What is the Difference Between a Shader and a Shader Preset

carrie58

Just really puzzled about what is the difference between the two .......

AlmightyQUEST

To the best of my understanding, in simpler terms, the shader is the code that tells the render engine what the surface should look like. In DAZ Studio terms, "Iray Uber" is a shader. A shader preset saves the state of the parameters of a shader, and allows you to apply those settings to another surface using the same shader. And, just to complete the set, a materials preset saves the shader settings for multiple surfaces, based on the name of the surfaces.

Shader - what parameters are available to a surface

Shader preset - what values those parameters are set to

Highly simplified, but maybe a starting point to ask more questions?

It gets confusing because sometimes people refer to shaders when they mean shader presets, and this can even show up in the store.

Richard Haseltine

Both store the same information - the difference is in their scope: a Shader preset has one set of values, and can be applied to any selected surface on any selected object; a materials preset has one or more sets of values, each for a for named surface, and will modify only the surfaces with matching names on selected objects.

barbult

The poster asked about the difference between shader and shader preset. Bringing up materials preset adds some confusion here, I think.

Sevrin

AlmightyQUEST said:

 

It gets confusing because sometimes people refer to shaders when they mean shader presets, and this can even show up in the store.

Mostly this.  Shaders are presets by definition.

esha

Not really "by definition".

Like AlmightyQuest said: "the shader is the code that tells the render engine what the surface should look like"
So in DS we have the basic 3DL shader, more advanced 3DL shaders like UberSurface, the Iray Uber shader and other Iray shaders like Oso's Iridescent shader and many more.
Those really are shaders, they give you different sliders in the surface tab.

Shader presets, by definition, are made for a specific shader and change only the settings for the sliders in the shader. This is why many products called "Shader" really are just presets, because they load different maps and adjust the values but don't give you any new or different sliders.

On the other hand, shader presets often (not always) also load the shader in question and apply it to the surface before setting the values. So, while they do not add a new shader to your library they can add new dials to the selected surface, and so you can switch between 3DL and Iray by applying a shader preset. Some shader presets, though, will only change certain dials and not change the entire surface. It depends on how they are saved (full preset or partial).
... You see, the definitions are a bit fuzzy.

carrie58

Thank you  everyone  , that is just as clear as mud....(laughing) it's not you  really it's me but for example I do know that a "material"preset is like the skin texture for a figure,or a prop and will only work on that one item, a Shader if I understand you guys(or gals) right sets up how a surface should look under which ever render engine you are using ,and a Shader Preset can be used on anything to change the base texture .....?I think I got it ........

WendyLuvsCatz

Remember terms are software specific too

if refering to something other than DAZ studio the terms vary considerably 

I have faced this issue with people coming to Carrara for example and am certain Poser users, Bryce users, Blender users know this too well too when people expect stuff to work the same way, each software has its own conventions Poser stuff probably causes the most confusion to DAZ studio users as it uses material and pose files that kind of work in DAZ studio too.

carrie58

Well I should have specified I am using DAZ Studio ,but that is true ,when I first started using DS  figureing out the whole mat pose vs pose pose was interesting then realizeing that everything was set up and optimized for use in Poser ,was actually very confusing ,then finding there were a few DS material files for some things .......

AlmightyQUEST

So, in Studio, when you are looking at the surfaces panel, the shader determines what options are available in the panel to change what it looks like. A shader preset tells the shader what values should be set for those options.

Now, in Studio, when you are changing the shader, it will normally be changed with a preset, so that you have some useful default settings for the new options that get loaded.

Sven Dullah

AlmightyQUEST said:

So, in Studio, when you are looking at the surfaces panel, the shader determines what options are available in the panel to change what it looks like. A shader preset tells the shader what values should be set for those options.

 

Now, in Studio, when you are changing the shader, it will normally be changed with a preset, so that you have some useful default settings for the new options that get loaded.

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