Directional determination of HDRi environment lights

RenderPretender

Hi -

I have noticed that some HDRi light/environment vendors use directional icons to indicate light direction. My expience with these has been that 0 degrees means that the light emits from 6 o'clock if you are viewing the scene from the top. This does not seem to be true of all HDRi light presets, though, when pictoral icons are not used. Some seem to treat 0 degrees as 3 o'clock based on where the light seems to be coming from. Other than trial and error in previews, has anyone discerned a consistently reliable means of determining light origin?

rrward

I ended up buying this product: https://www.daz3d.com/ibl-master-for-daz-studio . It creates a non-rendering ball with the IBL light texture on it so you can see where the lights are, as well as a sphere with the IBL texture around your scene (also non-rendering, though you might want to hide it before final rendering).

 

RenderPretender

rrward said:

I ended up buying this product: https://www.daz3d.com/ibl-master-for-daz-studio . It creates a non-rendering ball with the IBL light texture on it so you can see where the lights are, as well as a sphere with the IBL texture around your scene (also non-rendering, though you might want to hide it before final rendering).

 

That's fairly brilliant! I was a little concered that folks might find this to be a bit of a silly question! Seems like this would have a free solution, though, if vendors would use the degree wheel consistently, with 0 degree at 6 o'clock, matching the direction in which characters load by default.

nemesis10

masi3vee said:

rrward said:

I ended up buying this product: https://www.daz3d.com/ibl-master-for-daz-studio . It creates a non-rendering ball with the IBL light texture on it so you can see where the lights are, as well as a sphere with the IBL texture around your scene (also non-rendering, though you might want to hide it before final rendering).

 

That's fairly brilliant! I was a little concered that folks might find this to be a bit of a silly question! Seems like this would have a free solution, though, if vendors would use the degree wheel consistently, with 0 degree at 6 o'clock, matching the direction in which characters load by default.

As for free solutions: I am rather fond of https://www.daz3d.com/light-probe-tool/  which has a sphere primitive that you just add your hdri as its surface texture and you can visualize the exact direction more accurately than the IBL-Master (which I do love and you all the time).  https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=87bfrlO7vHs

RenderPretender

nemesis10 said:

masi3vee said:

rrward said:

I ended up buying this product: https://www.daz3d.com/ibl-master-for-daz-studio . It creates a non-rendering ball with the IBL light texture on it so you can see where the lights are, as well as a sphere with the IBL texture around your scene (also non-rendering, though you might want to hide it before final rendering).

 

That's fairly brilliant! I was a little concered that folks might find this to be a bit of a silly question! Seems like this would have a free solution, though, if vendors would use the degree wheel consistently, with 0 degree at 6 o'clock, matching the direction in which characters load by default.

As for free solutions: I am rather fond of https://www.daz3d.com/light-probe-tool/  which has a sphere primitive that you just add your hdri as its surface texture and you can visualize the exact direction more accurately than the IBL-Master (which I do love and you all the time).  https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=87bfrlO7vHs

Thank you! Might have to grab that.

rrward

masi3vee said:

rrward said:

I ended up buying this product: https://www.daz3d.com/ibl-master-for-daz-studio . It creates a non-rendering ball with the IBL light texture on it so you can see where the lights are, as well as a sphere with the IBL texture around your scene (also non-rendering, though you might want to hide it before final rendering).

 

That's fairly brilliant! I was a little concered that folks might find this to be a bit of a silly question! Seems like this would have a free solution, though, if vendors would use the degree wheel consistently, with 0 degree at 6 o'clock, matching the direction in which characters load by default.

Forgot to mention that the sphere in this product is tied to the IBL in such a way that you can just rotate the sphere any wich way you want and the IBL will follow the rotation.

Sven Dullah

rrward said:

masi3vee said:

rrward said:

I ended up buying this product: https://www.daz3d.com/ibl-master-for-daz-studio . It creates a non-rendering ball with the IBL light texture on it so you can see where the lights are, as well as a sphere with the IBL texture around your scene (also non-rendering, though you might want to hide it before final rendering).

 

That's fairly brilliant! I was a little concered that folks might find this to be a bit of a silly question! Seems like this would have a free solution, though, if vendors would use the degree wheel consistently, with 0 degree at 6 o'clock, matching the direction in which characters load by default.

Forgot to mention that the sphere in this product is tied to the IBL in such a way that you can just rotate the sphere any wich way you want and the IBL will follow the rotation.

And the light direction will be identical in 3Delight, which can be handy if you want to use it for rendering backgrounds/environments for compositing;)

Artini

I have created some 360 panoramas (8K 8192x4096), but they are all in .JPG format.

Are there any way to use them to light the scene?

They provide nice background, but no light.

Just wonder if https://www.daz3d.com/ibl-master-for-daz-studio could help with that task.

 

Sven Dullah

Artini said:

I have created some 360 panoramas (8K 8192x4096), but they are all in .JPG format.

Are there any way to use them to light the scene?

They provide nice background, but no light.

Just wonder if https://www.daz3d.com/ibl-master-for-daz-studio could help with that task.

 

With IRay? Probably not. Will work better with 3Delight, you'd get nice indirect lighting (global illumination) but would need to add some lighting.

Test them in IRay, plop them into the environment slot:)

nemesis10

Artini said:

I have created some 360 panoramas (8K 8192x4096), but they are all in .JPG format.

Are there any way to use them to light the scene?

They provide nice background, but no light.

Just wonder if https://www.daz3d.com/ibl-master-for-daz-studio could help with that task.

 

Are they HDRI... it is the high dynamic range that iray uses to light the scene.

Sven Dullah

nemesis10 said:

Artini said:

I have created some 360 panoramas (8K 8192x4096), but they are all in .JPG format.

Are there any way to use them to light the scene?

They provide nice background, but no light.

Just wonder if https://www.daz3d.com/ibl-master-for-daz-studio could help with that task.

 

Are they HDRI... it is the high dynamic range that iray uses to light the scene.

Jpegs can hardly be high dynamic range, can they. So, as I said, won't work well in IRay, won't create any direct light with IBL-master in 3Delight, but will possibly provide some nice global illumination if used together with additional lights, like a distant light.

nemesis10

Sven Dullah said:

nemesis10 said:

Artini said:

SorryI have created some 360 panoramas (8K 8192x4096), but they are all in .JPG format.

Are there any way to use them to light the scene?

They provide nice background, but no light.

Just wonder if https://www.daz3d.com/ibl-master-for-daz-studio could help with that task.

 

Are they HDRI... it is the high dynamic range that iray uses to light the scene.

Jpegs can hardly be high dynamic range, can they. So, as I said, won't work well in IRay, won't create any direct light with IBL-master in 3Delight, but will possibly provide some nice global illumination if used together with additional lights, like a distant light.

Sorry, didn’t see the jpeg  part.