Image based Lighting

[dhavalmistry]

I was wondering if there are any plans for implementing image based lighting in the final release???....

maybe load up an HDR and calculate the lighting from there....?

[Oshyan]

This may be something to add in the future but for now it is not likely to be a part of the final release later this year. Fortunately TG2 has a lesser need for such techniques since it is in itself an excellent environment generator. IBL is generally useful in situations where you want to only render accurate lighting on a foreground object (or objects), or provide proper lighting to an interior, without having to create a full background scene to provide that lighting. Since TG2 is itself focused on creating those "background scenes", IBL is less applicable. TG2 renders might be used *as* IBL sources in other renderers (this has actually been done already in several cases), but the use of IBL *in* TG2 would likely be limited.

- Oshyan

[moodflow]

I've also wondered if this would be considered. 

I think another useful feature in line with IBL would be truly luminous textures.  So any luminosity value above 0 would start to project light.

[Oshyan]

Luminous textures *do* project light. Try values above 1 and remember it's relative to area...

- Oshyan

[Matt]

Luminous surfaces emit light as part of the global illumination (Enviro Light) calculations. The quality of the results depends on the global illumination settings in the renderer. Sometimes you may only notice the effect on fairly large, bright surfaces.

Matt

[bigben]

Thanks Matt, That's handy to know.

[moodflow]

I was able to test this and they are right.  Very nice effect - many thanks!

[sonshine777]

Do luminous surfaces also cast shadows?

[old_blaggard]

They should if they're just part of the normal GI calculations.

[moodflow]

Here is a small test I did using an IBL technique.  Still have to dial it in more, but it shows that it actually does work!  The render times aren't bad at all.

And you can say goodbye to having to use softshadows (or even the sun) with this technique.  Everything is lit by the background image.

Sorry for the low quality jpg.  I am stuck at work and have to use MS Paint to compress it.  :-(