hborre posted at 11:43 AM Sat, 1 April 2023 - #4460347

What exactly is the purpose of the Environment Preview?  It cannot be scaled nor can it be rotated.  It doesn't project an environment map unless you plug the map into the Color input and retint the chip white.  It is not visible in either Raytrace or Camera.  The only place HDR rotation, location, and scaling manipulation can be performed is directly in the Material Room Background.  This can be somewhat performed already in P12 with the exception of the Diffuse IBL.  I really need a thorough explanation.

The purpose as I understand it is exactly as I described. Makes working with HDRI's easier because it makes the background show up in preview. In the above I did not bother the tech explanation. Sure you can define an environment background in the material room background material, but that does not give you a preview. Without it matching the figure with the background is trial and error, and a lot of it. Sure parts if it were already in Poser 12. This is just an improvement, to ease use as I described above.  

There is no need to scale the preview background and if you do it is a sure way to mess things up. It is possible to rotate but only with quite ingenious methods. You would need methods to keep the background views in preview and in render synched.  It is easier and safer to rotate your scene to match the environment. Groupings an parenting are designed for that purpose.

Obviously it only shows a background when you plug one in.

I hope this is thorough enough.