Notch Reference Manual

Environment Map

Method

Add an environment map node to a scene, add an image to the nodegraph and plug it into the environment map node. You should Ideally use .exr of .hdr images – HDRI Haven is a great resource for these images.

The environment map output can be plugged into both skylights and skyboxes for an even better visual response.

Example
Nodegraph Example

Attributes

Name Description
Envmap Image Image used for the environment map.
Brightness How bright the output environment map is.
Specular Amount How much the environment map is added to the specular of objects
Diffuse Amount How much the environment map is added to the diffuse of objects
Image Source Mapping Select which mapping type was used in the image.
  • Dual Paraboloid, Use 2 paraboloids to generate a cube map.
  • Spherical, Uses Spherical Mapping which corrects for pole artefacts.
  • Equirectangular (VR 360), Uses equirectangular mapping, common for HDRi textures.
Apply Mode How the Environment Map is applied to the mesh.
  • Reflection, The image is applied as a reflection on the surface of the object.
  • Refraction, The image is applied as a refraction of light through the volume of the object.
  • Direct Mapping, The image is applied as a spherical map onto the surface of the object.
Sample Quality The quality of the sampling done across the mesh for the mapping.
Resolution Resolution of the generated environment map. Higher resolutions can impact performance a lot.
Refractive Surface Thickness When in Refractive mode, control how refractive the object’s surface is.
Max Input Brightness Maximum brightness from an image that will be applied. Usually useful with HDR images.

Inputs

Name Description Typical Node Input
Objects Control which objects are affected. 3D Object
Envmap Controllers Overrides environment map attributes using a null node. Null
Envmap Image Override the image in the attributes with an input image. Video Loader
Transform Modifier Links all transform properties to the input node. Null
Target Node Always faces the x-axis towards the inputs anchor point. Null
Local Transform Override Override the transformation values of the node, relative to its parent. Null

Outputs

All nodes connected to this node are treated as if flowing to the parent node, and inherits any transformation changes along the chain.