Reflections from a HDR image

[AlexP]

Hi,

 

I am doing an exterior scene of a small house using Max 8 and VRay 1.5 RC2 and need answers to the following questions:

 

1. How do I make my window glass to reflect some objects that are not actually existant in the Max scene - like trees, other houses, clouds? Should I put a HDR image into the reflection/refraction override slot in the VRay environment settings? If so, what kind of HDRI? Will a spherical one be OK? Also, does the resolution of the HDRI matter? In fact, I already tried that, but some windows became very bright and reflective, others are blackish. there must be something wrong with the scaling of the HDRI. My whole scene has been modeled with AutoCAD and all objects are 3D solids, including the window panels - they are very thin 3D solids.

 

2. To light the scene I am using a single direct light and also a light yellow colour for the skylight override in the VRay environment settings. I haven't put a HDRI to light the scene, but I may try to use that. In some tutorials the autor of the tutorial says that the direct light has to be matched to the sun position from the HDRI that is used for the lighting? But how is that supposed to be done - If I use the lighting HDRI as a viewport background (for all viewports) and switch to User viewport, the HDRI is just a static background which doesn’t change when I pan, zoom, or arc-rotate the scene.

 

Thanks for your help in advance!

[Jason Matthews]

I typically add an HDRI in the material editor as a standalone map. Then copy as instance to the environment slot. Then you can change the HDRI map in the material editor and it automatically updates the HDRI lighting. If you have an HDRI in the environment slot then the color of the swatch wont matter.

 

Check out this link as an alternative to exterior lighting. I use it from time to time and for the most part gives outstanding results. Just make sure to add a normals modifier to the sphere and switch the normals.

 

http://area.autodesk.com/index.php/tutorials/tutorial_index/exterior_scene_part_3_lighting/

 

You have to register and log in before you can see the tutorial. It's free!

 

Good Luck!