Environments are created using High Dynamic Range (sometimes called 32-bit or HDR) panoramic images. They store more brightness than can be displayed on a conventional computer monitor. They can be created by many different devices, cameras, and software with a wide range of capabilities. The quality of the HDR input image greatly influences the quality of the custom environment in Showcase.
You can create your own environment from an HDR image. From the HDR image, create lighting maps, which add lighting to materials and provide specular and diffuse highlights and reflections.
The source panorama image used to create the IBL Lighting maps must be an HDR image that shows 360 degrees of a scene around a central point, and 180 degrees vertically (from straight up to straight down). Showcase supports Latitude/Longitude ("Latlong") HDRs. These are similar to a world map, with the poles at the top and bottom edges.
The aspect ratio (length/height) of the Latlong image is 2:1, and pixel values should be powers of 2; for example 1024/512, 2048/1024, and so on. To achieve the optimum resolution in the viewport, use Latlong HDRs whose dimensions are 4096/2048 pixels.
Alternatively, instead of starting with an HDR image, you can take an existing environment and add a different backdrop or infinite environment, depending on the type of environment you are creating.
There are several ways to obtain backdrop images and lighting maps if you do not want to create your own: