Impossible reflections in P-38 canopy

[Chief_Mouser]

Something is amiss with the canopy reflections in the P-38. Instead of a pin-up picture I have the aircraft specs displayed. In the P-38 they are located on the forward, facing the pilot, part of the yoke. As such, I would expect to see a reflection here: 

 

 

Instead it appears way over here:

 

 

 

I can't think of any outlandish theory that would explain how an image can produce a reflection at right-angles and behind it's true position. Any budding Newtons, Hookes or Huygens care to enlighten me?

[von_Tom]

There are quite a few reflections that do not make sense - for example seeing the FW190 instruments in the front side glass when there is a big cowl over the top of them.  Also the lack of parallax. 

 

It's a WIP so it'll get there.

 

von Tom

[Chief_Mouser]

1 minute ago, von_Tom said:

 

It's a WIP so it'll get there.

 

 

I do hope so. I have the reflections on 'Normal' and really like them, but things like this are making me contemplate turning them off. Cheers.

[AEthelraedUnraed]

Well, it's computer graphics after all, and that tends to employ tons of simplifications to get framerates down to acceptable levels. If you want photorealistic reflections you'd have to employ ray tracing, but unless your name is "Pixar" and you've got a factory hall crammed full with GPUs, you won't get more than one frame an hour.

 

I've got no idea which algorithm they use to create the reflections, but I know enough about CGI to know that there may well not be a good solution that gives correct reflections yet keeps framerates high.

 

Reminds me of CoD2 way back, when they faked water "reflections" by actually duplicating the entire scene geometry upside-down and making the water transparent.

Edited June 12, 2020 by AEthelraedUnraed