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Poser - OFFICIAL F.A.Q (Last Updated: 2024 Oct 22 1:40 am)



Subject: VSS Skin Test - Opinions


lkendall ( ) posted Thu, 06 January 2011 at 5:36 PM

I hope one day that the Poser development team will add a wrapper or envelope node. A node that can contain a lot of other nodes, but only expose to the user the input and output channels, and maybe user changeable parameters.

I would also love to see a Python programmable node, where the script-writer could program the input and output channels, and the user changeable parameters.

I could not actually make a lot of use out of such nodes on my own, but they would allow for better organization, and simplification of the Advanced Material Room, and imagine the magic that bagginsBill could work with nodes like that.

And, some of us are ready to pay for that stuff that bagginsBill does not want to give away for free.

LMK

 

Probably edited for spelling, grammer, punctuation, or typos.


RobynsVeil ( ) posted Thu, 06 January 2011 at 10:15 PM

Quote - Okay, I am having a moment of proverbial blondness here.

I am using VSS with the albino material to make my figures skin texture paler.  No problems, all happily adjusted save for one small detail.  No AO in the albino shader that I can see.

Normally, I have no issues adding AO to a material, but the snake pit of VSS is still a wee bit of a mystery.

Since I would like to add this to the material how would I go about it?  I could add an IBL with AO, but since all my AO in the scene is materials based so far, would be easier to just add it to the materials for V4. 

I may have missed it in the thread here if this has already been covered, if I have I am sorry.

Any help would be appreciated. 

Which version of Poser are you using?

Monterey/Mint21.x/Win10 - Blender3.x - PP11.3(cm) - Musescore3.6.2

Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen
[it is clear that humans have contempt for that which they do not understand] 

Metaphor of Chooks


Cariad ( ) posted Thu, 06 January 2011 at 11:30 PM

Quote - Which version of Poser are you using?

Poser 8


hborre ( ) posted Fri, 07 January 2011 at 6:11 AM

Poser 8.  Have you tried rendering with IDL?


RobynsVeil ( ) posted Fri, 07 January 2011 at 6:13 AM

With IDL, you don't need or want material AO - it's all dealt with in the renderer, IIUC.

Monterey/Mint21.x/Win10 - Blender3.x - PP11.3(cm) - Musescore3.6.2

Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen
[it is clear that humans have contempt for that which they do not understand] 

Metaphor of Chooks


bagginsbill ( ) posted Fri, 07 January 2011 at 7:26 AM

Quote - I hope one day that the Poser development team will add a wrapper or envelope node. A node that can contain a lot of other nodes, but only expose to the user the input and output channels, and maybe user changeable parameters.

I would also love to see a Python programmable node, where the script-writer could program the input and output channels, and the user changeable parameters.

I could not actually make a lot of use out of such nodes on my own, but they would allow for better organization, and simplification of the Advanced Material Room, and imagine the magic that bagginsBill could work with nodes like that.

And, some of us are ready to pay for that stuff that bagginsBill does not want to give away for free.

LMK

 

Have you been peeking over my shoulder? Those exact features are in VSS Pro (which I have begun working on again.) The wrapper or envelope node I call a composite node - you lasso a bunch of nodes and hit the "Composite" button and bang they become a single node. Then you "Add to Library" and that whole group is a reusable component. Also there is the "matmatic" node, which is also a composite, but you write what it does in matmatic Python. All of these and the built-ins are then editable in a visual tool similar to but better than the Poser material room.


Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)


bagginsbill ( ) posted Fri, 07 January 2011 at 7:28 AM

As others said, IDL is preferred over AO of any kind, and if you enable IDL, AO is automatically ignored. (Unless you explicitly override that for special cases. Examples would be using AO for crevice detection to make grime.)

But meanwhile, if you really need to use P7 style rendering without IDL, I will post a version of the Albino shader with AO. But you have to come back and tell me you really want that.


Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)


pjz99 ( ) posted Fri, 07 January 2011 at 10:25 AM

Bagginsbill you're in a position to get this implemented: would be very handy to be able to rename material nodes in the Poser interface.  It can be done by editing saved files but being able to do it inside of Poser would be pretty nice.

My Freebies


Cariad ( ) posted Fri, 07 January 2011 at 10:28 AM

I would really really -love- to use IDL it is why I got Poser 8, but without fail my comp shuts down when I attempt to render any scene with it.  Quad core, 6 gigs of dual channel RAM and it wilts with even a test render with IDL, and yes, I strip the AO off all materials when I have tried it. 

Trying to figure out why this happens, I am pretty sure it is a hardware problem somwhere, but until I do the albinoize material with AO would be greatly appreciated.


AnAardvark ( ) posted Fri, 07 January 2011 at 10:35 AM

Quote - If you have PP2010 with render GC and IDL, you don't need the complicated shaders I have been using. It's mostly in the correct setting up of the Blinn node - after that it's just marginal details that arguably have no absolutely "correct" value.

Is there a thread you can point me to on using the Blinn node correctly? I'ld love to put together a vss prop using Blinn to help in PP2010 with GC and IDL.


cbuchner1 ( ) posted Fri, 07 January 2011 at 1:01 PM

 

two guesses for your hardware problem:

too high CPU temps (check your CPU cooling solution)

a weak power supply


pjz99 ( ) posted Fri, 07 January 2011 at 1:21 PM

Yeah that does sound like heat or low power to me also (more likely heat).

My Freebies


Cariad ( ) posted Fri, 07 January 2011 at 1:44 PM

I was thinking so.  Sadly, purchases of new computer parts have to wait til I get caught up from the holidays on my bills.  Four kids equals Christmas being expensive.

New heatsink/fan will be on the list with the new video card, tablet and extra RAM I want as soon as I can afford it.  Til then no IDL for me.


Rogerbee1 ( ) posted Fri, 07 January 2011 at 3:00 PM

Sometimes crashes happen in P8 when the preference files become corrupt. You find them in:

C:Documents and SettingsUsernameApplication DataPoser8.0

Obviously the folder that I've stated as Username will be your name. Delete the .XML's and the preferred state.pz3. You have to have hidden files visible in order to see the folders.

Restart the computer and see what happens. If that doesn't clear things up then try looking in the General Preferences in Poser and uncheck where it says Use Binary Morphs if it is checked.

These where solutions that Smith Micro suggested and they have both worked for me

CHEERS!


Cariad ( ) posted Fri, 07 January 2011 at 3:18 PM

Quote - Sometimes crashes happen in P8 when the preference files become corrupt. You find them in:

C:Documents and SettingsUsernameApplication DataPoser8.0

Obviously the folder that I've stated as Username will be your name. Delete the .XML's and the preferred state.pz3. You have to have hidden files visible in order to see the folders.

Restart the computer and see what happens. If that doesn't clear things up then try looking in the General Preferences in Poser and uncheck where it says Use Binary Morphs if it is checked.

These where solutions that Smith Micro suggested and they have both worked for me

CHEERS!

 

Well use binary morphs is already off.  Sooo, I will try the other.  If it works, bonus, but it isn't just poser crashing, it is the whole computer shutting down.  Will try anything once though.


Rogerbee1 ( ) posted Fri, 07 January 2011 at 3:24 PM

Ah,

That does sound a bit more major! I just had Poser crashing before renders would finish or I'd just get that lovely message telling me it had encountered a problem and NO I DON'T WANT TO SEND A REPORT!!

Still it does help with minor crashes.

CHEERS!


Cariad ( ) posted Sun, 09 January 2011 at 1:01 AM

Well good news and bad news.  The dumping of the xml files at least let me run a few tests with IDL.  The bad news, I move up my render settings at all, still shuts down.

Reason has been found, it is overheating.  Seems my CPU broke 100 C when trying to run the render with IDL.  Eep!  Well at least I know what needs replacing when I can afford it.

So, pretty please, can I please have the albinoize with AO?

New heatsink/fan and then I am tackling IDL properly... eventually.


Rogerbee1 ( ) posted Sun, 09 January 2011 at 5:16 AM

 

I do most of my IDL with IDL Studio from RDNA. Surprisingly you don't need to ramp up your render settings as much as you might think.

I get great results with these:

Raytrace Bounces: 2

Irradiance Caching: 50

IDL Quality: 7

Pixel Samples: 5

Min Shading Rate: 0.20

See how you go with those.

CHEERS!


Cariad ( ) posted Sun, 09 January 2011 at 8:41 AM

About where I was last night, I think the Min Shading Rate was 0.30 actually.  I tend to run multiple tests nudging the settings up a hair until it looks like I want.  Even rendering without IDL is spiking my CPU to 85 C or so and it will shut down on those about 1 in 4 times.

The help is appreciated.  Really, but I  tend to being conservative with settings, got in the habit when I was rendering on my old IBM T-30 laptop never saw a reason to change.


ErickL88 ( ) posted Sun, 09 January 2011 at 8:58 AM · edited Sun, 09 January 2011 at 9:01 AM

Quote - ...

If you have PP2010 with render GC and IDL, you don't need the complicated shaders I have been using. It's mostly in the correct setting up of the Blinn node - after that it's just marginal details that arguably have no absolutely "correct" value.

...

I might have taken this out of context (because of the Miki3 talk) ... but does that mean, that, when using PP2010 + render GC + IDL, there could be a much easier shader setup for skin, as it's coming with the VSS PR3 currently?

Something like an "optimized" (or "downscaled") PP2010 shader, with minimal loss of detail?

That'd be cool, so to say, hehe.



Rogerbee1 ( ) posted Sun, 09 January 2011 at 8:59 AM

Ouch,

Hopefully your new heatsink/fan will sort things out for you.

Steering things back on topic and I must admit that I never really thought of trying VSS with IDL. Certainly something I'll have to give a whirl.

CHEERS!


Cariad ( ) posted Sun, 09 January 2011 at 9:41 AM

Back on topic... Yep, as I recall there was a copy of a IDL friendly VSS material included with the IDL test scene that was in another thread.  I know I have it.  Argh!  Why did my kids delete my bookmarks last week.


Rogerbee1 ( ) posted Sun, 09 January 2011 at 10:02 AM

DOH!

Ah well, I'm sure someone has it somewhere.

CHEERS!


Cariad ( ) posted Sun, 09 January 2011 at 12:59 PM

http://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/free-stuff/tutorial-scenes

The tutorial scene, I would forget my head if it wasn't screwed on.

Anyone have a wrench so I can tighten my neck bolts?


morphious ( ) posted Sun, 09 January 2011 at 1:01 PM

Where can I get the Pro Version?


parkdalegardener ( ) posted Sun, 09 January 2011 at 1:27 PM

Quote - Where can I get the Pro Version?

There isn't one yet to the best of my knowledge. BB is still working on it.



AnAardvark ( ) posted Sun, 09 January 2011 at 1:53 PM

Quote - http://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/free-stuff/tutorial-scenes

The tutorial scene, I would forget my head if it wasn't screwed on.

Anyone have a wrench so I can tighten my neck bolts?

Any idea why the gamma is set to 1.3? I thought the standard material gamma was 2.2?


onnetz ( ) posted Sun, 09 January 2011 at 2:35 PM

Quote - Well good news and bad news.  The dumping of the xml files at least let me run a few tests with IDL.  The bad news, I move up my render settings at all, still shuts down.

Reason has been found, it is overheating.  Seems my CPU broke 100 C when trying to run the render with IDL.  Eep!  Well at least I know what needs replacing when I can afford it.

So, pretty please, can I please have the albinoize with AO?

New heatsink/fan and then I am tackling IDL properly... eventually.

Even with a stock heatsink and fan it shouldn't be getting that hot. Make sure all dust is cleaned away, the fan on the heatsink is working, and then reseat the heatsink applying new thermal paste.

Handle every stressful situation like a dog.

If you can't eat it or play with it,

just pee on it and walk away. :-)

....................................................

I wouldnt have to manage my anger

if people would manage their stupidity......

 


hborre ( ) posted Sun, 09 January 2011 at 3:02 PM

Keep in mind, the tutorial was written for P8, which does not have render based gamma correction.  The basis of this exercise was to balance Gc and HSV exponential for optimized rendering for realism.  It did require gamma to be lowered to approx. 1.3 and HSV increased to compliment the conditions.

@ErickL88:  BB did mention in a previous post, if you are using PP 2010+Gc+IDL, you could literally strip your figure of any MAT Room node work, reconnect just your texture images, reset your diffuse_color to white & diffuse_value to 0.8, and render.  I am paraphrasing, of course, but simplifying your nodes will improve texture quality under PP2010.


Rogerbee1 ( ) posted Sun, 09 January 2011 at 3:07 PM

I had that scene, didn't realise it was for IDL.

CHEERS!


AnAardvark ( ) posted Sun, 09 January 2011 at 3:21 PM

Quote - Keep in mind, the tutorial was written for P8, which does not have render based gamma correction.  The basis of this exercise was to balance Gc and HSV exponential for optimized rendering for realism.  It did require gamma to be lowered to approx. 1.3 and HSV increased to compliment the conditions.

@ErickL88:  BB did mention in a previous post, if you are using PP 2010+Gc+IDL, you could literally strip your figure of any MAT Room node work, reconnect just your texture images, reset your diffuse_color to white & diffuse_value to 0.8, and render.  I am paraphrasing, of course, but simplifying your nodes will improve texture quality under PP2010.

Well, he did suggest using blinn. Which I'm not sure what to do with it to get a decent view.


ErickL88 ( ) posted Mon, 10 January 2011 at 12:56 PM

Quote - @ErickL88:  BB did mention in a previous post, if you are using PP 2010+Gc+IDL, you could literally strip your figure of any MAT Room node work, reconnect just your texture images, reset your diffuse_color to white & diffuse_value to 0.8, and render.  I am paraphrasing, of course, but simplifying your nodes will improve texture quality under PP2010.

Oooooh .. things really can be so easy these days? I'm surprised ^^

Thanks for the info.



lkendall ( ) posted Mon, 10 January 2011 at 3:01 PM

The shader that comes with Miki 3 illustrates how bagginsBill uses Blinn in a simplified shader.

LMK

Probably edited for spelling, grammer, punctuation, or typos.


Cariad ( ) posted Thu, 13 January 2011 at 10:26 PM

Okay, forget my request for a albinoize with AO... I have my new heatsink/fan and an extra one for the case on the way.  Should be here by the weekend.

But albinoize for IDL would be really nice.  Please?  Or should the exisitn one work?


colorcurvature ( ) posted Sat, 15 January 2011 at 10:22 AM

I have tested the vss too, its an impressive toolset. I am still wondering, is there a way to set colors without using poser's color dialog in the material settings? To rather input r,g,b directly? I find that the tint setting is very sensitive to even small adjustments, and the color pick dialog is very clumsy.


Vestmann ( ) posted Sat, 15 January 2011 at 10:26 AM

Hold Alt and click the color and you'll open the Windows color dialog.




 Vestmann's Gallery


colorcurvature ( ) posted Sat, 15 January 2011 at 11:04 AM

Aaah cool will try that thank you :)


bagginsbill ( ) posted Sat, 15 January 2011 at 2:20 PM

Quote - I have tested the vss too, its an impressive toolset. I am still wondering, is there a way to set colors without using poser's color dialog in the material settings? To rather input r,g,b directly? I find that the tint setting is very sensitive to even small adjustments, and the color pick dialog is very clumsy.

Besides the other dialog, I find connecting a User_Defined node to tint is handy. Let's you enter values with less work, more precision, and they can be greater than 1 (i.e. more than 255 out of 255).


Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)


hborre ( ) posted Sat, 15 January 2011 at 11:20 PM

Content Advisory! This message contains nudity

file_464121.jpg

@ Rhionon: This is an IDL PP 2010 render using the Albino VSS by BB.  The scene is outdoors with just one infinite white light and one low intensity specular light.  Bagginsbill's envsphere also provides additional skydome lighting.  As you can see, not strong in AO because of the nature of the scene, but I think adequate enough.  This render took 6 hours due to the extra transparencies contributed by the roses.  The full size version will make tha gallery very soon.


Cariad ( ) posted Sun, 16 January 2011 at 12:51 AM

Was what I was thinking myself after pawing through the shader and having my kids convinced I was insane with all the muttering.

Thanks for the example, hborre.  Now tomorrows goal, put in the new heatsink and finally run the scenes I have set up for IDL... Okay maybe the next week or two.  There are a few of them to go through now and I have to share the good comp


Miss Nancy ( ) posted Sun, 16 January 2011 at 7:06 PM

file_464135.jpg

what's the latest news on using the latest VSS (e.g. VSS_PR3_No_AO) and scripts in poser 8 with IDL on?  I reckon I'm using it wrong, but I've noticed the toe-cracks are colored with moderate IDL settings, but are solid black with no IDL.  varying raytrace bias tends to alter the solid black with IDL off, but is there a new version of this to deal with IDL, or do I avoid using infinite lites with raytrace shadows?



hborre ( ) posted Sun, 16 January 2011 at 8:58 PM

I'm going to take a shot on this, so I'm not quite sure if I'm correct.  What is your Shadow Min Bias setting for raytrace shadows?  If they are relatively significant, try lowering it to 0.1, perhaps lower.  We are definitely seeing self glowing in those areas with IDL. 


Miss Nancy ( ) posted Sun, 16 January 2011 at 10:45 PM

file_464138.jpg

yes, it's true - it's necessary to drop shadow bias to 0.1.  below that and I get small artifacts on the skin and shadows using IDL with the unmodified vss settings.  however, bill said to use his P8SSL.pz3 for IDL, as it's got an adjusted vss control prop to prevent toe-crack self-lighting, which is an admittedly unnoticeable detail, given the improvement of the skin using vss when compared to the old-style poser render.  basically nobody's gonna zoom in like this, but I was trying to measure the ground plane and I spotted it.



bagginsbill ( ) posted Sun, 16 January 2011 at 11:07 PM

Crevices are where secondary lighting becomes tertiary and quaternary - in other words, multiple bounces, resulting in localized accentuation of the secondary lighting importance.

Shader GC increases the luminance in crevices and for realism purposes should not be used AT ALL with IDL, since it gives incorrect information to the lighting model, which being magnified in crevices creates an obvious "glow".

However, with no render GC, final gamma compensation must be addressed. Postwork is an option, but I found a compromise for P8. Using HSV ETM, a small amount of shader gamma, and reduced faked SSS (redness in darker areas), which I demonstrated in the P8SSL tutorial scene.

However, as much as we like that outcome, it doesn't hold a candle to PPro 2010 IDL + render GC.


Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)


Rogerbee1 ( ) posted Mon, 17 January 2011 at 4:08 AM

 

Actually, 0.220 is said to be as low as you can go on  the bias for shadows without artifacts. I was happy with that setting when I was using ray traced shadows. You can use depth mapped ones with IDL though. I think people switched to raytraced as renders were speedier, but speedier doesn't necessarily mean better.

CHEERS!


Believable3D ( ) posted Mon, 17 January 2011 at 10:43 AM

I believe there's improvement over the course of the latest versions and service releases. I've gone lower than .22 many times with PP2010 without noticing artifacts. I don't try to push it below about .15 tho (but usually that would take forever to render anyway).

IIRC I don't think you're getting true IDL with depth mapped shadows, but I may be wrong there.

______________

Hardware: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X/MSI MAG570 Tomahawk X570/Zotac Geforce GTX 1650 Super 4GB/32GB OLOy RAM

Software: Windows 10 Professional/Poser Pro 11/Photoshop/Postworkshop 3


Rogerbee1 ( ) posted Mon, 17 January 2011 at 1:26 PM

Got to say that I haven't actually tried going below 0.220. There were artefacts in some of the shadows when I used IDL Studio that weren't even fixed with that setting.

It pays to experiment I suppose

CHEERS!


Miss Nancy ( ) posted Mon, 17 January 2011 at 2:47 PM

o.k., then that's the key step I was looking for in P8 - use hsv exp tone mapping/gain (1.67/1.33) with IDL, and turn off all the shader GC nodes. whilst the manual is not clear on the physical units of how far the raytrace shadow min bias shifts samples away from the posersurface, it appears 0.01 causes self-shadowing on the skin and odd shadow edges on the ground plane (in combination with medium render settings).  at 0.1 those artifacts aren't very noticeable at high-quality render settings.  maybe it's analogous to the displacement bounds.



Rogerbee1 ( ) posted Tue, 18 January 2011 at 10:05 AM

I never got on with all that tone mapping, I eventually found that my renders looked better with it off. I remember having my render settings quite high at one point. I tried doing a GI render with a single V4. I set it going before I left the house at 9am, when I got back well after 4pm it was still pre-calculating!!

You can reach a nice trade-off between speed and quality. My ratyrace bounces are never set above 2.

CHEERS!


Iuvenis_Scriptor ( ) posted Thu, 20 January 2011 at 1:10 AM · edited Thu, 20 January 2011 at 1:11 AM

Content Advisory! This message contains nudity

file_464231.jpg

Okay, I've been putting it off for long enough, foregoing the boost in efficiency provided by VSS 'cause I was too busy developing my shaders to learn how to use it.  It's about time for me to hop on the bandwagon!  Here's my first published (second ever) render using VSS.  The shaders are still my own, but I applied them with a custom-tailored VSS prop.  It was actually pretty self-explanatory.  You've probably heard this more times than you can count, BB, but nice work!

Rendered in PoserPro 2010 with material-based AO, raytraced shadows, and render-engine GC enabled.  The lighting is an original setup consisting of two rim spotlights (one on either side to keep the back lighting symmetrical), one fill spotlight, and one main spotlight, all with inverse square falloff. 


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