Real metal For Poser

lannabulls

Hi everybody,
I just bought "Real metal For Poser"
http://www.daz3d.com/real-metals-for-poser
cause I dont find a way to conctact the vendor, (costumer support link does not work, give me 404 error) I'm going to ask here a simple question:
I install the product in my library, everything ok, in my materials library I find 2 folders:
"RayTrace Reflection" and "Spherical Map"
What the difference between the materials that I find inside the 2 above mentioned folders?
Inside both folders I find the exact same materials, what the difference? Is it about render setting, Ray-traced metals need apropriate render setting? the product note says:
"Ray-traced metals will need a render ray-trace setting of 1 or greater. This can be found under -Render -Render Settings. Also, the scene will have to have items to reflect off the ray-traced metals. For outdoor scenes, it is recommended to use a sky-dome for reflections."
Could you be so kind explain to me what the difference between the 2 folders? What about metals that I find inside "Spherical Map" folder?
Thanks a lot!

Lissa_xyz

Spherical maps are probably a forced reflection. It has an image map for the reflection instead of reflecting the surrounding objects in the scene. If you have other objects in the scene and want those to be reflected then use the raytraced option.

Kerya

Raytraced takes longer (it has to compute the reflections from a skydome/figures/props around the object), but is more realistic.
Spherical map is faster - usually it is just called fake reflections or mapped reflections.

lannabulls

Thanks a lot,
I understood the differences, really thanks!

WandW

Snarlygribbly has a nice collection of free metal shaders for Poser...

http://www.snarlygribbly.org/3d/forum/viewforum.php?f=10