Sunlight

[YoyoBoy]

I have an interior scene. Mostly I have indirect sunlight illuminating it. Things are pretty dark even if I give my camera some unrealistic settings, so I figured I'd just turn up the intensity of the sun and sky. I am seeing no effect whatsoever when I do that, no matter how high I crank it. What might I be doing wrong?

Btw, the camera will be exiting the room out into the open, so it's rather important that I not fake things too much.

[Syclone1]

Almost sounds like some part of the auto exposure is active, that one keeps being a pain in the arse for me lately.

[YoyoBoy]

I think I'm losing my mind. I've got it looking nice enough in the Physical Camera Exposure control preview, but whenever I hit render it looks almost exactly the same, no matter what settings I apply to the sun or camera. It doesn't even seem to matter much if I use a Phys camera or an old VRay camera (both with exposure settings turned on).

[coolhand78]

what are you camera, GI and sun settings..?

[YoyoBoy]

I just typed up a long answer to your question, but before I bother having you read that: does the VRay Sky also get brighter when you turn the sun's multiplier up? Because, if it doesn't, that might be part of my problem.

[coolhand78]

I just typed up a long answer to your question, but before I bother having you read that: does the VRay Sky also get brighter when you turn the sun's multiplier up? Because, if it doesn't, that might be part of my problem.

yes as long as your talking about intensity multiplier and not size, size essentially controls the sharpness of your shadows...

the settings will still give a good indication of whats going on... depending on your workflow, it might be best to leave the sun multi at 1 and control exposure with the camera...?

i'm assuming this is an animation? you will always have trouble, animation or not, with exposure moving from inside to out, just as you do with a physical camera... i'm sure there are more experienced people here who might have some advice for you with regards to that, i deal mostly in stills and there are a few things you can do (mostly in post) to adjust that, it's much easier if you are working with 32 bit exr's as well...

[YoyoBoy]

Attached is a quick dirty render just to give you an idea of the space. This model has been in my life for many years (it is the palace of Ashurnasirpal II), and I've always made it look good with area lights in the doorways. For the first time in all these years I've been asked to make the camera exit rather than enter, so that means the door lights need to be Skylight Portals, instead of just big area lights that aren't seen by the camera.


I'm playing with all manners of BF/LC. I'm comparing the default settings, SolidRocks settings, and the VRay Quick Settings. I can change the hue of the renders with the white balance, but the exposure won't get any brighter with the Phys cam's EV number at render time. If I crank up the sun's multiplier to..say.. 20 (or even higher) reflections definitely get brighter, but not much else. I would think that all the light coming through the tall doors would make the entire room brighter as well.

And again, the little preview render in the Physical Camera Exposure Control changes radically with the camera's EV setting. It just doesn't happen when I hit render.

The exposure in the VRay Framebuffer does work. Is that any different than changing it in-camera?

I even started a new scene and imported everything except my lights and cameras, and created those anew, and I'm getting the same thing.

Thanks.

[YoyoBoy]

Okay, I seem to finally be getting somewhere, now that I've turned off the Daylight System, created new VRaySun, and moved the VRay Sky from the environment to a Domelight. The exposure is finally working now, though still nothing happens when I change the sun's brightness except for the reflections.

The color of the lighting is very blah, though. Not sure what's up with that.

[svetlozar.draganov]

Is there a chance to send us that scene so we could have a look what exactly is the issue with the exposure?