I've see the light! The trick was in the type of shader. At each attempt the Illumination=Texture(map coords) has been under a Surface Illumination shader, while it should have been under Surface Properties. You're totally right Chris (ofcours you are :))
> A few more tips: > - make the dome's color black (illumination should do the > trick, not color) > - also, put the skydome out of the GI level (don't simply > apply the GI shader to the root). The dome is an indirect > light source, it doesn't have to be GI shaded. > - watch out for HDR files with big luminance in small > details, they can cause noise and require extra-high > raycounts. The same effect as a small window in a dark room - > typically very difficult GI scenes. > - inside the GI shader, go to shader Surface Finishing, to > the first Raytracer object and increase Randomness to, say, > 30 (corresponding to Raycount1). This makes the GI sampling > dome wider and you get more even illumination. > > > Good luck - I'd love to see your results some day, > > Mark H I'll take these tips as valuable advice from a senior VSL expert. Thanks, especially for the one about the dome outside the GI shader. There's a very first preview at http://www.bueters.nl/talistower/. The model is only half finished and there appears to be a weird stripe in the sky texture, a lot still needs to be done but at least now I'm confident I can get the hdri-gi combination working. Regards and many thanks, Frank Bueters
