There are many drawbacks with hdrs today and one of the major drawbacks is the size of a very detailed highresolution which makes it impossible to distribute good hdrs over internet. Another drawback is the still very limited range of most hdrs. It's nearly impossible at the moment to capture the range of the sun and sky.
Our format is the perfect solution for both problems:
We are offering a format which is small (not more then 1mb for a 3000x1500px solution) and which can perform a full sunlight rendering from a normal HDR image. Our solution also gives you flickering free animations where renderer tend to add noise from a very detailed and not good iltered hdr.
For more informations about the SDR tool have a look at our Paper
For ideas and any other feedback visit our DEV-board
We are using casesensitive Parameter names to make the different groups more clear.
The Groups are:
BG ...which stands for Background
ENV ... ENViroment
REF ... REFlection
SUN ..for the SUNparams.
Each paramname have two parts:
BGu means ..Background group and the param for the u (from the uv coords) value
Logicaly you can replace BG with ENV and get ENVu, which have the same meaning to the loader.
BGu = 0.67 .. is correct
BGu=0.67 ..is wrong ..missing spaces in front and after the "="
BGu =0.67 ..is wrong ..one missing space
BGu = 0,67 ..is wrong ... wrong decimal
Name = "master of universe" ..is correct
Name = master of universe ...is wrong ..missing "
Name="master of universe" ...is also wrong ..missing spaces
Name = " master of universe = No1" .. is also wrong because of the "=" in the name
String, Float, array:
String = "this is a string"
Path = "c:\mypath\to something"
Float = 0.67
Integer = 33
Array = #("string" ,0.67 ,33)
Note: 3dsmax have renderplugins. (B = Brazil, F = Finalrender, V=Vray , S=default-scanline)
| Software | Lightwave | 3dsmax | Maya | Cinema4d | XSI
(?) | Houdini (?) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Author | blochi | dschaga | volXen | katachi | ||
| Latest version: | 0.9 | 0.71 | 0.12 | |||
| release date: | 01/16/04 | 06/10/04 | 02/16/04 | |||
| supported versionnumber | 8 | 4,5,6 | ? | ? | ||
| supported map projections (1spherical, 2cylindrical, 3angular, 4screen) | 1,3 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Browser with Icons | ok | ok | ok | ok | ||
| Selectable Features (to controll the import) | ok | ok | ok | ok | ||
| Worldscale (to controll the sundistance and global scale) | ok | ok | ? | ? | ||
| Northdirection (to rotate the enviroment) | ok | |||||
| Matte - Floorplane (to receive shadows) | ok | |||||
| Header: ICOfile | ok | ok | ok | ok | ||
| Header: Name | ok | ok | ok | ok | ||
| Header: Author | ok | ok | ok | ok | ||
| Header: comment | ok | ok | ok | ok | ||
| Header: Location | ok | ok | ok | ok | ||
| BGfile | ok | ok | ok | ? | ||
| BGmap (projectiontypes) | ok | ok | ok | |||
| BGu,v | ok | ok | ok | |||
| BGheight | ok | |||||
| ENVfile | ok | V,F | ok | ? | ||
| ENVmap | ok | V,F | ok | |||
| ENVu,v | ok | V,F | ok | |||
| ENVmulti | ok | V,F | ? | |||
| ENVgamma | ok | |||||
| REFfile | ok | V,F | ok | ? | ||
| REFmap | ok | V,F | ok | |||
| REFu,v | ok | V,F | ok | |||
| REFmulti | ok | V,F | ? | |||
| REFgamma | ok | |||||
| SUNcolor | ok | ok | ok | ? | ||
| SUNmulti | ok | ok | ok | |||
| SUNu,v | ok | ok | ok | |||
A typical header looks like this:
[Header]
ICOfile = "backlotICON.jpg"
Name = "Studio Backlot"
Author = "Blochi"
Location = "Hollywood"
Comment = "super-bright day at the Gower Studios Backlot, giant sunflare..."
We are using a ini file like syntax, so we need to name a group
The ICOfile is the icon in the browser.
The file size is typical 128x128px.
Name = "Studio Backlot"
This is the Name of the sdr, so it can be sorted by name.
Author = "Blochi"
This is the name of the Author, who generated the HDR.
Location = "Hollywood"
To make it more easy to find the richt locations we decided to add an Location parameter
Comment = "super-bright day at the Gower Studios Backlot, giant sunflare..."
This can help the user to find the right SDR enviroment.
[Background]
BGfile = "HiResLL.jpg"
BGmap = 1
BGu = 0
BGv = 0
BGheight = 1024
BGfile = "HiResLL.jpg"
This is the name of the Background image. This image is the very highsized jpg which will be the background in the rendering.
BGmap = 1
This defines the projectiontype.
1 ... Spherical
2 ... Cylindrical
3 ... Angular map
4 ... rectangular BG projection
The reason to offset the BG/ENV/REF map is to have a clear north direction
BGu = 0
This is the offset value in Horizontal (u) direction.
BGv = 0
This is the offset value in Verticall (v) direction.
BGheight = 1024
This is the height of the image
[Enviroment]
EVfile = "Diffuse10.hdr"
EVmap = 1
EVu = 0
EVv = 0
EVheight = 128
EVmulti = 1
EVgamma = 2.2
EVfile = "Diffuse10.hdr"
This is the name of the enviroment image. This image is the small and convoluted HDR, which simulates the skycolor.
This image will not be visible in rendering, but only used for lighting the scene.
EVmap = 1
This defines the projectiontype.
1 ... Spherical
2 ... Cylindrical
3 ... Angular map
4 ... rectangular BG projection
EVu = 0
offset in Horizontal direction
EVv = 0
offset in vertical direction
EVheight = 128
the height of the hdr image
EVmulti = 1
This is the lighting multiplierer... in most 3d applications this value will brighten the enviroment.
EVgamma = 2.2
This is the gamma of the hdrimage.
[Reflection]
--sorry for the giant Sunflare
REFfile = "Refmap.hdr"
REFmap = 1
REFu = 0
REFv = 0
REFheight = 512
REFmulti = 1
REFgamma = 2.2
REFfile = "Refmap.hdr"
All params exept this have the same meaning of the Enviroment params.
This Param loads the reflectionimage, which is a higher sized hdr to the scene.
Each 3d app has a different way to use this refmap.
[Sun]
--Additioal keylight ..ha!
SUNcolor = 255,255,245
SUNmulti = 1.6
SUNu = 0.73730
SUNv = 0.2578125
SUNcolor = 255,255,245
This defines the RGB value of the sunlight
SUNmulti = 1.6
This is the value of the sun which defines the brigtness.
SUNu = 0.73730
This value is the horizontal POSITION of the sun on the BG image
SUNv = 0.2578125
This value is the vertical POSITION of the sun on the BG image