Corona Rayswitch Material

The Rayswitch Material lets you assign different kinds of materials to different ray types (GI, reflection, refraction, direct visibility). You can use it, for example, to create a material which is:

Global illumination – Specifies the material used for global illumination rays (light reflected off this Rayswitch material).

Reflection – Specifies the material used for reflections (the appearance of this Rayswitch material when it is reflected in other objects).

Refraction – Specifies the material used for refraction (the appearance of this Rayswitch material when it is refracted in other objects).

Directly visible – Specifies the material used for direct visibility (the appearance of this Rayswitch material to the camera).

Displacement from – Selects which of the four materials serves as the source of displacement in this Rayswitch material.

Global illumination mtl – The displacement is taken from the material used in the global illumination slot.
Reflection mtl – The displacement is taken from the material used in the reflection slot.
Refraction mtl – The displacement is taken from the material used in the refraction slot.
Directly visible mtl – The displacement is taken from the material used in the directly visible slot.

Viewport preview – Specifies which of the four materials is used for the 3D viewport preview of this Rayswitch material.

Global illumination mtl – The material in the global illumination slot is used for the viewport preview.
Reflection mtl – The material in the reflection slot is used for the viewport preview.
Refraction mtl – The material in the refraction slot is used for the viewport preview.
Directly visible mtl – The material in the directly visible slot is used for the viewport preview. 

A golden ring casting reflective caustics from sunlight. No Rayswitch material used.

A golden ring using the Rayswitch material. Caustics are disabled by connecting a pure black Corona Legacy Material to the Global illumination slot. This prevents any light from bouncing off the ring.

A ring with gray diffuse material casting light. This is achieved by connecting a Corona Light Material into the Rayswitch material's global illumination slot, and connecting a simple gray material into all other slots.

A ring which appears blue when seen directly, green in refraction, and orange in reflections. This is achieved by connecting a blue material into the Directly visible and Global illumination slots, a green material into the Refraction slot, and an orange material into the Reflection slot.

A golden ring with shadow casting disabled. This is achieved by leaving the Global illumination slot of the Rayswitch material empty. The sunlight is not blocked by this material, so it casts no shadows.

An example of making the reflections of an object less distracting using the Corona Rayswitch Material. The textile material of the chair is darker when visible in reflections thanks to a Rayswitch material with a darker diffuse material connected to the Reflection slot.