After you obtain the environment image file, follow these instructions to generate the IBL maps needed for your own environment in Autodesk Showcase.

These steps are the same whether you choose to create a Geometry Environment (with an image mapped to it) or a Scale-Independent Environment (where the image is infinitely far away). In either case, you must first prepare images as described in Create or obtain images for custom environments.

1. If the Environments interface is not already visible, press the E key (or select Story > Environment Library).
2. Click the Create button at the top of the Environment interface, or right-click on an editable environment like Generic or BP Generic, and from the menu that appears, choose Create New Environment.
3. Browse your files and choose an HDR panoramic image meeting the criteria described in Create or obtain images for custom environments.

   After a few moments, the Create Environment dialog box will appear and a preview of your environment image will be displayed

   
4. Adjust the image so that it looks good in the preview using the following tools:
   • Exposure: adjusts the overall brightness of the input HDR scene when creating IBL maps and the background image. The slider has a range of -3 to +3, but values beyond these can be entered numerically. This is useful when the IBL effect is either too dark or too bright.
   • Saturation: sets the overall saturation of the scene. More saturation will result in a more “colored” environment lighting, while less will result in a more “neutral” lighting.
   • Non-Linear Brightness: adjusts both the brightness and saturation of the image at the same time, in a non-linear amount. Useful if the image is extremely dark and contrasted, or light and lacking contrast.
5. Click Create Environment.

   The new environment will be shown in the scene and automatically saved to a temporary folder. The Create Environment dialog box remains open for adjustments and recreating the environment with new settings.

More controls and recreating the maps

Click the Show More Controls folder to expose the advanced and individual map controls for the current environment.

Note

The environment shown in the scene can be adjusted by changing any of the values in the Create Environment dialog box and pressing the Create Environment button again. This will recreate the environment, excluding any maps not “checked” as Include in IBL creation.

• Include in IBL creation: include this part of the environment map list when creating, or recreating, the environment.
• Output resolution: adjusts the size of each map. The resolution should be chosen by how much detail there is to preserve in the input map.
• Use Tonemap: for the Backdrop (visible) Panorama, combines multiple exposures of the HDR original to create a visually recognizable image.
  Note

  Tone mapping can produce unusual effects with some very extreme range HDR images. In these cases, simply use the single exposure image automatically generated without this option, or tone map the image in a separate application.

• Highlight clamp: limits the brightness of highlight pixels by clamping a percentage of them from 0% (no clamping) to 100% (all highlight pixels). This is useful when the scene appears "blown out" or the highlights are not discernible.
• Diffuse Map Quality: changes the convolution of the diffuse map, where higher takes more time to calculate but is more accurate.
• Highlight Map: controls blurriness, where Diffuse is very blurred and Specular is less blurred.