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The Env Sphere texture simulates an environment by mapping a texture or image file directly onto the inner surface of an infinite sphere. The best way to create a sphere environment is to use a ramp texture and paint objects onto it, being sure to avoid the poles and edges.

You can use the Env Sphere texture as a reflection map, by connecting its Out Color attribute to the Reflected Color attribute of an specular shader, such as Blinn or PhongE. Aside from the attributes listed here, Env Sphere inherits additional attributes from TextureEnv. In the table below, important attributes have their names listed in bold in the description column.

This node is MP safe

Node name Parents Classification MFn type Compatible function sets
envSphere textureEnv texture/environment kEnvSphere kBase
kNamedObject
kDependencyNode
kTextureEnv
kEnvSphere

Related nodes

layeredTexture, envCube, envSky, envBall, envChrome, bump3d, uvChooser, bump2d, texture2d, ramp, file, cloth, water, stencil, checker, fractal, bulge, grid, mountain, texture3d, projection, cloud, granite, crater, leather, stucco, brownian, solidFractal, marble, wood, rock, snow, defaultTextureList, place2dTexture, place3dTexture

Attributes (17)

flip, image, imageB, imageG, imageR, infoBits, pointCamera, pointCameraX, pointCameraY, pointCameraZ, refPointCamera, refPointCameraX, refPointCameraY, refPointCameraZ, shearU, shearUV, shearV

Long name (short name) Type Default Flags
pointCamera (p) float3 0.0, 0.0, 0.0 outputinputconnectablehidden
The current sample point that has to be shaded
pointCameraX (px) float 0.0 outputinputconnectablehidden
The x component of the current sample position
pointCameraY (py) float 0.0 outputinputconnectablehidden
The y component of the current sample position
pointCameraZ (pz) float 0.0 outputinputconnectablehidden
The z component of the current sample position
refPointCamera (rpc) float3 0.0, 0.0, 0.0 outputinputconnectablehidden
The current reference sample point that has to be shaded
refPointCameraX (rcx) float 0.0 outputinputconnectablehidden
The x component of the current sample position
refPointCameraY (rcy) float 0.0 outputinputconnectablehidden
The y component of the current sample position
refPointCameraZ (rcz) float 0.0 outputinputconnectablehidden
The z component of the current sample position
image (so) float3 0.5, 0.5, 0.5 outputinputconnectablestorable
Image is the texture or image that will be mapped to the inside of the sphere.
imageR (sor) float 0.0 outputinputconnectablestorablekeyable
The red component of Image
imageG (sog) float 0.0 outputinputconnectablestorablekeyable
The green component of Image
imageB (sob) float 0.0 outputinputconnectablestorablekeyable
The blue component of Image
shearUV (suv) float2 0.0, 0.0 outputinputconnectablestorable
Shear UV allows you to shear the texture along the longitude or latitudes of the sphere.
shearU (su) float 0.0 outputinputconnectablestorable
Shear U. Adjusting this will shear longitudinal lines. For example, straight vertical lines could be warped into a barber-pole arrangment.
shearV (sv) float 0.0 outputinputconnectablestorable
Shear V. Adjusting this will shear latitudinal lines. For example, lines that ran concentrically around the poles would spiral inwards.
flip (f) bool false outputinputconnectablestorable
Flip allows you to flip your input texture so that U and V are switched; the texture at the poles is moves to the equator and vice-versa.
infoBits (ib) integer 0 outputinputconnectablehidden
Information bits passing along information about type of shading