Unable to get lights working in certain asset

graterle1990

Hi All,

I was trying to work with this particular asset https://www.daz3d.com/starship-bridge , I am having quite a lot of difficulties when it comes to lighting this scene up, the characters don't look good with default lights and any light placed inside the Bridge just does not have any effect, any ideas what's going on?

FSMCDesigns

I don't have that product, first off, which preset are you using since it comes with a 3Delight preset and an iray preset and what render engine are you using, Iray or 3delight

Timbales

If you're using Iray, check your Render settings and make sure it says "dome and scene" or "scene only". It it says "done only" scene lights won't work.

TimberWolf

I've got this and the render settings for the lighting are a bit unusual for an interior set.

On the assumption that you are using Iray:

Firstly, under Render Settings change the Environment Mode from 'Sun-Sky Only' to 'Dome and Scene'. In the Environment Map drop-down box set the HDRI to 'None'. This will achieve exactly the same result but now your spot and point lights et.al. will work. Sun-Sky Only really means exactly that. No scene lighting will work, apart from emissives. You can *always* replace Sun-Sky Only with Dome and Scene with no HDRI map; you will have exactly the same parameters to play with and the results will be identical. 

Consider whether or not you need Spectral Rendering (it's turned on by default if using any of the render presets) and you might want to hide or delete the volumetric fog box as well (sfb1FogBox). Having either of those enabled will slow down the rendering quite a bit but you will lose some of the atmosphere of the scene if you do.

If you're still not happy with it, have a look under Tone Mapping, again in the Render Settings tab. Stonemason changes the white point to remove some of the saturated yellows which you might not want if you remove the fog box and and you can also tweak the Exposure Value by small amounts - increments/decrements of 0.25 will usually do it - to raise or lower the ambient lighting.