mental ray Architectural and Design Visualization Shader Library

Chapter 5General Utility Shaders5.1 Round CornersCG has a tendency to look “unrealistic” because edges of objects are geometrically sharp,whereas all edges in the real world are slightly rounded, chamfered, worn or filleted in somemanner. This rounded edge tends to “catch the light” and create highlights that make edgesmore visually appealing.The mia roundcorners shader can create an illusion of “rounded edges” at render time. Thisfeature is primarily intended to speed up modeling, where things like a table top need not becreated with actual filleted or chamfered edges.No round cornersRound cornersThe shader perturbs the normal vector, and should be applied where bump maps are normallyused, e.g. in the bump parameter if the mia material.The function is not a displacement, it is merely a shading effect (like bump mapping) and isbest suited for straight edges and simple geometry, not advanced highly curved geometry.