Trying to understand Iray environment/skydome

jazzcmshine_1869cb6e81

Hi, I'm trying to learn how to get the sky to render right in Iray scenes. I have been tinkering with the settings but nothing I do seems to change much - I feel like I'm just missing one important setting change. No matter what image I have set as the environment map I seem to get largely the same results, basically a white sky. I've tried it with the dome settings set to "finite dome" but that didn't seem to change anything. I've attached a quick and grainy render to demonstrate.

It happens with different scenes, so I assume there's something I can do about it.

mjc1016

What are you using for a map image?

For the dome, to be useful as a backdrop, it should be a high resolution HDRI in the Environment Map slot.

jazzcmshine_1869cb6e81

mjc1016 said:

What are you using for a map image?

For the dome, to be useful as a backdrop, it should be a high resolution HDRI in the Environment Map slot.

Huh. In this case I was using the environment image that came with the scene and was in there by default. I guess I assumed it would work.

mjc1016

What scene/package? (If I have one of the ones you used. I can try and see if I can replicate your results.)

Some contain images that are meant to be used on 'physical' skydome props...for 3Delight or other renderers, not Iray.  Iray uses HDR images.

Also, 'draw dome' needs to be turned on, in the Render Settings and the camera headlamp should be turned off (if no other lights have been added, it won't shut off automatically).

jazzcmshine_1869cb6e81

A couple of examples of the scenes I've tried are the resort pool and DA palm island. Both seem to be designed for Iray, but maybe not for drawn domes? Even though the preloaded settings seem to default to that.

And thanks, yeah, I had found the need to draw domes and turn off the headlamp through experimenting with the settings. The headlamp was particularly annoying.