Why aren't my HDR maps rendering correctly in Maya 2017 (and above)?

[lee_griggs]

Maya 2017 supports color management with input textures by default. Therefore, you may notice a difference in the gamma of your renders between Maya 2016 and 2017.

By default, Maya's Color Management sets all textures to sRGB. However, most of the time EXR files are linear. When rendering an Ai Skydome light using an EXR file set to 'sRGB' (default) compared to using 'Raw' the render will appear twice as bright because the sRGB view transform is being applied twice.

Also when using Color Management in Maya (2017), (vector) displacement and normal maps should be set to RAW. More information can be found here.

As this is a frequently asked question we have provided both the question and answer in this thread.