Digital Art Zone

Are there any restrictions on using a shader you like from somebody else, modify it and save it as your own on your item eg a skin shader preset? What are the rules of engagement regarding shaders?

You can use and modify shaders from others however you like for your own renders - however you may not redistribute them for free or commercial items without the express permission of the original artist.

I think that’s the accepted rule.

For commercial items:

Pretty much, if you’re not selling or giving away your modified textures you’re fine. You CAN sell renders or animations.

For freebies

Many freebies come with a “non-commercial use” or “contact me first” statement. This is usually because someone else own the rights to the character, etc. This wouldn’t prevent you from doing what you asked about, but you would have to keep track of the modified product an non-commercial etc.

To summarize: You can probably do this and avoid any trouble as long as you follow the rules for the original stuff.

Just to be clear by shader I am not speaking of the textures, just the ambient, velvet SSS settings etc. The textures are all mine.

What you are creating is shader presets. These can be redisturbuted as long as the original shader is not included.
I think thats right.

Zev0 - 05 June 2012 03:52 AM

Just to be clear by shader I am not speaking of the textures, just the ambient, velvet SSS settings etc. The textures are all mine.

Seems that that’s even LESS likely to get you in trouble.

Note that shadres made with Shader Mixer will be included in a preset, so you can’t usually share those. The Visual style shaders use a custom script to create presets that are shareable, but you can’t use the File>Save as versions.

Actually back when I think it was poseworks the creators of the pw shaders site was fucntional people would upload modified or custom shaders built using their shaders. i remember one of the being a really good hair and fur shader. But you would need to have their shaders installed for them to work. These were how you say shader presets

That’s right, as long as it isn’t a Shader Mixer shader a preset doesn’t include anything except settings and can be shared. However, a I said above that isn’t the case for Shader Mixer shaders.

Richard Haseltine - 06 June 2012 02:22 PM

That’s right, as long as it isn’t a Shader Mixer shader a preset doesn’t include anything except settings and can be shared. However, a I said above that isn’t the case for Shader Mixer shaders.

Is there a way to tell if it’s a shader mixer shader vs not? I don’t use shader mixer so I’m not sure if there are any differences to look for.

Hmmm. Well, there will be a bunch of brick definitions in the preset if you open it in a text editor, or if you take the shader into Shader Mixer you will get a non-standard network. Also the label at the top of the Surfaces pane won’t be one of the standard shaders (DAZ, pw or om). But I’m not sure there’s a guaranteed indentifier.

So if I save a preset that uses the Daz Default shader then I assume it’s safe to distribute as everyone has it?

Yes, any materials using one of the DAZ, PoseWorks or OmniFreaker shaders are safe (at the moment, have to allow for future releases that may be different).

I’m assuming for Omnifreaker’s shaders the restriction is to the UberSurface/SimpleSurface stuff. I have UberArea and UberSpot as well, but those were purchased separately.

Are there ways to distribute presets without including the base shader? So the end user would need to already own the shader to use the preset?

Vaskania - 06 June 2012 06:23 PM

I’m assuming for Omnifreaker’s shaders the restriction is to the UberSurface/SimpleSurface stuff. I have UberArea and UberSpot as well, but those were purchased separately.

Are there ways to distribute presets without including the base shader? So the end user would need to already own the shader to use the preset?

You can distribute presets for any of Omni’s shaders—the presets don’t include the shader itself, so anyone else has to own them to use the presets.

Thanks guys.

Sorry for jacking your thread a little, Zev0.