I couldn't find much on the new 'Enviroment Lighting' available in the 'World' panel of 'Properties'. So I thought I'd try it out and post a few results. There are three options; white, sky Colour and Sky Texture.
White light really does little more that Ambient Occlusion, the scene being lit by a universal white light. There are no shadows. The image shows the result using ray tracing, approximate gives a slightly tonally more crude result. I have a plane preventing you from seeing the sky facing the camera. There are also two smaller planes top and bottom.
Sky colour is probably the most useful one. It uses the horizon and zenith colours available in the world panel to colour light the scene. The horizon from below and the Zenith colour from above. Shading is done by Ambient Occlusion.
Lastly Sky texture uses a texture. This example uses and image divided into four colours. the image texture needs to be mapped 'extend' and set to influence all of the sky colours; Blend, Horizon, Zenith U and D.Finally I have replaced the image with a landscape photograph. As you can see the effect becomes very subtle indeed so needs to be used with some thought.
