You will have noted the 'core content' of Poser 13 comes with two environment scenes as example/template startups. One is a 'wide street' and the other is a beech shot.

For this example I will be using the beech shot, where I met, long time no see but hey you are looking good! Roxy.

Note how the direction of Roxy's shadow matches the shadows of the trees in the background image. This is because the light comes from the sun in the HDR image.  Note also how the shadow is smooth and does not match the ripples in the sand. Too bad but that's how it is. 

Roxy said she was bored with this beach and wanted to change environment. 

I told here I came from Holland and she said she wanted to see Amsterdam. Asked if I could help her.

I told her: 'stay ther, don't move!' and I surfed to PolyHaven.com, did a search for 'Amsterdam' and downloaded 'Cloudy Vondelpark'.

Back in Poser I clicked somewhere on the background. This caused a prop 'environment preview' to be selected. I went to the material room and found the 'default' material selected. In the 'image map' I selected 'browse' and selected the cloudy_vondelpark_4k.exr I just downloaded:

Then, here comes the trick! I did NOT use 'OK' but the 'Replace All Identical Maps' button in the lower bar of the dialog. From the dropdown I selected 'Scene':

(tech note: this replaces the map in the 'environment preview' prop, in the light that illumunates the preview scene, and in the background shader that causes the IBL and the background. ) 

Roxy instantly found herself in a misty Vondelpark. (Hey girl, walking on the grass is not recommended, and forbidden.)

What was left for me to do was to move here to the path (=less dogshit there) and hit 'Render'

There she goes, off to a coffee shop no doubt.  (first path to the right, then there's one straight ahead on the opposite side of the road)

Note how there is no shadow (it was a misty day, remember) and how the color tone of the figure has changed, matching the light conditions.

To illustrate the difference I made a comparison. 

Note: in the images the 'Replace All identical Maps' button is obscured by the drop down menu. The image below shows it better:

What exactly is the purpose of the Environment Preview?  It cannot be scaled nor can it be rotated.  It doesn't project an environment map unless you plug the map into the Color input and retint the chip white.  It is not visible in either Raytrace or Camera.  The only place HDR rotation, location, and scaling manipulation can be performed is directly in the Material Room Background.  This can be somewhat performed already in P12 with the exception of the Diffuse IBL.  I really need a thorough explanation.

hborre posted at 11:43 AM Sat, 1 April 2023 - #4460347

What exactly is the purpose of the Environment Preview?  It cannot be scaled nor can it be rotated.  It doesn't project an environment map unless you plug the map into the Color input and retint the chip white.  It is not visible in either Raytrace or Camera.  The only place HDR rotation, location, and scaling manipulation can be performed is directly in the Material Room Background.  This can be somewhat performed already in P12 with the exception of the Diffuse IBL.  I really need a thorough explanation.

The purpose as I understand it is exactly as I described. Makes working with HDRI's easier because it makes the background show up in preview. In the above I did not bother the tech explanation. Sure you can define an environment background in the material room background material, but that does not give you a preview. Without it matching the figure with the background is trial and error, and a lot of it. Sure parts if it were already in Poser 12. This is just an improvement, to ease use as I described above.  

There is no need to scale the preview background and if you do it is a sure way to mess things up. It is possible to rotate but only with quite ingenious methods. You would need methods to keep the background views in preview and in render synched.  It is easier and safer to rotate your scene to match the environment. Groupings an parenting are designed for that purpose.

Obviously it only shows a background when you plug one in.

I hope this is thorough enough.

 

I did do an extensive analysis of the environment preview and under both cases with the sample scenes, I did get not a preview of the scenes.  Looking into the Material Room, the PhysicalSurface node shows a black color chip and an HDR connected to the Emission input with its strength set to a value of 1.  No image in the Preview Room.  I going to try something and see if I can force P13 to cooperate. 

Has there been another release of P13 overnight?

I have followed the above tutorial and applied a HDR. It shows up in the Material room but no matter what I do I cannot get of the  beach scene! What am I doing wrong? Cheers

Screen Caps Here!

FVerbaas posted at 4:47 PM Sat, 1 April 2023 - #4460388

hborre posted at 11:43 AM Sat, 1 April 2023 - #4460347

What exactly is the purpose of the Environment Preview?  It cannot be scaled nor can it be rotated.  It doesn't project an environment map unless you plug the map into the Color input and retint the chip white.  It is not visible in either Raytrace or Camera.  The only place HDR rotation, location, and scaling manipulation can be performed is directly in the Material Room Background.  This can be somewhat performed already in P12 with the exception of the Diffuse IBL.  I really need a thorough explanation.

The purpose as I understand it is exactly as I described. Makes working with HDRI's easier because it makes the background show up in preview. In the above I did not bother the tech explanation. Sure you can define an environment background in the material room background material, but that does not give you a preview. Without it matching the figure with the background is trial and error, and a lot of it. Sure parts if it were already in Poser 12. This is just an improvement, to ease use as I described above.  

There is no need to scale the preview background and if you do it is a sure way to mess things up. It is possible to rotate but only with quite ingenious methods. You would need methods to keep the background views in preview and in render synched.  It is easier and safer to rotate your scene to match the environment. Groupings an parenting are designed for that purpose.

Obviously it only shows a background when you plug one in.

I hope this is thorough enough.

 

Sorry, but this is ridiculous. I can not rotate, can do nothing and this is an improvement? Why is Poser not able to put out a proper Environment system?  This new one here is useless. 

Just to be sure: did I mention I used Superfly render engine? 

It worked for me all right the way I described above. If it does not work for you, best contact Poser support.

arrow1 posted at 8:39 PM Sat, 1 April 2023 - #4460420

I have followed the above tutorial and applied a HDR. It shows up in the Material room but no matter what I do I cannot get of the  beach scene! What am I doing wrong? Cheers

It is difficult to say from here. I think you may not have used the 'scene' option in the 'Replace all identical', or you had already changed maps before. 

The environment map is used in the environment preview, in the background (used during render), and in the single light used in the  preview. The 'change all identical in scene' works only in all three locations when the maps in these three locations are identical.  

TheAnimaGemini posted at 1:45 AM Sun, 2 April 2023 - #4460454

Sorry, but this is ridiculous. I can not rotate, can do nothing and this is an improvement? Why is Poser not able to put out a proper Environment system?  This new one here is useless. 

I did just show how it can be used as it is now. I did not claim it is an improvement. 

I determined that my problem is the onboard video and drivers are not compatible with this Poser version.  Fortunately, I do have a second computer which works perfectly.  I'll need to switch my workload to the second machine until I either buy a new computer or install an actual graphics card.

hborre posted at 5:43 AM Sun, 2 April 2023 - #4460469

I determined that my problem is the onboard video and drivers are not compatible with this Poser version.  Fortunately, I do have a second computer which works perfectly.  I'll need to switch my workload to the second machine until I either buy a new computer or install an actual graphics card.

Glad you found it. 

I've needed a few minutes to understand this:

Preview:

Environment preview: set to 90° instead of -90° (its default position)

Render:

In fact: each time the Enviroment preview is rotated, I have to turn the Background node's rotation as well.
Remember school? 90° <-> 1.57 radians

Once setup to 1.57, accordingly:

That being said, one question remains, for me: I thought that HDR's gamma value was to be set to 1 but in Poser13, this factor doesn't seem to change anything.

I found that rotation channel listens to a color node output, with yRotation given in the green channel, in radians.  With some tricks you could thus link the background rotation to a dial.   

Not sure yet whether that is a stable arrangement.  

FVerbaas posted at 10:40 AM Sun, 2 April 2023 - #4460494

I found that rotation channel listens to a color node output, with yRotation given in the green channel, in radians.  With some tricks you could thus link the background rotation to a dial.   

Not sure yet whether that is a stable arrangement.  

Given my small experience in Python for Poser programming, I've remarked that such input has the same format as the famous RGB code, indeed.
Is it related? who knows... It can also be a simple technical choice.