I may have missed a previous discussion on this, but will we be seeing a Windows testing build of Luxrender with the "noise aware/refine brush" feature soon ("pmc_test" branch), I wonder? And will we be able to use this with Reality-generated lxs files when it comes out? As far as I can see there were builds for Linux and Mac OS prior to the release of 1.1, but not for Win.

For anyone who doesn't know what I'm talking about, it's a feature that enables you to define an area of the render (with a brush tool) so that it will be given priority for sampling (e.g. shadows and areas with reflection noise). I don't think I need to explain how awesome a feature this will be.

See here, and note the linked forum discussions which tell you a lot more about it.

Autofit on longer non-Genesis hair usually causes problems, mainly crumpling to the mesh (as if often does with more loosely fitting clothing), but I have seen other issues too. I almost always cancel it and parent instead.

The smoothing modifier is applied by going to the scene tab, selecting the item and clicking the "Display the Active Pane Options" icon in the top left corner of the Scene pane. You will then find the Apply Smoothing Modifier action. If you have DS 4.5 it is under the Edit submenu, then under Geometry. This adds a new section in Parameters called "Mesh Smoothing". You can change the number of "iterations" and other options there in the Parameters tab. You can turn smoothing off there, too.

This whole Autofit business is rather hit and miss and altogether a big disappointment to me, although at least now in 4.5 it retains the item's morphs. I hope they can improve it—there's certainly plenty of room for improvement.

Very interesting project. Looking forward to seeing more pics and the final result. Good to see that you are going for anatomically correct maps. Some of the displacement maps for veins I've seen seem to have veins in random places. I just get rid of these. If this works out well it will definitely improve some of the rather featureless skin textures that are flying around.

Quote - Quick technical question for (probably) Paolo.  For Reality's purposes..what's better to use, Bump maps or displacement maps?

Displacement maps actually alter the geometry of the model, and I think they do so inacurrately and unpredictably. In my opinion they are overused in DAZ/Poser models. Perhaps because, it seems, there is very little penalty when rendering in their built-in rendering systems. In contrast, you would not use them in games because they would unnecessarily hog resources which are much more valuable when the models are animated. Normal maps are the standard in games and they work very well there.

In Reality/Luxrender I think it's somewhere in between, but in most cases bump or normal maps are preferable to me. To use displacement maps you will need to increase the subdivision of the mesh, which takes up more memory. This should hardly be necessary for small variations in the surface so it's wasteful to use them casually for small displacement that can be done very well with bump or normal maps. I think you would need to have some whacking great veins, for example, to justify displacement, but in commercial models aimed at Poser and DAZ displacement is used quite casually for things like this. I always delete them for body textures because I think they are more trouble than they are worth.

If I am creating my own maps, I go for normal maps every time. Paulo's well-known render with the breast plate shows how effective they can be, although I think you need a decent program to generate them.

Still, perhaps I just being too purist. If you have the memory and existing displacement maps work for you and it's easier then you should use them. The end result is all that matters.

Quote - Is this okay FyraNyanser

:ohmy: That's fantastic, John. It will be worth making a scene just to use it! Thank you so much for taking the time to model it, and I hope other people will like it as much as I do.

Fantastic lamps, John. I'd like to suggest a miner's Davy Lamp if you are thinking of adding to the collection. (My father and grandfather were both coal miners in South Yorkshire, so this occurred to me immediately.)

There are many variants, but to me, this one is the classic. Lots of references available with a picture search for "Davy lamp". I think one of these would work in a number of settings, not just down t' pit!

Xandi, I think you are doing very well indeed with the focus of your render (i.e. the character), but for me, I'd like to see a more meaningful background. I'm not sure how you are doing them at present, but I always use a 3D set (e.g. a modelled room or street scene) even if it can hardly be seen. This puts your character in a "real" place, and allows shadows, natural depth of field, etc., and importantly gives the edges of your character a smoother and more realistic look so that they look less "cut out". Essentially it allows the light to behave more naturally.

A good question, Xandi. And I think for every two people you will get three different answers. People object to postwork for different reasons, if only merely for the reason that there are different kinds of postwork. Postwork might be necessary to correct deficiencies which might be avoided by better preparation, better lighting, better shaders, etc. These faults are far better corrected in prework (I think Paolo would agree with this). The reason for that is that correcting, for example, render noise in postwork almost always results in deterioration of the image—loss of definition, smearing, etc. On the other hand, if your postwork is to deliberately create unnatural effects that cannot be created in a pure render then that's an artistic decision, and I would not fault it. A number of artists consider the basic render as a starting point upon which they can apply their own paintwork. Nothing wrong with that in my opinion either, and well known photographer artists take this approach as well as 3D artists.

I don't have any particular skill as a painter so I try and complete my image in the rendering, but I do take a pragmatic approach. If I can improve my render overall, even though my postwork may create some deterioration, I will do so. I'd rather have a satisfying final result with postwork, for all the faults that may cause, than an unsatisfacory looking but "pure" render. There is a similar diversity in approach with photography. There are photographers that insist that the the whole frame should be printed and that no cropping is done, that all the composition is done through the viewfinder, and that no dust specks or such are spotted out, no exposure corrections, dodging or burning, etc. However, these are in the minority, and although it goes without saying that good photographers do their very best to create a great photograph from the outset, most professional work will have entailed some post production at least.

Quote - This features an early tester for Mec4D's new 3D beard system, hopefully coming out "soon" as a DAZ product.  They've had in for a while & I hope they get it in the store

I see that Cath's body hair and beard (separate products) have now been released at DAZ. Available separately and in a bundle. A 48 hour sale ends midnight tonight, DAZ time ($20 for the bundle if you are in the PC).

Quote - Hello.

Please help us make Reality the number one product at Renderosity. Here is how:

http://preta3d.com/blog/2012/06/26/help-us-make-reality-the-number-one-product-at-renderosity/

Thank you in advance to everybody that will take the time to do this. 

Cheers.

I wish I could help more, but I'm afraid that you are "preaching to the choir" in my case! I take great pleasure and pride in crediting Reality for every render I post here (since I only render with Reality/Luxrender—to do otherwise is unthinkable). I also credit Reality in my posts elsewhere, such as at DA. I think it's only right that we should all take the time to give credit to the artists and technicians whose work we rely upon to make our own creations. There aren't many products that we use where it is possible to have personal contact with the creators, and I find this a very satisfiying aspect of the 3D art world.

Quote - Ok question I swapped my ceiling area light for the alex appt IBL with no map. Then have another mesh pre seted to sun for daylight my question is that noise on the grils shirt reflective caustics that will form or fireflies? If the latter how do I get rid of them?

It's the former. Fireflies are white and increase in size and number (in extreme cases your render will look like it is being carpet bombed). I presume, anyway, that you never have diffuse colour, glossiness/specularity too high—you are too much of an old hand to be making those mistakes. You can see that the unresolved reflections on the face relate to the glass. They will resolve, but it may take some time.

I was just comparing the old forum to the current one, and the what strikes me is that the old one was actually quite functional in style, not particularly friendly, and there was a lot of white (at least  by default, which I used) as in the current one. However, the main difference is, I think, a feeling of almost agoraphobia due to the lack of clear boundaries between posts and between subforums, etc. This lack of structure leaves the eye to wander and I feel like my mind is glazing over as I read it. I'm sure the lowered contrast is also a factor here. But as a priority they really need to get it to bump threads to the top when they have been posted to. I think it's a mistake to underestimate the impact of this foible. They should not have been so dadblasted set on this "tight integration" thing, and got some well-established and scalable forum software like vBulletin, which some the busiest forums on the internet use.

By the way, the cache flushing seems to have worked permanently. No more "Not...?". I'm sure we were told to do this, but it's really hard to find clear answers on that forum.

It's where metadata is kept—the data that is used by "Smart Content". Although it can be created for any of your content, it is usually associated with Genesis compatible products and other content provided with Studio 4, such as the subdragon and the "Aikanaro" set.

Quote - You NEVER saw the wishlist of somebody else. The most you could see was the number of items in that wishlist.

Yes, that's all I meant.

I've been seeing "Not so-and-so" right up to today. Despite it being fixed, you will still see it if you are still pulling pages from cache.

I just noticed that I have been looking at DAZ store pages that are over a week old. I was beginning to think it was odd that the store wasn't being updated. I suddenly had a thought that I was seeing cached copies so I pressed Ctrl-F5 (which pulls the page directly from the server and not from a cache) and lo and behold a new page with stuff I hadn't seen before. The old store didn't have this cache issue, and I don't know any store that does! How many people are having this problem withough knowing I wonder? Caching issues are supposedly behind the "Not so-and-so?" messages—getting other people's wishlists, so maybe this is all the same problem. I'm wondering if I only have to do the Ctrl-F5 once (per computer). I will have to monitor it.