I am just discovering the magic of using environment HDR maps for changing lighting/reflection in my rendered images. But I’ve come up with a slight roadblock because I realize my environment reflects on the ground plane. Is there any way I can only have the object reflect on the ground plane and somehow make the environment reflection invisible in the render? Right now, I manage to clean it up manually on Photoshop after rendering, but I’d like to know if there is a less manual-intensive way to do this either via scripts or via V-Ray options itself.
You can change the background to a texcolor black for the material applied to the floor
In to the material editor open the maps for the floor material, enable the background channel and add a black texcolor.
Done.
Of course you can use any map you want but black is like to not have any reflection.
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Thanks for your reply, @skysurfer,
So as I understand, you are suggesting I change the floor to a black material. What I want to know is, by doing this, will I also lose the reflection of the object on the floor? I don’t want that! What I’m looking to do is remove only the reflection of the ceiling of the environment map on the floor. I definitely don’t want to remove the object’s reflection on the floor.
P.S. Sorry, I wish I could have some screenshots; but I’m not sure if I’m allowed to share screenshots of the working design because they belong to the organization I intern for.
No! Absolutely no, what you have to change is just the background channel (under maps)
in this way you keep the obj reflection and remove the hdri from the floor.
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Hi @skysurfer, your suggestion doesn’t seem to work because the map is still reflecting on the ground plane. Here are my VRay Options Editor settings. Marked in red is what I (understood you asked me to) change.
Sorry I can’t see your image, but here is mine:
I dont know if this can help you or not. I am using 3dsmax Vray for rendering, but I believe this trick can be applied in Rhino =
if you want to exclude a specific object to reflect HDRI, put HDRI image to Vray Dome Light. and then click on “exclude” tab under dome light properties. select the desired object and that should remove HDRI reflection on that object only.
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Rhino doesn’t have the light exclusion…
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ah 
sorry then. all I could think of = separate the reflection channel and remove it in Photoshop.
(just a single click in Photoshop wouldnt take much time 
)
perhaps others can give a better solution
Okay, this is pretty cool. I will be able to try this out a little later and will give you an update if this works. Thanks @skysurfer
@Runnie yes, I did see this solution on another forum which I believe was for 3dsmax, but according to @skysurfer this doesn’t seem to be possible on Rhino.
@Runnie. Ah, that seems like a neat solution too. @skysurfer How do I separate the reflection channel on VRay?
there is a render element setting in Vray for Max where u can separate reflection, Z depth, alpha (those sort of stuff). maybe u can ask SkySurfer where that setting located in RHino since he is more familiar with Vray for Rhino.
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or you can go to Vray Manual in Chaosgroup website, they have complete documentation for that
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@skysurfer this solution works perfectly! Thanks a lot.
A related question: do you know how to render the ground plane reflection in a separate channel?
You can have the reflection channel by enabling it in the Render Options channel but have the backgroud reflection alone isn’t just an option.
the control of floor reflection is covered by the video studio scenes: http://www.simplyrhino.co.uk/rhinotraining/v-ray%20webinar.html
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Thanks @Gerard1.
So the above webinar suggests another alternative to achieve the same thing: enable reflection channel of the floor material and change the TexAColor to white.
Hi,
I have the same problem, but I cant found the background channel on my material, can you be more specific to where I need to enable the map an use a black color to avoid HdRI reflections on a material. On the other way to unable ilumination or cast shadows on dome light doesnt product any effects on the material, mainteining the HdRI reflection on the material.
Thank you