mrsparky opened this issue on Sep 30, 2008 · 24 posts
mrsparky posted Wed, 01 October 2008 at 6:30 PM
What's the difference between your DSU and using an environment map in Vue?
Good question - thanks.
To get a really sharp background image in Vue you need to use a huge image for the environment map. Something like 10363 wide x4132 high. Use anything smaller and you'll see the jaggies. You can see this very clearly in the HRDI city image included with Vue.
Another is when you use very large environment map, is memory. If you change that map a few times you can run out of memory very quickly. Vue is good and will warn you but really you need to restart the PC after seeing that message.
With the DSU you don't get this. Nor do you have to spend ages creating a very large image - any standard size photo will do as long as you crop it to 4:3.
*except that the photo shouldn't be used for lighting the scene, since it isn't HDR, it has a very limited dynamic range, and it isn't panoramic, so it can't be mapped on a skydome ...
Thats right - but thats easy enough to solve. Use HDRShop, or if you need a quick probe use the method Accadia suggested - Flaming Pear's Flexify filter. OK maybe thats not 'true' HDR for the purists but it can do the job.
Thats another reason for the DSU and the way the tutorial is written - to make life easier for us Average Joes.
While it's nice to have the knowledge and skills to create technically accurate things, sometimes after a long day you just fancy throwing a quick NVITWAS off the wrist :)