(posted htis on offical E-on forums but here too, in hopes some genisuses are bored!) Ok any of you been reading the stuff on Facepunch.com about HDR and Halflife2 game models? This is what one of these game/art enthusiasts has managed to achieve: beyond the juveniity/legality of some of the posts etc, the end results are bloody awesome. What can Vue do to help achieve similar results? I find to get an hdr sky I bought from Dosche Design etc, to work right, I have to adjust the lighting a LOT. The automatic settings usually end up with far, far too dark a result and wrong skydome colour (or at least to my unskilled eye it's so). How can the balancing of the light be done? I've been busy tweaking away and found so-so results adjusting the colours in Vue by eye. Surely there has to be a better way? Am I missing something, or is Vue? I'm rendering a complex scene just now, when it's finished I'll post some shots to explain this further :) I'm hoping E-on staff can help us here by giving tips or perhaps tweaking the HDR function. HDR will become the de rigueur lighting form one day I'd guess, so what occurs now, affects Vue's future. Serious. Halflife2 game add on will have real time in game HDR... that's a game, neve rmind a art package. ye gods, I feel old...I thought spectrum graphics looked cool and the Amiga was freaking amazing... ;)

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With Vue Infinite, you have the option to change the contrast, intensity and gamma of your HDR dome. This is not available in other versions of Vue.

• agiel - www.linfa.net

Agiel, Yes but tweaking this to a good result ... Ok here's a nice sunny HDR from a Dosche sky collection.

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bhut THIS is how it looks on models the ambient light, and skydome colour are both set to light blue shades, by automatic set up light system.

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this is tweaking the lights to be almost white

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AH HA! Just found possible problem:

each time you load in an HDR, it does NOT automatically set the light up!! you have to click RESET on the colour swatches of each light in the atmosphere editor.

This explains the problems I've been noting, but still the over all light balance (exposure) often seems wrong: too little.

THis is the same pic, with the colours reset, BUT the exposure boosted to .30. Bit too strong but it's better than turning lights to white, or the default exposure as it is a sunny sky.

:)

Message edited on: 06/28/2005 07:52

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Ah more investigation shows the defualt SKY DOME LIGHT GAIN is at 0.15 when it looks like 0.30 should be the defualt, but I'm not much of an artist nor understand light vs atmopshere physics! Ok ehre is view of the sky , render sky dome light gain 0.15

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this is the SCENE pic at 0.15 sky light dome gain

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Remember too - the fantastic Half Life 2 images are actually using 2 photographs for the environment lighting. - one 360 degrees image (or at least 180) for the HDRI lighting model. This is used just for the light and possibly, the reflections. - one higher definition, 'flat', image for the background behind the character. This explains why the background is so sharp.

• agiel - www.linfa.net

Agiel, yes I know this :) I'm concerned with the light values and set up in Vue itself ;) I'ver tried various composites with HDR. Vue is of course, not Brazil, hehe, but there is something wrong and I think I have identified the problems: 1) Auto set up fails for colour at times (specifically if more than 1 hdr has been loaded and perhaps if the sky light effects have been changed) 2) Sky dome gain is set to low by default. :) Same scene, sky light dome gain set to 30

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And here sky light dome gain set to 0.60 From this rough test I'd say the sky light dome gain DEFAULT setting probably should be set to between 0.30 and 0.60? Probably 0.30 At current, it's 0.15 and it seems to dull at that with most HDRs I've tested. Or have I overlooked something? :)

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more testing on wide variety of HDRs... seems the sky light dome gain needs adjusted based on each image, hm.

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well the big mistery for me is : how to set a flat background and a light hdri to try to obtain something like the first photo ?? all the hdri maps i've found are all "blurred" ehrn i use it like "background", but the first image of this trtead is incredibly clear...

On some of mine...I create an alpha plane, apply the sky pic I want....then I use this same image as the skydome HDRI pic(atmos only is checked). So the alpha of the pic sky is in front & not distorted, yet achieving the desired lighting effect. Note - this only applies to the sky :)

an image example ?? :)

At work..can't provide now....I'm EST....so I get home around 5pm...give me till 6-6:30pm EST.

There a few in my gallery...if you search on dlk30341...it's the top 3 pics that use this method. There are no other lights used in the images.

Message edited on: 06/28/2005 14:16

oh yes, nice and convincing lighting, but i want to understand something of different... simply look the first image, look the soft shadows of soldier's feet... you can see a 3d shadow on a 2d background... how is possible ? postworks ? different level of hdri engine in 3d studio max ?

Home a bit earlier...Using HDRI should provide accurate shadows.....What I'm not sure of is teh WHOLE image and HDRI or just the sky? Screen shot to come of the sky stuff :)

Here is a screen shot of the alpha used as a sky and the HDRI...Hope you can tell I threw this together ;). As you can see the tree is casting shadows/w no sun :)

Attached Link: http://myweb.hinet.net/home4/chshlin/tutorials/cheap_HDRI/cheap_HDRI(e).htm

This is confusing when working with vue. This image made in vue feels like the lighting is wrong especially on the top of the cube. How can this be fixed? There are 2 cubes one on the floor and in the sky and the lighting on both looks wrong as does the top of her sneaker.

Also, I dloaded the files for this tutorial and when I applied them to vue it looked wrong. Can vue make the same looking image as the final image in this tutorial when using the same files?

I think hdri files can be used for environment, lighting, and reflection. The hardest part is making the environment hdri so people use planes like in this tutorial. Vue comes with environment maps that look great. Is it possible to make these maps using a mirror ball or is the outcome always fuzzy? Is the 1st pic in this post a plane pic or an environment map that is 360 degrees? It looks great. Has anyone made a 360 hdri environment map that looks good or is everyone using preset maps and bought maps or planes?

I bought some Dosche skies, as I knew the sky wouldn't interfere with mos timages. have a few high quality complete 360s too form various sites/places. The render engine I think in the 1st pic here is from BRAZIL high end renderer but I dont know jack about it :/ Not even tried my dmeo XSI foundation yet lol too busy with Vue etc. I have Maxwell, but they haven't brought out the Vue plugin in yet and it won't work with my old v2 Rhino, ick, managed to do some tests with think it was .obj formats etc, maxwell holds amazing promise. Just HOPE they can get that to work with ecos and normal (non-maxwell) matrials or at least convert well. Maxwell is way different class. I bought it when they had pre sale offer, 395 dollars??

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