dForce simulation too slow

Nathuado

At the moment my dForce simulations are taking way too long.  38 minutes for a simple dress, and that wasn't even completed.  Is there a setting I have to change in order to make it faster?  Or does dForce require powerful hardware to work effeciently?

CGI3DM

Set Off "Visible in Simulation", for  all objects not required, Surfaces cloth, charactes, fingers, head,neck feet,etc, ,

Use GPU Nvidia 1050GTX or superior.

Padone

Also you can tweak the simulation settings. Be aware that lowering subframes and iterations will make the cloth "sloppy", but it may be fine anyway depending on the scene you're doing. Or you can compensate by reducing gravity and/or the dynamic strenght. I found that the settings below work quite fine for me most of the times and greatly speed up simulations.

Nathuado

Thanks for that.  I'm hoping I'll be able to upgrade my graphics card without buying a new computer.

Nathuado

Padone said:

Also you can tweak the simulation settings. Be aware that lowering subframes and iterations will make the cloth "sloppy", but it may be fine anyway depending on the scene you're doing. Or you can compensate by reducing gravity and/or the dynamic strenght. I found that the settings below work quite fine for me most of the times and greatly speed up simulations.

These settings really speed it up.  3 minutes.  It does make the dress 'sloppy', but reducing the gravity does help a lot.  Thanks for that!

Padone

you're welcome I'm glad to help for what I can do

 

IsaacNewton

There is a gravity setting?

DrNewcenstein

IsaacNewton said:

There is a gravity setting?

Simulation Settings tab > Environment parameter

CrissieB

Hi Nathuado,

I've found dForce is very slow -- and crash-prone -- unless you limit the simulation. If you have multiple figures, even rigged props, you need to hide any that aren't part of a specific simulation.

For example, let's say your set includes a rigged door that you want halfway open, and a rigged, half-open window with curtains that you want blowing outward. Your scene also includes two characters -- Adam and Betty -- each wearing dForce clothes. Betty is also carrying a rigged prop that you have posed, perhaps a pump shotgun with the slide pulled to chamber a round.

In a scene like this, you would want to do three separate dForce simulations: one for the curtains, one for Adam's clothes, and one for Betty's clothes. To do that, I would:

(1) ​Memorize Figure Rigging for any rigged-and-posed prop that shouldn't 'move' in your scene​. This step matters because a dForce simulation will process every visible rigged-and-posed figure​, and that can easily overtax your memory. So, do a Memorize Figure Rigging for the half-open door, the half-open window, Betty's shotgun, and any other rigged-and-posed prop that would be static in that moment of your scene: a rigged desk chair that you have tipped back, a rigged clock on the wall that you've posed for the time, a rigged desk with a drawer pulled open, etc. Now those props are no longer posed, so dForce won't process their movement-to-pose in your simulations.

(2) Use Groups for easy hiding​. Hiding a Group will hide every object parented to that group​. This will save you a LOT of time. Create three new groups: CurtainsGroup, AdamGroup, and BettyGroup. Parent the curtains to the CurtainsGroup, Adam and all his stuff (hair, clothes, props, etc.) to the AdamGroup, and Betty and all her stuff to the BettyGroup.

(3) ​Simulate the curtains​. Hide the AdamGroup and the BettyGroup, then run your simulation. Your curtains should be the only visible moving bits. Save the scene after your simulation. I also close DAZ and reopen the scene, to make sure I've cleared the cache.

(4) Simulate Adam's clothes​. Hide the CurtainGroup, keep the BettyGroup hidden, and show the AdamGroup. Again, Adam and his clothes should be the only visible moving bits. Save again after the simulation.

(5) Simulate Betty's clothes​. Keep the CurtainGroup hidden, hide the AdamGroup, and show the BettyGroup. Yet again, Betty and her clothes should be the only visible moving bits. Save again after the simulation.

(6) Show everything and render​. When you show the CurtainGroup and the AdamGroup, the effects from their simulations will still be there, so you're ready to render!

That may seem like a lot of extra steps, but the processing time you save by doing individual simulations will more than make up for the set-up time.

Padone

CrissieB said:

(1) ​Memorize Figure Rigging for any rigged-and-posed prop that shouldn't 'move' in your scene​. .. So, do a Memorize Figure Rigging for .. a rigged desk chair that you have tipped back, a rigged clock on the wall that you've posed for the time, a rigged desk with a drawer pulled open, etc.

Just a side note. I believe step 1 may only be relevant if you use the "start from memorized pose" option and the item is useful as a colliding object. While if the item is not useful as a colliding object then there's a "visible in simulation" switch in the parameters tab for taking it out of the simulation. Also, if the item doesn't move in the simulation then you can turn off the "start from memorized pose" option.

In the Betty example step 1 is good to "freeze" the gun and let Betty start from her memorized pose if you find this useful. But this is not always the case so step 1 may be optional.

 

CrissieB

Hi Padone,

Yes, you can also hide rigged-and-posed props by clicking the Hide Eye switch in the Scene list, or with the Parameters>Simulation>Visible in Simulation switch. I left out that option because it's context-dependent. Will the curtains, or Adam's or Betty's clothes, collide with that prop as they move during their simulations? If not, you can hide that prop rather than memorizing its rigging. As for the Start From Memorized Pose option, I only see that if a figure has been set as a dForce Dynamic Surface, and rigid props won't be. Indeed I don't even bother to set rigid props and other scene elements as Static Surfaces, because dForce treats them as such by default. But the idea is the same: you need to minimize the moving bits in each simulation.

Another point I left out: dForce will 'explode' if meshes pass through themselves or other meshes. So, for example, if you pose a character with his/her legs crossed, you'll need to do an Animation Timeline with intermediate keyframes that ensure the legs never pass through each other. Similarly, if the character is sitting or lying on an object, you'll need an Animation Timeline with intermediate keyframes that ensure the character's limbs never pass through the chair, sofa, bed, etc.

And sometimes you want​ a mesh to pass through another mesh, e.g.: if a character has been run-through with a sword. To do that without triggering a dForce explosion of the unfortunate character's clothes, you'll need to hide the sword during the simulation. The result won't be quite perfect, as the sword would have pushed the clothing as it passed through ... but dForce can't (yet) handle that.

Padone

CrissieB said:

As for the Start From Memorized Pose option, I only see that if a figure has been set as a dForce Dynamic Surface, and rigid props won't be.

Another point I left out: dForce will 'explode'

No, I mean "start bones from memorized pose" in simulation settings that's a global option. Indeed it's intended for figures, that are collision objects by default. As for explosions may be my other discussion can also be useful to some extent.

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/223616/help-i-can-t-get-dforce-to-explode#latest

 

maikdecker

CrissieB said:

That may seem like a lot of extra steps, but the processing time you save by doing individual simulations will more than make up for the set-up time.

Haven't tried something that big yet, but wouldn't it also be possible to dForce the seperate parts seperately?

Like...

With only the window, dForce the curtain. Save result as sub-scene.

With only the female dForce her clothes. Save as sub-scene.

With only the male dForce his clothes. Save as sub-scene.

Put all those sub scenes together in the final scene...

 

At least that's how I would expect it to work...

mfournier

So far I am very disappointed with both how slow dforce is but Im working on it, I deleted my previous post as it was a bit too negative and long. I appreciate the settings suggestions. And will try them. 

fastbike1

@mfournier " I am very disappointed with both how slow dforce"

What are your expectations? What is your hardware configuration?

panton41_dfeb1322a2

I'm having slow dForce speeds on nVidia hardware and while some of these comments have helped, I'll just note that nVidia PhysX can pretty much do 75% of dForce can do fast enough to render inside of video games, though it's typically limited to stuff like hair, flags and loose clothing like dresses and capes. I'd imagine for static images like DazStudio focuses on you'd probably be talking low single-digit seconds to do exactly the kinds of things dForce is able to do for an entire, complex scene without even hiccuping on memory use.

There's even plugs for other 3D products (3DSMax and Maya) to render dynamic clothing and hair and seeing how Daz is already joined at the hip with nVidia for iRay why didn't they leverage PhysX instead.

towdow3

panton41_dfeb1322a2 said:

I'm having slow dForce speeds on nVidia hardware and while some of these comments have helped, I'll just note that nVidia PhysX can pretty much do 75% of dForce can do fast enough to render inside of video games, though it's typically limited to stuff like hair, flags and loose clothing like dresses and capes. I'd imagine for static images like DazStudio focuses on you'd probably be talking low single-digit seconds to do exactly the kinds of things dForce is able to do for an entire, complex scene without even hiccuping on memory use.

There's even plugs for other 3D products (3DSMax and Maya) to render dynamic clothing and hair and seeing how Daz is already joined at the hip with nVidia for iRay why didn't they leverage PhysX instead.

that would make too much sense. i kinda hate dForce. IDK what it is but when i run the simulation it takes forever, explodes, and just is annoying that it just DOESNT work.

Cyberdene

They have a magnet tool that lets u move clothes and drape, but I still dont know how to use the thing. Wish there was an easier way, so I might just try a better program for a lot of this stuff.

Starting to feel like nothing in DAZ is improving for me at all, too many set backs and having to do extra stuff for one simple thing I need to do. I did also notice how bad Dforce handles clothing, I get the explode

thing when I try to simulate non Dforce ready clothing, but it's also happened to dforce ready clothing too.

wjpblathwayt

Padone said:

Also you can tweak the simulation settings. Be aware that lowering subframes and iterations will make the cloth "sloppy", but it may be fine anyway depending on the scene you're doing. Or you can compensate by reducing gravity and/or the dynamic strenght. I found that the settings below work quite fine for me most of the times and greatly speed up simulations.

Padone!  Thanks!  that took me from a 1.5 hours and eventual crash to 6 minutes!  Thanks!!

and thats on an 8 gig video card