How do you set up image-based lighting in VRay for Blender?

[gmf1111]

Hello all,

I am trying to learn VRay for Blender and for the life of me, I cannot figure out how to light a scene with an HDR image.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks in advance!

[bdancer]

Hi,
Create a Hemi light, add light's node tree and create a setup like this:

[gmf1111]

Thanks, bdancer!

[zero4mike]

Which mapping should I use the get the Equirecatangular mapping of an HDR?

[bdancer]

zero4mike, "Environment" node with "Spherical" type.

[The3DNut]

I am trying to setup IBL and I tried as best as I could to replicate what you have there but my output is still very, very dark and I am not sure if it is working. What is the proper workflow to get the "NTClassic_TextureNImage_Texture" node? I had to add Templates>Texture>Image Texture With UV just to get the node I needed and delete everything else so I am pretty sure I am doing that the hard way. Also I could not find your "Image File" node anywhere. The closest that I could find was the Bitmap Buffer node but I am not sure if that is the right thing or not. Can you give me anymore details on how to get IBL setup and working?

Thanks for your time,
Bryson

[zero4mike]

You can find the Image File node in the add menu Textures>Image File. You can also use the search funtion in the add menu(different from the one you get when you hit "space"). As for why your renders are dark, if you could share a screenshot of your node setup, perhaps we can see where the problem is.

[bdancer]

The3DNut, there is a new "Image File Texture" that combines everything (image settings + mapping) at once:

So with new node setup is much more simple:

[The3DNut]

Thank you for the updated information. It was the new "Image File Texture" node that was throwing me off as it looks nothing like the node in your previous node setup example. I followed your new node setup example and I agree, that is much simpler. I still am not getting the output that I think I should be getting. I am going to attach the .blend file and hopefully you can look at it and tell me what you think. I stripped all the images off the model. I just want to deal with one issue at a time since I am trying to figure all this out. Thanks for your help.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...eB_IBLTest.zip

[bdancer]

So, what is the issue with this scene? Everything works as it should. May be I could only suggest switching color space to linear and play with gamma:

What result are you expecting?

[The3DNut]

I just created a fresh scene with a plane, a cylinder and the hdr image. I setup one in Cycles and rendered it and then I took the identical scene and setup the IBL according to your instructions and I have the output from the V-Ray frame buffer. The Cycles result is what I expect from the V-ray output but that isn't what I am getting so I am missing something.



https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...eneCompare.zip

[The3DNut]

Excuse me, here it is with what settings I could gather from your reply on the 7th.

[bdancer]

This is what you need to match:

[The3DNut]

Thank you!