Just a note that this has now been taken care of. Thanks, Ashley B!

That works, too. Thank you!

Thank you, Jenn!

Updated to add that this issue is technically solved. At a DAZ forum member's suggestion, I tried the 4.15 public build, which worked. I have no idea what the original problem was, but I have a working version of DAZ again, so... yay!

I ended up not bothering and just tried to reform my mesh to account for the shape from the get-go. It became too much of a hassle, especially since I can't replicate what I had to attempt saving it out again.

I found that I needed to make an MCM, and after some fiddling, I got the setup working exactly how I wanted. But now, after saving out the corrective morph, it still doesn't work on a fresh G8F. I saved out the corrective morph the same as any other.

Indeed it did, thank you! I'll need to smooth things out more, but this looks like it'll work.

caisson posted at 7:57PM Sat, 30 May 2020 - #4390631

@GMM why use a normal map and a bump map when they have the same purpose? Unhook the normal map - these are not the same as other texture maps, they are more like code and can cause trouble if not created and used properly. Out of interest, where/how are you creating the maps you're using?

They have similar purposes, but not the exact same; I just like the combination sometimes.

But, this helped me zero in on the problem. I changed the Gradient Mode from Gradient Bump to Object Space, and that immediately fixed it. Thank you!

Still doesn't explain the shader not being reproducible, but that's another matter.

The plot thickens: I've tried to replicate my earlier success with ghostship's shader in a new file and now it doesn't work like it did.

It was working:

I'm not sure I've ever seen something this bizarre in Poser.

EldritchCellar posted at 7:27PM Sat, 30 May 2020 - #4390621

Do you have smoothing enabled in your render settings and in object properties?

Are the models constructed with control loops or are they unwelded?

Turning off smoothing made no difference. The models are standard box modelling objects; no ngons, no double verts. Part of the first object isn't welded to the rest, but this same issue affects the second object as well, which is welded.

EldritchCellar posted at 7:00PM Sat, 30 May 2020 - #4390618

Glad you got it sorted. Shaders then.

Well... yes and no. They worked on the simple scene I used to demonstrate the problem, but once I tried them in the actual scene it was the exact same situation. Back to square one.

I was using PBR colloquially, I guess, meaning diffuse, specular, normal, and bump maps.

I tried your shader, and it worked, so thank you for that! But I don't understand why it wasn't working beforehand. Take the first image: the darker face and the lighter one are parallel to each other, so it doesn't make sense to me why light would be interacting with them so differently if they have the same material.

ghostship2 posted at 6:10PM Sat, 30 May 2020 - #4390604

not a problem with your lighting but a problem with the shader you are using for the wood. post your material settings so we can see them.

Pretty standard PBR sort of setup:

I've used this exact shader on other things and not had this happen.

ghostship2 posted at 6:12PM Sat, 30 May 2020 - #4390605

what happens when you rotate the object so that the horizontal grain is running vertical?

No difference apart from the change in direction. The dark parts are still dark, the light parts are still light.

bagginsbill posted at 12:34PM Sat, 25 April 2020 - #4387326

For SuperFly

Thank you so much for all this info! I tried this out and it's doing what I want, even with ambient lights. I'll have to mess around with it more to get it looking just how I want, but this is a big help.

Thanks to structure as well; I may try combining these two methods.