exposure and sun shadow questions

[powerandrubber]

2 questions:

1.) I want to use vraysun, vraysky, and vrayphyscam. Got it all working finally but I'd like to change the sky to a bitmap and use vraysky only for skylight and glossy reflection env map. With the sun mult set at 1 and exposure taken care of in vray physical camera, the sky bitmap is underexposed as to be expected (it's not hdri). Is there a way to exclude exposure for the bitmap sky? I know there's "affect background" under color mapping but the bitmap still renders dark due to vrayphysical camera influencing exposure.

2.) By default it seems that vraysun produces and area shadow. Is there a way to turn area shadows off for speed increase? Setting the size mult to 0 causes a crash, lowering it to 0.1 only improves speed slightly. Would be nice to have a global switch.

[joconnell]

1. You'll have to use the output parameters of the map (output amount or rgb level) to counteract the exposure unfortuately - I've no idea what this should be in your case but it should do it. This should work if you stick it in the environment slot and use the vray sky in the skylight and reflection slots in the render dialog.

2. Dont think so - sample and the size multiplier are your only bets. Alternatively try using a standard direct light with a really high multiplier (up around 10,000).

[powerandrubber]

Thanks. Uping the rgb level works fine, had to go as far as 270. The more I work with vray sun, the more impressed I am with the speed of the soft shadows. A standard light with area shadows much slower.

[joconnell]

Yeah - It seems like a really nice way to work, my new work license should be arriving today, looking forward to playing with it.