(which, incidentally, ranks up there with sliced bread in the Poser universe IMHO!)

As has been pointed out in other threads, BB's Envirodome has it's own ambient light source. Not being expert in all of the shaders (heck it's taken me five years to figure out how to plug one in!) I can't seem to locate any place where I can adjust the level of the light that the dome is providing for the scene. Is there such a thing? If not (BB?) can we make one?

The reason I ask is, I've recently rendered a couple of scenes with IDL and the Dome and a couple of lights for key and hair and found my scene burned out. Gamma Correction and HDRI options in Poser Pro 2010 didn't affect the outcome.

Again, I know how BB works. :) He's GOT to have a control for this SOMEWHERE!

Help!

Try reducing the amount of Diffuse in all your materials a bit in the main Diffuse node.

Laurie

Nope.  The problem is that your dome is over gamma compensated.  Go into the material room and change the gamma input and output to 1 and re-render.

Sorry...forgot it was Poser 8 ;o).

Laurie

Quote - Nope.  The problem is that your dome is over gamma compensated.  Go into the material room and change the gamma input and output to 1 and re-render.

Hborre: This was, indeed, the control I was looking for. You are a gentleman and a scholar (and possibly, as WC Fields would have put it) "a good judge of poor liquor!" :) :) :)

Thanks for sharing your expertise!

LaurieA: Totally OT, but...
Is it an accident that I think your little elf avitar looks like Sally Field? :)

Warmest regards to two kind people!

Doug

You're welcome, Doug.

BTW, now that you mention it, the avatar does look like Sally Field.  Good observation.

Quote - ...LaurieA: Totally OT, but...
Is it an accident that I think your little elf avitar looks like Sally Field? :)

Doug

Actually, it looks a little like me...lmao.

I've never told anyone this before, but I'm the Flying Nun...

Laurie

 So, the habit was actually to cover your ears... right? You can fly without the nun garb?????

Merry Christmas, All!

Merry Christmas!

Quote - Sorry...forgot it was Poser 8 ;o).

Laurie

Okay, I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed but: does Poser 8 come with in-built gamma-correction? No one tells me anything, sister!

Unfortunately, no built-in gamma correction.  The workaround, which is not the best alternative, is tone mapping.

try tone-mapping with the gain variable in d3d's FFrender script.

Thanks, guys... now all I've got to do is sort out what tone-mapping is and how to manipulate that. I'm still GCing all materials with Parmatic to help adjust for lighting. Are you saying that tone-mapping (whatever that is) replaces GC in Poser 8?
Is tone-mapping material-based, light-based? Do you have a link to a thread where that is discussed in detail?

 Hborre's solution works perfectly, and gives exactly the control I was looking for.

Miss Nancy: This assumes one knows what tone mapping is, much less how to do it! 

in these matters, SOP is to search poser forum, user bagginsbill.  docs re: tonemapping in poser 8 are not in abundance, but try these two:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2778431&page=23#message_3572246

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2778431&page=23#message_3572198

maybe bill or others have done the curves for tone-mapping with variable gains to emulate GC curve, and have found such empirical curve-fitting to be unsatisfactory.  it may be necessary to purchase poserpro if GC is desired and tonemapping/gain curves can't be adjusted sufficiently.

Thank you, Miss Nancy.

I am not too convinced that BB's D3D render settings are optimal enough.  I just posted the image linked below using straight IDL.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1994447

Prior to that, I used BB's settings with Gc for all materials and rendered an image lighter than anticipated.  However, it occurred to me afterwards that the light settings supplied by the model (candle point lights) were probably too bright.  The Gc + tone-mapping balance might be precise but you will need to be very critical with your light setup.  What BB proposes is a compromise option to incorporate P8 rendering features until PoserPro 2010 is officially released.  At the moment Robyn, I wouldn't halt Gc conversion just yet.

Light settings and (using Parmatic) material gamma setting. Food for thought. Thank you, HBorre. Very compelling image, BTW. What's the story behind the horse? I feel concern for its well-being.

Horse?  Big dog, maybe?  LOL!

Time for a new prescription... um, yes, HBorre. Big dog.  :m_shy:

I couldn't see the dog on my monitor (1.8 gamma), hence I took the liberty of using the APS "exposure" filter (incl. exposure, offset and gamma sliders). on left is img adjusted with 2.2 gamma, middle is unaltered, on right is img adjusted with 5.0 exposure. so I'm thinking the poser tone-mapping/gain is more like the "exposure" slider in APS and unlike the "gamma" slider in APS.  there are some errors in description of  poser tone-mapping func. in manual, but it implies it's an exposure tool and cannot simulate gamma corr.

And it exerts it's control over hue and saturation values.  It basically prevents your bright regions from blowing out.  Here is the same image rendered with Gc + tone-mapping.

Quote - in these matters, SOP is to search poser forum, user bagginsbill.  docs re: tonemapping in poser 8 are not in abundance, but try these two:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2778431&page=23#message_3572246

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2778431&page=23#message_3572198

maybe bill or others have done the curves for tone-mapping with variable gains to emulate GC curve, and have found such empirical curve-fitting to be unsatisfactory.  it may be necessary to purchase poserpro if GC is desired and tonemapping/gain curves can't be adjusted sufficiently.

Well, discussions on here and doing a search for tone-mapping has produced the usual confusion. It's a bit like the discussion of GC vs corrected-sRGB in certain conditions: it depends.
So, I save up my shekels (150 of them for the Base sidegrade) and purchase PP for the GC capability, or just continue to GC my material and hope that maybe someone at SM might see fit to include GC in Poser 9.

Think that about sums it up.

And I don't think anyone has the answer why GC wasn't included in 8. Or if they do, it's very hush-hush and not for the common herd to know.

Look how confused people are about GC - a minority of users appreciate it, love it, and try to understand how to use it. Only a minority are willing to select which input maps must be anti-GC'd and which must not. (Don't anti-GC displacement or bump maps, nor any control maps for effects like makeup. Do anti-GC color maps, unless they are HDR, then don't.  .... See? Complicated)

Pro is not a designation that means "I earn money doing this." It means "I trouble myself to learn the ins and outs of powerful tools, which make powerful mistakes when abused."

So - they left GC to the Pro version only. It is a marketing segmentation decision.

TM is easier to use - you can't cut yourself with it. It makes some images look better. It does not make images look real, as in, a tool for realism.

Robyn, I don't think that the implementation of Gc  control into specific Poser versions is so hush-hush.  It is probably more a marketing ploy than practical sense.  Here is a product that the developers would like you to purchase, try and produce results in a rather short time.  Although the learning curve is quite steeper than any one would realize, you, as the consumer, would like to generate a render in one sitting, regardless of quality.  Then the real education begins.  However, we are very impatient creatures and will battle with this program until we either give up entirely because of bad results or realize there is simply more to the game.  For those of us that embrace the challenge of learning this application intimately, we are rewarded with not only what we learn, but how to apply it more successfully as newer versions are released. 

robyn, perhaps one way to look at it:

• gamma correction (machine calibration)
• exposure control (human aesthetics)

hopefully they won't wanna nail me to the tree of woe for saying this, seeing as how it's xmas eve. :lol: