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FAQ & Troubleshooting

This page collects common UI-related issues and how to resolve them.

Translate New Data Name Warning

TrueSKY relies on predictable names for objects and node groups. Blender's Translate New Data Name option can interfere with this.

Disable Translate New Data Name

If you see a warning in the main TrueSKY panel about Translate New Data Name, open Edit → Preferences → Interface and turn Translate New Data Name off. Leaving it enabled can create mismatched or unexpected data names that break TrueSKY’s assumptions.

HDRI Render Button Disabled

If the Render HDRI button is disabled or missing, the HDRI panel usually displays a hint explaining what’s wrong.

Check HDRI prerequisites

  • Make sure the HDRI camera exists by clicking Setup HDRi Camera in the HDRI tab.
  • Verify that an output directory and file name are set in the Output section.
  • Confirm that the current scene is saved so the add-on can derive a base path if needed.

Panel Not Visible

If you cannot find the TrueSKY panel in the 3D Viewport:

Where is the TrueSKY panel?

  • Confirm the add-on is enabled in Edit → Preferences → Add-ons.
  • In the 3D Viewport, press N to open the sidebar and switch to the True-VFX category.
  • Make sure you are in a 3D Viewport area (the panel does not appear in the Image Editor, Shader Editor, etc.).

Clean Scene Removes Too Much (or Not Enough)

Use Clean Scene when you want to reset all TrueSKY data in the file without manually hunting down objects.

Clean Scene is destructive

Clean Scene removes TrueSKY objects, presets, clouds, and effects from the scene. Use it only when you want a fresh start.

Purge unused data after cleaning

After cleaning, TrueSKY shows a reminder to Purge Orphan Data. Click Purge (or go to Outliner -> Orphan Data -> Purge) before saving so unused materials and textures are removed.

Performance or Viewport Feels Slow

Heavy clouds and volumetrics can be demanding on some systems.

Use performance presets while iterating

  • Open the Performance panel and use the Presets tab to pick a lower-cost volume preset while blocking out your scene.
  • Reduce cloud coverage and density in the Clouds tab to speed up both viewport and rendering.
  • Increase quality only when preparing final shots or test renders.

HDRI Looks Too Dark or Washed Out

If your exported HDRI does not light other scenes as expected:

Check color management and format

  • Ensure you exported the HDRI as OpenEXR with sufficient bit depth.
  • Verify that the source scene’s Color Management (view transform, exposure) matches your intended workflow.
  • In the target scene, confirm that the environment texture is interpreted as linear HDR data and not accidentally color-managed twice.

HDRI Render Forces CPU or Feels Slower Than Expected

If you see a warning that the compositor switched to CPU (or your GPU is not used) when rendering HDRIs:

Why it happens

  • TrueSKY automatically falls back to CPU for 12K/16K/24K HDRIs or custom sizes above 10K x 5K, because Blender’s GPU compositor cannot handle those resolutions reliably.

What to do

  • Let the render finish on CPU for oversized maps; this is expected.
  • For faster results, render a smaller size (for example, 8K).
  • Background renders now pass the correct arguments; if you still see failures, resave the file and re-run the render.

macOS OptiX Crashes or Fails to Start

If OptiX refused to start on macOS in earlier betas:

Status

  • The current beta includes a fix for macOS OptiX initialization. Update to the latest TrueSKY build and retry the render.

Aurora Banding with Clouds (Blender 4.5 LTS)

Users on Blender 4.5.x may see banding/stripes when enabling auroras alongside clouds and atmosphere.

What’s happening?

A regression in Blender 4.5.x’s volume layering can cause artifacts when multiple volumetric layers (atmosphere, clouds, aurora) are active together. This issue is resolved in Blender 5.0, which has a more robust volume system.

Recommended fix

  • Upgrade to Blender 5.0 for best results with stacked volumetrics (atmosphere + clouds + aurora).

Need to stay on 4.5? Workarounds

  • Temporarily disable Clouds when using Auroras to avoid the artifact (not ideal if you need both).
  • As a partial mitigation, increase atmosphere height to around 1,000,000 m and turn atmosphere range up to maximum. This can reduce banding but is a workaround, not a fix.

Scope

This is a Blender-side issue specific to 4.5.x LTS and not a TrueSKY configuration error. If you rely on multiple volume layers, prefer Blender 5.0.

Viewport Zoom Locks or Sun Disc Disappears

Some users encounter two unrelated issues: inability to zoom out at planetary scale, or the sun disc vanishing after rendering. Both are caused by Blender settings or conflicting add-ons—not by TrueSKY.

Why can’t I zoom out (or zoom back in) when viewing a planet?

Blender’s perspective navigation struggles at extreme scales.

Try the following:

  • In Edit → Preferences → Navigation, disable Auto Depth (and similar depth-based zoom options).
  • Use Walk/Fly navigation instead of mouse-wheel zoom: press Ctrl+` (backtick) and use the scroll wheel to change speed.
  • Select your primary body and press Numpad . to reset Blender’s zoom min/max range around the object.
  • Switch to Orthographic view when laying out large-scale scenes; it avoids perspective-distance quirks.

Why does the sun disc disappear after rendering?

If the sun still lights the scene but the disc is invisible, check Blender’s object visibility and add-on interference.

Checklist:

  • Select the sun lamp (from the luminous body) and ensure Object Properties → Ray Visibility → Camera is enabled.
  • Test with File → Defaults → Load Factory Settings, then enable only TrueSKY v3.
    If the sun behaves correctly here, another add-on is modifying visibility flags.
  • Re-enable your add-ons one at a time, restarting Blender between tests.
    A known conflict reported by users is Light Wrangler, which can toggle lamp/camera visibility after renders.

Scope

TrueSKY cannot modify viewport navigation or camera visibility; Blender does not expose those controls to add-ons. Zoom limits and sun-disc visibility changes originate from Blender settings or other add-ons.

Sky Appears Pure White

TrueSKY uses real world values which often times results in overblown images by default. Like your eyes and cameras the exposure of your scene likely just needs to be adjusted. If your sky appears completely white in the viewport or during rendering, check the following:

Why is my sky completely white in the viewport?

Check Exposure settings:

  • Open TrueSKY Panel → Misc → Effects → Exposure and enable it.
  • Lower Exposure (e.g., around -4.0 is common) and set Opacity to 1.0.

Why is the sky white in the viewport but not when looking through the camera?

When the compositor is set to apply only to camera views, the world background may look correct in camera view but blow out in the viewport.

Fix:

  • In the Compositor, change Compositing Mode from Camera to Always.

Why is my sky white during rendering but becomes blue after the render finishes?

Compositing isn’t applied during the render preview itself. The sky may appear wrong until Blender finishes the full composite pass.

Expected behavior:

  • The viewport may show white.
  • The render window may show white while rendering.
  • Once the render completes and the compositor runs, the sky resolves to the correct blue/cloudy output.

Scope

These symptoms come from exposure, sun intensity, or compositor modes—not from TrueSKY misconfiguration.

Viewport Compositor Looks Different from Final Render (Blender 4.5+)

Blender’s new viewport compositor runs in half-float precision for speed, while the final render compositor stays full-float. With TrueSKY’s high dynamic range values (e.g., bright suns plus negative exposure), the half-float preview can clamp highlights or soften contrast compared to the finished render.

Why do the colors or glows look flatter in the viewport than in the render?

The viewport compositor uses half-float buffers, so extreme HDR values can lose precision. The final render uses full-float, preserving highlight detail and contrast.

How to check the real output

  • Do a quick F12 render or Render Region to judge the true result—use this for lighting/exposure decisions.
  • Keep your exposure adjustments modest in the viewport; rely on the render result before locking values.
  • If the difference is distracting, temporarily disable Use Compositor in the viewport shading popover and evaluate the uncomposited view, then confirm with a render.

Scope

This is a Blender compositor precision difference, not a TrueSKY bug. Expect closer matches in the render window or when using full-float exports.