Is there a way to get 4.12 to render like 4.8?
Kjartan
Posts: 11
I have recently had the opportunity to move from 4.8 to 4.12 and I can't get my renders to look right. My characters are either too red or too washed out and everyone looks plastic.
Is there a setting that I can tweak to make 4.12 render more like 4.8?
Failing that, is there a script or setting I can apply to my characters so they render correctly in the new engine?
Finally, failing that, does anyone know where I can get a safe copy of 4.8 (because short of dforce, I can't think of a reason that would mandate I use 4.12)?
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Comments
There were changes to how Iray handles skin in 4.9, I suppose that's what you're seeing?
(See this thread for the details: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/69709/daz-studio-4-9-daz-original-figure-skin-material-optimization/p1 )
No, there's no settings to tell Iray to behave like the version in 4.8 did.
Older versions of DS are not available anymore once a new version is released, so unless you have a backup somewhere you can't get it.
You could contact Daz3d through support https://www.daz3d.com/help/help-contact-us
If you explain why, they might give you a 4.8 version download ... as far as I heard, they sometimes do that.
Thanks, that's why. I was wondering, why older G3 character come with red skins.
IIRC there was a thread discussing what parameters to adjust at the time, I'll see if I can find it....
edit: actually, the post I was thinking of is quoted in the thread I already linked to: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/995167/#Comment_995167
I am not even sure why they changed it. With accessing daz 4.9 onward on friends' computers, they need 4x the RAM and a better CPU/GPU just to make their renders not crash while my mac running 4.8 on a radeon GPU and a processor made of cellotape and cautious optimism pops it out in an hour. I currently got a PC laptop that could run 4.12, but it has been a total wash. It's either not rendering right or crashing, so even if I could get the colors right, I am thinking I need a massively overpowered machine just to get scenes I could manage in 4.8 on the old mac.
That was the post I found, but while it fixed the color, it made my characters plastic-like. I kept finding myself in a loop of character is red, fix that and character is plastic, fix that and character is washed out, fix that and character is red again.
They (as in Nvidia, not Daz) changed it because it wasn't working properly: there was a bug in how Iray handled subsurface scattering in the versions used in DS 4.8, which they fixed in the version used in 4.9.
Iray materials made for 4.8 were adjusted to work around that bug, so once the bug was fixed they didn't give the same results anymore.
I was able to find and download Daz Studio 4.5; 3.x, and 2.x from my product library: See aatached image.
My 4.12 Renders in iray in 1 minute not over 2 minutes . I find the DAZ graphic user interface great.
The best renders using daz is best with core i5, i7 or i9 with a strong video card, SSD, you will get great results.
DS2, 3 and 4 are considered different programs. People who have them in their product library (ie who got them through the store, even if it was for free) can indeed still download the latest version of DS2 and DS3.
And yes, there's one version of 4.5 still available, IIRC it's a part of the SDK download. But besides that only the latest version of the general release and of the beta are available for DS4.
This user is using a mac.
Here are some scripts that may help>>
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/139326/irayto3delight-conversion-script/p1
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/19806/
https://diffeomorphic.blogspot.com/p/daz-importer-version-14.html
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if you're using iray .. the card is all that matters.. your working scene is in ram and the render is in the gpu and gram .
his mac was 4.8 .. he got a pc laptop with 4.12 .. but there was no mention that I recall of what the video was because it's a laptop. although the iray result should be same whether it's in a nvida card or on the cpu.
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But might be worth checking some old completed renders and see have they display on the laptop screen...
In answer to the initial question, the various Iray smart converters by v3digitimes, or ultimate iray skin manager, might just do the trick.
https://www.daz3d.com/v3digitimes
there's also the various Convertit's by Vyktohria on rendo.
And?
i have a core 2 quad that renders in 3 minutes.
q8300 to be specific with 16GB of ddr3 10600u and an 8400gs 1GB card. optiplex 780.
I also have a pair of tesla k20s that take 3 days to render.
The c2q is just doing a t pose character, the teslas are doing way more complex scenes.
The render quality has nothing to do with the hardware being used, the hardware only determines the speed of the render.
Macs have used intel core series processors for going on a decade at this point. There are also E-GPU boxes that are compatible with macs, until apple updates the o.s. and breaks compatibility or nvidia just flips them the bird and doesn't develop drivers for them anymore.
Yes, there are some very simple tweeks to the Tone Mapping settings which will help you to get very, very nice renders from the latest DS version.
First, for that washed out look. Go to Render Settings->Tone Mapping and reduce the Gamma to 1.5-1.8. That will help a lot.
To remove some of the red in the image, go to Settings->Tone Mapping and set the White Point to Red=255, Green=255, Blue=235.
Here are a some Tone Mapping settings which I find useful an most renders:
White Point: Red=255, Green=255, Blue=235
Burn Highlights=0.15
Crush Blacks=0.4
Saturation=1.1
Gamma=1.8
Make a few presets and add them to your Scripts menu and/or one of your toolbars. You will likely find these presets getting used over and over.
Try it, you'll like it!