From vray2 I’m used set my background color from environment slot to white for having simple white background. I’m trying same technique in vray3 but white color with multiplier 4 seems to illuminate my scene which is not what I want.
I expect to illuminate my scene independently from the background by using dome light.
Do you know how Background can be only a background and not source of light?
thank you
The only ways the Environment Background will leak illumination through a Dome Light is if the Dome has been set as a Hemisphere instead of a full Sphere or its “Affect (..)” parameters are disabled.
Additionally, keep in mind that anti-aliasing of edges bordering the background will look unfiltered if the Background intensity is higher than 1. This gets progressively more pronounced the higher the values are.
These override options only alter how the the Environment Background affects the scene. They do not override the GI itself (or global Reflections/Refractions/Matte). If a Dome Light is properly set, the Environment overrides will have no effect no matter how they are set.
Thank you for answering. The configuration above works. Now I have pure white background in combination with wrapper floor.
I’ve set my HDRI on GI (skylight) slot. If now I set a domelight with HDRI it works as a double light source independently from my GI slot. How can I connect my domelight with my GI ? Is it actually recommendable anymore (like it was in vray2) to use dome instead of GI ?
Thanks
Well, if there is a wrapper (shadow catcher) floor, first you need to make sure the Wrapper Material > Matte > Matte for Secondaries option is set to “All secondary rays”. Then, make sure the Dome Light (set to Sphere preferably) is invisible (so the Environment Background is displayed instead).
You don’t need a GI override. As already mentioned Dome light blocks GI illumination if it is a sphere.
If it is a hemisphere, the Dome block GI from half the Environment (in which case you would need to set up a GI override with a copied hdri texture from the Dome Light to compensate for the other half).
You don’t actually get a double light source by using same texture for GI and Dome Light. If you wish to increase the Dome light illumination, simply increase the light intensity. Also, in most cases you would want to match the overrides and background intensity values (as well as Dome Light’s).
Also, depending on the scene, consider using the post-production VFB Exposure tool instead of increasing the background intensity value to minimize the negative effect background intensity can have on anti-aliasing (which I mentioned in the previous post).
You would still need Reflection/Refraction overrides (again, copy the hdri texture from the Dome Light) to properly render the scene objects, otherwise they will be affected by the wrapper plane.
See the following screenshots - the scene consists of a shadow catcher plane, a Dome Light, and 3 spheres (front 2 polished chrome, 3rd one is glass):
1. Dome Light is invisible. Background uses the Dome Light hdri texture. No overrides needed.
2. Dome Light is invisible. Background is set to white color. Reflection/Refraction overrides use the Dome Light hdri texture.
As for the Overrides, by default, V-Ray uses the Background color/texture for GI, Reflections, Refractions, and Secondary Mattes (make sure texture’s mapping is set to UVWGenEnvironment). To have one color/image for background, but another for, let’s say, material reflections, you can manually change that aspect of the background functionality using the specific Environment Override.
GI based on the Background or Override color/texture slot, does not have any effect on the scene if a Dome Light is set. This is due to the Dome essentially encapsulating the scene (and even if the light is set to invisible, it still overrides any skylight illumination).
To have illumination from Dome Light but reflections from the Environment override, you would need to disable the Dome Light’s “Affect Reflections” checkbox.
The Wrapper material I used as shadow catcher is Preset library > Diagrammatic > Matte Shadow Receiver (https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/…rials+Category). Make sure to set Matte for Secondaries to “All secondary rays”.
If your Wrapper material renders completely black, it probably means you have not slotted a base material within.
A generic material would do (unless you want to simulate shadows on a specific surface).
The result you show is probably due to a mismatch between the Environment and Dome Light intensities (Environment having a lower value). Make sure they match. The same goes for any Overrides you use, unless you want to purposely make, let’s say, reflections stand out.