Frequently Asked Questions

May I use the free samples for commercial work?
No, the free samples may not be used for commercial work. If you want to use a skies in commercial work you need to purchase it.

Can I use these skies in my computer game?
Yes, if you purchase a sky you may incorporate it in a computer game you are creating.

Can I use these skies in Second Life or other virtual worlds?
No. The skies may not be uploaded to Second Life or other virtual worlds.

I spend hours on changing the skies appearance, can I sell it now?
No. The skies may not be re-sold, even when modified. The reason is that it is not possible to define when a skies is sufficiently modified to allow resale. To avoid any confusion no resale or redistribution of the skies is allowed at all.

I want to bundle a sky with a 3D scene and sell/redistribute this scene. Is this allowed?
No, redistributing or reselling the skies with 3D scenes, 3D models or maps is not allowed. Unfortunately we had problems with users who started bundling 10+ skies with a 'landscape model' (a simple plane), to avoid this kind of abuse we do not allow bundling of skies with 3D models for resale or redistribution.

How were the preview renders created?
The preview renders were created using 3D Studio Max and VRay, using only the sky as a lightsource. If you are not using VRay you may need to use support lights to get crisp shadows.

When I create an account, can I download bigger samples?
No, creating an account is only for when you want to buy a full resolution sky.

Why is half the image black?
Most 3D programs have a hard time using a hemispherical image (just the sky). This is why we chose to use a fully spherical format for the files. Luckily this does not add much to the filesize of the images, but memory usage while rendering will be higher. If memory usage is a concern, you can always crop the image (simple operations on HDR images such as cropping are possible in the regular version of Photoshop. For more complex operations you will need Photoshop Extended).

How is the dynamic range of the skies measured?
The dynamic range of a skies in 'stops' (for example: 10,5 EVs) is measured using PictureNaut. Because skies do not have much shaded parts, the dynamic range is not as high as for example a HDR image of a landscape. The skies with higher range generally create sharper shadows, for more information see the rendering tutorial.

I really liked the horizon, can I get a version with the horizon included?
We don't have any skies with the original horizon available for download, but if you purchase a sky we can arrange a version with the original horizon at no extra cost. For HDR skies this will be the HDR file only, so you will need to convert the HDR to an 8-bit image (tonemap). Tonemapping can be done with Picturenaut or Photoshop.