Quote - > Quote - > Quote - If you have IDL available (Poser 7 doesn't, for example) than you don't really need to use IBL. However, if you have image based light kits, you're allowed to use them. I would not go to the trouble of using GenIBL to capture your world as an image for IBL, because you have IDL - IDL does that directly - uses the light from your world.

The one case I can think of why you might still want to do it is if you have a lot of geometry located "off-camera" that you want to affect the scene. I can think, for example, of one of Stonemason's urban settings, which you might want to have reflected off a polished chrome prop.

Please clarify your reference to "might still want to do this". Do what? Make an IBL of your scene using GenIBL?

Making an IBL will not do anything for your reflections. Having an environment full of objects (or a sphere faking it) will. GenIBL doesn't do that - it fakes the light, not the scene. EnvSphere can fake the scene if you want reflections and provide the light if you enable IDL.

If you're talking about photographing the actual Stonemason set as an environment, using GenIBL, and then using HDRShop to convert it to some other format such as EnvSphere Equirectangular, then you could use the photo as a stand-in for the set. But GenIBL alone will not do all those steps. It only gets you ready to use an IBL to light your scene.

You got it right what I was thinking of doing. Now that you explained that the IBL won't show up in reflections, then I can see that there is no point to do so. Thanks for saving me a lot of pointless troubleshooting.