How heavy is Dforce/Strand Hair compared to regular hair products?

novastrider

So I'm about to switch over to 4.11, but I'm still completely in the dark about Dforce/Strand hair and would love to hear as much experiences as I can from beta testers.

- I've gotten used to working on models in Iray preview mode, which is a bit slower but gets the best looking results. Hair tends to be a resource hog so I only add it at the last minute. This new Strand Hair thing seems pretty fast in the Daz tutorial video, but it doesn't show how heavy it is during pre-render and if live changing it on the spot is even possible. So how does it stack up to a regular hair product?

- Also how much slower does it (preview)render when Strands are covering just the top of the head vs covering the whole body with fur?
- And does it use a lot of RAM?
- Is it still possible or even useful to use your favorite hair shaders? Do OOT's hair textures for example still apply?

Thanks for any and all experiences shared!

AllenArt

As far as the strand hair goes, it takes a little bit longer to load for a render, but once loaded it renders as fast as any other hair. I do not have experience with dforce hair, tho I think it would probably be similar.

Laurie

Oso3D

I personally have found dynamic hair/strand hair faster than any of the similar things I've used in the past.

 

TykeyStudios

AllenArt said:

As far as the strand hair goes, it takes a little bit longer to load for a render, but once loaded it renders as fast as any other hair. I do not have experience with dforce hair, tho I think it would probably be similar.

Laurie

What about viewport viewing such as in texture mode or uh, that chalky gray mode? Ive looked everywhere for some sort of info like "you need this GPU, or system spec" to use this new hair stuff. I am very hesitant to upgrade if it's going to bring my computer or Studio to a screeching halt. I have to be careful with how much fibermesh hair I use in a scene, and LAMH is just useless to me. If this new strand hair is similar to compromising RAM, GPU, etc, then I'm probably just better off sticking with 4.10 and bypassing the hair stuff. Most of the hair will be for the ladies anyway.