envBall

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EnvBall uses an image or series of images of a highly reflective chrome ball in an environment (real world or computer-generated) to re-create that environment. This is possible because the reflections in the chrome ball provide a nearly 360 degree view of the environment.

To create an image of a chrome ball, first place a highly reflective chrome ball (sphere) in the environment (real world or computer generated) that you want to re-create. Place the ball at the exact location (in the original environment) where you want your model to appear (in the re-created environment), and take note of the ball's distance from any floor/walls/ceiling or large objects.

Photograph (or render) the ball using a telephoto lens, and take note of the camera's elevation (the angle between the camera's view and the environment's ground plane), and the camera's inclination (the angle between the camera's view and the environment's YZ plane).

The photo essentially contains a compressed sample of the entire environment, except for the area directly behind the ball. The highest resolution is in the direction of the camera, so the image provides the best data compression for that point of view.

There is much more detail about how to use EnvBall in the Rendering documentation,

Aside from the attributes listed here, EnvBall inherits additional attributes from TextureEnv.

In the table below, important attributes have their names listed in bold in the description column.

Related nodes

layeredTexture, envCube, envSphere, envSky, 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 (20)

back, bottom, elevation, eyeSpace, front, image, imageB, imageG, imageR, inclination, infoBits, left, pointCamera, pointCameraX, pointCameraY, pointCameraZ, reflect, right, skyRadius, top

Long name (short name)	Type	Default	Flags
back (ba)	float	0.0
Front is the distance from the sphere to whatever surface is behind it (such as a wall). If there is no surface there, set left to 0.
bottom (bo)	float	0.0
Bottom is the distance from the sphere to whatever surface is below it (usually the ground). If there is no surface below it, set bottom to 0. The texture will just use the Sky Radius for calculation in that case.
elevation (e)	float	0.0
Elevation is the angle of the camera when the picture of the source image was taken. (See notes in the description section above.) Specifically, this is the angle formed by the camera's line of sight, and the ground. If the camera's line-of-sight was parallel to the ground, Elevation is 0. If the camera was pointing straight down, Elevation is 90 degrees.
eyeSpace (eye)	bool	false
Eye Space causes the position of the Env Ball's image file to be defined relative to the window, not the camera view. If Eye Space is on, the texture will automatically match a background image file, provided both were taken from the same point of view.
front (fr)	float	0.0
Front is the distance from the sphere to whatever surface is in front of it (such as a wall). If there is no surface there, set left to 0.
image (so)	float3	0.5, 0.5, 0.5
Image is the source image (texture) to be used in the environment map. See the description section above and the Rendering documentation for details on how to create this image. When you have an image file ready to use, create a File Texture using the image, then connect the Out Color attribute of the File Texture to this Image attribute.
imageR (sor) float 0.0 The red component of the input texture
imageG (sog) float 0.0 The green component of the input texture
imageB (sob) float 0.0 The blue component of the input texture
inclination (i)	float	0.0
Inclination is the angle of the camera when the picture of the source image was taken. (See notes in the description section above.) Specifically, this is the angle formed by the camera's line of sight, and the environment's YZ plane.
infoBits (ib)	integer	0
Information bits passing along information about type of shading
left (le)	float	0.0
Left is the distance from the sphere to whatever surface is to its left (such as a wall). If there is no surface there, set left to 0.
pointCamera (p)	float3	0.0, 0.0, 0.0
The current sample point that has to be shaded
pointCameraX (px) float 0.0 The x component of the current sample position
pointCameraY (py) float 0.0 The y component of the current sample position
pointCameraZ (pz) float 0.0 The z component of the current sample position
reflect (ref)	bool	true
Reflect. This is normally left on, when you are using this texture to simulate reflections on an object. However, you can also use this texture to project the environment into stand-in objects you model in the scene. To do that, turn off the Reflect flag, and connect the Out Color attribute of this node to the Color attribute of the stand-in background objects.
right (ri)	float	0.0
Right is the distance from the sphere to whatever surface is to its right (such as a wall). If there is no surface there, set left to 0.
skyRadius (sr)	float	0.0
Sky Radius defines the distance to the sky, so that the texture can properly calculate the reflections in the re-created environment.
top (to)	float	0.0
Top is the distance from the sphere to whatever surface is above it (such as a ceiling). If there is no surface above it, set top to 0. The texture will just use the Sky Radius for calculation in that case.