Environment Tab

The Environment tab is located on the right-hand side panel and offers properties for configuring the environment. It contains two subtabs:

You can set numerous environment setups and save them as variations in the Environment left-hand side panel tab. Then the environment variations can be used in animations.

Intensity – Controls the intensity of the sun and can be used to reduce the default brightness.

Color – Changes the color of the sun.

Sun disk size – Controls the visible size of the sun disk. This value can be used to control shadow softness cast from objects. Lower values produce sharp shadows, while large values produce softer shadows. 

Clouds shadows – Enables the shadows casted by the clouds on the ground.

Geolocation – Enables the use of location coordinates, date and time of day to control the sun position. When disabled, the Azimuth and Elevation values are used to control the sun position.

Azimuth – Sets the azimuth position (in degrees) of the sun in the sky.

Elevation – Sets the altitude position (in degrees) of the sun in the sky.

The following parameters are available when Geolocation is enabled.

Latitude – Sets the latitude position of the scene over the Earth globe.

Longitude – Sets the longitude position of the scene over the Earth globe.

Day / Month / Year – Sets the day/month/year for which to compute the sun position.

Time – Sets the hours/minutes for which to compute the sun position.

Time zone – Sets the current time zone of the scene. The Time Zone is not set automatically based on Latitude/Longitude values.

Daylight saving time – When enabled, compensates for Daylight Saving Time(DST).

Sky type – A dropdown that switches between automatically generated clouds on the sky and image-based lighting with HDRI.

Automatic – Automatically generated clouds on the sky.

HDRI – Enables the use of an environment texture for lighting. You can either load a custom texture or select a premade HDRI texture from the Chaos Cosmos library. Both .exr and .hdr texture files are supported.

Automatic Type

Clouds – Enables the cloud system. It is enabled by default.

Density – Specifies the density of the cumulus and stratus types of clouds. A value of 100% fills up the sky with clouds. Density is available only when the Clouds option is enabled.

Variety – Specifies the variety of the cumulus and stratus types of clouds. Variety is available only when the Clouds option is enabled.

Cirrus amount – Specifies the amount of cirrus clouds in the sky. The maximum value of 1 fills the sky with cirrus clouds. When set to 0, the cirrus clouds are completely gone. Cirrus amount is available only when the Clouds option is enabled.

Longitude offset – Moves the cloud system along the longitude.

Latitude offset – Moves the cloud system along the latitude.

Altitude – Specifies the clouds position in height. Altitude is available only when the Clouds option is enabled.

Thickness – Lower values make the cumulus and stratus types of clouds thin and sheer/lucent, while higher values make them full and heavy. Thickness is available only when the Clouds option is enabled.

Ground color – Specifies the color of the ground.

Blend angle – Specifies the angle in degrees where blending occurs between the horizon line and sky. Values close to 0.0 produce a sharper horizon line, while larger values produce a softer horizon line.

Horizon offset – Allows you to manually lower the horizon line.

Wind animation – If the scene includes compatible assets like animated trees, they swing with the wind.

Wind intensity – Specifies the wind strength.

HDRI Type

Select Environment Map – Loads an image for Environment. The image can be an .exr file or an .hdr file.

– Opens the Cosmos tab in the bottom dock panel, where you can select an environment map and load it.

– Opens a browser window where you can load a custom environment map.

– Flips the loaded texture horizontally.

Preview Exposure – Controls the brightness of the HDRI preview. It does not affect the camera exposure. 

Intensity – Specifies the intensity of the Environment lighting.

Rotation – Specifies a rotation angle in degrees for the Environment texture.

Wind animation – If the scene includes compatible assets like animated trees, they swing with the wind.

Wind intensity – Specifies the wind strength.