1.,
            ior: 2.,
            ..default()
        }),
        transform: Transform::from_xyz(0., 0.5, 0.),
        ..default()
    });

    // right
    commands.spawn(PbrBundle {
        mesh: meshes.add(Cube::new(1.).into()),
        material: materials.add(StandardMaterial {
            specular_transmission: 1.,
            thickness: 1.,
            ior: 3.,
            ..default()
        }),
        transform: Transform::from_xyz(1.25, 0.5, 0.),
        ..default()
    });

    commands.spawn(PbrBundle {
        mesh: meshes.add(Plane::from_size(5.).into()),
        material: materials.add(StandardMaterial {
            base_color: Color::ORANGE,
            base_color_texture: Some(asset_server.load("board.png")),
            ..default()
        }),
        ..default()
    });

    commands.spawn(DirectionalLightBundle {
        directional_light: DirectionalLight {
            illuminance: 50000.,
            ..default()
        },
        transform: Transform::default().looking_to(Vec3::new(-1., -1., -1.), Vec3::Y),
        ..default()
    });
}

Result:

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