Reality 4.2
Liana_1796711
Posts: 1,035
in The Commons
Hello,
I am new to Daz, not neccessarily 3D though. I seen this new item in the shop called Reality 4.2. I was reading the promo info on it and seen it has been around since 2010. It sounds like it has some neat capabilities. I look around the forums did not really find anything on it, so here I am.
Does anyone have any experience with it and how did you like it?
Thanks!
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Comments
I like the renderer but the latest update does not seem to recognize genesis 3 figures at all. The plugin acts as if they weren't even in the scene and thus does not render them even though they are.
That's the issue I'm having with it at the moment.
I have used Reality since version 1. I had stopped using it. I now find myself returning to it and using iray, since when I truly let iray run its course until I am satisfied with the render the times do not differ that much at times and like the way lux translate certain scenes better in some occasions.
Thank you both for the response. That does not sound good if it does not recognize the gen3 people. Hmmm....
I will have to use 3delight for my renderer at this point in Daz. My laptop and pc (out of commision atm) is not able to handle iray. Does it render better and faster than 3Delight?
It is my impression it can do more than render. Would I be correct in my thinking?
Trying to decide if it would be good to add to my arsenial for creating. :)
Not faster then 3DL I dont think
Reality is a plugin that bridges the gap from DS to Luxrender. I use Reality and Lux for all my renders and don't have any issues with it and genesis 3 figures. Granted i am not using the most current version since Lux will not run with my OS, but the previous version works great. I find it much easier and faster to change shaders, textures and settings in reality rather than adjusting Iray settings in DS. Iray will be faster if you have a high end Nvidia card, but depending on what's in the scene and the materials used, Luxrender can create some great images in a decent amount of time.
There is an official forum over at Runtime DNA if you need more info.
Oh ok...Thank you. I will look more into Reality and luxrender thank you for the info. :)
...I found Reality/Lux worked fine until the 4.0 release. There have been several patches since (hence ver. 4.2) which seemed to fix one issue but then presented a different one. I basically gave up on it out of frustration and the glacially long render times (I have an older CPU that does not support the "speed boost"). For most scenes I create, I find Iray in CPU mode renders faster than Lux as well as even 3DL when using UberEnvironment.
One downside of Iray is that indoor scenes tend to take much longer to render clean (no noise) than outdoor ones.
I too almost abandoned Reality when 4.0 was released but 4.2 is much better and I now use it exlusively. It is not as quick as 3DL (except for cases where complex lighting and shaders are required in 3DL). I have an iMac which is my main computer. I also have an old PC (circa 2010) which has an i7 (Nehalem) from that year and it does run Luxrender in CPU Accelerated plus Boost mode.
I use the PC as a Luxrender network node which cuts my render times by about 40 %. I had to add more RAM to the old PC in order to get the scenes to load but that was a pretty cheap upgrade. I did buy a GTX970 for the PC (the iMac can't be upgraded) but after a week of testing IRay I found it to be no quicker than Reality/Lux in CPU boost mode. Most of my scenes are indoors but IRay seems particularly suited to outdoor scenes. I usually have two or three clothed figures plus room and furniture in a scene and Reality will produce an acceptable image at 1600x1280 in about an hour. IRay with the GTX970 in GPU mode was still on 7% and very grainy after an hour rendering the same scene. I had a discussion thread here, asking questions about my setup but, in the end, I returned the GTX970 to Amazon for a refund and contented myself with staying with Luxrender. I also consider the Lux images to be more lifelike than those I managed to finish in IRay but I am not at all experienced enough to make proper comparisons.
If I were building a new PC, I would probably buy a decent NVidia GPU for it and have the option of IRay but, for now, my iMac + old PC combination works fine with Lux. The time to upgrade might be a year from now when NVidia have the Pascal GPUs on the market.
EDIT: By the way, I have no issues with Genesis 3 figures in Reality - they work fine for me.
Oh, one other thing to consider: Luxrender runs in the background and does not stop you working on the next scene in DAZ Studio. Tha's important for me because I like to do storyboards - a series of pictures telling a story - so I find it a great advantage to be able to continue composing the next scene while the previous one is rendering. That's not possible with IRay, as far as I'm aware.
...I became immersed in Iray after the troubles I was experiencing with the initial release of R4. I couldn't get materials to load properly, it didn't like older scenes (even those set up in 2.5), after one patch it would assign a different camera as the rendering camera than the one I set the scene up for, and finally there was the speed issue when after thirteen+ hours of rendering I still had a tonne of noise (comparable to an Iray render of the same scene after around 20 - 30 min).
For a while I actually stopped working in 3D completely as the 4.7 update broke the AoA Effects cameras and SSS surface flagging for the Advanced Lights. I had no desire to go back to UberEnvironment as its render times were much longer and it also caused my system to run at higher temperatures than either Lux or 3DL with AoA's Advanced Lights. The introduction of Iray is what rekindled my interest again.
Now don't get me wrong, one of the features of Lux I do like is the fact that once rendering commences, you can close the scene and even shut the Daz application down as everything is loaded into the LuxRender programme. That does take some load off the CPU and memory. I Also like the fact you can pause the process shut Lux down, turn off the system, come back later, and resume rendering. I wish there was a batch render utility for Iray.
However, since the release of the 4.8 Beta, I have learned a quite a bit about Iray including advanced techniques to make skin, eyes, and hair look more natural as well as create atmospheric effects. I do credit my experience with Reality 2.5 and Lux to helping with the transition to Iray as the basic concepts are pretty much the same.
Marble I make 300 to 500 plus render stories (according to D/A I have 5,580 deviations aka renders and a few older PS collages. I scrapped my early stuff) I have made a lot with R2 and 4 and have been using iray mostly for the past while. I had removed Reality altogether after some frustrating moments. Few days ago I re installed Reality and getting decent times with cpu acc. specially on my 32G tower with GTX 980. I agree that some indoor or darker scenes if left to run until I am satisfied can take as long if not longer then lux. I now go back and forth using both and really enjoying it. I look forward to when lux core can run properly without the jaggies, mind you have run into this on the odd occasions with iray as well. I do like the way lux translates some items better as well. With iray you need to work more with the type of light you use will make skin and scene look better with lux the good ol mesh does it all.. Dont forget running lux in cpu modes not only not bog down one's machine but also does not run as hot..
So far, wasted a lot of my time. The ONLY reason given in the Users Manual for the Install button not being an option, is if the bits don't match. Well my Daz Studio 4.8 is 64 bit and so is the Reality I bought. I have windows 10 and according to the specs, anything from Windows 7 UP should work.
I double click the exe. (Reality Installer)
Do you want to allow changes on your computer, I click yes.
Then the Install is grayed out. So why a 64 bit won't install with the 64 bit... It won't let me choose anything, do ANYTHING... I have no clue.
Novica contact Paolo or go ask for help at the rutime DNA forum.
I did already. I am trying to double check and ensure I've got the right bit of the studio. Where exactly do I find that? EDIT: In program files, for uninstallers, it says WIN 64 so that's what I went by to determine I had the 64 bit.)
Thanks for sharing everyone. I am still 'on the fence' trying to decide if I should get it or hold off for a while. I can get it for a fairly decent price with a few other items in my cart right now. :D
I have an older pc (power supply died, actually no desktop atm) and I am wanting to upgrade. I am waiting on a return that I had issues with. I am currently using a reburbished dell i5 2520 with 16 Gb of memory and 1 TB of HDD on a win7 64 bit Os. I am not a new member of Daz, but have not actually really did much in it until this year. I am migrating from a different 3D creating type platform. I lost interest in the creative process there. I did mostly texture work and some 3D modeling. I feel what is available limits my creative urges, so I am here learning. I don't actually have a art background. I am more of a biology/science/agriculture background. lol
I have been trying to concentrate on getting the basic items, a few backdrops, scenes, props, figures I don't have, and morphs. Which is really most everything. lol My partner has all the V4 and M4 generation. Which I do like just don't own except M5 with out morphs. I have been working on getting genesis and up generations. All the morphs, some hair and clothes, etc. I also have invested some of in tutorials and been watching utube videos.
I also been working on Bryce for landscape type stuff.
I have worked in Sketch-up, but have migrated away for various reasons. I have been trying to learn Blender more. I have some basic knowledge just stuck on the uv mapping part. I got hexagon at a good price as a back-up to Blender, since hexagon is a Daz product.
To sum it all up I am just trying to find the best possible tools to help me with my creative processes. :D
So the discussion here in many ways has been helpful so far. Thanks!
This has been my experience as well. The more Reality is updated, the less my old first-gen i7 can deal with it. I've had to abandon it after my last project was still unacceptable after 36 hours of rendering. But I absolutely blame the age of my hardware, not Reality/Lux, for my problems. I also have the Poser version, and I'm pretty much exclusively working in Studio now. So there's that. lol I run Iray in CPU mode, and I can live with my render speeds.
I feel Reality is superior for skin realism over Iray (based on my personal experience), and it has a lot of control over the final image that can be done on the fly while the render is running. And the various film settings are fun to play with. It also gives you the freedom to work on other projects in Studio while the render is running, as it runs in an independent program. It does require some effort working with materials settings to get the best effect, but so does Iray.
Again, if you have an older PC and you purchase a new one, you can still use the old one in network mode. As to the relative benefits and speed of Luxrender vs IRay, I remain totally unimpressed with IRay. That is probably because my renders are mostly indoors. I just can't justify spending hundreds on a NVidia card when I can get better and faster results from Reality/Luxrender for a fraction of the cost. Looking at some videos of the testing of Luxrender 1.6 I think that even if I did have the expensive card I would still use Luxrender (Luxcore) in GPU mode.
...yes you have to make a lot of adjustments to skin shaders in Iray to get good looking skin. I've been lurking on the Fiddling With Skin Shaders In Iray thread and seen some pretty spectacular results but a lot of the discussion is so bleeding technical it just goes *whoosh* over my head. Using the settings I know I can get pretty good results but yes, as Bobvan mentions, lighting is the key.
Again Lux tends to run the "coolest" in CPU mode on my system, basic 3DL and Iray a little higher, and UE using GI nearly turns my workstation into a deskside heater in spite of all the fans and huge aftermarket CPU cooler (which looks like a V8 engine exhaust manifold) it has.
@Liana, my system is a few years on as well. Built it several years ago. Still working great but noticing it going into swap mode on big render jobs. It has 12 GB configured in tri channel mode and I would like to double that to 24 however I only have Win 7 Home Edition and it would require an extra 135$ for an OEM of 7Pro in addition to the memory kit cost of 139$ (which is probably at the lowest it will ever go). Unfortunately I am on a fixed income so that makes it a large expense right now. Would also like to get at least a 4GB GTX 740 (another 115$) so I can use Iray View mode for working with HDRIs as well as perform test renders of character/setting proofs in GPU mode. My old 1 GB GPU just isn't up to the task and Daz will crash to the desktop after about 30 min.
My experiences with iRay are somewhat different to those of Marble, and I have the same graphics card, ie GTX 970. I can not compare with Reality, since even though I bought it back in September when it was just 12$ for the full version (ie non-upgrade), I still have not got round to even installing it yet.
That said, I agree iRay renders outdoor scenes a lot faster than indoor ones. A fairly simple external scene will render in 5 mins, more complex ones need 10-15. Indoor scenes take me 30 mins to get to a fairly acceptable level of convergence (normally 80% or so), and I sometimes leave it another 30 mins or so, but the improvement is marginal.
It is difficult for any of us to say that Reality would be better for you than iRay, or vice versa, it depends a lot on your own machine, and the type of scenes you build.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that a number of people have commented that one snag with iRay is you can not edit another scene whilst it renders. That is true, but there is nothing stopping you running two (or more) instances of DS, and working on one whilst the other renders. I do this all the time.
Unfortunatly your question got sidetracked into render discussions and tricks to work better. Let me give you my answer from a newer user perspective (following up on my non-award winning article in DSC Magazine, SO YOU WANT TO BE A 3D ARTIST...)
DON'T BUY REALITY. At least for now.
You say you're new to Daz but not 3D. Daz is a bit unlike other 3D programs...some people coming from other systems like it, some hate it. Don't spend the money until you know one way or another.
Reality is advanced Daz (and Poser). Paolo, who created it, wrote a book on how to use Daz Studio...and Reality is a single chapter later in the book after he's gone over how to do everything else.
I mean, IF the sale price is really great, or if the money aint no thing, then sure. You don't need to use it now. (I had it in my wishlist for a wile, then when 4.1 was relased, I was able to take advantage of a late nite sale price and stack with other deals and get it for $11, so I snapped it up...I've toyed with it a bit, then stopped to focus more on other techniques).
The pictures produced with Reality are seductive, but it requiers a lot of time to learn to use it, and if you're just learning DAZ, it's not worth it.
What baffles me is why is what is suppose to be an unbiased render engine have time limits. Took me FOREVER to figure out how to let iray run as long as I want. I will use both since as mentioned outdoor scenes and using glass or water renders much faster in iray specially with the removal of the refine brush in luxcore. I dont worry about maps and scientific skin settings. Over a million hits on D/A so I am getting both to meet my needs. Adjusting materials is also simpler with Reality. I am still learning in iray. It's not that the curve is so hard specially coming from another unbiased engine, its just sometimes not getting the result quite right... Darker lighting can take hours in iray. I have been told make them bright then adjust in PS I was not happy working that way, hated the results..
Oddly, I found Reality easier to come to terms with than 3Delight. There's a loooong technical thread on here about 3Delight with hundreds of posts, 90% of which are way over my head. It took me a long time to figure out lighting and shaders in 3Delight and even then, I opted for AoA lights instead of the more technical UE lights. I can get passable images with 3Delight with very low render times but they are never as realistic as Luxrender.
Lighting is similar in Luxrender to what you would do in IRay. The same tricks usually work for both. The big differences are in the material configuration menus and the integration into DAZ Studio (Reality pops up a window and Luxrender works in a completely different window, not interacting with DAZ Studio at all). We get comfortable with our preferred ways of doing things and my preferred workflow is the Reality way. Others prefer the more integrated IRay way.
I paid full price for Reality and upgrade from 2 to 4. I have made it back thousand time over with sold commish projects..
Agreed.
I do agree with Scavenger on one point, if you are used to 3D outside of the DS/poser community, then Reality might not be for you as there are other great unbiased renderers that can be used such as Vray, Maxwell, Kerkythea, Arnold, etc that will give great if not better/faster results than Luxrender. The main issue is tweaking any shaders, textures or materials to your liking and most other unbiased renderers do not come with an interface that is as robust as reality. If anything, give it a try if it's on sale.
I use Iray in CPU mode and like the results, BUT it takes me 4 times longer to set things up for a simple Iray scane that the same scene in reality/Lux and render times are about the same, but with Lux I can still do other things on my PC, unlike Iray.
I am actually learning a lot with this discussion. :)
@Kyoto Kid.. Mine was intel duo core with about 4 GB of memory, a very small graphics card with Windows XP 32 bit. I built it myself about 7-8 years ago, when my old one bit the dust literally. It is time to upgrade now and I need too since my old system could not support windows 10 and it appears to be the direction I have to go.
My newer machine will be an Intel Core i5-4590 Haswell Quad-Core 3.3 GHz LGA 1150 84W Intel HD Graphics 4600, motherboard: ASRock Z97 Extreme6 LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard , and I need a new power source. I know I want at least a 650 watt, I had that before. A graphics card is up in the air. I could cry and spend about $200 on 4gb nvidia or use my partners lightly used nvidia 9500 gt 1 gb ddr 2 until later this year or early next year. Right now I am waiting on a replacement motherboard since the pins were bent in a small line and nothing worked on the one sent. First time I had a build do that to me. Oh, I will be on windows 10 home edition 64 bit, but I digress...:)
Lots of info here whether it wandered off or not. :) I like Daz and been working at it and getting along ok with it, I think. Bryce is kicking me in the butt more. lol I have played some with switching out textures, fiddled with buttons, auto-fitting clothes, making poses from scratch, learning lighting in the newbie contest this month, been watching utube videos like crazy. It's a good time of the year for me to do this kind of stuff. I did look at daz about 5 years ago and did nothing but sign up at the time. My partner told me about it. I guess I was not ready skill wise or in the right frame of mind at the time.:)
My previous 3D stuff well nothing like Daz and way more limiting or maybe more creatively challenging would be a better description. I make a wee bit of cash doing it, which is supplying my funding for here. Not near enough though..lol Will it lead to earning some cash with the things I create? Maybe I don't know it would be great that my hobby so to speak supports itself like it has in the past 5 years. Who knows, it is just a creative outlet for some reason I need to have. :)
Technical stuff can make my eyes glaze over at first until I have played around with all the gadgets enough to see what is going on. The second or third time around things click more. I have to say it has been that way with Blender though the better upgrades makes a world of difference in user friendly ability. I do all my textures, etc in Gimp and can figure things out pretty good by watching ps videos and applying similiar techniques in Gimp. I could not have done that 5 years ago that's for sure. :)
I can get Reality with some other needed stuff for about $12 right now or I could get my other stuff still at a discount price without Reality and save myself $12 for now. I guess that is the final decision at this point. Looks as though I could wait and get it for $12 down the road. I have been just working with 3delight. I will probably do more outdoor scenes than indoor type. It is my preferred thing in real life to be outdoors rather than indoors, except when it is below zero degrees F. Brrrr....
All is good in what seems to be a huge discussion. :) I seem to have created one sort of by accident, which I don't mind it gives me some info to think about. hehe
You ignored the principle characteristic of discussion. "NEW USER".
As for lights in iray/Lux vs lights in 3DL.
You set a spotlight in 3DL and it acts like a spotlight in the viewport. It's an easy concept to understand because it's 1:1 real world, as opposed to the guess, place, render, with reality. AGAIN "NEW USER"
I'm a new user and I like reality. Like anything else it has a learning curve and I am still learning right alongside Iray and 3Delight. Being a new user I don't have any preconcieved notions either. I think each render engine has its good points and bad points. I plan on using all three. I've only been using Daz for 4 months so I am totally new to all of it and I don't regret buying Reality for a minute.
Not sure I see the problem, I can see the actual light in the viewpoint with reality. I can also extend the snoot length to help with the exact light beam position and knowing that the size of the light affects the harshness of shadows makes it pretty straightforward for me as opposed to 3DL. Also while it might be easy to place the 3DL light, knowing it will not react like a real light (biased) in the scene based on the surface settings in the scene, kinda takes away from the experience for me.