iRay - Will Skydomes Still Work, for example, BWC, etc?
Subtropic Pixel
Posts: 2,388
in The Commons
The question is in the subject line.
Does iray break skydomes in DS? I'm doing some shopping and I think I like Sedor's BWC skies.
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No, Iray does not 'break' skydomes...they are just not needed. A mesh skydome, without turning it into an emitter, will be just like enclosing your scene in any other geometry...room, cube, etc.
Now the IMAGES in most skydome packages can be applied as either lighting or backdrops (different things need to be done to use them that way), but they need to be done manually (at least once, after that they can be saved as presets/assets).
BWC Skies is absolutely brilliant, but like mjc said, it will take some wrangling to get it to work in iRay.
Turning the physical dome into an emitter will probably slow down the render time.
I have a 12-thread CPU and two GTX 980 GPUs, with plans to build a 2P + 3 GPU rig in the next year. At the risk of sounding cocky, I'm not so worried about slowdowns in iray.
BWC Skies bundle is in wishlist now. Thank you for the replies!
If you want to give them a try before you buy, then might I suggest dropping by the thread about DAZ Creative Magazine? One of the back issues had a set of two in it as a freebie. If you're going to buy anyway, it'll give you a chance to experiment with methods while you wait to pick the bundle up.
What I generally do:
Try putting dome image in environmental map in Render Settings. Often this doesn't work, and the lighting is diffuse or the wrong color.
Leave it as a dome. Change dome texture: put diffuse/base color map in Emission channel, emission color white/6500 temp, luminosity at, oh, 1500 (enough to show up, but not overwhelm, tailor as needed), glossy weight 0 (because you don't want lighting affecting the dome)
Zoom way out, make a spotlight. Place it roughly where the sun in the dome is, just inside the dome. Set it to Disc geometry, make it roughly, oh, 100 x 100 (height/width). Point it perpendicular to the dome, set the spread to 180. Adjust light levels.
Mental note made; thanks!
Nice; note 2 made!
Call me an idiot for asking about something so obviously basic, but how exactly does one do that? I see any number of renders with HDRI/jpg image environments rather than mesh, and I cannot for the life of me figure out how it's done.
It's easy...but I haven't done enough Iray renders to be able to do it automatically, and the computer with Iray on it is currently in use, so I can't look up the steps. (really need to sit down in front of that one for a few hours to get the process burned into my skull...)
That said, the settings should be in Render Settings > Environment...you should have the Scene Only, Dome, Dome/Scene settings, the spot to plug in the HDRI and a few other controls there.
All so complicated for layman's term understanding, this Iray business can be... Someone clearly just needs to come out with Iray-compatible skies of all different weather types, so that we can just one-click something for storms/sun/night/snow/outer space/whatever.
Know there are those 'HDRI' packages, but they seem to come with specific entire environments. Often you just need a sky and nothing else, just like in 3Delight sets.
I've done that, but it never quite seems to work. When you get a minute, can you drop me a copy of your settings?
The sky domes will block light from the Iray dome environment or sun, and while I don't have this particular product, I'd be surprised if it didn't do the same thing. The image in the skydome needs to be lit, and there's no easy way to do that in Iray.
I'm not sure these skydomes make sense for Iray. You can find plenty of really nice horizon and sky images for backdrops for free. Check the licensing, of course, because these are real photos.
To make it a backdrop in your render, use the Environment window, then choose Type->Backdrop. I find this a little cumbersome, though, and use a backdrop prop or torus-shaped partial dome. I found one years ago on ShareCG, and that one or something similar should sill be there. Apply the image you want to the surface of the prop, then apply the Iray Uber surface. Be sure to dial off all of the glossy channels.
For simple skies, I just render with a transparent background, and composit in Photoshop. Quick and easy. Use this method if you simply adore a certain skydome and image. Render it alone under 3DLight, and take that image as a bottom layer in Photoshop.
I forgot to mention: To work as a backdrop applied in the D|S Environment window, you don't need any special lighting to make the image viewable. D|S applies self-illumination.
But if you use a backdrop as a surface on a cove, torus, or other partial dome, you need to be sure there's enough lighting in your scene. I'd use an Iray Dome with your favorite HDR. You can augment the people and settings with scene lights, but be sure to limit fall-off of these lights onto the backdrop (position the backdrop far enough away). Otherwise it will look like a very obvious cyclorama shot in a bad 50s movie.
...I've been asking this since IRay was first introduced. Love to see something like DreamLight's Azure Skies set which included HDRIs for use with UE. personally I don't like using full scene HDRIs because you are vert limited as to where you can place yout characters & props so they appear to be the proper scale in relation to the background.
These would also need accurate sun lighting as well to cast realistic shadows like the Iray "Sun" does.
You can light with an HDRI and use a different background that works with the HDRI lighting. The attached image was made using one of the HDRIs from DimensionTheories' Iradiance Variety Pack. I rendered without the dome showing so I could then add a photographic background. There are also a couple of additional lights to fill.
I would caution against using jpg HDRIs, as they don't have the dynamic range that makes an HDRI so useful. DimensionTheory has a video explaining this on this page.
VEry nice image....Can I ask where did you put the HDRI and where did you put the photographic background...what settings did you use?
Looks like that did the trick, thanks. Here's the end result of my indoor sunlight experiment (previous attempts can be seen here):