Is it possible to render an HDRI image in lightwave to use later in another scene (saving on rendering time)???

I would think so. It may be a shader thing. I am still thinking that it is possible to fake an HDR image, either by combining two of the same images with different costrast (or ambience, if you are into tweaking LAB colors, in Photoshop) in HDRshop. Or doing something similar with renders in LW... that is, highly varied lighting.

I know anything done with the Photoshop idea would still be somewhat of a faux HDR, but if it works in the rendering that in most cases I think it would be good enough for me. But it seems possible that the real thing is possible with the right rendering in LW.

As long as you can accomplish the right depth of range, HDRshop can twist images into the necessarry spherical.

I feel like I am in the dark but about the find the golden key. :)

Thanks for the site RiGLEY, it was really help full.

Nope - Lightwave renders HDRI images by default. 96bit floating point precision per pixel if you really want to know.

The trick is to make sure that you actually save out all that extra data.

Try saving as CineonFP, Radiance or TifLogLuv.

Also, if you've got the Lightwave Help system installed, search in there for HDRI. There's a pretty good article buried in there along with some images from our very own Philip Meyer :)

*drools* loooove HDRI