I have no idea if this is what you guys have already been doing for ages, but I think this is pretty cool.... Okay, you know how when you shine your light through a glass sphere, it shines the red shadow on the ground? Okay, well what if instead of glass, change it to an image. Make one sphere positive and the other negative, and group them, so you get a boolean hollow sphere (it doesn't just work with a normal sphere, I don't think). Now, set up your light dome right outside the sphere!!! I don't think it matters where you set up the lights distance wise from the sphere. Now, put your object in the middle of the sphere!!!! It will be lit perfectly from all sides based on the image!!! yeaho! I've chosen some very colorful pictures to demonstrate this to you, so you can see how the image is put onto the model in the middle. Ignore the lighting artifacts, as I only have 20-30 lights in my light dome. ==The top left image is the exterior view of the scene, with the hollowed sphere and the dome lights. ==The top right is to show how the lights interact with objects inside the scene, again, the more lights you use, the better, and I suggest using WAY more than just 20, cause yeah. ==The bottom left is once again to show how the lighting is placed onto the ojbect, it actually looks like it's in the scene with the other objects! Kinda! Again, remember,this is only a quick and dirty with almost no expermimentation, but I think it works a bit better than the whole "make everything in the scene reflective" method, although it's not NEARLY as fast.

I think this is basically what we've been calling fake HDRI. I use this in images where there are reflective surfaces, and the camera angle is such that the sphere (the big one you map the image onto) doesn't show. It makes for more realistic reflections. You didn't mention turning off "cast shadows" for the big sphere in the materials editor, but I do that, too. The light passes through the sphere then without casting shadows inside. And once you put the camera inside the sphere, it is hollow, no need to boolean.

"The light passes through the sphere then without casting shadows inside." I meant casting the outer sphere's own shadow inside itself.

Okay, so this IS how you've been doing it...I'd always wondered. Siigh. Once again, I come up with an idea, but it's already been used a bunch...:( It's okay. I'll get over it. I must go sit and cry in my dark room.

Hey, coming up with something on your own is part of the fun of Bryce! Don't feel bad about it. I invented a lot of things in Bryce before I found this Forum and realized that most of what I was "inventing" was already well known. But that didn't negate the fun of discovery that I experienced! John

Oh, I am. see, the whole sitting and crying thing...I didn't really do that.