COPS to HDRI

[phillips.a.adam]

In Vray I can take an HDRI image through cops, do stuff (Blur, composite things etc) and link this to a skydome. Is there a way I can do this in arnold? Linking a COPS end of network null in the texture slot gets me either nothing or a white skydome.

[Stephen.Blair]

Whatever you link to a skydome color has to be a file (tx or exr, jpg, png, tif). All texture input to Arnold goes through OpenImageIO, which is file based.

[phillips.a.adam]

Hi Stephen,

could you clarify your answer?

Here’s what I do I Vray:

Import hdri file in COPS, do OCIO color transform using a COP VOP, attach a Defocus node if I want to blur the hdri and then attach a null. I point the skydome at this null. Effectively this gives me an adjustable HDRI in COPS.

Can I do this in Arnold, or does it not allow for COps usage? If that’s the case, is there a way to blur the hdri on the go without having to save out multiple versions of the hdri file?

[Stephen.Blair]

You cannot use COPs, that's not supported yet.

Arnold needs a texture file from disk.

There's no Arnold blur node, so I think you'd have to have multiple versions.