VRAY Dome light shapes

[robertokai_hegeler]

Hi
Under the Dome-Light settings there you can choose:
Plane
Dome
Sphere
Mesh
Disc

Whenever I select any of the other than DOME, I see nothing working. Under Mesh, if I load my own mesh, it is just a black form outside and weird purple and grey inside. Does nothing useful.
Sphere: I see a white sphere, inside black
Pane: I see some lines, but that it it. rest of the screen is black
Disk: One side black, other side greyish disk
Mesh, I see a cylindrical mesh in my viewport, the render is black outside, inside greyish., I click double-sided, outside greyish
What should they be supposed to do? I also look in VRAY for this as setting, but it does not really tell you anything about how to use this.

Thank you

[vladimir_krastev]

Hi, thanks for posting.

Sphere: I see a white sphere, inside black

This is how a sphere light glows. Imagine it is a spherical light bulb.

Pane: I see some lines, but that it it. rest of the screen is black

VRayLIght in Plane mode is an area light - a rectangular shape (plane) that emits light from one side and not from the other.

Disk: One side black, other side greyish disk

The same as plane but with oval shape.

Mesh, I see a cylindrical mesh in my viewport, the render is black outside, inside greyish

Mesh light is the same as plane and disk but it uses the surface of your custom mesh and emits light along the direction of the mesh's normals.

The greyish color could be due to exposure or you need to increase the multiplier.
Please read the docs about VRayLIght.

[robertokai_hegeler]

OK, thank you for the explanation.. I thought I could also load HDR textures on them.. so sad.

[vladimir_krastev]

I thought I could also load HDR textures on them

You can but they will not be mapped properly, This explains the strange results you described like lines and a grey colour. You could also use any image as a texture for your VRayLight but it should be mapped accordingly.
If you have a plane light the texture has to have a planar mapping. If not it will still glow but it will be stretched and broken much like a texture in a material that has wrong mapping.