Here is a simple HDRI test I did using bryce 6 to render a panoramic view of my
"EXPERIENCE ROOM" model:
[link]Now I've never created HDRI images before so I'll admit I'm just tinkering here, I was trying to find an alien environment HDRI image online but I had a big fat O result, seems people out there have just NOT created any, not any I could find anyways and you would be surprised at just how many hours one can search the Internet and come up empty, I HATE that

So what I did was create a panoramic image in Bryce and then import that image into HDRIshop (A freebie ap you can get online) and then turn that into an HDRI image... toss it into MAX 8 as an HDRI environment map set to "Sperical Environment" and this is the result from 4 different camera angles on a nice shiny chrome sphere droped onto a plane.... looks OK to me so I just need to re-render my bryce file at much biigger size and then I should have a not too bad HDRI resourse for alien crap

Anyways I uploaded my low res test HDRI/Jpeg file so you can use it to for low res stuff
GET MY HDRI TEST IMAGE HERE:[link]