Hi -

I'm new to HDR environments. If I'm using my own HDR image, and wanting to make a figure "contact the floor" of an environment dome, is it customary to move the figure relative to the dome, or vice versa? I'm fiddling with the dome orientation axis sliders, but nothing I do seems to achieve the objective of moving the dome on the Y axis in real time. I must be missing something here.

Or, perhaps the dome is virtual and ca't be translated?

What do you mean by meeting the floor? If you want ground shadows, do you have Draw Ground on in the Editor tab of Render Settings?

RHaseltine posted at 5:34PM Tue, 15 May 2018 - #4330103

What do you mean by meeting the floor? If you want ground shadows, do you have Draw Ground on in the Editor tab of Render Settings?

I need to translate the dome vertically so that I can, for instance, partially bury a sphere in the "ground". How does one accomplish that? Move the dome or the sphere? Draw ground is on, but the figure is "floating in the environment. How do you adjust the vertical relative position of the figure to the environment?

There isn't a ground you can bury stuff in, it's an illusion created by the spherical HDR map.

RHaseltine.... Instead of some short, semi-cryptic, off the cuff answer, how about a proper explanation of what's going on and how the OP can make the dome (or figures) do what he wants. In typical Daz fashion, they've thrown a capability out into the wild with no instructions or explanation of how one uses it.

As I said, I don't think it can be doen that way as the "dome" is a sphere that surrounds the scene, set up in such a way that (from the centre) it looks like the original scene photographed.

Hi truthordare, I did some experimenting last night with a bunch of HDRIs I'd made myself using panoramas downloaded view istreetview.com (links and info at end of post). As you've already discovered, moving the dome has no effect. Rotating it does indeed spin the dome enabling you to use the view that you want. I found that a setting of ~260º sets the dome at it's centre point (more or less). The up and down part is accomplished by moving your figures. I used a small group of four ladies in an exclusive bridal shop in London England. I quickly discovered that using a normal camera focal length of 50mm gives a view that is not distorted. Going shorter (less than 50mm) causes distortion because of the wide angle). Your view is limited to the middle one third (approximately) horizontally. I found that moving the figures up and down allowed me to set them on the floor (figuratively). If they appear out of scale in respect to the back ground, move them towards you (in the viewport) or away. To make them appear larger or smaller. You'll then have to move them up/down and left/right to get them back into the proper spot. I found it to be a fairly tedious process but using the Aux viewport made it quicker for rough positioning. Do a small render to judge final placement.

I always do interior renders and experienced increasing frustration with the excessive render times in Iray. I also found that the available interiors where not to my liking as I'm not into Sci-Fi, fantasy, or ruined and demolished buildings. A post in another forum (no, not Daz) pointed me towards istreetview which has been a Cowsend. I've gotten several dozen excellent panos which I've turned into HDRIs. The variety is endless and it's easy to spend a lot of enjoyable hours cruising the globe looking for interesting panos.

The following two videos detail the process and are excellent. Don't bother with buying the loooong and drawn out tutorial from Dreamlight unless you want to spend two hours being bored to tears and watch him stumble around. These two (FREE!) videos get right to the point and in fifteen minutes give you all you'll need to know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUw4SL8CUYk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxaW9FdxhKI

Here's the first video... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUw4SL8CUYk

Addendum: Tilting the camera up/down will change your view but the range is limited because of distortion. You also have _some _ movement up or down. Again, watch for distortion. You'll quickly get a feel for what panos work best. I like large groups of people so I look for panos that have a large 'clear' area and in which the camera is set some distance away. Remember that 1/3 area.