I am convinced I read this somewhere but I might be mixing up two products. Is it possible to use Poser Dynamic Cloth with VWD in DAZ Studio (using the Bridge, of course)? I notice that many of the dynamic clothing says "for V4" so is it figure dependent?

Biscuits has one that actually has a VWD preset but it says it is for V4 and Poser is a requirement. So perhaps I am mistaken.

https://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/biscuits-love-fashion/119131/

Hi,

You will need both the Poser version, which this is built for and then the bridge for DAZ Studio in order for it to work.

The product works with ALL figures. I use Dusk and Dawn from Hivewire almost exclusively and have had no issues.

Enjoy!

I think I'm with you. The Poser version is the only version, right? And the Bridge is what I have too so I can use VWD with DAZ Studio. Glad to know it works with all figures but my question was specifically about whether I can use Poser Dynamic Cloth with VWD in DAZ Studio. The question arose in my mind because of the thread you started in the DAZ forum :)

Yes you can. I have done it.

Thanks for confirming that, I was sure I had read it somewhere.

Dynamic clothe can be used in VWD (either Poser dynamic clothes or Daz Dynamic clothes). When vendor talk about a figure it means that the dynamic clothe, before simulation, is "fitted" on a zero pose/zero shape character (V4 for example). You can use a dynamic clothe in VWD on whatever character you want (genesis,...). But if you want a dynamic simulation of a V4 tee-shirt on a mouse (for example :-)) you might make some adjustments (sometimes with a dynamic simulation as VWD explained in one video tutorial, can't remember the one). Remember VWD use exported object coming from Poser or Daz so you can simulate whatever you want, imagination is the limit!

When you want to simulate a Dynamic clothe in VWD. You can simulate it directly, sometimes using a scale value, but, it is often better to make a first simulation to perfectly adjust the clothe to the character. The result of this first simulation will be a mesh you can save as props and it will be easily usable in all the future simulations you will do, that will use this clothe and this character.

Thumbs up VWD for popping in. Hope your still working on that update I keep hearing about.

VirtualWorldDynamics posted at 6:54PM Sun, 12 February 2017 - #4297214

When you want to simulate a Dynamic clothe in VWD. You can simulate it directly, sometimes using a scale value, but, it is often better to make a first simulation to perfectly adjust the clothe to the character. The result of this first simulation will be a mesh you can save as props and it will be easily usable in all the future simulations you will do, that will use this clothe and this character.

That's a good tip, thank you. I'll give it a try. I notice that the Poser dynamic clothing in this store seems to be less expensive than the conforming garments. I guess that's because they rely on dynamics for fit, but it is a saving and I imagine that the polycount is lower too, which helps with faster draping. As well as dynamics, there are lots of free items here and at ShareCG which I have rarely used but might make good candidates for VWD.

If you have some problems using the rigidification by neighbourhood which generates a memory error when some parts of the clothe have a very small mesh structure, you can use the rigidification by extension during the mesh generation and then apply a rigidification by neighbourhood for only some parts that need to be linked (buttons, pockets, etc...).

Associated to the springs reduction and the distance min functions, I think you can simulate all kinds of clothes.

I want to write one or two decimator(s). One for the clothes and perhaps another one for the hair. These mesh structures are very different and perhaps they will need two methods to be decimated.

Currently, I work on the GPU conversion. Not so easy to do but this is in progress.

I was watching the Sickleyield tutorial for using VWD in DAZ Studio last night: https://youtu.be/yHY6xBi3Hgc ... and she was saying how she runs out of RAM with Genesis 3 hair and clothing in VWD. I know she has a pro-level PC with huge amounts of RAM (I have 32GB but that is small compared to hers). Even in the video she was unable to load a Genesis 3 hair (Wildling hair, if I remember correctly). She even had a couple of crashes during the recording of the video.

So I'm wondering what your advice is regarding what kind of clothing/hair to use. Should we avoid Genesis 3 products? What about G2? I notice that most of your own demo videos use V4 character, hair and clothes. I do have the DAZ Decimator plugin so what level of decimation should be applied? Should I reduce by 20%, 50% or maybe 70%?

No trouble for me and I use mainly G3F. As example, for my current project I have: Genesis3 (Collision), Season dress for G3F (clothe simulation) , Legacie Hair for G3F (hair simulation) and some high resolution props (collide objects). The VWD simu worked well (will post a render soon I hope)

As you, I have 32 gig of mem and never reached the limit . My computer is 3 years old

It did seem odd to me that she should have troubles with all that RAM. I'm just about to play a little more with it so I'll push it a bit and see what gives. By the way, apart from the Biscuits tutorials, are there any others? I'd like to know more about what all those parameters mean. I'm not very far into it yet so I'm just leaving them all at default.

Render posted in the dedicated VWD topic.

My main sources are :

-first the manual (old version but plenty of informations, I don't count the readings I have done) and waiting for the new version.

-then VWD, Biscuit,... video tutorials.

-Last: try and error! It's so easy to try new things in VWD.

For example, in my last project I improved my use of the inertia parameter

Well, my first attempt today is not encouraging. loaded a G3F character and the Uniform Dress from the DAZ Store. Did all the usual steps and started the simulation. It sat there without moving for about a minute. reported 20 million springs at the bottom of the panel, then crashed. I have to say that my experience so far with this software is not a happy one. I've never known anything crash so often.

Then I tried VWD again and DAZ Studio hung ... had to stop it from Task Manager.

Sorry but don't have the dress to make a test.

Rebooted and restarted from scratch. Deleted all exchange files and loaded G3F with a different dress. Decimated that by 50% and tried a simple sitting pose. The simulation ran to a point where one leg was draped and the dress over the other leg floated up towards her chest and then stuck there. I tried dragging that part of the dress down and holding Shift to continue but, to be honest, I could create a morph in Blender quicker than watching this work. It is just refusing to drape anywhere near the leg.

If that's what happens with a simple pose I hate to think of what happens when the cloth is colliding with itself. I'm sorry to be so negative but, so far, it is a total waste of my time and money.

What dress?

Cailin Dress from OutofTouch. http://www.daz3d.com/cailin-dress-for-genesis-3-female-s

So now I started again. Loaded G3F unmodified - just the base figure. Loaded Cailin dress and set it to base resolution then decimated by 50%. Chose a different sitting pose. Ran VWD with all the usual (as per Biscuits) parameters. The dress did not move during the simulation. There was some odd activity in the groin area but no draping.

By the way - I'm doing a static simulation. This is not for an animation and it is a fully rigged dress so, as I understand it, static is what I should be using.

I have this one!!

Here is a quick test (the time to create the scene). Result is quick and dirty but give an idea (blender would be longer at least for me :-)) : 15 sec simu

Sorry but it's late for me. You can send me a message if you want more informations.

Please have a look at my parameters and see if you can see anything glaringly wrong?

Sorry, that wasn't for Cailin dress, I was trying another. But the params should be the same, I think.

Yes, sorry to keep you up. I'm in New Zealand so it is my morning. I appreciate you taking the time and putting up with my frustration.

Number of sub samples is too much: I used 4 (default value) Same for number of iterations: I used 2 (default value) Times of simu will be exponential with your parameters

Inertia activated

Gravity perhaps too important: I used 0.5

What selection did you use for vertices group?

Last message for me, must go to work tomorrow

Smaker1 posted at 10:57PM Mon, 13 February 2017 - #4297383

Number of sub samples is too much: I used 4 (default value) Same for number of iterations: I used 2 (default value) Times of simu will be exponential with your parameters

Inertia activated

Gravity perhaps too important: I used 0.5

What selection did you use for vertices group?

Last message for me, must go to work tomorrow

Thanks - I'll give it a rest for today. I followed the Biscuits video and she said 10 sub samples, Gravity at 1.0.

Not sure which selections in the Vertices Group you need. I only click on Simple, I think. Anyway, perhaps we can revisit at another time.

Thanks again.

Although i use Poser, i can answer a few of the questions raised. They should be the same for Poser or DS.

Poser dynamic dresses can be used in DS - just load the prop or import the obj itself.

If it has been made for another figure, zero the figure, then scale, translate the cloth and if needed pose the figure to match the cloth until it more or less fits (ignore the small poke troughs). Then do a static simulation with all external forces off (inertia, gravity, collide to floor, air resistance). The cloth will now fit to the figure. If needed decrease the collision distance in the collision actor. After that send the pose to the host, and rename the new simulated cloth (something like dress_WVD to dress_NEW). After this you can use the new cloth for a new simulation with a posed figure.

Turning inertia On speeds up simulation, but is less accurate. You can turn it on (or off) during simulation.

Memory requirements for springs generation depends on the mesh density. Apart from decreasing density, you can also decrease the rigidify size (nr. of vertices or distance). Do not decrease the resolution too low because that will create unwanted wrinkles in the cloth. Also use a subdivided genesis as a collision actor (subdiv 1 should be ok). The reduce springs option reduces the number of springs as well, so turn that on as well in case of a high density mesh.

The number of sub samples defines how many steps between each frame it should calculate. The number of iterations is how accurate the calculations have to be. The Fast move will increase the distance of how far ahead it will look for collisions.

Thank you for a very helpful post. I wonder whether an initial static drape - without the inertia, gravity, etc.) for any garment might be a good idea - just to get it in the general shape. Then again with everything set. I guess that would also need to be a renamed VWD_cloth.

I ask because most of my attempts seem to have a portion of the cloth floating up and away instead of towards the body.

VWD deletes any previous prop of the same simulation, that is why you have to rename it.

Normally you do not have to do an initial drape unless the cloth itself needs a drape (when the skirt is high up and needs to fall down). In these case you can either increase the frames in the Poser or DS to let it drape (set a key frame at frame 30 or later), or simulate twice.

My initial guess for portion of the cloth floating up is that inertia is ON. Inertia cause the cloth to bounce back. There are several way to prevent that - Turn inertia off, increase ridigity, increase gravity or increase weight (new updated version). But the easiest thing to do is to let the simulation run longer. In case of a dynamic simulation, add a number of settle frames (set keyframe at last frame, then add 10-30 frames where figure does not move)

I've never tried an animated drape so I don't work with frames. All I have tried so far is a static drape. When should I use each?

Yes, I think you are right, I think that inertia has been on. I've been trying to bump up gravity with little success.

Often it just sits there with a small portion of the cloth "twitching". Nothing else moves. I'm sure this is a collision problem because it also happens when I enable collision with the floor.

With dynamic clothes you have to use dynamic simulations (to go from zero pose to actual pose).

If you interact with a prop you have to use dynamic simulations as well - to have the cloth collide with the prop

In these case you may need settle frames to let gravity do its work.

With conforming clothes without props you use a static frame. This will run until you stop it, so it will settle itself.

So my guess is that it is inertia which bounces the cloth and you have to let the static simulation run longer.

Yep, I've been trying conforming clothes so far, so static would be right. As I said, sometimes it just goes into a loop of some sort and never gets out of it.

When you say props, I take it you mean a chair or something else to collide with? I haven't even got that far yet. In fact I don't have a single decent drape to show for my time so far.

@marble : you say you have problems with Cailin dress. I made many tests on this dress and they worked very well. Do you want I make a simple tutorial showing a simulation using this dress?

VirtualWorldDynamics posted at 7:21AM Tue, 14 February 2017 - #4297429

@marble : you say you have problems with Cailin dress. I made many tests on this dress and they worked very well. Do you want I make a simple tutorial showing a simulation using this dress?

I would very much appreciate that, yes. I might even pick up from your tutorial what I am doing wrong. So many people seem to be having success with your product that I must be doing something different if I'm only getting failures. Anything that would indicate what is wrong with my settings or procedures would be a great help.

Thank you.

@marble : do you want I do a static simulation or a catwalk simulation to show the behaviour of the dress. I can also do a simulation of hair. Tell me what would be the more useful to you. I will do these simulations using G3F.

As I said above, I am not doing animations. All I need VWD for right now is to drape clothing on a figure for a still image. I don't have any aniblocks for G3 or any other pre-packages animations so static images are all that I will be concerned with for some time. Hair would be useful too but I have not progressed to hair yet - I am completely lost with the cloth simulation so hair will have to wait.

I have some G3 clothing but I would also like to use G2, Genesis and V4 clothes on G3F if possible (this is another reason that I bought it - I have lots of clothing for those older generations).

Thank you again for your kind offer. I really do appreciate it.

Hello marble,

Here is a link to a video tutorial showing a simulation for Cailin dress.

My english is not better as before but the goal is to show how works VWD.

Here is the link : https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9c39Rz2Ec-JZ1F5czYxZlFJLUE

Well, thank you for the video but you did, after all, show the catwalk animation and I am not doing animations. As I said above - I am trying to do a single pose static drape. I notice that all your demo videos and tutorials are for animations so perhaps I have not understood the purpose of the software. But you did ask whether I wanted an example of the catwalk or the static drape and, as you can see above, I said static so I'm a little confused why you did the catwalk animation.

Hello,

I see that the experts Wimvdb and of course VWD are here, they will be far more efficent than me ! :-)

As you Marble, I only do still render but, in the dynamic world, sometimes animation is required. My skills in animation are limited to basics. For example in my test for Cailin dress in my previous post. I made a little animation

• Frame 0: G3F zero pose + the chair
• Frame 20 : G3F seated on the chair
• and then 10 more frames to let the drape adjust (as Wimvdb suggested).

The animation let the simulation move the clothe between the character and the chair as it will do in the real world.

I didn't export the animation from VWD only the last frame showed on the picture.

Beware today is Valentine's day and my wife will not accept that I stay in front of my computer

Smaker1 posted at 6:35PM Tue, 14 February 2017 - #4297479

Hello,

I see that the experts Wimvdb and of course VWD are here, they will be far more efficent than me ! :-)

As you Marble, I only do still render but, in the dynamic world, sometimes animation is required. My skills in animation are limited to basics. For example in my test for Cailin dress in my previous post. I made a little animation

• Frame 0: G3F zero pose + the chair
• Frame 20 : G3F seated on the chair
• and then 10 more frames to let the drape adjust (as Wimvdb suggested).

The animation let the simulation move the clothe between the character and the chair as it will do in the real world.

I didn't export the animation from VWD only the last frame showed on the picture.

Beware today is Valentine's day and my wife will not accept that I stay in front of my computer

Valentine's was yesterday where I am but I'll try not to keep you.

Ok, I understand that animation might be a way of doing a static drape - I think I tried that with Optitex too. But it that is better, then why include a Static drape? I'm just trying to choose the right tool for the job. All I want is a G3F in a sitting pose with a dress on.

However, I did notice that Gerald's parameters in the video were somewhat different to those I had been using so I'll give that a try.

Static drape is interesting for example: a long dress autofitted for the character on a seated pose:you have often what I call a "tube effect" . With a static simu you can have a better result and you can drag vertices to have the perfect drape you want

And that dragging vertices was one of the things that really impressed me about VWD and one that I'd like to use once I can get it to perform a simple drape. Believe it or not, for most of my working life I was in computer support: hardware, operating systems and networks. Now I have a hobby using computers and I'm completely at a loss to understand what I'm doing wrong. I know this is a complicated bit of software and maybe that's the point: we are awaiting a new user guide and the video tutorials are either in French or do not address the various parameters in any detail.

VirtualWorldDynamics posted at 7:45PM Tue, 14 February 2017 - #4297451

Hello marble,

Here is a link to a video tutorial showing a simulation for Cailin dress.

My english is not better as before but the goal is to show how works VWD.

Here is the link : https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9c39Rz2Ec-JZ1F5czYxZlFJLUE

A few other things I notice about the video. Firstly you have parameters such as Node Weight that I don't have. Secondly, when I import cloth I get two DAZ Studio Import windows pop up - one after the other - and I have to confirm these to continue (if I cancel them the original dress is deleted from the scene). That does not happen with yours. All this makes me wonder whether I still have an old version.

I have Version 1.0.408.2976

Oh damn. I just give up on this. I am following the video step by step and this happens:

I'm sorry to have wasted everyone's time and I'm sorry to have wasted my money on this software.

marble posted at 11:04PM Tue, 14 February 2017 - #4297494

VirtualWorldDynamics posted at 7:45PM Tue, 14 February 2017 - #4297451

Hello marble,

Here is a link to a video tutorial showing a simulation for Cailin dress.

My english is not better as before but the goal is to show how works VWD.

Here is the link : https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9c39Rz2Ec-JZ1F5czYxZlFJLUE

A few other things I notice about the video. Firstly you have parameters such as Node Weight that I don't have. Secondly, when I import cloth I get two DAZ Studio Import windows pop up - one after the other - and I have to confirm these to continue (if I cancel them the original dress is deleted from the scene). That does not happen with yours. All this makes me wonder whether I still have an old version.

I have Version 1.0.408.2976

VWD is working on a new version that's why it's different from ours.

The two pop-up are coming from a DS4 parameter that I forgot. Since my last complete reinstal I can't remember where it is located.

marble posted at 11:09PM Tue, 14 February 2017 - #4297496

Oh damn. I just give up on this. I am following the video step by step and this happens:

I'm sorry to have wasted everyone's time and I'm sorry to have wasted my money on this software.

Must say you have no luck. I had this error a long time ago. If I remember well I deleted all exchange files. Quit VWD and DS4 and start again.

Just saw some BlueRay Hobbit bonus tonight: I want to go to New Zealand! :-)

NZ is a lovely place. I only arrived here a few months ago but I love it.

As for my bad luck with VWD - I can't explain it. Please excuse my frustration but constant crashes and the inability to produce a single usable drape has got me wanting to throw my screen across the room. A while ago I took a holiday from this hobby because DAZ Studio was crashing at least once a day. I returned to it after about a year and was happy to see that the crashing mainly in the past. I hope that might happen with VWD but, for now, I'm dropping it in the corner along with Optitex, Garibaldi Hair and a number of other expensive mistakes. I'm going back to making clothes sort of drape using morphs.

Marble, I too have been having difficulty getting VWD working for me the way I want it to and have been frustrated and sorry that I "wasted my money". But if you stick with it, the forum members and Gerald will eventually get you up and running (personally, this is where I believe the value for money is; not so much in the program, but in the help you receive from others to get you going [sorry, Gerald, I know you have worked for many, many months on VWD and it is worth the money when considering the time you have invested in its creation. BUT, I think the help received is worth even more]). If you get super-frustrated, leave it for a while (a fortnight or so) and perhaps work on another project and then come back to it. Or you could also just forget about the project for now and try to get VWD to do anything for you - you know; the KISS principle (Keep it simple, stupid). I guess what I am saying is, don't give up; with effort, you will get it to do what you want. Many of the forum members have been using the software for over a year in Poser so it takes time. The software is sold as being a tool for the advanced [digital] artist which most of us are far from. But still we try and results will come........ As for Garibadi Hair; now there is an example of a content provider that provides no help whatsoever. Look at my Hair costs a similar amount but the content provider is really helpful and responds to pm's and questions in the forums and is basically a nice guy (help provided by others makes all the difference). BTW; I have both hair systems............. As you can probably read, I tend to waffle on; but there are some good bits of info here and there :). Other than the Biscuits videos, there is also a set of 3 videos by Nico T and he uses DS and the Bridge (he has a video on that too). Although he only demonstrates hair, there is still lots of useful info there. Here is the link to the first video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jjh-uiv4UM Good luck.

One thing I forgot to mention; Gerald, watching the video you made for Marble, I can hear your frustration in narrating in English. However, I can also tell you, that for 95% of the time, I can understand fully what you are talking about. No, your English isn't perfect; but it is quite understandable and the more tutorials you create in English, the happier I will be (and I'm sure I speak for many others here also) and the better your English will become. To me, for whom English is my only language, your English-narrated tutorial is 100 times more useful than any of your French-narrated ones [no offense intended towards those lucky enough to have a second language in French]. Gerald, please know that your English is quite good enough for narrating video tutorials and the more you produce, the better!

Thanks for taking the time to comment, I do appreciate the advice. It isn't anything to do with a lack of support that frustrates me. It isn't even that it is technically difficult - I am technical by occupation and nature so I know I can learn it eventually. It is the fact that every time I take a step further it crashes on me. I've noted the warnings about remembering to delete the exchange files so I do that obsessively now.

I think you mentioned something important when you pointed out that most of the users here are working in Poser. Perhaps that version doesn't crash as much as the DAZ Studio version. I don't believe it only crashes for me - it has been mentioned in the DAZ forums and even SickleYield - who recommends VWD and has made a 20 minute video tutorial about it - says that it crashes a lot. It crashes a couple of times during the video!

You are probably right to say that I should leave it alone for a while. A new version might bring more stability - who knows. As I said above, that's what I did with DAZ Studio when it was crashing a lot for me. Now it is stable and I enjoy the hobby again.