Best shader sets for 3Delight?
FrankTheTank
Posts: 1,131
I'm having a hard time finding good general purpose shaders for 3Delight. I got spoiled by all the variieties of iray shaders, especially Mec4D's sets. Is there anything like this for 3DL? I recently switched to 3DL and I'm feeling kind of lost in regards to shaders. I currently just copy and paste surface properties from other stuff that I like. And sometimes I just load an iray shader, and use the Daz default shader to convert it to 3DL with mixed results.
But I wish there were some good general purpose 3DL shader sets, I have one for ground surfaces, and one for various stone, and one for carpet and tiles. But I would like some woods, wallpapers, metals, fabrics. etc. Searching for shaders just brings up iray stuff. Any longterm 3DL users care to recommend some must have sets?
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Well these are must haves for me:
https://www.daz3d.com/metalized-glass-shaders-for-daz-studio
https://www.daz3d.com/subsurface-gummy-plastic-shaders
https://www.daz3d.com/rock-grass-bundle
Here you can find some nice shader presets for wood, metal, rock, silk etc, very good stuff IMO
https://www.daz3d.com/eva1
Also useful:
https://www.daz3d.com/real-paint-for-daz-studio
https://www.daz3d.com/real-metals-for-daz-studio
https://www.daz3d.com/forbiddenwhispers#p=6
You can also DL pbr textures for free to make your own shader presets. Check for example Texture Haven, I pretty much make my own stuff using resources like that nowadays. I also have some wallpaper/fabric shader presets in my runtime, just can't recall the vendor atm;)
Some more:
https://www.daz3d.com/fun-with-yarn-nifty-knitting-shaders
https://www.daz3d.com/dg-toon-style-hair-shaders
https://www.daz3d.com/scale-shaders
https://www.daz3d.com/pweffect
https://www.daz3d.com/dld-stone-shaders-for-daz-studio
https://www.daz3d.com/pwghost
https://www.daz3d.com/wireframe-and-hologram-shaders
https://www.daz3d.com/ground-shaders-for-daz-studio
https://www.daz3d.com/idg-shiny-scales-shaders
https://www.daz3d.com/woodland-leaf-floors-daz-studio-shaders
https://www.daz3d.com/woodland-floors-daz-studio-shaders
The Fabricator and its add-ons are prime. And its texture tiles are useful for things not made of fabric, too. The tiles are also really easily scaled.
https://www.daz3d.com/the-fabricator
Check out the rest of the artist's store as well. The Gemologica pack is one of the best gem and jewelery metal packages for 3DL around, and the Pimp My Prop set is an excellent set of architecural shaders.
Somewhere in the old forums someone posted a set of directions for rolling your own shader presets to work within the basic Fabricator parameters. It was quite easy.
A bunch I own for 3DL (some have both 3DL and iray presets):
https://www.daz3d.com/subsurface-toolbox
https://www.daz3d.com/advanced-wood-shaders
https://www.daz3d.com/advanced-metal-shaders
https://www.daz3d.com/daz-studio-dirt-shaders
https://www.daz3d.com/let-it-snow-ds-shader
https://www.daz3d.com/tiler-shader-for-daz-studio
https://www.daz3d.com/grass-shader-for-daz-studio
https://www.daz3d.com/magical-granite-shader
https://www.daz3d.com/hand-knits-shader-presets-and-merchant-resource
https://www.daz3d.com/metalized-glass-shaders-for-daz-studio
https://www.daz3d.com/ingenious-rock-shaders
https://www.daz3d.com/phoebe-s-fancy-shaders-for-ds-and-poser
https://www.daz3d.com/nature-s-variance-shaders-and-props-for-daz-studio
https://www.daz3d.com/leather-factory-shaders-for-daz-studio
https://www.daz3d.com/underwater-relics-shaders
https://www.daz3d.com/subsurface-gummy-plastic-shaders
https://www.daz3d.com/dld-stone-shaders-for-daz-studio
https://www.daz3d.com/sculptural-genesis-ultra-fun-kit
https://www.daz3d.com/pwtoon
https://www.daz3d.com/pwcatch
https://www.daz3d.com/pwghost
There is also https://www.daz3d.com/aweshading-kit-10-for-daz-studio but it's not exactly click-and-render.
And while not strictly shaders, I've copied materials from this set: https://www.daz3d.com/wonderous-wares
From Renderosity, these are quite useful:
https://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/pd-metals-daz-studio-shaders/106810/
https://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/pd-dirtypretty-daz-studio-shaders/103910/
I have a bunch more in my DAZ wishlist, and I really should get around to buying them one of these days:
https://www.daz3d.com/rock-grass-bundle
https://www.daz3d.com/sparkles-for-studio
https://www.daz3d.com/ubersurface2-layered-shader-for-daz-studio
https://www.daz3d.com/gathering-moss-ds-shader
https://www.daz3d.com/visual-style-shaders
https://www.daz3d.com/gemologica
https://www.daz3d.com/shades-of-life-nature
https://www.daz3d.com/dg-shader-essentials-2
https://www.daz3d.com/fabulous-fabrics-silks-and-sheer
https://www.daz3d.com/hss-fabric-shaders-1-glamour
https://www.daz3d.com/dg-dual-layer-shader-architectural
https://www.daz3d.com/ground-shaders-for-daz-studio
Which one(s) were you referring to in this list? Thanks!
Uhm let's see... I own these:
https://www.daz3d.com/daz-studio-4-natural-ground-shaders
https://www.daz3d.com/daz-studio-4-grunged-shaders
https://www.daz3d.com/daz-studio-4-cliff-face-shaders
https://www.daz3d.com/vintage-tiles-and-carpet-shaders
https://www.daz3d.com/historical-masonry-daz-studio-shaders-vol-1
https://www.daz3d.com/woodland-leaf-floors-daz-studio-shaders
https://www.daz3d.com/woodland-floors-daz-studio-shaders
There are a couple more from forbiddenwhispers, probably could use them all:)
Wow, lots of great suggesttions. A lot of stuff to add to my wishlist and some to buy very soon. Thank you all.
I don't know whether the Fabricator add-ons work without the base Fabricator product. I can't think of any obvious reason why they won't, but I suspect a number of the options may be linked to some of the bump maps and other supporting files in the base package.
The add-ons are 1. Lacemaker -- which has an interesting system of transparency maps, 2. the Mach Pack, which is largely menswear textures, and some grunge textures (the artist who did Fabricator also did the hybrid grunge pack, which is a good deal older and not as flexible, but still useful), 3. Slikessence, which is all silks, all the time, 4. Totally Bazaar, ethnic patterns, this one came in two parts and was available as a bundle, and, 5. Ye Olde Cloth which was another 2-parter, historic fabrics from various eras and socio-economic levels.
Not a part of the Fabricator system but also excellent, are the same artist's Leatherize, which is pretty much self-explanitory, and Furify, which is one of the besty displacement fur shaders for 3DL around.
She worked with Fisty on the Gemologica package, and while we're at it, Fisty's Sparkles is another fancy fabric shader package which holds up favorably against pretty much anything that Iray can do.
Quite a few of these also have Poser versions. These were done back in gen4 era, and a lot of people used both programs back then.
One last thing, I negelected to ask about water. What are some good water shaders or maybe water props for 3DL? I have some older Stonemason sets for the big water props, but I was thinking more for stuff like: bathwater, making a convining glass of water, etc..
I always liked those: https://www.sharecg.com/v/82337/related/7/Material-and-Shader/Fistys-Liquids-DS-Shaders-Poser-MT5s
...I've found the Fabricator extremely valuable for either render engine. There are a a number of add on shader sets here in the store as well as freebie ones as well (Wilmap has several on her site, including lace).
However the Fabricator is dependent is on how clothing material zones are set up, so don't be surprised if some details (which are part of the original texture map and not a separate mesh or MAT zone) disappear.
...over at Rendo there is Flink's Water which is a set of different water textures and surfaces that can be used for streams lakes and open sea.
Thank you all for sharing this info on shading resources.
I'm not super experienced in this area as of yet, but I have done some shader replacement, and I've used some pbr textures from the following sites:
https://freepbr.com
https://cc0textures.com
I like these.
https://www.daz3d.com/real-paint-for-daz-studio
https://www.daz3d.com/real-metals-for-daz-studio
you might want to consider these as well.
https://www.daz3d.com/dld-stone-shaders-for-daz-studio
https://www.daz3d.com/dld-leather-shaders-for-daz-studio
https://www.daz3d.com/latex-shaders
https://www.daz3d.com/velvety-print-shaders
https://www.daz3d.com/cloth-shaders-vol-1-gingham
https://www.daz3d.com/tarnished-and-polished-shaders
https://www.daz3d.com/jeans-and-tees-shaders
https://www.daz3d.com/leather-factory-shaders-for-daz-studio
I also like the shaders included in the Genesis Supersuit and Supersuit Hero Pack.
https://www.daz3d.com/genesis-supersuit
https://www.daz3d.com/supersuit-hero-pack
At Renderosity, consider HFS Space Rover for Genesis by DarioFish, it has some nice scifi shaders.
If you want to use a physically based rendering workflow with 3DL you might want to look into aweSurface.
A side note for whoever might be interested:
There's a major awe Shading kit upgrade in the works, wowie has said it will be released "shortly". In addition, AFAIK, he will release his brand new aweHair shader, that uses the 3DL hair specular BRDF. He is also working on an awePrincipled shader that will be condensed to the bare essentials, as he put it. It uses a glossiness workflow, much like the ds default shader, so conversion should be easy. Atm it looks like this:
Interesting news, thanks :)
Shaders from supersuit and its expansions are great and very useful.
What's the "proper" way to apply pbr materials to something? And I do have awe.
Apply aweSurface base shader to the surface(s). Load the pbr textures into the corresponding surface channels using the browse function. Diffuse maps into diffuse color, roughness into specular rougness (possibly also into diffuse roughness), specular into specular strength, metallic into metalness, height maps can be used for both bump and/or displacement, normal maps into normal map (remember to turn normal on and adjust the strength), opacity maps into opacity strength (enable "multiply specular&reflection with opacity" if needed), adjust the settings to your liking, adjust the tiling values, and save as a shader preset for future use. Long story made short:)
AO/ambient occlusion maps aren't really needed, as aweSurface will produce GI/AO automatically. However they can still be useful for creating a gritty/dirt look when used with the coat layer, or inserted in diffuse strength.
Here I used the AO map in coat thickness to make it more gritty.
Thank you. I know I should spend more time learning to us awe, and to look at what you've done and how, as I have seen some of your renders in the awe, as they really show that 3DL can be a great rendering solution.
Feel free to ask anything awe or 3DL related in there;)
There's a refractive shader sold at 'Rosity (so I can't link it here) that does pretty good gemstones in both 3Delight and Iray, so long as you're patient enough to let it finish rendering and didn't set the raytrace too high. Just look for "Sinbad's Magic Gems." ;)
Oh yeah how did I forget to mention those, they are absolutely stunning:) Best caustic effect I've ever seen in 3Delight
Are there any shaders, whatnot that allow you to turn an object into a light source in 3delight, like iray has?
UberArea light shader. It's included in DS default resources.
Thank you, I'll look into that. Do you know if it can be used on ANY objects, including spheres, people, etc...?
Yes, you can apply it to any surface.
Edit: this is an old thread but you might find it useful: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/14536/tutorial-uber-area-lighting-the-basics/p1
You have aweSurface. The PT Arealight shader is included, and that is all I basically use to light all my scenes, no matter if portraits, outdoor, indoor, whatever:)
If you use the OmUber area light and want physically correct light falloff, set falloff on with a value of 2 and leave the start and end distances at zero. Crank up intensity to thousands;) And of course activate shadows.
Another emissive shader included in this product: https://www.daz3d.com/reflective-radiance-for-3delight. RR3 is basically a modified UberEnvironment light AFAIK, not very physically plausible but can be fun:) Actually it's not an emissive shader at all, it's the DS default with the ambient channel renamed to emissive LOL, it's the reflective light that provides the "magic".
Thank you and thank you.
Also, I finally got around to using the moon texture from solarsystemscope.com - what a happy resource that. My lighting question isn't for this shot, and you can see that I have light set coming down from the wrong direction, but so glad to have a good moon to use now.