Ummm. OK I'm going to sound like an ass, but I need you to pay attention. I'm not trying to be mean - I'm trying to be explicit. You must read and understand every word I say or you will fail.

*repeating what I said above, because it didn't sink in

*"For earthly images to use with that, google equirectangular images, or search for equirectangular on flickr.

For space images, you might be able to find an equirectangular space panorama, but you probably could get away with just about any star field."

and later I wrote*

My Environment sphere is a prop, an actual sphere, 1500 feet in diameter, so it also surrounds your objects. You want to load something into its shader. I provided procedural gradient shaders for simple stuff, a normal image shader for panoramic images as is, and an effects image shader for manipulating how skies look. Did you read any of the sub-links? There is a step-by-step how to use it page, a page of examples of the special sky effects, and a page of links to resources where you can find thousands of equirectangular images that work on it.

**You need to read the instructions on how to use the environment sphere here:
**
http://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/free-stuff/environment-sphere/environment-sphere-instructions

In particular, you have skipped the MOST IMPORTANT STEP. You have to actually load a panoramic image into the shader that uses panoramic images. I do not supply any since they are all copyright, but free for your own use if you get them yourself. Read the section on that page ### Using an Image (LDR or HDR, but HDR in Poser 7 only)

Now let's try a panoramic image. Poser 7 comes with an HDR image for a pond. Look in RuntimeTexturesHDRVFX and see if you have HDRVFX_pond_01_v_002.hdr.  Of course you can try other images.

Go into the material room.

Select the Environment Sphere.

In Poser Materials, navigate to the EnvSphere folder. You should see several environment sphere icons. The default material is the EnvPanoramic material. When you first load an EnvSphere, it has this material on it. If you have done one of the gradient materials, you'll need to reload the EnvPanoramic material onto your environment sphere.

 

If you want to use special effects, load the EnvPanoramicEffect material instead.

 

 

  Now you load your image into the shader. You can't load an image into complex shaders in Simple mode.  If you are in Simple mode, switch to Advanced mode.

In Advanced mode, load a panoramic image in the "Panoramic Image" node.

You can load HDR images or LDR images.

Here I have chosen an HDR image - the pond image that comes with Poser 7.

 

Above the Panoramic Image node is a node called Gamma In. You must tell the shader how to gamma correct the incoming images. Ordinary photos require Gamma In = 2.2 (usually) but HDR images are already gamma corrected. For HDR set Gamma In to 1.0.

 

Again:

 

HDR Image -> Gamma In = 1.0

LDR Image -> Gamma In = 2.2

When you set the Gamma In correctly, the Image preview (at right here) will still be wierd, but the final preview should look normal.

 

One such as this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/erik-nl/273934733/sizes/o/

You do not need the special effects shader, the one you loaded, unless you want special effects.

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Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)