okay... i'm a visual artist, not a meteorologist or an astronomer. or a navigator or gunnery sargent. (gaah, i just looked up what an azimuth IS... that did not help!) i like to just click on the sun and drag it around to where i want it! but in vue, the sun light isn't the sun, and to set the sun/moon, you gotta... type in numbers. what do the numbers mean, and what are they in relation to? real azimuths are in relation to the earth's magnetic poles. is the vue azimuth in relation to the camera? the default camera position? 'up'? does it matter which way my computer is facing compared to the earth's magnetic field? :) now in the material mixing azimuth control... i can see that whipping the azimuth slider around makes the second material appear on different sides/angles of the preview sphere. what is THIS azimuth in relation to? the world? the camera? the object? the sun? the sun light?? i mean, if i get the second material in the lower left of the preview sphere... where is it gonna show up on my object? help! :)

I think the word "Azimuth" describes the elevation of the sun in relation to the point of view. Or something similar. It is normally expressed in (Damn, I have no idea of the english word for this: "Winkelgrad"). I hope someone can translate this... Lanover P.S. Sorry, at this time of night I am starting to get confused...

Degrees?

Bloodsong, that whole azimuth bit in the material editor is a mystery to me. I guess I need to play with it and figure it out.

heya; you and me both, silver. (um, and everybody else, judging by the lack of explanations, here ;) )

Azimuth is the angle that you would tilt your head if you looked first at the horizon and then at the sun (if you could keep your eyes in a straight line) and it is expressed in degrees. Dead technical huh!! ;0} Chris-S

ARGH! just... can't anybody tell me how to USE it in vue?? i dont really care WHAT it is. just... how's it work? :)

and the answer is..... that nothing in the vue universe matches up with anything else. :) this is going from the top view and assigning north to the top of the screen. 90 degrees puts the sun due north, but to get the light to point from that diretion, you set the roll to 0. if you want the camera to point north, that's 180. (well, okay, the light pointing TO the north(as opposed to coming FROM the north) matches the camera compass.) the azimuth and declination are also liked to the sun light, so if you change the numbers in the sun box, or move the light around, each affects the other.

Err...ummm....thanks? I'm a pilot, for crying out loud and I'm still confused!! I need a computer to figure this out!!! oh...uhh....never mind :-) Seriously, thanks for going to the work to post that. Maybe I'll slip it under my crystal ball and hope for revelation :-) I think it may be one of those things that can't really be explained, you just have to play with it to understand it. It's true what you said aout the Vueniverse tho! LOL! Gail

heya; what dont you understand about the diagram, silver? it isn't that hard.... see the lights? that shows which way the sun light is pointing (its a circle with an arrow sticking out, right? this is the top view). so if you want the light pointing from the left, that is 90 degrees in the sun light's roll box. (in the rotation tab, you know, yaw, pitch, roll?) when the sun is to the left (of the top view), its azimuth setting is 0. to point your camera towards the left, you set its roll to -90. when you set the 2 mixed materials to 90, then material #2 will face to the right, towards your camera. hint: make an empty vue scene, then point the camera to 180, so it is facing 'up' in the top view. save this as your default scene, and never use the 'default' camera position of some kinda 45 degree angle setting. (it's much easier when the camera is parallel with the universe 'walls'!) if you want everything to be to the 'east,' use those numbers on the right. see? (maybe?)