Better colour accuracy. All my HDRi skies were shot with a Canon 1dsmk3 so I like to keep as much as possible of that information preserved in the HDRi file. Radiance (.hdr) is limited to sRGB colour data, whereas OpenEXR (.exr) is not.
This is reflected in the file sizes:
For this skydome for example
the exr file size is 160mb, the hdr version is 50mb
That said, I have decided to start including a .hdr version in the products I am selling on 3docean. I’m still updating all the files, but check back soon and if you have bought one of them you can re-download a new version for free.
Why hdr? Unfortunately some applications don’t support exr, so until they do you can use hdr (albeit in the knowledge that your colours might not be quite as lovely*)
* not scientifically tested!
Can we test one for free, please
almost, tomorrow, 3docean are going to be doing a special birthday deal where you get one of my skies plus loads more goodies ($400 worth!) for only $20…
Peter,
Great work on these, I enjoy your viewing your latest blog entries and gallery. Thanks for the heads up on the 3docean deal!
Peter, you should try and issue your exrs as tiled exrs, I managed to convert some myself and while the file size increased, it loads twice as fast when rendering in vray. Cheers
Sounds great peter, i also like to be able to use the .exr ones, but too bad that max2011 doesnt have the real pixel float trick anymore.
Here is the link the the 3docean deal (ends in 5 days!) http://envato.com/birthday-bundle/2010/
@kiernamayzie what software do you use to convert to tiled? How much bigger to they get?
Hi Peter. If you download the “openexr-1.4.0-vs2005.zip” zip file from here:
http://www.openexr.com/downloads.html
You then only need to use the “exrmaketiled.exe” file from this zip file.
Extract it to something like C:\ (easiest) or somewhere temporary and put your exr in the same directory.
Then start window’s cmd.exe (start > run > cmd).
Finally, type in this command: “exrmaketiled.exe -m -v test.exr test_tiled.exr”
exrmaketiled should go about its business and after a couple of seconds it should generate an exr that goes from around 150mb to 250mb.
It is a lot of steps and does generate a larger exr but the load times are much quicker when actually rendering with V-Ray, I think it can really can speed things up on some heavy scenes.
Cheers.
thanks for the tip, 100mb extra is quite a lot, not sure 3docean would be too happy about it!
Quicker loading in 3dsmax would be nice though, I might give it a try myself…
Hey Peter! I’am creating exr hdri’s with 7pictures and I get 50MB files.
How many pictures do you take for a single hdri ?
Good work by the way!
Hi Peter,
You have some fantastic work on here!! I have a question about using the OpenEXR as a bitmap on a vray dome light.
The results are fantastic, but i was wondering do you know of any way to make the background (environment) be separate to the rendered geometry in the alpha channel of the final rendered image. The reason is so that when i save it as a .tif or .png to bring into photoshop, the background is ‘cut out’ as it is when a vray sky environment is used.
This is the only small problem i have with lighting using this method.
Would really appreciate any help on this.
Cheers.
Hi Stevo,
Have you tried setting the far clipping plane of your camera to 9999999999999999 ? If you want you can also instance the exr or hdr to the background slot as well so that the render in 3dsmax looks the same.
Brilliant Peter. Great stuff!! Thanks, and keep up the great work!!
hi Peter
i did some tests with one of your map, it seems to me that hdr vs exr give exactly the same result regarding shadow/lighting accuracy and colors tones, and it’s saving a lot of ram…
where can you see any difference between exr and hdr use ?
Hi Matt,
Yes, I need to update this post really, I think they should indeed be the same. The size difference is due to using 32bit exr instead of 16bit, for my hdris 16bit is enough range I think. When you buy any of my packs of hdris you get 16bit tiled exr versions which are identical in quality and load much quicker, I am currently going through and updating all the single ones on 3docean too.
Peter