First of all, I used virtual mirror ball to catch the scene when the poser6 come on the market i demonstrated it in my stonehange renders and Alex can prove I say the truth ..almost 2 years ago, i created with this idea my popular product called Mec4D Studio Light..  setting the light the way as they should, everything was bassed on the theory I share here with so this worked perfect with the all directions and I am done with this theme 2 years ago when i was thinking the wrong way.. you don´t have to explain to me how it works, I render with poser for almost 10 years..and working wit photography for 20 years.. so I know a little bit about .. I don´t mean to offense you in any way, if you feel this way then I am sorry .. BTW.. I never stole other ideas or search the community for the news and sell as mine.. lol

I will agree with you regarding the ball, I never saw it b-c the missed parts was always behind the scene NORTH and that was what I missed , on the UV maps including the top and bottom ,
the aspect ratio matter if you are going to convert the maps to Light probe.. but for the textures it don´t matter ..

i will write more in a sec..

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"Surrender to what it is - Let go of what was - Have faith in what will be "