# Environment

Scene-level lighting and ground. Sun position and time of day, fog, terrain color, grid visibility. Set once per scene; everything you build sits on top.

![Build mode with the Edit Scene Details panel open on the left, showing the Sky section's Time field plus Fog and Show grid toggles, and the Manhattan night scene visible in the viewport behind it](/files/KgYtIciMSkOvMMvTyxAN)

## What it does

Real productions establish lighting and ground before the prop department starts dressing the set. Intangible inverts the order: you can drop assets first and tune the environment later, but the visualizer reads the environment at render time, so nailing it before you commit to a final render is the right move.

The environment controls are scene-level – they apply to every shot in the active scene. To vary lighting across an edit, build separate scenes with different environment settings and cut between them in the [Sequence Timeline](/compose/timeline.md).

## How to use it

The environment controls live in the **Edit Scene Details** panel on the left side of Build mode. The panel opens whenever a scene is active. The Sky section holds the Time and Location fields; Fog and Terrain (Show grid) are toggles below.

1. **Time of day.** Type a Time into the Sky section's Time field – `8:30am`, `5:30pm`, `midnight`, etc. The value sets both the sun's position in the sky and the color temperature of the light. The visualizer reads the time directly into the \[Scene Context] block of the auto-prompt, so "midnight" or "golden hour" arrive at the model as part of the brief.
2. **Location.** Toggle Location on to anchor the time to a real geographic place. A scene set in Reykjavik in December has a different sun path than one set in Mumbai in June. Off by default; toggle on if geographic accuracy matters.
3. **Fog.** Toggle on or off. Use fog for depth in large scenes (cities, forests, sea environments); skip it for clean product hero shots.
4. **Terrain (Show grid).** Toggle the build-time grid on or off. The grid is a visual aid for placement and never appears in renders. Turn off when you want the viewport to read more like a finished scene during composition.

## What feeds the visualizer

```mermaid
flowchart LR
    A[Time of day + Location] --> B[Auto-prompt Scene Context]
    C[Fog] --> B
    D[Terrain / Grid] -->|never| E[Render]
    B --> G[Diffusion model]
```

Time of day and Location reach the model. Fog reaches the model when on. The grid is scaffolding for you, not for the render – it never appears in rendered output.

## Per-shot lighting overrides

Compose mode adds the [Lighting presets](/visualize/lighting-presets.md) layer on top of the scene-level environment. Lighting presets in Visualize mode override the environment's sun position and atmosphere description for a specific render. The pattern:

* Use **environment** to set the *baseline* mood for the scene. "It's an evening scene."
* Use **lighting presets** in Visualize mode to push *style* per render. "This shot is stormy; the next is misty."

The environment sets the spatial truth; presets push the surface treatment.

## Common mistakes

{% hint style="warning" %}
**The grid being on doesn't affect renders, but it can throw off your composition.** If you're framing a shot in Compose mode and the grid lines are visible, the lines aren't going to render – but they're occupying mental space while you frame. Toggle the grid off before you compose.
{% endhint %}

* **Tuning fog and then forgetting it's on.** Fog at high density darkens your viewport readability. If your scene looks unexpectedly murky, check fog first.
* **Setting sun position based on viewport color.** The viewport's tone-mapping is approximate; the actual render at midnight from the visualizer will look different from the dim viewport you're seeing. Trust the time of day, not the viewport gamma.

## Related

* [Lighting presets](/visualize/lighting-presets.md)
* [Scene context](/visualize/scene-context.md)
* [Auto-prompt](/visualize/auto-prompt.md)
* [Asset library](/build/asset-library.md)


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