Advanced Ambient, Spot & Distant Lights [Commercial]

Rogerbee

Kattey said:

This is ridiculous. It has been more than 24 hours and I can't access my manual download :/

As far as I'm aware, Daz Support is Monday to Friday, so, bearing that in mind, it may well be Monday before we get manual download reinstated.

I'm still busy with other projects so it's not such a demand for me, but, I do like to install things as soon as I get them so I know they're in and ready to use when I'm in a position to use them.

CHEERS!

Rogerbee

ryemac3 said:

This is really nice, so worth the $8 bucks.

This is still a work in progress, so bare with me.

The first image is with Uber2, I then swapped it out for the AAL kit and set the radius to 0. I bumped the brightness to 120%. I really like the way it's looking so far, and this is with no additional lights or any further tweaking. I do have to tweak the glossiness on V4 coming out of the pool. Somehow she looks way shinier with AAL than with Uber2. But so far, I think this light set is going to look amazing.

Blimey!

I've never seen so many detailed people in one scene, you must have a fair amount of memory and a good processor to be able to cope with all that. I remember when I had Poser on my old laptop it'd be gasping for air if I had 3 people in a scene.

How long did your scene take to render?

CHEERS!

Spit

Askania: Lovely!

Ryemac: Great scene! Uber doesn't do specular at all and the fact Advanced Ambient does just adds to its greatness.

Jabba: Keep at it. It works. I had trouble at first and found I had zigged when I thought I had zagged.

Storypilot

I don't mean to irritate anybody, since I know people have various reasons for not using DIM, but anyone eager to download the light—you could use DIM to download ONLY the light, and not have DIM install (uncheck "install after download" box on the main screen). You'd get ONLY the zip for the light, and have DIM do nothing else. Then you could just never use DIM again if you like, and do with the zip just exactly what you would normally do, moving it to another machine, manually placing, etc.

And nice renders Vaskania and ryemac3!

Spit

I used 2 AdvAmbient lights, one overall with zero radius and low intensity and another basically just covering the little Zwoggels Added about 3 or 4 linear point lights (such an improvement). Most of the lights are colored but I totally don't remember which is which or what intensities I ended up with. Nothing fancy with flagging or anything. There are no tranparencies and no hair in the scene. I did fiddle with levels in PS a bit since I like more of a pop than ever comes out of Studio.

The advanced stuff with this light is great with lots of flexibility and it will save me time in set up as well. I usually switch hairs to ubersurface and scroll and scroll and scroll and turn ao off but you can't do that with everything (depending on wherher you're using a special shader you want to keep). Besides you can keep a bit of AO if you want with AdvAmbient while still speeding up the render.

I've already right-clicked on its thumbnail and created a custom action which Studio immediately added to my Scripts menu. Now the light is just one click away.

Muon Quark

Two ambient lights. One set to specular only. The other left the was it was right out of the box except for ao samples and ao max error. I raised ao samples to 160 and lowered ao max error to .1. Wanted to clear up the skin a little more.

JOdel

Well, DAZ just lost you a sale.

I didn't see this thread, so my first view of the product was when it launched. I liked the look of it, purchased it and found that DAZ took my money and won't give me access to my purchase.

I flatly refuse to use, or even have DIM. I cannot see any manner in which the method of download should affect the ability to use a product.

I have asked DAZ for my money back.

Sorry, but I'm not playing, and I am *very much* hoping that this is not writing on the wall. Because if this is a first shot across the bow to FORCE everyone ton use DIM in order to purchase DAZ products I am very much Not Amused.

Rogerbee

Storypilot said:

I don't mean to irritate anybody, since I know people have various reasons for not using DIM, but anyone eager to download the light—you could use DIM to download ONLY the light, and not have DIM install (uncheck "install after download" box on the main screen). You'd get ONLY the zip for the light, and have DIM do nothing else. Then you could just never use DIM again if you like, and do with the zip just exactly what you would normally do, moving it to another machine, manually placing, etc.

And nice renders Vaskania and ryemac3!

Nice thought,

Still, I'm not desperate for it and I doubt we'll be kept waiting for a fix beyond Monday, several of us have filed support tickets so it's not like it'll go unnoticed.

CHEERS!

TJohn

dbbdaniel said:

I was able to get the controls for the Adv. Amb. Light after adding a "ShaderLight" to the scene. I'm not an advance user yet so I do appreciate your advice!!
dbb

I'm not an advance user either, LOL. Glad I could help. :)

Spit

Muon Quark said:

Two ambient lights. One set to specular only. The other left the was it was right out of the box except for ao samples and ao max error. I raised ao samples to 160 and lowered ao max error to .1. Wanted to clear up the skin a little more.

That is really really lovely. Amazing when you think about it with only one diffuse.

Sisca

JOdel said:

Well, DAZ just lost you a sale.

I didn't see this thread, so my first view of the product was when it launched. I liked the look of it, purchased it and found that DAZ took my money and won't give me access to my purchase.

I flatly refuse to use, or even have DIM. I cannot see any manner in which the method of download should affect the ability to use a product.

I have asked DAZ for my money back.

Sorry, but I'm not playing, and I am *very much* hoping that this is not writing on the wall. Because if this is a first shot across the bow to FORCE everyone ton use DIM in order to purchase DAZ products I am very much Not Amused.

So your willing to wait until Tuesday or Wednesday to get your money back but not willing to wait until Monday for them to fix the manual download?

I understand the wanting what you paid for when you paid for it, really I do. However, sometimes glitches happen, mistakes are made and it might actually take time to correct those. Since this is the only new product that I'm aware of that doesn't have the manual download I seriously doubt that this is the start of them forcing everyone to use DIM. If that was the case I'm sure they'd do it just like they did when the got rid of the .exe files and announce it in advance. Doing 1 product at a time seems like a lot more work for them.

On Wednesday of this week I had the get kicked out of PC because a store credit was issued bug hit me. I think it's finally fixed as of last night - at least I'm seeing the proper prices and can see the members only section of the forums - but I've gotten no official confirmation that it's fixed. The only thing I've gotten was an email from Britney saying they were working on issues as fast as they could but due to issues with the sale last month as well as the complications that this sale is causing they're seeing a lot of tickets right now.

Maybe it's because I've worked in support before but I understand that sometimes it takes longer than you think it should to get things resolved.

What I don't really understand is the absolute hatred some people have for DIM. Still, it's your right not to use it, and I'm not going to try and convince anyone to do so, I just don't understand it.

TJohn

Rogerbee said:

Storypilot said:

I don't mean to irritate anybody, since I know people have various reasons for not using DIM, but anyone eager to download the light—you could use DIM to download ONLY the light, and not have DIM install (uncheck "install after download" box on the main screen). You'd get ONLY the zip for the light, and have DIM do nothing else. Then you could just never use DIM again if you like, and do with the zip just exactly what you would normally do, moving it to another machine, manually placing, etc.

And nice renders Vaskania and ryemac3!

Nice thought,

Still, I'm not desperate for it and I doubt we'll be kept waiting for a fix beyond Monday, several of us have filed support tickets so it's not like it'll go unnoticed.

CHEERS!
Britney Creek and the crew are current swamped with tickets (following the PA Sale with the PC Anniversary Sale would definitely have caused a ticket blizzard), but they have never failed to eventually work things out for me in the past.
And for the record, no one wants to "hurry up and wait" less than I do. And I have a ticket in, too (unrelated to the product in this discussion thread).
I feel for Age Of Armor, who has made a wonderful product that is currently inaccessible to some who have purchased it, something which is out of AOA's control. Cancelling this order will hurt AOA more than it will DAZ, as it is a PA item, and every sale lost will mean a smaller payday for the creator; DAZ can absorb the loss without much pain, though.
Just my $0.02.

Rogerbee

Thanks for the clarification, I hadn't realised there where that many tickets flying around, ah well, they'll get to it when they get to it.

CHEERS!

Muon Quark

Spit said:

Muon Quark said:

Two ambient lights. One set to specular only. The other left the was it was right out of the box except for ao samples and ao max error. I raised ao samples to 160 and lowered ao max error to .1. Wanted to clear up the skin a little more.

That is really really lovely. Amazing when you think about it with only one diffuse.

Thanks. :-)

They work similar to the uberenvironment2 but they are faster and have more options IMO.

I absolutely adore the mushrooms in your picture above. May I ask where you got them?

SickleYield

I'm looking at the documentation, but I'm having trouble getting the light to render falloff at all with just one of these in a scene. So far:

Shadows off: Light behaves like a UE light regardless of spot, distant, or ambient setting. No real shadows. No falloff.
Shadows raytraced: Render is completely black.

Setting the falloff slider to any value has zero effect on this. What is going on? Is this an installation error issue?

Supercope

Age of Armour said:

Thanks for the support everyone and it is great to see the great renders. Sorry to hear about the manual download not showing up. Hopefully DAZ can fix that soon.

Supercope said:

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/index.php?&ACT=50&fid=4&aid=91257_10DNkqBLyiX2H9Vpp8eL&board_id=1

Sorry to go off topic a bit, but what are the clothes (especially the jeans) and shoes in the above promo? Thank you!

The product looks awesome, BTW!

Those are from 3dUniverse:

The shirt is the Boat-Neck T that comes with Kimberly http://www.daz3d.com/kimberly-for-genesis-accessories
The Jeans are from the Jason accessories http://www.daz3d.com/jason-for-genesis-clothing
Shoes are Amy's http://www.daz3d.com/toon-amy-for-genesis-accessories-1

I really like that whole line of clothing he did for Genesis... and the characters too. The clothing looks great with his characters but also works wonderfully for everyday, non-toon people.

Awesome! Thanks for getting back to me!

TJohn

SickleYield said:

I'm looking at the documentation, but I'm having trouble getting the light to render falloff at all with just one of these in a scene. So far:

Shadows off: Light behaves like a UE light regardless of spot, distant, or ambient setting. No real shadows. No falloff.
Shadows raytraced: Render is completely black.

Setting the falloff slider to any value has zero effect on this. What is going on? Is this an installation error issue?

Shadows on renders black for me as well.
Have you tried lowering the Light Radius (meters) setting? Your scene may be smaller than the 10 meter default setting for the radius.

Jabba

Yessss... turns out I was just rushing too much earlier - I had put "Set Light Strength With Surface Ambient Strength" on, but getting results I was expecting when I set it to off.

Lissa_xyz

Spit said:

Vaskania: Lovely!

And nice renders Vaskania and ryemac3!

Thanks. :)

Jabba

tjohn said:

SickleYield said:

I'm looking at the documentation, but I'm having trouble getting the light to render falloff at all with just one of these in a scene. So far:

Shadows off: Light behaves like a UE light regardless of spot, distant, or ambient setting. No real shadows. No falloff.
Shadows raytraced: Render is completely black.

Setting the falloff slider to any value has zero effect on this. What is going on? Is this an installation error issue?

Shadows on renders black for me as well.
Have you tried lowering the Light Radius (meters) setting? Your scene may be smaller than the 10 meter default setting for the radius.
Generally speaking, I'm finding good results reducing ambient light to less than 50% intensity.

I don't think it'll work inside a concealed primitive (surfaces pointing outwards), but I could be wrong about that.

Do your other lights like you normally would (whatever shadow settings you prefer etc)
For falloff with ambient light, make sure you have a value greater than zero in the "Light Radius", and the higher the "Falloff Blend" value, the bigger the gradient you will see.

here's a test scene and settings I used for it...

Spit

Muon Quark said:

Spit said:

Muon Quark said:

Two ambient lights. One set to specular only. The other left the was it was right out of the box except for ao samples and ao max error. I raised ao samples to 160 and lowered ao max error to .1. Wanted to clear up the skin a little more.

That is really really lovely. Amazing when you think about it with only one diffuse.

Thanks. :-)

They work similar to the uberenvironment2 but they are faster and have more options IMO.

I absolutely adore the mushrooms in your picture above. May I ask where you got them?

The mushrooms are new by Sveva over at the R place. There's stuff in there that only works in Poser I think and I forgot to play with the two little 'lights'. But onward anyway. Lovely shroom shapes. Lunchlady also put out a pose set for V4 that goes with it and contains poses for SQUEE!

[Hope I'm not in trouble now.]

Rifful

SickleYield said:

I'm looking at the documentation, but I'm having trouble getting the light to render falloff at all with just one of these in a scene. So far:

Shadows off: Light behaves like a UE light regardless of spot, distant, or ambient setting. No real shadows. No falloff.
Shadows raytraced: Render is completely black.

Setting the falloff slider to any value has zero effect on this. What is going on? Is this an installation error issue?

I havent tested it by itself, but It feels to me like what you are seeing, too. Im still trying to get a handle on how this light works in real situations, and it doesn't feel like the way the manual describes so far. But it's probably just me.

I wish the fall-off had an indicator like a linear point, because preview is awful for me usually, no help at all. And I'm usually trying to use this new light in a subtle way, so its hard to tell whats what.

Age of Armour

Hi everyone,

I've contacted another person at DAZ who has a habit of working long hours and weekends to see if he could get the download to show up for non-DIM users. He is not on regularly scheduled to work weekend though so I am not sure if he will be able to address it until Monday.

I received a few notices about install issues. If you only see 2 parameters on the light then it did not install correctly. I don't yet know why the installer is working most of the time but not installing properly in a few cases but there is a manual fix.

There are 4 files which do all the work of the light. Because of how DS reads shader scripts, these files must be in the Admin User's AppData folder, not the Content or My Library folder.

Under C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\DAZ 3D\Studio4\scripts\support\AgeOfArmour\Light
there needs to be:
AoA_AOLightAttribs.dsa
AoA_AOLightDef.dsa
AoA_AOLightParams.dsa

Under C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\DAZ 3D\Studio4\shaders\AgeOfArmour\Light
there needs to be a file named AoA_AOLight.sdl

Those are for Windows users. I'm not sure what the equivalent of AppData is for a Mac. Any Mac users want to chime in?

Another issue to be aware of is the Shadow Type setting. This is normally hidden and should not be changed from the default "None"
That parameter is for DS's built in directional shadows and is auto generated by DS when a light loads into the scene. I could not remove or lock it. The best I could do was to hide it. The renderizer setting should also be kept at the default.

Age of Armour

cjdean said:

SickleYield said:

I'm looking at the documentation, but I'm having trouble getting the light to render falloff at all with just one of these in a scene. So far:

Shadows off: Light behaves like a UE light regardless of spot, distant, or ambient setting. No real shadows. No falloff.
Shadows raytraced: Render is completely black.

Setting the falloff slider to any value has zero effect on this. What is going on? Is this an installation error issue?

I havent tested it by itself, but It feels to me like what you are seeing, too. Im still trying to get a handle on how this light works in real situations, and it doesn't feel like the way the manual describes so far. But it's probably just me.

Try a simple scene with a large ground plane (about 10 meters square) so it is easy to see the falloff effect, set the Light color to white, falloff color to black, Falloff radius to 1 meter and the falloff blend to 100%. Is the effect is apparent? if not please let me know so I can try to track down the issue.

I wish the fall-off had an indicator like a linear point, because preview is awful for me usually, no help at all. And I'm usually trying to use this new light in a subtle way, so its hard to tell whats what.

Great suggestion. No promises I can add that feature but I will definitely look into it.

DAZ sent me a reply and is aware of the installer not appearing in the downloads. They are seeing what they can do to get it fixed.

Tjeb

Thanks for intervening AoA, there is now a download button. (Sunday 06:50 AM Western-European Time)

Rogerbee

Thanks for getting the installer files fixed, I've now downloaded and installed the lights. Thing is, I'm pretty certain I've unzipped everything to where you said to put it, but, when I load the light and look at the parameter settings, the Renderizer settings aren't showing and neither are the Shadow settings.

I've attached screenshots of the file locations as I'm not sure where I've gone wrong

CHEERS!

EDIT:

I looked at a screenshot further up the page and his parameter settings don't show the renderizer or shadow settings either, is this normal for users as opposed to programmers!?

Rogerbee

A shot of my parameters.

CHEERS!

Jabba

same here actually, light, occlusion, lighting control... i installed via DIM, manually moved files as per earlier advice but shadow, renderizer don't show in parameters.

Everything seems to be working fine, just that the settings we shouldn't change aren't showing (unless renderizer is something we're meant to be able to access and adjust).

***edit*** d'oh, I had them all along but needed to show hidden properties (thank you sioc!)

Rogerbee

Perhaps brokered artists have different versions of DS to us mere mortals.

CHEERS!

Jabba

Rogerbee said:

Perhaps brokered artists have different versions of DS to us mere mortals.

CHEERS!

LOL, yeah, got all the stuff we thought wasn't possible. Just had a thought - might need to delete the old files rather than just copy to new location.