V-Ray Background

[Iain]

Does the background set in VfR (v3.4) influence the lighting? I was under the impression (perhaps misguided) that it should not, only the environment (Rhino's unless an override is active within VfR) or a dome light would do that. I have a scene with no lighting (yet), but changes in the background colour are effecting the image. I'm trying to get a better understanding of how the background/environment/lighting interact.

[aaouviz]

Interesting post!

I too recently noticed that it affects certain things, such as reflection and refraction. I was also under the impression that this definitely shouldn't happen...!?

[Iain]

Thanks for your input, aaouviz. I'm glad I'm not the only person to notice this. Hopefully somebody from Chaos will clarify.

[Peter.Chaushev]

Does the background set in VfR (v3.4) influence the lighting?

It directly affects the Global Illumination unless the Environment GI Override is enabled and a different texture/color used.
Reflections/refractions are also affected unless their corresponding overrides are enabled as well.
Keep in mind the Environment overrides have multipliers of their own, not synched to the Background one.

Kind regards,
Peter

[Iain]

Hi Peter, thanks very much for your reply. If I understand correctly, I should be thinking of the VfR background as a 3D environment, rather than as a 2D image in the background of the frame. That makes sense. Also, the four environmental overrides allow you to control qualities of the environment individually - that too makes perfect sense.

One more question - how does the Rhino Environment interact with these controls within VfR? I use HDR Light Studio on occasion and the way it connects with VfR has changed with version 3. You now have to use the Rhino Environment controls and I'm just trying to understand how it all works together.

Thanks again for your guidance.

[Peter.Chaushev]

One more question - how does the Rhino Environment interact with these controls within VfR?

Currently, it doesn't.
While the command visRhinoEnvironmentSync allows having the Rhino Environment affect the scene (even while invisible), the Environment Overrides are not in effect as long as the Rhino environment is enabled. This is a known issue, which will hopefully be addressed before the upcoming update.

Kind regards,
Peter

[Iain]

Thanks again for your help, Peter. The overrides not being effective when the Rhino Environment is enabled tallies with my experiments - good to know I'm not doing something wrong. I look forward to the upcoming update.