This is something I’ve been wanting to do from the very beginning, but releasing stuff for free when you still need to pay the bills isn’t easy. I eventually realized that I care a lot more about people using my HDRIs than I do about earning money, so I decided to take the risk and publish everything for free, hoping that enough kind souls would support me on Patreon to help me continue.
Blenderartists is famous for it’s discussions so I’m curious to hear what some of you think about this idea in general. I’m 100% expecting many people to think this was a terrible idea, that I’m throwing away a good thing just to make myself feel better. You might not be wrong, but it’s really not about me anymore.
Anyway, I have no idea if this is going to work out at all, but I hope you like it
None of us are required to pay for Blender, yet quite a few of us do donate, or at least give to the community whether with money, code, addons, creating tutorials or docs etc. because as you say, the Blender community is awesome I hope your generosity is reciprocated!
Wow, this is just amazing! Thank you very much Greg. I just started learning Blender about a month ago and this thing you did, I would like to consider this as a very generous gift. Again thank you very much.
Greg, that is an awesome thing to do. The first thing I did (before even looking at what’s available) was to read the “Why”. I have to say that I think that the model you have chosen is a good one. Come the end of the month, I’ll set up a regular donation on Patreon. I hope others do, too.
Have to say, you must be suddenly flooded with traffic. Site’s a bit slow, but I guess that’s understandable
Yup, that’s the humanity, afraid electricity, fire, food… everything will run out (except for fear) observing since ever, had seen the pattern too many times.
I assumed you planned for this - “99%” are lurkers
You could call your ISP to lift the bandwidth cap for couple of days and let it flow.
One thing i also advise for such endeavors is to spread & share food in smaller amounts for a longer time. Prevents wannabe users & hoarders getting loads of stuff, then sick & fat, making it all worthless junk. But probably you know all this already.
Thanks so much for this, Greg! Pledged to your Patreon. Definitely the kind of resource I want to support!
(Btw, dunno if you have any desire to do this, but given the high quality of your work I would also pledge for a similar resource for photographic surface textures. In case you want to expand on this in the future. :-))
I was just getting my HDR collection organized and sorted! and now there are more to collect!
With regards to helping bandwidth, I would suggest converting 32-bit .hdr files to 16-bit .exr files that use the DAWB compression scheme. The difference in the images imperceptible and I was able to convert 50 GB of files to 12 GB.
I did a render with an original .hdr and the compressed .exr and they were identical. When composited in a photo application and the mode set to ‘difference’, I had to crank up the contrast super high to show a slight difference in the noise pattern.
Thanks man <3 yeah, looking into upgrading the server right now
Thank you sir! I definitely want to do a similar thing for textures and assets, though I’m only one man Eventually if there’s enough interest and funds, I will certainly get some other people on board to make it happen.
16-bit is not enough for storing the dynamic range of most HDRIs, and 32-bit EXR is a much heavier file than .hdr (though technically higher quality, but not noticable in most of my tests). Some HDRIs will fit into 16-bit EXR and produce the same result though, so I may think about doing that. Just the technicalities of changing my workflow and setting up the site to know which HDRI is in which format.
Can you point me in the direction of one of your HDRI’s that would not work well in 16 bit? I’d like to do some experimentation to satisfy my curiosity and give you the results if it is helpful. I found that using exr’s various compression schemes saved some space and the most lossy (DAWB) along with reducing bit depth to 16 bit saved the most without making a noticeable difference in image quality.
Greg - i read Your post on your site few times. Now i see how hard decision it was to publish everything for free. I have my own blog with huge collection of freebies, and i see taht people are downloaders:) HDR panoramas are so timeconsuming, and hardware cost so much. I hope You are in good money condition and that decision will not ruin your budget. I want to say thank You - many talented people around world are not able to pay 1-2$ for textures or models because in their region monthly salary is below 400-500$. Now You opened huge box with gifts for all these people who had problems with downloading illegal content - now they don’t have to search internet for torrents and other warez sites. Greetings Good deed for whole community:)
This is a great move, Greg. Please do keep us in the loop on how this works for you. I know that there are a lot of people interested in seeing ways in which creative commons content can still be somewhat financially viable.
so I’m curious to hear what some of you think about this idea in general. I’m 100% expecting many people to think this was a terrible idea, that I’m throwing away a good thing just to make myself feel better. You might not be wrong, but it’s really not about me anymore.
I hope your generosity is reciprocated!
observing since ever, had seen the pattern too many times.
Eventually if there’s enough interest and funds, I will certainly get some other people on board to make it happen.