How to use skydome

KevinGrant

I just downloaded a package called the Iray Worlds Skydome.  Unfortunately, when I add a "skydome" to a model I don't get a dome with clouds, but a darkly lit landscape encircled by an ring-shaped landscape image bottomed out with an unrealistic, thick horizon line.  And there's no sky, sun, or clouds at all.  Obviously I'm doing something wrong here.  Can anyone tell me what my mistake is likely to be?

 

Thanks,

Kevin

 

Oso3D

Sounds like you might be in 3DL renderer and not Iray... first thing I'd check!

(Personally I like to bump up the skydome emission Luminosity, sometimes as much as double, but depends on your tastes and scene)

Other notes:

I'm not a fan of the horizon 'haze,' either. You can either shut off the horizon stuff entirely, or you can go into the cutout for the horizon stuff. The way the UV seems to be laid out is that the lower half of the map is a cutout of the landscape, and then there's a second set, a hazy white band, for 'haze.' You can cover up the upper part with a black square (or edit it in Photoshop) and you get rid of the haze.

You can also, if you are feeling very ambitious, replace the image with one you like better. Or just remove it and actually put hills or something in the distance. Or... whatever. ;)

 

For example, the following image, I replace EVERYTHING. The Sky image is one I made in Carrara, the ranges in the distance, also made in Carrara, and the ground plane is a tiling texture from FilterForge.

http://willbear.deviantart.com/art/Morning-Serenity-Landscape-578057690

The key element is that the Iray Worlds has a sun that can be 'posed' in various directions, and it has a sphere that's UV mapped such that there are three 'wedges' that contain three copies of the sky image -- under most circumstances, this translates to having a MUCH lower render-impact sky that looks just as good as a full spherical projection (which can be something like 10x as much memory)

 

Fishtales

I might be wrong but it sounds like you have the camera outside the dome.

Oso3D

By the way, I just noticed that the 'ranges' (the horizon effect) have a number of morphs to adjust, move, and scale various elements, including the haze. Something to check out.