Free super quality HDRI from hdrlabs.com

[Micha_cg]

Today I have seen, that all "free HDRI of the month" of hdrlabs.com are collected at this nice archive web side:

http://www.hdrlabs.com/sibl/archive.html

+ low res blury HDRI for GI
+ med res HDRI for reflection
+ high res LDRI for background

[dalomar_cg]

Re: Free super quality HDRI from hdrlabs.com

Great resource Micha...its been a little while since I checked that site out. Great information about HDRIs. I'll post a contact sheet with all the HDRIs tomorrow

[Micha_cg]

Re: Free super quality HDRI from hdrlabs.com

And here some other free very high res HDRI:
http://www.openfootage.net/?cat=15

[farined]

Re: Free super quality HDRI from hdrlabs.com

Thanks Micha!

Farid

[Philip_cg]

Re: Free super quality HDRI from hdrlabs.com

The best "English countryside" scenes I have found.

Thanks Micha

[diegojimenez90]

Re: Free super quality HDRI from hdrlabs.com

Okay, the sIBL thing seems to be the top solution for real light situations.... however it doesn't seem to be available for VfR...... any light on this?

[Micha_cg]

Re: Free super quality HDRI from hdrlabs.com

Okay, the sIBL thing seems to be the top solution for real light situations.... however it doesn't seem to be available for VfR...... any light on this?

An other top solution, directed supported by the Vray engine, but also not implented - IBL (Image-Based Lighting):

http://www.spot3d.com/vray/help/150S...les_lights.htm

IBL (image-based lighting) is a new feature, provided by V-Ray renderer.

The V-Ray dome light has been extended to support arbitrary texture maps that determine the amount of light coming from each direction on the virtual dome hemisphere. V-Ray then uses importance sampling to trace more rays in the directions where most of the light is coming from. This ensures speed and quality that were never before possible with pure gathering GI methods.

• Easy setup for image-based lighting (IBL);
• Importance sampling of the dome texture for fast and clean results;
• Support for photon mapping for fast and accurate caustic effects.

[indielyness]

Re: Free super quality HDRI from hdrlabs.com

Hey guys, quick basic question - Are hdri's only used so reflective objects show an "image" on them? if everything is made of wood in the scene, is there any point in using an hdri? thanks And apologies for the basic question

[thomthom]

Re: Free super quality HDRI from hdrlabs.com

Hey guys, quick basic question - Are hdri's only used so reflective objects show an "image" on them? if everything is made of wood in the scene, is there any point in using an hdri? thanks And apologies for the basic question

They are also used for lights. An they are nice as environment backgrounds as their colour range works well with a wide range of exposure levels.

[indielyness]

Re: Free super quality HDRI from hdrlabs.com

Ahh that sounds really good! i'll test with a few.

[thomthom]

Re: Free super quality HDRI from hdrlabs.com

Lighting HDRI are usually smaller to save render times as well as they are also often blurred to reduce artefacts.