VRay 3: Understanding the sun

igendreau

So I'm taking a vray tutorial largely done in 3DSMax, where they keep inserting a sun and placing it wherever they want. I'm demoing the new VRay for Sketchup 3, and am having a bit of an issue wrapping my head around how the sun works. Hoping someone can either explain, or point me in the right direction...

I've got "SunLight" it my Light List in the V-Ray Asset Editor
I've got GI (skylight) and Background in my Environment rollout
I've got my Shadows toolbar with Time and Date settings

If I turn all 3 off I get pitch black
If I turn on SunLight, I get light
If I turn off SunLight, and turn on GI, I get different light

So which one is actually the sun, or is it a combination of the two? And does changing the Time/Date in shadows affect the light from the "SunLight" light, or the GI light?

Sorry, I'm a newbie. Thanks for the help.

valerostudio

My understanding is that VRay 3 is in private beta. If you are a beta tester, questions should be posted on the Chaos forums. If you are not a tester, then you should not have a copy of VR3.

solo

I'm not a Vray user but your question seems elementary. When the sun is on it's sunlight, when the GI is on It's GI lighting from either an HDRI or image in slot, when both are on you get both light sources, if the shadows do not look right it's more than likely because your GI light and position of sun are not matched up.

andybot

I think the question has more to do with the modeling software. In Max - the sun is just another lamp in the model that you can manipulate. In Sketchup - the sun is not present in the model, and the only way to adjust is are by the "shadows" settings.