How many here have tried Real Lights for IRay from the DAZ Studio store? I found a YouTube video about it and it looks like it might work well for me, but I have a question about the compatibility of it. In the YT video made last July, the guy was using 4.8(which I have), but in the DS website store it says compatible with 4.9. This reminds me of a problem I ran into when installing some things with DIM, and also Manually. It basically told me I needed to upgrade to 4.9 even though I knew that particular product had been made for 4.6(Measure Metrics & Figure Metrics) before I could install it.

So am I going to be able to use anything new from DAZ without being forced to upgrade? I'd like to use Real Lights and the new Illumberella just released, for 4.8 but not sure if either DIM or Manual install will allow me. I want to know before I purchase so as not to waste $ on something I can't use.

Why not? DIM will install to any location you direct it, it has nothing to do with DAZStudio versions. As long as the content has no version restrictions, you should be okay.

I always took it to mean it is compatible for use in 4.9 as opposed to you require 4.9. If the update is absolutely required it is usually mentioned in the description contents.

I have that set and use it in 4.8

Also, just checked the "supplement.dsx" within the DIM and it just says you need 4.5 or better. It has .duf files and they don't function in version lower than that.. DIM does not do a lot toward seeing if it will actually function. Iray will not work below 4.8, but DIM doesn't care.

Thanks lowpoly. Should Real Lights be installed in ...Program Files/DAZ 3D/DAZ Studio 4 or...

Users/Documents/DAZ 3D/Studio/My Library like most of the ZIP files stuff here from Rendo?

You really should not install any content in "Program Files" (plug-ins and other software are mostly OK there) That long string "Users\Documents...." is only the default content folder. Most change it to something less bulky to work with. I just call mine "DAZcontent" and underneath are the data, People, runtime, etc folders. Also it's on another drive that is NOT the system disk.

So you installed into a folder on another drive you named "DAZ Content" then? So when you use Content Library inside DS, and this is a newb question so bear with me, but how does Content Library know where to find it? You just configured it to read all DAZ content from something other than C Drive?

Also, how is it working for you? If I want to mimic the lighting effect of a couple of bedside lamps that happen to be in a backdrop photo I'm using, should I choose the 60w light bulb shader and place it nearby, just out of the scene? Or maybe in the scene where the lamps are seen in that backdrop photo?

Just use the Content directory manager. I have 3 Folders for DS content and a whole bunch of Poser runtimes that I also use in DS

OK, thanks. And as for my 2nd question above about using it?

I purchased that light set (shader set) when it was first released and at that time 4.9 wasn't available and I don't think the 4.8 beta was out at the time. I could be wrong about that. I use it in 4.8 on one machine and in 4.9 on another machine. It's not actual lights but shaders that adds emitting light settings to your material zone you want to apply it to. When you render in Iray, you get really great effects when tinkering in the render settings using the bloom filter controls.

As far as being able to use anything new without upgrading, I'm not sure. I think it depends on to many variables right now. I do know that many products being released at this moment may have been made in 4.8 because some products take a while before they 'release' them into the market.

fictionalbookshelf posted at 2:45PM Sat, 06 February 2016 - #4253523

"It's not actual lights but shaders that adds emitting light settings to your material zone you want to apply it to."

Explain that a little more please. Does that mean that they are lighting efx that I apply to lights I already have in the scene? For instance I select the light(s) and then double-click one of the Real Lights to load that particular lighting effect like incandescent or fluorescent to that pre-existing light?

Or do I select a figure/character like Victoria and then load that particular shader to simulate that kind of light on her skin?

You cannot apply them to lights. After install, you will find these under "shader presets". These are applied to any object that has material zones, effectively giving that object the properties of a light

If you have a lamp prop in the scene, you would apply it to some zone like "bulb" or "light", what ever resembles most the physical part of the light.

You would not apply to a figure unless you wanted them to become a light

You need to select the object, and the surface on the object, that you want to emit light - for example the tube of a neon light, or the screen of a TV or monitor. You can do this in most cases using the Surface Selection tool (it may fail if, for example, the TV has a modelled glass cover to the modelled phosphor layer - in that case select the object and then select the surface from the list in the Editor tab of the Surfaces pane). Once you have the model and surface selected double-click the preset for the light you want to apply.

Thanks for that info everyone.

Just to add my nickel here. I have that set and use it in 4.9 with no issues at all beyond needing to tweak them for each scene. Lights in Iray are very dependent on your render settings, (f-stop, shutter speed and whatnot). It's really a good idea though to read up on shutter speed, f-stop, film ISO and exposure value (found in Iray render settings under Tone Mapping) as these will affect your scene to a great degree. Lazy bugger that I am, I typically only adjust the luminance values up and down as necessary. Neon and monitor luminance especially can come out too bright. In my last render, I toned the neon values for Stonemasons Urban Futures 2 set down to 900, and some of the lit signage down to 300. It will all depend, so fiddle with smaller test renders first. Sickleyield has some really good journal articles on her deviantart page that covers a lot of Iray settings.

Thanks for that info Madbat. Do you use any of the Incandescent light shaders in your scenes? I would be more likely to use those to simulate typical indoor house lights as that's what ceiling & table lamps mostly use for residential indoor use. Although I might want to occasionally use monitor luminance when a TV is in the scene. But most of the time, I'd be wanting to use incandescent for nearby table & ceiling lamps.

I've used pretty near all of them for one thing or another. I use the incandescent shaders for normal bulb lighting quite a bit. But like I mentioned, Iray emulates real world lighting, so It does act a bit differently than 3Delight lighting. I actually rarely use regular daz lighting in my scenes, it's almost all emitter values and hdr.