Sun/Sky Question

[Danielhruby]

Does Sun and Sky only work together through the one pallete of settings? IN modo, you can control the sun power and balance it against the environment. VRay seems to be locked together. Increasing the intensity multiplier raises the sun power AND the environment. is there a way to control sun and environment contribution separately?

Also, I don't seem to see any effect by increasing/decreasing the Diffuse Multiplier for the Sun. How is this setting used? Perhaps it is disabled when some other option is enabled.

[vladimir.nedev]

is there a way to control sun and environment contribution separately?

You could use the Intensity input in the Environment item, this will affect only the Sky environment.
However, If you want completely separate control, you can instance the Sun directional light and select the instance for the environment.
Make sure the Sun instance overrides the value for Intensity Multiplier in the V-Ray Sun/Sky tab.
Edit: Of course, the sun instance should be invisible, so it's only used for the Sky environment and not add additional light to the scene.

Also, I don't seem to see any effect by increasing/decreasing the Diffuse Multiplier for the Sun. How is this setting used? Perhaps it is disabled when some other option is enabled.

Are you talking about the one in the V-Ray Light tab under Photo Emmision, that's only for Photon maps.
You should use the Affect Diffuse input in the Light material for a general diffuse multiplier.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev