Should the HDRI Dome still be reflected if Draw Dome is off?

conscience73

In rendering a scene with a lake of sorts, I noticed a strange distortion on the surface (attached). Draw dome is off so I expected only the light, alas.

In checking (using a mirror shader) the dome is clearly seen. (Also attached)

This may be a case of simple misunderstanding but should this be so?

Catherine3678ab

Check the environment mode options, think 'scene' only is what you're after.

conscience73

Scene only yields black. (attached).

conscience73

It renders both the sky and the ground even though both Draw Dome and Draw Ground are set to Off. There may be something I'm missing here...

Hylas

If you select Dome & Scene and Draw Dome: Off  the skydome will still be visible in reflections.

If you select Sun-Sky only  the reflection will show a plain blue sky and possibly the sun, depending on your angle.

If you want absolutely nothing other than the lights in your reflections you should select Scene Only, but then you need to set up some other form of illumination (like a Distant Light for example) or you have no light at all in your scene and it will render black.

conscience73

Hylas said:

If you select Dome & Scene and Draw Dome: Off  the skydome will still be visible in reflections.

If you select Sun-Sky only  the reflection will show a plain blue sky and possibly the sun, depending on your angle.

If you want absolutely nothing other than the lights in your reflections you should select Scene Only, but then you need to set up some other form of illumination (like a Distant Light for example) or you have no light at all in your scene and it will render black.

Ah, okay. I figured. (Vaguely recall reading that somewhere too.) Thanks.

 

chris-2599934

If you are lighting your scene solely with an HDRI, everything you can see is the surfaces within your scene reflecting the light coming from the dome. If the surfaces are very shiny and reflective, they'll reflect what's coming from the dome. There's no such thing as "only the light", because the HDRI is only light anyway.