What a difference a Dome makes

With a standard HDRi (no Dome; see the start of the video below), your model is never going to look like it belongs in the scene – you can’t zoom, and there’s no ground. But as soon as the Dome is added (second part of the video), it looks like the car is really driving on the ground – you can zoom in, and there’s realistic contact shadows.

Preview with Eevee:

The new Light Studio Tools

This fantastic feature allows you to create a solid color backdrop and the lights to make your model look great – all with just one click. With the soft shapes of the dome, you’ll have smooth, even lighting, great for rendering 3D objects.

Edit the ground to make it more realistic

With the HDRi Maker Wrap system you can deform the ground of the Domes using any object, you can create hills mountains or simply an uneven ground matching the original image. As always, you can also import your HDR / EXR images and use them as backgrounds.

Animatable Volumetric Fog 

We’ve added a new Volumetric section to the addon that allows you to create animatable volumetric fog with a single click – great for quickly adding some atmosphere to your scenes. We’ve also made it easy to modify it so you can make your fog exactly how you like it.

Shadow Catcher works in Cycles and Eevee

The shadow catcher normally only works in Cycles, but with HDRi Maker you can also use it in Eevee – you can even add reflections. This is especially useful if you want to have transparency while still using the lighting from an HDR / EXR.

Blur on the Dome

By popular request, I’ve added the possibility to simulate blur directly on the Dome, as well as on the Background. It works according to your current point of view – even in Preview mode – without having to use the camera.

This render shows the blur on the Dome, rendered with Cycles:

The new HDRi Maker interface

The new interface is based on the (much loved) previous one, which we’ve now improved – the sections are now independent so you can move them wherever you like, and they can be hidden if you don’t need them.

Create HDRs from your scene

This feature allows you to create HDRs directly from your scene – choose the resolution and the number of samples, and save it directly to the User Library to reuse in the future.

Choose your Dome

Depending on what HDR image you’re using, you may want your Dome to be a hemisphere (mostly for outside spaces) or a cube (for interiors, or outside spaces with many straight lines); the cube (second image below) has been adapted using the Hooks system.

Almost 500 Backgrounds included

All the backgrounds are well categorized into Libraries / Categories with tags and an easy to use search system.

Use your own HDR / EXR images

You probably have your own collection of HDR or EXR images – the great thing about this addon is that you can import your own HDR or EXR images on the fly and use them as if they were part of the HDRi Maker Studio library. This allows you to use them as a Dome, or simply as a background for your scene, with all the features of HDRi Maker Studio!

Note: You can also batch import your HDR images and save them with the category HDRi Maker – this allows you to quickly create a library in one go by selecting all the HDR / EXR files contained in your folder. The previews will also be created automatically!

New, beautiful documentation

I’ve put direct links to the documentation in each section of Extreme PBR Nexus, making it much easier to learn the features – just click on the icons (?) to open the online documentation. The documentation has also been rewritten from scratch – it’s now much more complete and better structured than before, and is constantly evolving.

Documentation link: https://hdri-maker.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

Here are some of the features included in HDRi Maker Studio:

• 361 HDRs in 1k/2k/4k/8k/16k (depending on which version you buy)
• 119 EXRs from HdrMaps.com in 1k/2k/4k/8k/10k (in all versions)
• Light Studio to manage the sun and lights
• Domes (5 types): 3 types of hemisphere, 1 cube, and 1 cylinder (see above for details)
• Ground Projection – can even project on objects that are separate from the Dome
• Shadow Catcher – works in Eevee too!
• Volumetrics – create effects like fog/dust
• Wrap to deform the ground / Blur to add a blur effect
• Hooks to fit the HDR image to the shape of the Dome
• Save System to save your backgrounds – import your HDR / EXR images on the fly
• Batch Import your HDR / EXR images and save them into the addon library
• Create HDRs directly from your scene
• Manage procedural nodes directly from the interface
• My assistance if there are any problems or bugs 😎👍
• Documentation here

Free updates!

If you’ve already bought the addon here, updates will always be free!

If you’re upgrading from HDRi Maker 2.x follow the installation guide in the documentation: https://hdri-maker.readthedocs.io/en/latest/installation.html