Look around your environment – your house, workplace, or neighborhood. Everything was designed by an architect, engineer, designer, or artist. Nearly all of that was first drawn on a blueprint, sketched onto paper, or most likely, designed by a computer. We are not going to replace these designers, nor do we want to. Instead, we want to take the output of these craftsmen and enhance it for interactive 3D for the Web.
Reflections add a sense of realism to what is essentially an Internet browser on a 2D computer screen. While specular highlights provide visual cues of the Sun and bright lights in a scene, reflection between 3D meshes creates a sense of actual materials such as polished metal or glass. Refraction creates the realism of other surfaces so that water isn't just a 3D mesh with a blue tint, but instead the physics of light traveling through liquids or partially transparent materials such as stained glass.
Few surfaces in nature are smooth either...
