anjeli93 posted at 1:10AM Sat, 14 April 2018 - #4327636

@RitaCeleste, thank you so much for your suggestions! After a lot of trial and error I finally got the shaders to work nicely on my MD stuff. Blender-made objects still don't work, but it's probably something I did while making/exporting as opposed to something that can be fixed with Daz's settings. Oh well, I'm learning as I go!!

I had this issue with tiled/procedural textures recently with parts of a model I'd made Blender. It turned out I had forgotten to UV map those parts of the mesh. I would check your UV map in Studio using the UV view. If it you don't see anything pretty much but white then I would check your UV mapping in Blender. I make a lot of items for DAZ Studio in Blender and the shaders always work as expected—except when I've forgotten to UV map!

The lasso and marquee (rectangle) selection tools cut right through the model and select hidden faces behind the model. The drag tool only selects on the visible surface.

There is an old Youtube video by DAZ which explains some of the options with this tool. It's part of a longer tutorial on face groups and weight mappping, but if you skip to around 4:35 you will find information about poly selection:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k52wwyv234U&list=PLE026B44096BBD507

Note that holding Ctrl enables you to add to an existing selection, and holding Alt will remove faces from the selection. Using the tools without these keys will start a new selection and deselect any faces previously selected.

If you are talking about the V4 figure (as opposed to Genesis) then this figure was not designed to require subD—it's a reasonably high resolution figure at base. I wouldn't have thought that subD wwould benefit at all; however, if you find an improvement by using a level of subD, that's fine, but I'm sure you are right that it will not look any better with 2 levels.

Obviously, with Genesis one level of subD is essential, but I don't see any benefit in turning it up higher*. On different kinds of models (e.g. some props) it may well be a different matter, although many props don't have appropriate geometry for SubD. On the other hand, I often add a subD modifier to clothing, usually when fitted by Autofit, and I find that very useful sometimes.

*The exception to this is for prepping figures for rendering in Luxrender (e.g. via Reality), where turning sub D to 2 or 3 levels can eliminate "grazing" artifacts (they look like parallel lines on the skin) which occur under certain lighting conditions. As I only use Luxrender I always set subD on Genesis to 2 before rendering.

Quote - I think that Lux actually does a really good job at lighting the scene with the IBl map, but it is true the shadows can be too soft. It's very easy to add a mesh light that is small and therefore creates a sharp shadow.

I think this technique is incredibly effective. The IBL gives a very realistic daylight feel overall and the meshlight adds the highlights and shadows in a very controllable way. It's a bit like cinematic lighting in outdoor scenes where powerful artificial lights are used even in full daylight.

The problem I find with Sun (and I think the same is true for the similar Distant and Spotlights, which is why we are discouraged from using them in Lux) is that it can create unnaturally sharp and pointy shadow edges and I've stopped using it for this reason.

You can't delete scenes from Smart Content, but if you right-click the icon of the scene in Smart Content there is an option "Show in Content Library". Click this and it will take you to the scene files in the Content Library tab view. From there you can right-click and select Delete.

Of course you can go directly to Content Library and find the Scenes folder, but going via Smart Content right-click can be quicker.

I just installed 4.6 and the "don't show again" for "start learning" worked for me. It's a long shot, but assuming you are using Windows, you might try running Studio "as Administrator" (right-click the icon in Start Menu and choose "run as Administrator") then check "don't show again", close Studio and start again as normal. See if that works.

Quote - Alright, here's the first test completed last night. Sill not sure what was/is going on with the eyes, though I'm chalking it up to an SLG issue, as several of the colors aren't true to the normal render version either. 350 passes per frame, 122 frames total, and right around 3 minutes to render each; a fairly tolerable 8 hours total with GPU power ;-) 

That is truly impressive. I hope you can solve the eye problem.

Quote - Where are these free versions of which you speak?

It's actually just one sky HDR image (scripted to use the Reality IBL sphere) plus what looks like a modified Reality Sun (never tried this). It was a promo freebie for SoR, I think, and I don't remember where I got it, but if you have Skies of Reality you probably have it already.

Skies of Economy is a paid for product with a bunch of day and sunset skies, which I bought from DAZ.

Quote - Sort of on topic.  Just got Skies of Reality; which says that it is Reality compatible.  Have zero idea how to use it in Reality.  THought it would be traditional hdr images and it's not.  Any help would be appreciated.

The "Skies" images are in EXR format rather than HDR format that the ones that come with Reality are in (e.g. the Chircahua Plaza IBL). I'm no expert, but I understand that these are just two formats that do the same thing (high dynamic range).

As for using them, I have the free Skies of Reality and the Skies and Economy, and these both work by clicking the icon which loads the RealityIBLSphere with the preview JPG applied in the viewport (this doesn't get used in Reality/Lux) while the appropriate EXR is picked up when you launch Reality and you'll see it in your Lights tab there.

Is that how it looks in UV View in DAZ, or is that in UVMapper? If that's from DAZ, it would seem bizarre that the textures don't fit if that is showing in DAZ, as that map matches the provided image textures.

Have you tried DAZ's own forum? There may be people there who have got it to work or have come across this kind of thing before.

Silly question, but did you select the alternative UV map in the shader panel after loading it? Have you had a look at the UV map in the UV View to see if it matches the layout of the new textures?

You obviously have no trouble loading the textures onto the wolf, but the problem is with the UV mapping.

From what I can tell, this package contains a remapping of the wolf object in UVMapper format (.UVS). You will need the UVMapper program and with this load a copy of the wolf object (.OBJ file) and the .UVS file and then resave the copy with the new map applied.

In DAZ you should then, in theory, be able to load the original wolf, and then add the UV map to it using the copy of the wolf object you saved with UVMapper. UV maps are loaded in DAZ by importing an OBJ file containing the mapping data using the "Load UV set" command which is available when you are in Surfaces.

Quote - First I must update my Easy Pose System for Meshlights so the merging and ratio problem will not occur anymore. Then I must update my Projector set, have it tested and uploaded, then it's time for new things. :)  

(apart from that I have to do the laundry, clean the house and cook dinner..) 

Looks like you have updated it already! That was quick work! Off to re-download right now. Thanks again for this great invention.

Quote - > Quote - Concerning the easypose meshlights by callad: Uncompressing the duf scene files and deleting the section with 3DL render settings at the end in a text editor seems to get rid of any problems with it overwriting output image size with a 91x91 value in certain workflows.

Thank you! That is very useful information!

I tried to open the duf files in an editor seeing nothing but jibberish. Never though of the fact they were compressed!

Will make an update for the set with edited files. ..and this message comes just in time for my new project I am working on: Reality light Projectors. :)

Here is a little example so you can see what a projector can do.

 

This is going to be amazing. Just the sort of effect I've been wanting to use, but I'm too lazy/befuddled to work out how to do. Thanks so much for your Easy Pose Lights. Positioning and testing meshlights is one thing I almost dread doing as it's so fiddly, and you are more or less doing it "blind".

By the way, compressed .duf files (and others) can be batch decompressed within Studio 4.5 from Main Menu Bar > Window > Panes (Tabs) > Batch Convert. Navigate to the folder and select all the files you want to decompress (or Add Directory) and it does it in seconds. The compressed files are replaced, so you might want to be sure you have backups, just in case.

Has anyone tried the Genesis Bot in Reality/Lux? I know Cwichura has and he mentioned having to manually edit the .lxm file to delete duplicate materials caused by Reality not correctly importing geografted parts. Unfortunately this information, along with lots of other good stuff, of course, was lost when DAZ removed the Reality thread (don't get me started on that).

I have to say though, that when I looked in the lxm my mind was boggled and I found it impossible to identify the materials CW was referring to. If you try rendering the Bot as is the result is ugly. (Strangely enough, Catgirl, which has lots of grafts, looked fine to me.)

They say it's their own decision and the PAs haven't been asking for it, but I agree it's a bad move which damages their public relations image. Although I might see their point with 3D assets that directly compete with their own and their PA's products, where is the logic in removing the Reality thread? This is a product that DAZ once sold (so they owe it to the many customers who bought Reality from them to continue to support it); it's a product that only works with DAZ Studio and does not compete with any product from DAZ or their PAs. Furthermore, it was not a "commercial" thread, and featured renders which were largely of DAZ's own products and which could only be made in DAZ Studio.

I posted a link to the Reality 2.5 and Lux updates in a thread in the DAZ Studio forum (it was a technical support thread) the other day. It's still there, although I doubt many will see it now, but I hope this indicates that they will not be deleting support queries on Reality.

You can be sure that there is one "competing" product that will not have its forum removed. Can you imagine the uproar if they deleted the Poser forum?