How To Get Identical Results with Dome Light and GI Environment

[Jorq1H]

@BenDel

DADAL,

If I make a teapot on a plane with a 100% white color, then set the GI environment to white and render, then I get a white teapot and plane with slight darkening under the teapot.

If I then take the same scene, make a vray light set to dome, make it spherical, set multiplier to 1, make it invisible, and render, I get an identical render (noisier, of course).

So that’s what I mean, they both provide direct light and bounces. It’s just you have to turn “Enable GI” on to see the direct light of the GI environment. Whereas you get direct light with the vray dome light even without turning GI on. So your chart is correct, you get “GI” with the override, but the GI includes Diffuse light and diffuse bounces.

- Neil

Try adding VrayLighting and VrayGlobalIllumination as render elements when doing these tests and you’ll see how Vray treats the different methods. As DADAL says, when doing IBL from override you only get indirect light. This is the reason the lighting is smooth, but also the reason why you won’t get the nice, sharp direct light and shadows. When adding the HDRi into the VrayDomeLight, add more shadow samples and the noise should go away. To get faster, nicer and more balanced lighting with this method, I recommend our own Akin Bilgic’s Vray Optimization Guide which step-by-step shows how to get the best results with these lighting setups (and most others).