A couple of observations regarding the use of HDRI images with landscapes. HDRI work great for metallic objects with reflective surfaces. No question about it. There can be a problem however when using HDRI skis with landscapes as the image itself will be used as a sky and ground. If you image has low resolution, it will become very obvious. So... if you want to use that great technique, make sure you have a very high resolution image to use as your sky, or to hide the sky and ground altogether.

This scene had no sunlight. Just an HDRI sky (I had to do with the resolution of the most appropriate hdr file I could find for that scene). The droids look great by themselves, but the shadows are washed out and the sky is just plain ugly.

Both scenes are using procedural terrains with additional noise for the low areas of the dunes by the way.

Incidentally, those who have Vue Pro can set the sunlight not to affect the droids. So when Vue Pro 5 is out, this problem will be solved, and you'll really be able to get the best of both worlds.

Well... not really... since the HDRI image will still be in the sky. I read somewhere that Lightwave allows to have HDRI global light and the background to be completely independant. Maybe that would be a good addition for a future release..... that and the ability to rotate the HDRI envelope in the sky around the scene :) That said, I really love the ablity to merge sky and ground with the same HDRI envelope. I played with that lighting model in Carrara and it is a lot more cumbersome to set up.

Thanks Agiel, Perhaps you should keep that can of worms below locked for the duration. Rokol.

Really nice renders Agiel. Volumetrics and Radiosity- what a concept!

Thought that I would ask here if you are still checking- I STILL cannot find the "Post-Processing" effects. I've checked the manual and it still isn't clear where they are... Can you give me a clue?

Double click on the camera in the world browser. Post processing effects should be there.

Thanks! I just found it a few minutes ago. It seems to like an Easter Egg- you really have to try right-clicking on all kinds of things. But, yes, a Right Click on the Camera icon itself- then Edit Object- brings up the "hidden" panel. It was what I was hoping for- some Photoshop-like color and gamma correction options. You can do nice "warm black and white" renders with this. Plus, the manual (which doesn't help you find this panel) does say that the image corrections are at a much higher level than the final saved file image... so- what I'm looking for now is- What is Vue 5's INTERNAL image depth? 64 bits? or even 96 bits? High-End HDRI is done at 96 bits.