sorry, these questions have probably been asked a million times but I haven't found the answers

a) the HDR images dont show in the viewport, and are black there, is that normal? they render fine, and are mapped correctly

b) to reduce noise when they are used for lightning I blur them, I believe the noise comes from rays that are headed in slightly diferent directions, sampling different pixels in the image with differing values, and a blurred image prevents that these pixels values differ too much (correct?)

how can I use the blurred image for lightening only and the unblurred original image to show in the camera directly?

c) GI with images doesnt produce specular effects, you need a light for them therefore you have to place an auxiliary light. any tricks to place the light at the right spot?

d) when there is no light or only dim light or light that only has specular componant in the scene, everythings is near black, how do you quickly switch a bunch of lights on and of without having to switch every light individually?

thanks

I would recommend using EZDome by Snarlygribbly. Here is the link to the Script: http://snarlygribbly.org/poser/?LMCL=ycs5CB. Follow the enclosed instructions and user manual. There are other posts in the forum with further tips and tricks.

Thanks much for the link unfortunately this doesnt work for me in 11.3 It doesnt install in the path thats recommended (in a dircetory that doesnt exists) I assume the way the python scripts are handled has chnged since this was released.

Also, while this looks like a very useful tool, I am still interested in the answers to my questions As I said I searched and didnt find the answers.

a) they show in mine. Are you using opengl?

b) I guess. I use Firefly, sorry. No noise.

Use EzDome as hborre says. Or just use 2 environment spheres one inside the other. Same thing, just less instructions and bells and whistles. The inner sphere should be scaled appropriately and set to Visible in Camera, Not visible in Raytracing. The inner sphere is where you'll set your hdri that you want to show in scene and reflections. The outer sphere will be for the light. Turn off cast shadows in both.

c) determine where the major light source is in the hdri and place your spec and or sun appropriately. In the advanced material room you can adjust the diffuse and specular properties of the lights, so you can create a specular only light, for instance, by setting the diffuse color chip to black. You can also modulate the diffuse output of a light with a math add node. See illustration.

d) got me. I'm never in a rush lol.

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Mudbox 2022, Adobe PS CC, Poser Pro 11.3, Blender 2.9, Wings3D 2.2.5

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a) what are you using the hdri on? ( I assume the construct but want to be sure )

b) turn off visible in raytrace ( properties tab ) on the hdri object - add a skydome to the scene and make it is not visible in camera ( properties tab ) but ensure that visible in raytrace is on. Copy your hdri to this dome.

c) sorry can't help here.

d) Save this script anywhere you like and run it to turn all lights off / on

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*- 

import poser

scene = poser.Scene()
for light in scene.Lights():
    light.SetLightOn(0) if light.LightOn() else light.SetLightOn(1)
scene.DrawAll()

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Nice script. Thanks structure.

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W10 Pro, HP Envy X360 Laptop, Intel Core i7-10510U, NVIDIA GeForce MX250, Intel UHD, 16 GB DDR4-2400 SDRAM, 1 TB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD

Mudbox 2022, Adobe PS CC, Poser Pro 11.3, Blender 2.9, Wings3D 2.2.5

My Freestuff and Gallery at ShareCG

yw :)

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https://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/free-stuff/environment-sphere

This is the link to Bagginsbill Environment Sphere which is simpler and is what EZDome is built on. This is the best alternative ATM aside from using the actual Poser stage.

Thans for all the answers. The easiest way for me thats also in line with my thinking is to use two hemispheres, but I just still have to figure out how to map the image on the ground so it matches at the seams.

The hdri didnt show on the background object when I use the Environmental Map node - it shows with the normal image node but thenit isnt scaled around the whole scene.

@EldritchCellar I just had to realize that having different colors/values for diffusion and specular doesnt work in superfly, only firefly

thats a pity cause I think that using an additional diffuse light with image based lighting looks bad in most cases. but having no gloss at all also looks strange in some cases...

so what I have now is a single IBL light for arranging the scene, gving me a very coarse preview of the lighting and kind of light everywhere, and two hemispheres, and than I can switch the IBL off quickly for rendering.

its also a pity that HDRI bit depths are not supported in the IBL it seems, cause it seems to render faster and would be quite convenient to use.

I experiment with making an image based shader for the IBL that creates more dynamic but the result while being useful is not as good as using the lighting from the dome

structure posted at 6:47PM Fri, 28 August 2020 - #4397979

d) Save this script anywhere you like and run it to turn all lights off / on

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*- 

import poser

scene = poser.Scene()
for light in scene.Lights():
  light.SetLightOn(0) if light.LightOn() else light.SetLightOn(1)
scene.DrawAll()

Thanks from me too Structure. I dropped it into the ScriptsMenu Utility folder, where the deleteLights script resides, and it works perfectly.

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OK . . . Where's my chocolate?

Butterfly Dezignz

my pleasure :)

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