philemot, I think you are on to something with the triangulation, but I don't believe that is the entirety of the issue. In the image I posted above, the cloth mesh is a Marvelous Designer 2 Delaunay Unstructured Tri-mesh. Absolutely no quads, or n-gons in that mesh, and it displays correctly in default VWD (Poser).

Reading your assessment of the issue made me remember testing in default VWD, and employing Gérald's subdivision triangulation algorithm on collision objects. I was getting the same artifacting, so it might be something in VWD that is causing it, and not the exporter. I don't remember getting any artifacting on any of the cloth meshes I utilized the Sub-D algorithm with, so I didn't report it as a bug. Now, I believe it is a bug that should probably be addressed.

I went and found some screen-shots I took when I was performing tessellation testing. Below are examples in default VWD that show base collision objects without artifacting, and then with artifacting when Sub-D algorithm is used.

Stairs collision prop default:

Stairs collision prop Sub-D on:

Sword stand collision prop default tessellation:

Sword stand collision prop Sub-D tessellation (normal and wireframe):

I don't think any of us has shown the view-port issue, so here is screen-shot showing the issue. Also, both the Collision mesh, and the Cloth meshes are faceted without smoothing normals (an aside to the artifact issue). By comparison, the default VWD (Poser) does not have any artifacting issues, and smooth normals are on, so this is coming through the bridge.

Great renders everyone.

Here's one from me, but it only has two elements utilizing VWD. The pants, and the belt. Both are conforming clothes objects, but were done in two different draping sessions. The pants are single dynamic mesh, and an animated drape was used. The belt is comprised of separate meshes, and was added after for a quick static drape.

Okay. Sorry, it was late, and I was very tired, but I do have the new version, because it has the icon.

Also, I noticed the corrections with the mesh objects. They seem to be working now as expected along the lines of the Poser version (keeping original prop mesh, and conforming mesh retains all root node data).

I am still getting the same VWD view-port issue that was also reported by the other testers, and are you going to stick with having the Normals Flag disabled?

I just find it more difficult working in VWD without smoothing, because the faceting sometimes throws off the actual draping visuals, especially when working with the Dynamic Deformation tool.

Good news though. I am no longer getting any fatal crashes with animated draping with this new version, so what ever you changed fixed the issue. I was able to run several back to back, and the Send Animation To Host is working flawlessly now.

Hey all...

I'm looking for confirmation regarding the current VWD_EXE (with use of the DS bridge plug-in). Would one of you beta testers please check the "About Tab" in VWD, and let me know if it says that it is the 368 version, or the 366 version.

The Windows Properties dialog states it is the 368 version (which should be current), but my about tab states that it is the 366 version.

I am having many issues beta testing, and I am just trying to rule out that I have an incompatible (previous) version that needs updating, or not.

Thank you.

*EDIT: philemot, is there a way to confirm that I have the latest version of the bridge? I downloaded from my DAZ PM page, but it still feels like the previous version.

Thank you, Gérald.

I thought that CTRL selecting in the in listbox would delete the object (including in Poser). I guess I did not understand that part reading in the manual. I tried it, and it works perfectly.

That is good news regarding the hidden-line feature, and I hope you might still consider adding a checkbox for the ground-plane too.

Thanks again for all your hard work.

marble:

For Sub-D (subdivision) we are talking about both DS, and VWD. Sub-D is the algorithms used (Catmull-Clark, Cat-Mark, Loop, Gérald-VWD), and tessellation is the way polygons (whether quadrangles, or triangles) are formed on a mesh. Example would be Catmull-Clark yields all quad sub-d, while Loop yields all tris sub-d. Gérald's own sub-d algorthim yields a tri-mesh which if from quads the tessellation will be like the one in the image below:

The image above also serves as the second answer to your questions (Springs). That is a mock-up for the Mass/Spring model for cloth simulation. Basically "springs" are what allow cloth to bend and fold, but much more is involved. There are many different types of springs that could be utilized within a simulation such as Torsion, Tension, Damping, Bend, Shearing, Structural, Edge, and etc. You really don't need to concern yourself with these, but just know that springs are what allow the cloth to work as, well, cloth (same goes for hair).

For the image above, imagine that every edge you see is a spring. But, note, springs can even be invisible attached to the visible structural springs. So, just because the mesh is a limited tessellation, the spring count can be high based on what springs are actually being created at sim time.

Here is another example of tessellation for cloth simulation. This is a Sub-D Isotropic tessellation:

I hope this helps...

• EDIT: I was writing when Gérald posted above, so just consider this an add on to his post. He answered what was needed.

I have a few requests for view-port visuals.

I love that we can switch between shaded and wired view (shortcut key "A"), but I would like a couple of other implementations that can help out with sometimes difficult work, or close up detail work.

1. Wire shaded or hidden-line view
2. Ability to toggle visibility of collision objects off/on
3. Ability to toggle visibility of ground/floor plane off/on

Wire shaded view mock-up:

Suggestion for added function in VWD:

SHIFT key emulation button.

Sometimes I have had to hold the SHIFT button for up to thirty minutes while working with the Dynamic Deformation tool. It would be nice to have a button that emulates holding the SHIFT key for when one is using it for long durations. People would then have a choice of holding SHIFT for quick bursts of pulling, and clicking a button that keeps DD active until the button is clicked again stopping the emulation.

I created a quick script in Blender Python that does this for view-port controls, so I think it should be an easy thing to implement in VWD.

Image below is mock-up of proposal:

Smaker1:

I forgot to add last night...

You are a wizard with creating images. I wish I had one tenth of your talent. Beautiful image, and I love the play in the cloth.

Great thread, Gérald. I think this is a good idea to help you pursue completing tutorials with English subtitles. I believe this one qualifies as it is a good instructional video.

marble:

As wimvdb stated, use the material zone selections in the vertices selection tab (shortcut "T"), select what you don't want to move, and then press the button "Fixed Vertices".

In DAZ Studio you can use the Polygon Selection tools, and create material zones if needed, or if you want to create zones specific for your draping vision. Lots of work-flow options.

marble:

Yeah, there is a little bit of a learning curve to get to know what works, what doesn't, what sims fast, and what sims slow.

It seems to me that everyone who tries out VWD just jumps right in with very sophisticated clothing without learning how the parameters can affect all the different levels of clothing.

My suggestion to you to see how VWD handles at base level is to start with Primitives props (plane, sphere, maybe even cylinder and box), and play with settings. When I test new cloth simulation software, I always begin simple, and work my way up to complicated.

A good test for you would be using the plane with a 10 X 10 tessellation (100 quads), and use for both vertical draping (like curtains - pinning mid-air [fixed vertices], and pinned to a primitive collision object [nail to collision] - try both variations and see how they behave - with/without wind, static drape, and collision object animated drapes), and flat draping over primitive props (dropping mid-air to collision objects on ground-plane). Play with the Dynamic Deformation tool within these tests as well to see all the different ways both variations can be manipulated.

Also, Gérald created a terrific tessellation algorithm (Sub-D checkbox/input box). Play with that with the cloth plane as well, and see how the different levels affect the simulations.

Don't give up. I experience the same issues you are seeing, and have only on a few occasions experienced draping as fast as you see in the videos. But, they were when I was using very simple cloth objects with low amounts of springs (hundreds of thousands compared to millions). Also, I have learned that when using the Dynamic Deformation tool that I have to click and hold the single lighted vertex (yellow - or orange-to-red for pinned) for a few seconds, and then slowly start dragging in the direction I want.

I hope this helps...

I like tomyee's suggestion in post above about Fixed Vertices having an influence radius around the fixed area. But, I would rather have a secondary button which would accomplish this - maybe "Fixed Vertices Weighted" with an accompanying input box for influence percentages.

Regarding Start/Stop Vs Pause/Resume, for the Static Simulation, it is always Start/Stop. There is no Pause/Resume. For an Animated Simulation, it is clear that the only way to re-start it would be to start all over from scratch, but in the context of staying inside of VWD simulator, and using the Dynamic Deformation tool in conjunction with static sims, one has to re-start the sim when it is disabled (not paused - and still shows as running) by use of the DD tool.

I just learned to deal with it, and I can spend hours in one VWD session going back and forth between static simulation with dozens of starts/stops, and deform simulation work before I finally decide to send completed work back to host. Hell, I've been working on one piece for over a week with over twenty static drape versions (from initial animated drape) still trying to get it right.

Love the image above, Writers_Block. The hair looks natural great.

Just curious, Writers_Block, are you trying to re-sim the created mesh with extension _VWD, and without changing that extension (to anything else - _01, _sim1, etc)?

Every time you call VWD it will create a new mesh with extension _VWD for simulation. My understanding (and usage) was that to re-sim, this needed to be changed, and you work from iteration counts.

Smaker1:

Same question for you - are you saying you are able to re-sim same mesh (_VWD) again, and again without creating iteration meshes?