0
$\begingroup$

I'm looking for a way to create a cubemap effect that mimics that seen in Source Engine materials, either through use of the cubemap faces or the mirrorball/sphere that is included in some of the textures, seen in this image patched together from one of Valve's cubemaps

enter image description here

I would prefer to be able to replicate the cubemap effect that works like a cube with inverted normals but on a per-material basis and regardless of UVs, but at minimum I'd like to replicate the effect of using the sphere as a matcap, which I'd assume would be WAY easier

enter image description here

Does anyone know how to accomplish this? I know there are built-in reflection functionality, but the goal of this is to be able to use pre-existing textures that likely aren't formatted for blender's current forms of environment mapping

Improve this question
$\endgroup$
0

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
3
$\begingroup$

Cubemap

  • Add a Cube, Shade > Smooth
  • Assign two modifiers - Subsurf > Simple = 4 (to get more geometry) and Cast modifier > Sphere > Factor = 1
  • under Object Properties > Visibility > disable Shadow
  • create a material just with Glossy shader > Roughness = 0, add Image texture node (disconnected but selected - Active) with a New one

enter image description here

  • under Render Properties > Bake

enter image description here

Mirror ball

it can be rendered directly with blender's camera ... in Camera Properties set type Panoramic > Mirror Ball ... if you need to have it as a part of Cubemap texture you would have to merge them in Compositor.

enter image description here

enter image description here

Cubemap /Mirrorball example file ...

To generate CubeMap without UV ... assign each side of Cube individual material with individual Image Texture (again this node has to be Active in each material to be succesfully baked).

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
2
  • $\begingroup$ Do you know how to control render settings using the bake method? For example, the exposure seems different from a standard render, and the Scrambling Distance option seems to be ignored in Blender 3.1. $\endgroup$
    – SO_fix_the_vote_sorting_bug
    Commented Apr 13, 2022 at 21:00
  • $\begingroup$ @SO_fix_the_vote_sorting_bug ... Bake is controlled by the same parameters as regular render. Previously some features wasn't available (like denonising), that is possible now thanks to rewritten Cycles to version X, that is merge in 3.x now. I'm on Mac so I can't confirm Scrambling Distance feature for Optix, but it is possible it is not available for baking ... and that is why you see also differences in exposure. Denoising, especially in combination with low Samples, makes a huge difference in a result. $\endgroup$
    – vklidu
    Commented Apr 14, 2022 at 11:14

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .