Cannot get vraymtl Environment slot to function.

[RobH22]

Every year or so I scour the web looking for an answer to this. I just spent 3 hours trying for about the 5th time to get the 'Environment' slot in a vraymtl to function.

I"m using Max 2016 in Windows 10 with Vray 3.4.02. I have a sphere with a vraymtl chrome material. I have a dome light with an .hdr map in its texture slot. The sphere is reflecting the dome environment hdr. Now I put a completely different hdr into the 'Environment' slot of the vraymtl. No matter what I do I can't get the hdr in the 'Environment' slot to show in the chrome sphere.

I've turned everything I can find on and off and I just can't seem to figure out how to do it. I read one post that said to just use two dome lights and then exclude the sphere in one and have it reflect the hdr I want in it from the other. That's fine and it works but it still leaves the functionality of the 'Environment' slot a mystery. I don't want a workaround, I'd like to figure out how to use the 'Environment' slot of the vraymtl.

[Deflaminis]

My take on it is that the 'environment' is infinitely far away, meaning any max objects will come between the camera and the environment. So if your light is there then it's getting between your reflections and the environment. (Also why excluding works) If you didn't have an HDRI, I think you'd find that the material is reflecting your intended hdri map and not pure black as it normally would. The dome light itself is counting as your environment (and operates the same way) with the added benefit of having include/excludes and control over diffuse, spec, and reflections.

In a scene with no HDRI, it works as expected. With an HDRI, it already has an environment and the rays don't get to the infinite max environment. So I think the behavior you are getting is intended, though the environment slot assumes no other environment exists. Likely was developed with reflective text or floating objects on a black background in mind. Someone set me straight if I'm way off here. I seem to recall mental ray working the same way back in the day, so it may not be software specific.

[RobH22]

Yea, what you are saying makes sense and seems to be the way it works. I almost always have a Dome with an HDRI so I was just wanting to reflect something else in an individual material. I can certainly do the extra Dome with and Include/Exclude and that works. I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't overlooking something simple that was preventing me from using the 'Environment' slot of the vraymtl when using a Dome with HDRI in the scene already. I'll just adopt the workaround. I appreciate the comments.