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Sun/Sky

Collective3dCollective3d Posts: 446
edited December 1969 in The Commons

Hey gang,

I just finally got around to installing 4.8 pro after having used the Beta from a few months ago. I like how the lights have been consolidated so there aren't separate photmetric/3delight versions of each light.

What I'm having trouble with right now, though, is how to set the "north direction" of sun/sky lighting. For instance, you can set the lat/long, the date and time, etc. But it doesn't seem like you can set the direction of north or have any easy visual indication of what direction your light is coming from.

3ds Max users familiar with the Mental Ray "Sunlight" system will know what I'm talking about. You drop your compass, set the time/date/location of your scene (June 24th, 2015 in Boise, Idaho at 3:00pm), and there is a visual indication that the light is coming from whatever location. You can then rotate the compass to set "north" in your scene, so in that way you can control which side of your scene is getting direct light.

I don't see anything like that in the latest release of 4.8. Am I missing something obvious? The beta had the "sun dial", which provided a similar function, but I don't see that here.

Comments

  • Collective3dCollective3d Posts: 446
    edited December 1969

    It looks like "Dome Rotation" moves the sun/sky orientation, but I am still not seeing any visual indication of light direction, other than rendering and observing the shadows, or running the viewport in iray preview mode (which is taxing on the system).

  • XtraDimensionalXtraDimensional Posts: 509
    edited December 1969

    The sun dail is still there, iirc. I'm at work so I can't look it up, but it's in a folder above Shader Presets. Scene somethingorother.

  • HavosHavos Posts: 5,404
    edited December 1969

    Create a camera and call it SunCamera (or whatever)

    In the render settings for Sun-Sky locate the settings SS Sun Node and click on it. Pick the SunCamera in the box that pops up. Now look through the camera and you can see as if you were the sun since the sun direction is being set by the camera. Rotate the camera and the sun will follow it. That way it works like a distant light in 3Delight

  • Collective3dCollective3d Posts: 446
    edited December 1969

    Havos said:
    Create a camera and call it SunCamera (or whatever)

    In the render settings for Sun-Sky locate the settings SS Sun Node and click on it. Pick the SunCamera in the box that pops up. Now look through the camera and you can see as if you were the sun since the sun direction is being set by the camera. Rotate the camera and the sun will follow it. That way it works like a distant light in 3Delight

    Groovy! I'll give that a go. Thanks to both of you for your responses!

  • XtraDimensionalXtraDimensional Posts: 509
    edited December 1969

    Render Settings. That's it. The folder on top of Scene Builder. I was in the right neighborhood, lol

  • Collective3dCollective3d Posts: 446
    edited December 1969

    I actually found it just based on your earlier description. Thanks!

    It's always weird how things get moved around during the development process, but I suppose it makes more sense for it to the there than anywhere else.

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