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Virtual World Dynamics F.A.Q (Last Updated: 2024 Sep 15 1:40 pm)
Subject: Daz Studio bridge to VWD
It seems that all I need to get the bridge to work, is to click on it in the scripts.
It would certainly be helpful if the VWDPython icon (or as others have done, add an image stating click on 'SOMETHING') to get it to work.
I have noticed that either the bridge or VWD don't like certain characters in the names of items (it was a character I had saved as a subset); that would be a useful thing to clarify. It also might have been the fact the name was too long. No idea other than the error message stating (in french) that there was an issue with the name.
Writers_Block posted at 5:12PM Wed, 25 May 2016 - #4270418
It seems that all I need to get the bridge to work, is to click on it in the scripts.
It would certainly be helpful if the VWDPython icon (or as others have done, add an image stating click on 'SOMETHING') to get it to work.
I agree with that. I'll have a look into it (just don't know yet how to do it, ). I'll also move the Parser script into a subdirectory named "support" to clarify things. You can add the VWDPython script into the menu bar by right clicking on it and choosing "add action" submenu?
I have noticed that either the bridge or VWD don't like certain characters in the names of items (it was a character I had saved as a subset); that would be a useful thing to clarify. It also might have been the fact the name was too long. No idea other than the error message stating (in french) that there was an issue with the name.
It will be corrected in the next version. the dot in Victoria 4.2 is likely the guilty. I'll correct the script to replace all non alphanumeric characters with an underscore.
philemot posted at 7:07PM Wed, 25 May 2016 - #4270427
I just uploaded a new version. It adds Win32 plugin and correct 3 bugs:
- You can now restart VWD as often as you wish without having to save/reload the scene
- In animation, number of frame is now correct
- Invalid names are corrected before being sent to VWD
TY
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?
I was talking about the same active simulation (static like you can do multiple send to host) with multiple update of the same geometry in DS, I do that to make more adjustment after seeing some renders. Yes I agree with you Daremok : if VWD is closed either I delete the _VWD object to restart a new simu from zero or I rename the simulated object to restart a new simu from the last exported geometry
Downloaded latest version, yes. If I restart VWD, I delete the file in Daz.
I'll spend some time trying to recreate it later. Daz/VWD crashed about five times last night; likely none, and certainly most, were not after sending poses back multiple times; in other words, different reasons.
Definitely two of the crashes of Daz were after closing VWD.
Writers_Block posted at 11:48AM Fri, 27 May 2016 - #4270606
Definitely two of the crashes of Daz were after closing VWD.
I already know that one. I'm trying to solve it, but it's a tough one and it seems to happen randomly... I can make exactly the same sequence of actions several times, sometime it crashes, sometime it doesn't. But I'm actively looking into it.
I've just installed the Bridge beta and VWD demo. All loaded fine and I then started watching one of Biscuits' videos and my Windows 10 system crashed. Probably a coincidence - time will tell. I wonder whether it would be more stable with the full version of VWD but I want to get a little more familiar with it before buying. I think the sale is on for a couple more days yet.
I'm still following the Biscuits videos but I seem to have missed something because Victoria is shown in a T=Pose and then the recoding is paused and when it restarts she is in a different pose. I don't know how the two poses were added - was this a Poser animation to start with? Secondly, because I'm attempting a static pose (not ready for animation yet) I selected "Start Static Simulation" and waited. It took 10 minutes to drape to a sitting position - somewhat longer than I expected on a new PC with a fast i7 processor and 16GB RAM. Also, the dynamic drag and move of the cloth with the mouse has a significant lag (delay) compared to the example in the video. When I use SHIFT-Click and drag the cloth, it responds after a couple of seconds (certainly not real-time) and is very slow to move. That makes it very difficult to judge how the cloth will look when I let go of SHIFT.
By the way - looking at Task Manager it says that VWD is 32bit. Is there a demo of a 64bit version?
The dynamic simulation I personally don't use with an animation as end result.
I set up a frame 1 zero pose and then pose on a higher frame. I do this for clothing that isn't conforming.
For example to let the figure sit with a dress on.
If you have conforming clothing you can use a static sim. And I also use a static sim with hair, if just the gravity needs to do it's thing.
marble posted at 4:41PM Fri, 27 May 2016 - #4270634
Secondly, because I'm attempting a static pose (not ready for animation yet) I selected "Start Static Simulation" and waited. It took 10 minutes to drape to a sitting position - somewhat longer than I expected on a new PC with a fast i7 processor and 16GB RAM. Also, the dynamic drag and move of the cloth with the mouse has a significant lag (delay) compared to the example in the video. When I use SHIFT-Click and drag the cloth, it responds after a couple of seconds (certainly not real-time) and is very slow to move. That makes it very difficult to judge how the cloth will look when I let go of SHIFT.
I agree, 10 minutes for a static simulation is a very long time. When you say a sitting position, do you have also a chair (or any sitting purpose device) as an other collison object ? If so, if you come to close between the two collisions objects (the human and the chair) with cloth in between, it will take a long time to resolve.
By the way - looking at Task Manager it says that VWD is 32bit. Is there a demo of a 64bit version?
No that I know of.
marble posted at 4:48PM Fri, 27 May 2016 - #4270640
Yes - I'm inclined to agree - it must have been a coincidence because it has been stable since then. However, I'm more concerned about how slow it seems to be on my PC (see above).
During simulation, can you see through the task manager if CPU usage sticks at 100% ?
So it seems to have been the dress. I noticed a number at the bottom: Spring Count. For the slow dress it was more than 7 million. For the second dress I tried, it was 650,000 (less than one tenth of the previous dress). However, the static simulation on the second seems to have completed a few cycles and then stopped - certainly not fully draped - yet VWD doesn't indicate that it has stopped and the Task manager is still showing 75% CPU.
There does not appear to be any indication of progress or even that it is working so I have to keep trying to see some movement in the dress - which is not happening.
marble posted at 5:26PM Fri, 27 May 2016 - #4270651
So it seems to have been the dress. I noticed a number at the bottom: Spring Count. For the slow dress it was more than 7 million. For the second dress I tried, it was 650,000 (less than one tenth of the previous dress). However, the static simulation on the second seems to have completed a few cycles and then stopped - certainly not fully draped - yet VWD doesn't indicate that it has stopped and the Task manager is still showing 75% CPU.
There does not appear to be any indication of progress or even that it is working so I have to keep trying to see some movement in the dress - which is not happening.
Not good. You should cancel VWD. BTW, 7 million spring is not that much
Not necessarily . I may have been a big quick in my answer. When I say cancel, it was just clicking on the "stop static simulation" button because the the simulation has reached a stable stage and it was useless to wait for more. Now, I can't tell you why it didn't go further. Maybe you should turn on the "show stress" mode. When nothing is red, there's no point in waiting.
Couple of suggestions - first is that progress indicator (or something similar) and the second is an option to open the Scene Viewer to a Window rather than full screen. I don't see a way of doing that.
I think the drape stops before it completes but maybe I need to know more about the settings like gravity, etc. The present test is with a V7 floating so no contact with floor. The dress should fall to touch the thigh on the high side and fall towards the floor on the low side. But it stops short of that as though the cloth is quite stiff almost like metal.
marble posted at 6:01PM Fri, 27 May 2016 - #4270657
Couple of suggestions - first is that progress indicator (or something similar) and the second is an option to open the Scene Viewer to a Window rather than full screen. I don't see a way of doing that.
I think the drape stops before it completes but maybe I need to know more about the settings like gravity, etc. The present test is with a V7 floating so no contact with floor. The dress should fall to touch the thigh on the high side and fall towards the floor on the low side. But it stops short of that as though the cloth is quite stiff almost like metal.!
Did you nail any vertices to the collision ?
Only around the neck. Increasing gravity helps a little. I guess I need to investigate what all the parameters do. Anyhow - it does seem to decide when it has done enough but that depends on the pose. I've just tried another sitting pose which has been going for much longer. I can still see yellow on the Stress thing - even a couple of red dots - after 15 minutes.
By the way - how many threads can I tell it to use? As I said, I have a new i7 Skylake CPU which has not reached 90% yet in task manager.
I would like some feedback from other beta testers because I am not getting satisfactory results at all. The video shows the drape falling into place in seconds. My tests - following the video instructions precisely - are taking many minutes for a dress with not many "springs" and for dresses with a few million springs, it is too slow to work with. For example, moving the cloth with the mouse (Shift-Click) is taking 5 to 10 seconds before I see any response on the screen and, even then, the movement is too slow to see where the cloth is moving.
I have a new Windows 10 PC with a Skylake i7 CPU, 16GB RAM and a GTX970 graphics card. Perhaps this software works fine with Poser - it seems to be quick in the video tutorials and YouTube demos - but it is not working for me with DAZ Studio. I am quite happy to do a Skype session with Philemot if you think that would help.
Smaker1 posted at 10:33PM Fri, 27 May 2016 - #4270684
Hello Marble
I've currently no problem of performance I just tried V7 and Casual summer Top. The simu had 10 millions springs. The clothe is heavy on polygons so "distance min" was mandatory.
My config: Win 7 pro, geForce GTX680, Intel I7-3770K, 32Go Ram and I run DS4.9.2 last version
Getting a little late in the evening for me but I'd appreciate if you could explain "distance min" when you have some time. As I mentioned, I only have the demo version of VWD so I don't think there is a manual or tutorial with it. I'm working through the Biscuits videos instead.
I have the V7 Casual Summer top so I'll try that too. However, 10 million springs will probably slow my sim down to a crawl judging by my experience so far.
Maybe a silly question but how much of a role does the GPU play? The reason I ask is that I notice that I get weird patterns on the cloting and sometimes the figure in the VWD scene viewer. I have my PC setup so that my display is being driven by the i7 on-board GPU which leaves the NVidia GTX970 free for IRay renders.
Writers_Block posted at 8:15AM Sat, 28 May 2016 - #4270719
Not seen that on the figure, but have seen it on the cloth; it looks like normals - or it's what I'd think if it was in Blender. But on the figure, is doesn't seem likely? Maybe the exporter is having an issue?
Well, switching the display back to the GTX970 didn't make any difference. I have been able to improve the speed a little by making sure any SubD levels are at zero (both G3F and the Casual Summer Top) and also switch off smoothing. It still isn't as quick as the demo/tutorial videos show but quicker than I was getting last night.
Hello
@Phil : with the last Plug version I downloaded. Display trouble appears on character and clothe. With the previous version only on some clothes.
@Marble G3F clothes have a high number of polygons. What I do : try without ticking the distance min (yes it doesn't work with casual summer top, I have the same error) . If I have a memory problem I tick and adjust the distant min value. My max is 0.9 .
Excellent render and thanks for the tips. I'm encouraged to try some V4 clothes on G2F and G3F now. I didn't realise that G3 clothing is high poly - that's worth remembering for IRay too as 4GB VRAM soon runs out. I just wish I could save clothing with pose morphs but that may come later.
I'll wait until after the weekend when Philemo is back before I run any more tests. I'm itching to see how it works when they are exported back to DAZ Studio but I can't do that with the demo. I can't justify buying it until I'm happy that it will work for me and it is still too slow right now. I'm sure that's my fault but I don't know how to fix it yet.
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...
@Smaker Awesome render Smaker!!
@all With the new version, I've ran into troubles myself, it happends to be that my high number of iterations complicated things.
I know the videos all give a max nb of iterations, but if you have problems try 2 nb of iterations.
@Smaker : beautiful render as always!!!
Explanations about to new version. When I wrote the dynamic deformation, I saw a big difference between the end of a dynamic simulation and the beginning of a static simulation (pressing the Shift key). I found a problem in the static simulation and I've rewrote it. Now, the dynamic simulation and the static simulation works with the same energy. Biscuits was right to increase the Nb Iterations value for a static simulation, but now, the default values in this kind of simulation should work fine.
I agree with DaremoK3 to say that it is better to start VWD by using simple clothes or drapings. I want to make videos showing this.
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