3ds max SunPositioner and Corona?

[Monkeybrother]

I just found that 3ds max has a new (ish, I just hadn't noticed it) SunPositioner that is a lot less "clicky" to use than the old Daylight System assembly. I can get Corona to work with it, but I'm not sure if I should? Are there any downsides to using it (besides the fact that the sun doesn't show up in the light lister, but that's another question)?

[alexyork]

First I've heard of that...! Just had a quick look and I can see one major issue with it right off the bat - no Seconds, only Hours and Minutes. Would be a problem on a project we're currently doing right now.

You also don't seem to have access to the CoronaSun at all, so you can't play around with scale etc.

Not sure I see any advantage to using this... anyone? Seems a weird thing for Autodesk to bother making if it's just a not-as-good version of Daylight System?

Edit: actually... fiddling around with it a bit more and I've found that it uses it's own internal Sun+Sky system which is actually pretty cool.. you can use a custom "night sky luminance" value/colour (shame no map) so when the sun goes below horizon you get a "proper" dusk/night illumination. VERY handy for animating time-lapse...

Just a shame it doesn't have Seconds.

[Monkeybrother]

You can control the size etc through the environment material, which is a bit cumbersome, but everything works. About two seconds after I posted I realised that because you control the sun settings through the material, you can't have a sun and an HDRI environment (= if you put an HDRI in the env slot, the sun is gone). Seems like they thought this only half way through.

[alexyork]

You can control the size etc through the environment material, which is a bit cumbersome, but everything works. About two seconds after I posted I realised that because you control the sun settings through the material, you can't have a sun and an HDRI environment (= if you put an HDRI in the env slot, the sun is gone). Seems like they thought this only half way through.

Yeh it's definitely quite half-arsed! Loving the night luminance though.. super useful.