How to set up multiple suns / environments in Corona for 3ds Max?

You can add multiple suns and environment maps to your scene, and then control their appearance with LightMix. This means that you can render just once, and pick between completely different lighting conditions, adjust sun and environment intensity or color, and even have two or more suns illuminate your scene at a time. No re-rendering needed! 

 

How to do it?

Setting up multiple suns

Simply create multiple Corona Sun objects (Lights > Corona > CoronaSun). You can adjust the intensity, size, and other parameters of your suns individually, but it is recommended to have all suns use similar intensity values and white color, as these things can be adjusted with LightMix later. 

 

viewport-suns.png

UI screenshot showing 3 Corona Sun objects. All parameters can be left at their defaults. It is best to set similar intensities for all suns, and white color. The sizes of the suns can be freely adjusted - this affects blurriness of shadows cast by each sun. 

 

Setting up multiple environments

For this you can use:

  • Corona Sky Maps
  • Bitmaps (Corona Bitmap or 3ds Max Bitmap, however, Corona Bitmap is preferred as it renders faster)
  • Any other texture maps
  • Solid colors

 

Go to Render Setup > Scene > Scene Environment and select Multiple maps (LightMix). Click on the Maps button to the right, and this will open a Corona Environment Settings dialog. 

There you can:

  • Use the "Batch load bitmaps..." button to conveniently load multiple bitmaps at once
  • Specify the number of environment maps you would like to use
  • Specify the environment lighting color (in case you wish to use a solid color for one or more of the environments)
  • Manually populate the map slots with the bitmaps/textures which you wish to use as your multiple environments 

scene-multiple-maps.png

Multiple environments can be set up by going to Render Setup > Scene > Scene Environment, then selecting "Multiple maps", and opening the Corona Environment Settings dialog. 

 

Excluding Objects from Environment Illumination

In the same Render Setup > Scene > Scene Environment section, you'll find new options for fine-tuning which objects are affected by environment lighting:

  • "0 objects excluded..." dropdown: This allows you to view and manage the list of scene objects that are excluded from or included in environment illumination.
  • "+" button: Clicking this adds the currently selected objects in your scene to the Exclude/Include list.
  • "Accurate sampling (slower)" checkbox: This option enables more precise sampling of environment maps. While slower, it provides more accurate results for highly detailed maps. This can sharpen lighting and shadows from environment maps, particularly for small light sources like the sun in the map. Enable this if you notice flickering in the lighting.

Corona11-Scene-Tab-Scene-Environment.png

To use this feature:

  1. Select the objects in your scene that you want to exclude from (or include in) environment lighting.
  2. Click the "+" button to add them to the list.
  3. Use the dropdown to review or modify your selection.

 

Corona12_ExcludeLighting.gif

 

Once you have set up all your environments in the Corona Environment Settings dialog, you can simply set up LightMix by either clicking the Setup LightMix button in the Render Setup > Scene tab or in the Corona Official Toolbar, or by adding the required render elements manually. 

 

mceclip1.png

There are multiple ways to set up the interactive LightMix. One of them is by clicking Setup LightMix in Render Setup > Scene. 

 

Once all of the above is done, you will end up with:

  • One CShading_LightMix render element (default name: "InteractiveLightMix"). 
  • Multiple CShading_LightSelect render elements (one element for each sun, each environment, and each other light source in your scene; each LightSelect element is named based on the name of the light source it includes).
  • One CShading_LightSelect render element by default called "Rest (unassigned)" - this is the element where the lights which are not included in any other LightSelect render elements will end up. 

res.png

CShading_LightMix and CShading_LightSelect render elements with multiple suns and environments set up. 

 

 

With such setup ready, you can start rendering.

during-render.jpg

Early stage of the rendering. Note multiple sunlight directions and overall high brightness. 

 

Note that at the beginning the rendering may be more noisy than usually. This is because multiple suns and environments are especially hard to sample, so some render time / quality penalty is expected.

 

The scene will be also most likely overexposed when looking at the Beauty pass, because we are rendering a scene with multiple environments and suns additively mixed together. This is also expected, and can be fixed by either lowering the scene exposure or by adjusting the intensities of individual light sources.

Note: for further problems and solutions see the "Limitations and Troubleshooting" section below.

 

 

During rendering (regular and interactive) or after you stop rendering, you can control your multiple suns and environments using the standard LightMix controls. Simply go to the LightMix tab in the Corona VFB, where you can control the suns and environments like any other light sources. This includes:

  • Enabling and disabling specific suns, environments, and other light sources
  • Changing their intensities
  • Changing their colors
  • Baking colors and intensities into the scene using the >Scene button
  • Saving and loading LightMix presets

vfb-lightmixx.png

LightMix tab of the Corona VFB. 

 

Examples

render.jpg

Final render with no LightMix adjustments. All suns and environments are visible. 

 

env1.jpg

Only the 1st environment enabled. 

 

sun3.jpg

Only the 3rd sun enabled. 

 

2env1s.jpg

2 environments and 1 sun enabled. 

 

1env2s.jpg

1 environment and 2 suns enabled. 

 

proc1.jpg

Various adjustments on the suns and environments. Version 1.

 

proc2.jpg

Various adjustments on the suns and environments. Version 2.

 

 

Limitations and Troubleshooting

Switching between multiple and single environment map modes

In the following situation:

  1. You set up your environment using the "Multiple maps" option
  2. You set up LightMix so that all corresponding LightSelect render elements are created
  3. Then you switch back to single-environment rendering (by enabling the "Single map" or "3ds Max settings" options)

The following will happen:

  • All the LightSelect render elements which include index (the number next to the name of selected environment) higher than 0 will render black.
  • All the LightSelect render elements which include index 0 will show the currently used environment map.

 

My rendering is extremely bright!

This is expected. If you scene exposure was set up according to a single sun and sky, having multiple suns and environments will make it look overexposed. 

Solution: either adjust your exposure (in the VFB or in your Corona Camera) or adjust the intensities of various items in the LightMix tab of the VFB (e.g. leave only one sun and environment active). 

 

I can see persistent noise!

Some render time penalty and more noise are expected when rendering multiple suns and environments. If you believe the scene is more noisy or renders much slower than it should, try the below solutions: 

  • Increase GI vs. AA balance to 32 (but not more!) in Render Setup > Performance. This will devote more computing power to GI and direct lighting noise resolving at some cost of anti-aliasing quality. 
  • Use denoising.

 

I am having some issues, but can't solve them using the above recommended solutions!

Please contact us by submitting a new support ticket. If possible, attach images showing the issue and the scene itself. 

 

 

 

 

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