as the titles say how do i use my own pics for the environment mapping, ive serached but not found anything

like the city atmosphere included in vue, is there a way to convert my own camera pics to work same way 

please help anyone

The evironeent maps Vue used are HDRI files. They are different from a standard image file taken from a camera. They are 32bit images that store accurate informations about lighting. You can save your Vue renders in this format for future use, but you'll need to make them panoramic to get accurate lighting & reflections.

is there a prog that will convert my pics to hdri files

You can also simulate the effects of HDRI just by importing an image into the Environment mapping interface. Vue will ask if you want to make the image seamless (if it isn't) and if you want to create lighting based on the image. It doesn't work as well as tru HDRI files but it works in a pinch.

ive tried that but when a pic loads no matter what size, it renders zoomed up and/or stretched vertically is there a vim directory where i can download some or a prog that will make vim for me from my pics

ive got that vim file of the park from renderosity and that works fine its a jpeg thats about 80 megs that works perfect but others ive tried including the sphere types are just zoomed in and look naff

You might try looking here. http://www.hdrshop.com/   Hope this helps.

k got that, and does seem to do the effect i need, but still when loading into vue as  environment the zoomed up effect, what am i missing or is it not possible at all, ive read that normal pics are not best to use because vue cant tell difference between an actual light source and a piece of paper as theres not enough info in the picture, something like that, so a hdri has to be created from about 3 dif pics of dif exposures, ok ive done that and merged them as hdri but still zoomed weird effect.

heeelp?

 

I've had a LOT of good luck making my own panoramic skies (regular 8-Bit TIF images and even JPEGs - not 16-Bit) and using them as environment mapped skies. I take a series of shots across either ALMOST an entire 360 degree view (or even 180 works pretty well in some cases), to an ACTUAL 360 degrees and assembly them in PS - NOT HDRI imaging, but just making a general panoramic.

Believe it or not, the environmental lighting for just 8-Bit images works REALLY well in Vue5Inf (can't vouch for any of the lower versions).

When importing an image, since it's just a sky, when ckeck the box tomake sure it only applies to the top half of the environment - no stretching! This sounds like your problem described above.

Good luck - hope this helps!
-Lew ;-)

yeah i can do the panaramic version, but when i import the pictore in its zoomed into a small part of the pic, looks all bent and grainy and theres no floor if you know what i mean, i need a prog that will create the same pics or hdri like the park jpg

 

like this one

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/index.php?section_id=51

Zoomed, bent, and grainy - did you take a full panoramic with even high skies, or just a few shots along the horizon?

If you take and put together a full 360 degrees of pictures - including higher skies - it won't be stretched and if you've got a higher res digital camera to work with (5MP or better) than it won't/shouldn't be grainy enough to notice.

If you only took a couple of shots of the horizon, think about it - it has to stretch upwards and to the sides to evenly cover the underside of a perfect shpere - or for just upper hemisphere the underside of 1/2 of the sphere. Either way, if there's not enough info it will stretch all the pixels unevenly and add grain in the process.

Yeah, this requires more than a bit of work in PS.

can ya give me some examples of what kind of pics i need to take and then perhaps how i assemble them in PS cs2 please

This shot is about 220 degree view - not quite to 360 yet but does pretty well for a render so far - and I haven't made it higher yet. I need to add some more sky above so I don't get any vertical stretching This is a pan stitched from a number of images (I think this one was 4-5) where I mostly just took the clouds from them and made my own sky as a gradient with the tweaking.

You can take panoramic shots (multiple images - then stitch them together so it's seemless) or just take a whole bunch of images of sky and clouds and put them together like this one attached where I pretty much made "brushes" out of a number of cloud images, and made my own blue sky for them to be in.

Start taking pics of clouds and skies in general and toy around in PS.
Does this help?
-Lew ;-)

yep does help, but what about the ground tho i have seen some pics like this where theres just at bottom, in the park jpg theres gravel/stones

I have a question similar to this and not sure if I should start a new thread or add it here. I will try adding it here first before starting a new thead.

I have read up some on HDRI light probe, HDRI Shop, etc. I understand that you need different exposure images to combine into a single HDRI image. Partly what I want to fo is to make some environment maps or ever light probes for other software (Like my C4D R8)

Okay, I have my old copy Vue 4 DESPrit. I notice i can do 360 degree panoramas. I also notice that there is an exposure setting in the light control panel. THe setting is normal by default, but can go 2 stops under or 2 stops over exposed. There are also some ambient light mixing controls that are a part of this. So... is there anything to gain by making 3 renders (Normal, +2 stops, and -2 stops) and combining them together in HDRI Shop (or PS CS2) to make an HDRI light probe image for use in other applications? If need be I can ever sety up a mirrored sphere and use the virtual camera to make my exposures as well (like what is done with real HDRI light probes.) Not sure if there is any advantage there either.

I know this will not be the exact same as a real world HDRI light probe, but would it be close enough in some way that it is worth doing.

BTW, I have done the panoramic thing with a single normal exposure render and used it as a JPEG (LDRI) envirenment map in C4D and it seem to work pretty good (transparent, reflection,s radiosity, etc.) What might I gain by going with a higher dynamic range image for lighting?

Attached is a sample render in C4D with a "environment" made from a single normal exposure render in Vue 4 DES. BTW, I use a black and whire version of the enviroment for the GI lighting and color version for the raytraced reflections and background. Otherwise the image tends to render blue from the sky color.