Attached Link: http://www.sachform.de/download.asp

*The page shows two thumbnails, and two downloads for the .jpg; they are both the same .jpg pic.

They are 2 different formats each with a JPG image. Top pic is a zip with the HDR Image. Bottom is a zip with an EXR format image(whatever that is?). Thanks for the link AgentSmith!

That's cool. Downloaded it. Now I have something else to play with. :)

Yeah, but both links to the .jpg lead to the same exact .jpg, is all. .exr is just another multi-layer pic file, like the hdr. I looked at the .jpg properties, it has been saved at 100% quality. ;o) AgentSmith

They want $99 for how many hdrs???

I counted 40 HDR's. Pretty Interesting :>

There is a fairly long process into making a finished hdri. Long enough even if you are going to just use them as a .jpg. I'm actually in the process of constructing my own rig to photograph and make them. AS

Attached Link: http://www.openexr.com/

Although it's one up for the non-windows users though!

@AgentSmith - If you need someone to stitch the images together, give me a holler. I lack only a good digital camera to make my own HDRI's. But I have made a few from 360 images found on the web.

I've been watching these threads for awhile and I've also been reading up on HDRI... Unless you have an app that can translate all those high values in an HDRI image you really aren't getting the benefits of HDRI renders in Bryce. Bryce does not understand how to interpret an HDRI file and it is just like any other image file in Bryce. The High Dynamic Range exceeds what Bryce can possibly read in for tonal values of an image. Tell me I'm wrong - but right now Bryce doesn't support this. : ( Scott

My point is I know you are faking HDRI in Bryce and that's great, but you are turning them into reflection maps anyway. Why not just go and get a CD of good reflection maps or panoramas instead of paying for HDRI that Bryce can't use. DoschDesign and Marlin textures have plenty of CDs with maps like these. And of course you could cook up some of your own right in Bryce when its in panorama mode ; ) Scott

Scott, HDRI's (mainly) do three things; Provide more color information. Gives your scene realistic reflections/refractions. More life-like scene illumination. Nope, Bryce cannot use .hdr's directly so it cannot benefit from the extra color info. But the other two attributes it definetly can use. *a footnote - IF Bryce could accept plugins and had a HDRI plugin, it COULD handle the extra color iformation right now, as is. Bryce is already capable of rendering in 48bit. Yes, the workaround I use in Bryce is, at first, a reflection map. But, when you use lighting outside of the global image(and other techniques), suddenly you are lighting your scene with that actual picture, thus illuminating your scene much more realistically. Old style reflection maps; they are usually made in photoshop or someone took a photo of metal foil. No real use for these, unless that's the look you are going for. I used one I had made in Photoshop for my Sorayama pic. Panorama pictures; One of BIGGEST misconception of this technique in Bryce is that you can just use a panorama pic. Fact is, you could use any pic you wanted, BUT...you will get these horrible "pinched" areas at the top and bottom of your spheres, this will in turn adversely affect the reflections, refractions, and lighting of your scene. It looks bad. YET, on the other hand, if your scene is so that you will not readily see those pinching areas in your objects/scene, then go for it, you can use any pic.(I've also done that in my Black Glass Figment pics) The pictures I use and recommend using usually fall under the term HDRI, but most importantly, they are made/processed in such a way that when they are wrapped spherically onto a sphere, they are seamless and undistorted. I'm writing a basic, overall tutorial on this whole thing, that explains all this a bit more. AgentSmith

AS - Thanks for your detailed explanation. As far as lighting the scene with color info - basically any image that is the aspect ratio of the HDRIs you are talking about and is seamless can light a Bryce scene - but only a true HDRI image has enough brightness to act as a real light (all by itself). And yes the ones designed for HDRI are better quality than a stock reflection map - that is definitely a benefit. I was not referring to tinfoil reflection maps, etc - I mean real world or room view spherical maps just like you are talking about. The whole reason the distort/polar coordinates filter exists in photoshop is to fix pinching problems on would be spherical maps. Somewhere in my EI files I have a tutorial on this and I will see if I can find it. Yes not having distortion is key and I think the ones from doschdesign and marlin are already seamless spherical maps - ready to go with no futzing. I look forward to your tutorial on this - and if there ever is a Bryce6 an HDRI plug-in would definitely be sweet. From the images I have seen posted pure faked HDRI looks great for soft shadows and has a GI look to it but they are way too dark in Bryce and the user should still add a fill light that doesn't cast shadows just to make them a little brighter. Keep up the good work - this is very interesting. Scott : )

Attached Link: http://www.idruna.com/photogenicshdr.html