using cloud bitmap for background with a vray sun

[s_gru]

hi. i was hoping to override the vray sky in the environment to use an hdri of clouds/sky but still retain the vray sun/sky lighting.

i did find one person who used a vray light material applied to a sphere which encompassed the whole scene. it involved adding the same vraybitmap with hdri to the opacity slot and i think that works somewhat for hazy looking sky, but not quite as sharp as using the hdri as a dome would. the reason i would like to do this in the renderer is b/c it would save from having to composit in post, and i would still have minute control over the sun light direction from the vray sun.

is there another approach i might be missing?

thanks!

[hermit.crab]

Try plugging the VRaySky in the Environment overrides (V-Ray>Environment) for GI, reflections, and refractions. Use the HDRI in the 3ds Max native's environment slot for the background.

[s_gru]

thanks. hey so that'll give me the all the Environment from the vray sky. but i also just figured out that i can plug a vray bitmap into the 3ds max background>environment map and have better looking clouds rather than that other technique. nice.