For those that don't know, refraction is basically just how light direction changes when passing through transparent objects (and can be clevery manipulated to channel light ect..) which is basically how vehicle lighting works IRL That as basically why there all of those grooes on the inner headlight lens BeamNG currently (a long with most other games) don't accurately simulate this and just rely on good texturing to try to hide that as best as possible. However more recent games, such as the newer Gran Turismo titles actually simulate refraction and honestly it just looks a million times better than without, because as you look around the car due to the way refraction works vehicle lights (especially older sealed beam types) will look so much more authentic, an effect that can't really be achieved with regular textures, no matter how good Not only that but just as the light goes in it also goes out and so illuminated headlights will look much more realistic as well Here is a few tests I have done in blender, and yeah as you can see the results are quite impressive and no there is no fancy rayracing here all in eevee Speaking of which the water material in most maps seems to be using some kind of refraction already, so I wonder if this material properties could also be used to simulate vehicle lights?
