Hello;

What kind of lighting in Poser Pro 2012 can be used for all the Stonemason products which mostly comprise of outdoor scenes?...

some kind of GI system?...

I tried using one IDL light…but with very crappy looking results!...

http://www.daz3d.com/shop/village-courtyard

because after all...all these products are also supposed to work in Poser...but then again... how to light them up?...

thsnks for viewing

Get Bagginsbill's Envirosphere.

Laurie

Lighting is a very personal thing. I really like Stonemason's work, and especially this courtyard, and used it once as background with just a single spotlight. (You can see it here.) But I like dark, shadowy stuff. Nighttime, not daylight...

Second, for BB Env Sphere, and here are some really nice skies I just found today!

(free for personal and commercial per creator)

http://www.wuala.com/Olson/Photos/Optikz_360_Skies/

The "Village Courtyard" has a built-in skydome.

You should make it invisible otherwise it will interfere with using EnvSphere or other IDL devices you might be using.

Take a look at the material shaders, I can guarantee Diffuse_values are set to 1.  Lower that value to 0.85 for starters, then apply a skydome with BB's shader arrangement and IDL.  There maybe other sections which could use a quick fix within PP2012 enviroment.

In what circumstances would it be necessary to lower the diffuse values? I'm using Poser 8 with the environment sphere and IDL. Non-GC.

I am curious as well...why lower diffuse to 0.85?  Is that on all materials, skin, characters, environments, etc...?

Single infinite + IDL and Envirosphere

Single Infinite + IDL + BagginsBill EnvSphere w/ HDR image

Single Infinite for shadows/highlights and a white IBL for fill.

Your diffuse value determines how much diffuse light is reflected from your surface.  Nothing in nature reflects light diffusely at 100% with very few exceptions; specific wavelengths are absorbed and the remainder reflected back into the environment.  Darker material will reflect less than lighter.  Hence, setting a diffuse_value of 1 signifies that the texture surface is reflecting 100% of your environmental light, this does not occur naturally.  In addition, the render engine will misinterpret these values and attempt to calculate for a brighter surface.  Diffuse_values should be turned down for all surfaces, including skin textures and especially if you use it on the Poser Surface.

Thanks for the explanation, I will give it a shot on the render I am working on.

When incoming light is at 100%.
Outgoing light can never be more then 100%.

Unless, the object adds light like a candle, or a TV or PC screen would.

Diffuse + Specular + Reflection can never be more then 100%

In Poser :

Diffuse_Value + Specular_Value + Reflection_Value can never be more then 1.

0.95 would even be better for a total maximum.
Some light is absorbed by the object surface.

Slowly but surely I am learning while all of those "tweaks" are, on the front page of Snarlygribbly's SceneFixer.  It seems it's not just coincidence after all...  :tongue1: