lightning HDRI vs Sky

[Anonymous]

Is it only me but I have the feeling that we have better scenes with Sky than with HDRI library images. I can obtain much better and crispy images using Sky than HDRI. Is it only my feeling?

[detnies]

Hmm, that's interesting. I've thought HDRIs are calibrated to have a big enough range between bright and dark so you wouldn't need to do this manually. Perhaps Cinerender has some special way of using HDRIs which differs from other renderers..

Anyway, thanks for the tip. I'll try that!

[derekjackson]

We found the same issue using Maxwell, so I don't think it's render specific (unless I was using both wrong!)

In Maxwell I also doubled the intensity of the HDRI's illumination compared to the level needed for background, reflection and refraction.

[detnies]

Okey, that's interesting I've never had to do this in Cycles, Vray etc. to achieve desirable results. I'll look into this
Another approach would be to remove the sun completely and use the ArchiCAD sun for direct light. I have some HDRIs setup this way I can try!