Blur offset for HDRI is not working anymore

[second-ich]

Hello, I used the blur offset for an HDRI to get a softer shadow. But this is not working anymore since the latest update. Is there any workaround?

Thanks

[hermit.crab]

From what I tested, the texture is blurred as expected (V-Ray 5, Update 2). Could you provide an example scene/screencaps of the issue so we can take a look?

[second-ich]

The texture is blurred yes, but I need the light cast from the HDR to be blurred as well.

[vladimir_krastev]

Hi I have never used the blur value to create a softer shadows with HDRI. I tested what you are describing and did get the background blurry but not the light/shadow..
You are talking about these http://ftp.chaosgroup.com/support/sc...2_09-44-26.jpg settings right? I am using latest version of V-Ray.

[second-ich]

I tested what you are describing and did get the background blurry but not the light/shadow..

Yes, that's exactly what I'm experiencing. But this was different about half a year ago and now my client wants some changes and I can't get the shadows to match.

You are talking about these http://ftp.chaosgroup.com/support/sc...2_09-44-26.jpg settings right? I am using latest version of V-Ray.

I'm only talking about the Blur offset. The Blur value never had any effect on the shadows.

EDIT: Blur offset of 0.006 was already enough for a very soft shadow.

[vladimir_krastev]

Maybe you can send your scene to https://support.chaos.com/hc/en-us/requests/new. In which V-Ray version you last used it?

[^Lele^]

I can confirm that the map inside a dome doesn't obey the blur offset settings, apparently always using the sharp version of the map.
Moving the map to the environment will however work as expected.

Attached, the map with blur offset 1.0 in the dome (notice the sharp shadows) and the same map moved to the background (lighting radically changed.).

[vladimir_krastev]

I did a bit of further testing The blur offset value of a hdri loaded into a dome light affects the light/shadows in V-Ray 4 update 3.2. In the latest version of V-Ray the blur offset affects only the background and not the light/shadows from the dome light. I've logged the issue under VMAX-11658.

[second-ich]

Moving the map to the environment will however work as expected.

It seems to me the lighting is always blurry when moved to the environment. At least the effect is not the same as blur offset in dome light.

[^Lele^]

It seems to me the lighting is always blurry when moved to the environment. At least the effect is not the same as blur offset in dome light.

That may be because when moved to the environment, importance sampling is off for the HDR map, and if the map has small, powerful light sources in it they may be missed by the sampler.

In my case, however, i see no difference with blur offset at 0.0, besides speed, between dome and background, as far as shadow sharpness goes.
I do get a somewhat darker lighting due to the aforementioned Importance Sampling being off.

The issue is being looked into, anyway, thanks for the report.

[adanmq]

Hi!

I was about to open a new topic on this. Is there any new method to blur the HDRi when using the dome? I often need to add 2 or 3 HDRis together using a composite and different blur values to get the desired look. It can be done in Photoshop, but it's quite tedious to move to another app just to make small adjustments to the shadows. For reference, Corona works fine; if you increase the blur of the Corona Bitmap, it does affect the shadows correctly.

[aida]

I did a bit of further testing The blur offset value of a hdri loaded into a dome light affects the light/shadows in V-Ray 4 update 3.2. In the latest version of V-Ray the blur offset affects only the background and not the light/shadows from the dome light. I've logged the issue under VMAX-11658.

Is there an update on this topic? It would be very handy to have the ability to control shadow sharpness with a simple parameter in 3ds Max.

[vladimir_krastev]

Hi, it is not working yet. I will leave a comment about it in our bug tracking system and lets hope the issue gets a bit more attention.