Yeah, that fixed it. I am sloppy. Thankies!

ETA: nice roughness modulation with this, many, many, thanks.

Yeah, this is good.

Wow!

Awesome Phil! I'll be sure to update the version hosted on my website shortly to this newest version, and thank you for always coming through for us. :)
Also for going beyond the call of duty, tasking yourself with creating a Ghostship's Cycles in the future, as I know that won't be easy.

Yeah, this is good.

All happy on the skin side of things, but I have to say I'm missing being able to just apply BB Hair Shader by AP ever since upgrading to Poser 13.
So doing a bunch of testing with hair to find what I'll use as a replacement going forward. Here are my tests I'm selecting from.

I think I'm leaning into still using EZSkin, and was thinking of going with the SuperFly shader... but when it came to Aether Hair that one of my main characters use, this...

Turned into this

You can apply it using EZSkin no problem, it's more of how Poser 13 handles the shader.
If I use my example from earlier.

The exact same scene rendered using SuperFly in Poser 11 & 13. With how it renders in Poser 13, that's why I've tried to find a replacement.

From what I understand, some nodes have been modified and improved internally.  It becomes a matter of isolating and changing the modified settings.  It might mean that the shaders need a complete overhaul.  

I  had to increase the LowGloss and the HighGloss parameters for EZ_CycleSkin:

For the Hair, I've used the default values for the BB Hair shader. except:
* the "Spcular Normal 2: 0.42 instead of 0.45, 
* white color tint, as I've checked "Use color map"

And that gave me:

Using my 3-lights setup: 2 areas (front-right + back-right) + infinite for the background

Thanks for taking a look into the settings, but I think some things just render very differently in Poser 13. It looks like your settings have calmed the result a bit. But you'll notice it in your render too, if we use BB Hair shader, Poser 13 will give the hair random white glows in strange places.

As for the Superfly shader and Aether hair MAT 2 turning orange. I just tested it in Poser 11. Looks like that has always been the case, possibly why I didn't go with it back then.

The problem arises with the use of the PoserSurface node for Superfly rendering.  Try connecting the PhysicalSurface node to BB's shader array and you will get a different render result.  My suspicions center around the usage of the Translucent feature in the original setup but I can only verify that by meticulously pulling every connector apart and replacing every node with Superfly-specific nodes.  In all reality, if you are serious about embracing Superfly-rendering as your primary workflow, I suggest making a clean break from the PoserSurface node as your root base.

You're probably right hborre, and it would be great if we could get the BB Hair Shader by AP remade for Poser 13 upwards, but unfortunately, I think we have lost the entire development and creation with the SmichMicro Poser forums disappearance. So I'm not even sure who was responsible for its creation. I'm guessing BB stands for Bagginsbill, but I'm not sure who AP would be.

Time to resurrect this post again? I hope I've done something stupid on my end... but applying EZ_CycleSkin (SF) via EZSkin in Poser since updating Poser is giving me super shiny people despite not having changed anything with EZSkin to my knowledge.

This is how the character looks from when I applied EZ_CycleSkin earlier.


But if I apply EZ_CycleSkin now it will now look like this.


I even tried Defaults thinking I may have bumped a setting here or there, but this is the current setting giving me extra shine.

I don't remember which version, but the glossy node was changed making it more sensitive so the ezskin default is now too shiny. I think it was recommended to raise the high gloss and low gloss each by 0.2. I have mine higher usually 0.7 and 0.9 respectively, but that removes most of the shine. You'll need to test for your preferences.

Here is an example with higher settings, as RedPhantom explained:

This is due to the fact that the glossiness had once been corrected and this node is indeed far more sensitive.

There's another place that can be changed also, but it's actually not accessible from EZSkin's parameters, if you'd like to play with the Material room: increase the pointed distance. I've checked with 0.02, but that's somewhat tedious because it must be done on each material

till I upgrade the plugin to give access from the parameters dialog, directly 

This is a very recent thing. I was using 13.3.686 when I used EZSkin for that character originally. If I apply it now in 13.3.895 I got this. Both of these are rendered in 13.3.895.
If either of you have a character that EZSkin has already been applied to in the past (preferably EZ_CycleSkin) can you render them, then apply EZskin again and see if it renders differently now?

Here is my test. The left was made in a previous Poser 13 version. I don't remember which. The right was run through ezskin in 13.3.895. And both were with the EZ_Cycles Skin

I reset some of my settings in ezskin. They seemed to have gotten changed somehow. Getting everything back how it had been I got this

Pretty sure I've just used the default settings for EZ_CycleSkin. Strange that it affects applying EZSkin, I'd understand more if it started just rendering different after an update.
I might try rolling Poser back with Time Machine and do some testing.

Yep, I double-checked and I've got identical settings but only got the glossy skin when applying in 13.3.895. In 13.3.686 it was fine. Not sure what change would have caused this, but I'll open a ticket. Thanks for testing too RedPhantom.

It turns out on the Mac side of things... EZ_CycleSkin (SF) wasn't being affected by the super glossy changes Poser 13 caused (which quickly made it my favourite).
So when 13.3.895 fixed this bug I was suddenly faced with glossy skin. Great news though, Y-Phil has come through and made an updated version of the shader that gives the desired results even in Poser 13.3.895.

You can download the latest version of EZSkin 3.2 from https://poser.cobrablade.net/

To use the newly updated shader, be sure to select EZ_CycleSkin (SF2)

Just to add some information concerning the Cycle plugin for EZSkin.

The old one is not overwritten, the update has a new name, and in EZSkin dialog, its name is "EZ_CycleSkin (SF2)"

I have included the  SSS radius, and the selector between Burley and Random walk  for all skins (face, lips, etc...)
Tell me if I've missed something.
I have included the SSS radius because the logic in Poser has changed lately for that parameter. Here's what I'm using:

If the SSS radius is not recognized as a tuple with 3 floats, it will revert to the values hard-coded by our friend Charles ('3.67,1.76,0.6').
If you look at Vic's ear, you will notice that the light correctly traverse the cartilage, not using Burley IMO.
The values I'm using come from Poser's official on-line help.

"SSS Random Walk" is a rather recent option, visible in all Subsurface Scattering related nodes, included in Physical. Unchecked this to use the default "Burley" option.

Thank you Phil, not only for your work on this but also for sharing all of this for anyone eager to play with the new version of the shader. 

CobraBlade posted at 3:46 PM Mon, 9 December 2024 - #4492028

Thank you Phil, not only for your work on this but also for sharing all of this for anyone eager to play with the new version of the shader. 

Just for clarity what changed was the default shading methods on some of the Cycles native nodes. The ones affecting EZSkin were the GlossBSDF and SubsurfaceScatterBSSDF. The change to Gloss will remain because it makes the default the same on WIndows and Mac. The change to SSS was unintended fallout. The default will be returned to it's original (Burley) in the next SR.

Again this is only the default values when the shaders are added to a material. This change won't affect existing scenes or library materials.

Pretty much why I'm offering the choice between Random Walk and Burley  for what matter the SSS.
If someone would like the choice: for the High-Low-Gloss: ask 

In the new version, Beckman is now the new default, it replaces GCX which was causing too much reflection if I understood correctly the explanations.

Wait GGX is in the list twice?  ... Oh good grief. WHYYYY did Cycles feel the need to rename all the shading methods for Cycles 4.1

Oops... 😁