hdri & daylight system

[gfriedman]

can hdri's be combined w/the daylight system? or rather, say i wanted to make a sun simulation and I wanted to tie the intesity of the reflection of an environmental hdri in the reflection channel to the height of the sun - is this a possibility?

[braddewald]

which rendering engine are you using?

[gfriedman]

vray, sorry i forgot to mention...

[braddewald]

If I am correct, the vray daylight system is just a vray version of a direct target light with the vraysky in the environment slot. Sometimes people (including myself) get too caught up in what is the "correct" way to do things is. All you would be doing is substituting the vraysky map for your own hdri map. Go for it! Just because you can't find a lot of info on something doesn't mean its not a good idea or that it wouldn't perhaps be perfect for your situation.

[gfriedman]

yes and no. I agree abo experimenting.

 

the problem i foresee is that hdri's are mindividual moments in time. so it would work if i had an animated hdri (does such a thing exist) - because the sun is moving across the sky it would be wrong for the hdri to remain fixed over the cycle - right? see what I'm saying?

[braddewald]

Ah, I got your question now. Well yeah, obviously simulating the sun's movement would involve animating the custom hdri map to accommodate a moving sun. As far as I now, animated hdri maps are nonexistent because the file size would be monstrous. You can search the forum about that topic, though-there's plenty.