R&D project : env material in Iray

Author	Posts
Romaric Keymaster	Hi, To improve the matching between OpenGL and Iray render engines in Patchwork 3D, we are working on supporting Environment material in Iray. For example, using this environment : “Bdx_Niel_2k” (available in standard external library of Patchwork 3D) and this Shaper scene we get this in Matter with OpenGL render engine Here is the first result we get in Iray after first dev phase. Not as clear as OpenGL for now. We are going to improve it for the next phase. Published on 1 October 2020 at 10 h 03 min
Romaric Keymaster	Hi, We have progressed on our Iray implementation of environment material. We can now make a good projection of the environment on the geometries of the decor. Open GL Rendering Iray Rendering However, there are still some limitations to use this feature : 1. The scene may be rendered darker than with opengl 2. An environment map should be specified to get the appearance of Matte material and Iray Ground material, so if the decor is a closed scene, like an hemisphere, Matte and Ground materials will be black. It is recommended to build opened decors, or in the case of hemisphere, to disable this feature to prefer built-in hemisphere of Iray (behavior of Patchwork 3D 2020.2) 3. In the case of using Alternative Background Maps in the environment, it should be an option to use it or not in Iray. Be careful to use the same color space and tone mapping for the HDR and the Alternative map : Environment material will use Alternative map, but Matte and Ground materials will still reflect HDR colors. In case of color difference, it will be visible. It is recommended to use high definition HDR for Iray usage, in place of low definition HDR + high definition alternative map. Despite these limitations, we think that this feature has some added value, when respecting some pre-conditions. This is why we decided to push this feature in the next 2021.1 version of Patchwork 3D. However this feature stays Experimental, and is not activated by default. To enable it you can check this checkbox in Iray Settings. We are still working on this topic, with Iray development team, to reduce these limitations. Published on 21 January 2021 at 17 h 09 min

Hi,

We have progressed on our Iray implementation of environment material.

We can now make a good projection of the environment on the geometries of the decor.

Open GL Rendering                               Iray Rendering

However, there are still some limitations to use this feature :

1. The scene may be rendered darker than with opengl

2. An environment map should be specified to get the appearance of Matte material and Iray Ground material, so if the decor is a closed scene, like an hemisphere, Matte and Ground materials will be black.
It is recommended to build opened decors, or in the case of hemisphere, to disable this feature to prefer built-in hemisphere of Iray (behavior of Patchwork 3D 2020.2)

3. In the case of using Alternative Background Maps in the environment, it should be an option to use it or not in Iray.
Be careful to use the same color space and tone mapping for the HDR and the Alternative map : Environment material will use Alternative map, but Matte and Ground materials will still reflect HDR colors. In case of color difference, it will be visible.
It is recommended to use high definition HDR for Iray usage, in place of low definition HDR + high definition alternative map.

Despite these limitations, we think that this feature has some added value, when respecting some pre-conditions.
This is why we decided to push this feature in the next 2021.1 version of Patchwork 3D.
However this feature stays Experimental, and is not activated by default.
To enable it you can check this checkbox in Iray Settings.

We are still working on this topic, with Iray development team, to reduce these limitations.