Question Import custom HDRI lighting/domes

[n00rp]

Hi,

Is it possible to import custom HDRI lighting? As someone who works in CGI, I have hundreds of HDRI lighting domes, including some great real-world studio lighting (softboxes etc), which I feel could be a great way of lighting scenes, not to mention the improvement in FPS that would come from not having physical emitters.

 

[MacGruber]

Not exactly what you are asking for, but close. You can import cubemaps as sky and use them for VaM's GI using my SkyMagic plugin. It can also bake cubemaps for you, so you can combine a custom sky with scene geometry into a GI cubemap. Plugin is part of my essentials collection:

Plugins - MacGruber Essentials

Your most essential MacGruber tools in a convenient single VAR package. Note that you can download older versions of this plugin for free from here. AudioReverb Adds an Reverb filter effect to the audio source you place the plugin on. It's...

hub.virtamate.com

Tutorial here:

Guides - Customized global illumination with SkyMagic

SkyMagic is a plugin included in the MacGruber Essentials package. It allows you to bake and import custom global illumination into VaM. It can be used in a number of different ways: Bake custom reflections within VaM to have global illumination...

hub.virtamate.com

 

[n00rp]

Thanks @MacGruber that sounds like a cool workaround. As you say, not exactly what I'm looking for in terms of simplicity. I'd invisaged simply loading an HDRI into an environment lighting channel....much the same way any rendering software does as a matter of course. the functionality seemingly is there, it's just we only have the default standard HDR environments, which are pretty basic and no ability to load our own. Once loaded, then having the ability to scale and rotate the HDR dome. Seems like a no brainer for v2.0 or earlier @meshedvr

 

[n00rp]

@MacGruber How easy would it be this implement this functionality? I would gladly commission this if it's possible!

 

[MacGruber]

If it would be easy, I would have done it already. The issue is the specular convolution step needed for proper glossy reflection. Its essentially making blurry lower resolution versions of the image (special mipmaps). Its not trival to blur a cubemap without creating visible seams or loosing quality. The Unity Editor can do this for you, but nobody made a runtime implementation, yet. Certainy not a "no brainer". That's why SkyMagic is a 3 part plugin (VaM Exporter, Unity Editor Plugin, VaM Importer). It was not possible to make the usage simpler without investing a LOT more time.

Also please note that scaling a sky dome is pointless. Scale does not matter, its just rendered behind everything.

P.S. I do not take commisions.