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Thank you for confirming that. Since it took 17 years for the Blender devs to give it a decent interface, I guess I can wait another four or five until that gets fixed. ;)
I feel you... there was a similar argument for right-click-to-select as well. That's what happens when you let the programmers design the interface.
clearly not just a blender thing
--ms
@SnowSultan Not sure if this may help. If you go to edit mode you can select geometry based on materials that's some sort of "surface selection". I agree the material manager in blender is to be improved and personally I can't understand why they missed it in 2.8 that was everything about workflow so materials are a key point there.
Then as usual Thomas comes to the rescue and provides some better tools.
https://diffeomorphic.blogspot.com/2020/04/mini-material-editor-revisited.html
Yes indeed, every project needs those who think like programmers and those who think like artists because you'll have to look high and low for someone who can do both.
Thanks for those links Padone, good stuff to know. I've decided not to make a full switch to Blender for now, but if have a moment, could you perhaps share the proper import and export settings for getting a prop or figure out of Studio, into Blender for morphing, and back to Studio? I pretty much know what has to be done (export as OBJ at base resolution, don't add or subtract any polygons or resize, export back as OBJ, then use Morph Loader Pro to apply it), but I'm reading different directions for which options to leave checked and some settings are different or added in 2.8x. Sorry to bother you with that, hope it's not too much trouble.
Ha, yeh over the years it's caught me out a time or two.
@SnowSultan Technically to make a morph it is enough to export and import back the geometry information without changing the vertex order. Everything else is not needed. Pay attention to G8 figures since the eyelashes are extra figures so they need to be exported separately. That's what the "ignore invisible nodes" option is for. Then I prefer to work in blender with blender units so I export and import back with the blender scale, but that's optional.
Below the settings, I included polylines just in case: daz export, blender import, blender export, daz import.
Maybe I am misunderstanding your difficulty, but you could create a vertex group named after each material ('surface'). For this purpose, they are roughly equivalent to a selection set in DS. You can then select any vertex group and (re-)apply any material you want. A bit tedious to set them up, but it could be done with a Python script.
Blender 2.83 is due for release in a few days, and I've been looking at the render speeds.
I'd done some tests in 2.82 between my 980ti and Threadripper 1950x
Blender 2.82a
980ti
512 x 512- 3:32.07, 3:27.98, 3:28.58, 3:28.59
256 x 256- 3:59.65, 3:56.46
Threadripper 1950x
16 x 16 3:45.01, 3:44.03, 3:47.64
32 x 32 3:40.43, 3:37.69, 3:27.44, 3:34.30, 3:39.22, 3:35.86, 3:37.06, 3:38.85, 3:35.22, 3:36.28, 3:35.46
64 x 64 3:39.01, 3:34.61, 3:33.08, 3:34.83, 3:33.27, 3:32.45, 3:33.89, 3:34.80, 3:32.60, 3:35.44, 3:36.85
128 x 128 3:40.50, 3:37.64, 3:38.46, 3:38.69
I was surprised that the threadripper actually beat the 980ti once, but am wondering if I misread as no other renders have come that close; although the difference certainly isn't that great.
I did a larger number of tests for tile size 32 and 64 due to the closeness of the results. 64 just edges it, but it is scene dependant so may actually be better to use 32 at first. On the 980ti, 512 was easily the best
Blender 2.83 nightly build
980ti
512 x 512 2:31.21, 2:31.13, 2:27.25, 2:27.98
256 x 256 2:56.71
Threadripper 1950x
32 x 32 2:07.48, 2:07.45, 2:08.10, 2:04.80
64 x 64 2:06.42, 2:05.64, 2:07.81, 2:09.05
512 x 512 6:24.25
BMW Test
980ti 1:44.85, 1:45.36, 145.39
1950x 1:07.87, 1:08.52, 109.30, 1:10.30, 1:10.32
Yes, the threadripper was faster than the 980ti; I suspect that this will vary, depending on the scene makeup, which is why I decided to run the long-standing MikePan BMW test. The only change I made to the Mike Pan test was to enable Adaptive Sampling, new in 2.83; the image is taken from my personal scene I was rendering. I'm putting together a scene I can try and compare between Iray and Cycles.
All a matter of opinion.
I liked 2.5 onwards, although am fully on board with thinking 2.49 and prior sucked.
What version of Diffeomorphic does the hair now work in?
Thank you very much for those examples Padone. 10000% percent import on the morph? Wow, didn't expect that.
Of course nicstt, every interface is a matter of opinion. If I'd been using Blender longer, I probably wouldn't have minded pre-2.8 that much. Right-click to select was insane though. ;)
@nicstt Particles hair should work both in the stable and development version in blender 2.79 and 2.82a. It was fixed gen 9 2020.
https://bitbucket.org/Diffeomorphic/import-daz/issues/8/hair-to-particles-still-broken-in-28x
There's been a suggestion for a dedicated forum for the Diffeomporphic plugin - Thomas seems to agree that it would be a good idea. I think that would help a lot for those of us who would like to find out more but are not at the advanced level of someome like @Padone. I hope it happens.
Thomas's remark in the forum is funny: "I don’t really understand how this depsgraph thing works,"
My god, how many times I have said that, verbatim.
Oh God, I remember unsuccessfully trying to learn blender 2.49. and while I definitely like the new changes, 2.8 is definitely closer to the UI of 2.5 than 2.5 was to 2.49
2.8:
is still very much in the same univers as 2.5:
...and then theres 2.49 and before...
who thoght that giant horizontal panel was okay? and this isnt even as cluttered and terrifying as it could get
looking at whatever this is makes me want to cry a little
yeh
it never made sense; i struggled to do anything. 2.5 turned up and it was just easy. Of course, I like shortcuts, but they were there in 2.49, they just were only part of the story.
I remember trying out milkshape because of how 2.49 irritated me.
ok, I'll give it a try tomorrow - later today.
@marble Not a dedicated forum but there's an official discussion at blenderartists that's maintained by Thomas. Then of course the repository that's for bugs but also used for technical help. Here on daz I'm maintaining a little discussion where I update the new features in the first post but I've not much time to help.
https://bitbucket.org/Diffeomorphic/import-daz/issues?status=new&status=open
https://blenderartists.org/t/daz-importer/684697/617
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/389931/true-iray-skins-for-blender-are-on-the-way/p1
I was reading some of the comments in the Issues section and happened across this one:
https://bitbucket.org/Diffeomorphic/import-daz/issues/90/faq-or-forum-for-the-plugin
Quote:
I may have missed it, but is there a way of matching camera views between studio and blender - other than the mark one eyeball.
@nicstt The plugin already imports cameras. This is also recently improved.
https://bitbucket.org/Diffeomorphic/import-daz/issues/75/better-cameras
Ha, thanks; I've not bothered trying.
Could I just import a camera then; just wanting the same camera angle.
No matter; after looking at your link, I'll see manually changing the Studio camera to matched Blender's works.
(I'm setting up scenes in Blender, but atm I'm comparing as much as possible the speed of the two render engines.
What's surprising is that my Threadripper out performs the 980ti in 2.83; it is comparable in 2.82. In Studio, however, Iray renders in about 2/3 of the time of the CPU.)
Hmm, sad to say not working so well, or certainly not as show in the docs. Blender 2.82 (2.82.7) and dev version of DAZ Importer plugin as of 18 May 2020.
That's what I get andya.
I've been looking at the beta 1.1.2; the new skin shader seems to be much harder to tone it down from a tanned look; I'd customised the previous one, but this is so far resisting my efforts.
Edit:
Hmm, I might be able to work with the mix shader with the factor set to 0.750
Hello everyone,
this is probably not the right place for this question so please forgive me, and feel free to point me to where I need to be for this information... I recently upgraded my Mac OS to Catalina (10.15.5) and my Carrara Pro 8.1 no longer works under this new OS. So, I'm debating on finding an alternative software -- whatever is the closest in interface & function to Carrara Pro. That being said, is Blender a good (and close) alternate, or should I consider something else? I've been a long-time Carrara user (even back to RayDream Studio) so I'm looking for the most painless transition possible.
Again, apologies for asking here... if I need to ask somehere else in the forum, please let me know.
Thanks!
Keith
I'd try asking in Carrara forum or Blender Artists; although I've been using Blender for years, I've never used Carrara.
It's 3D software, painless it isn't going to be. :)
I'd still take the trouble to learn the shortcuts if you decide to go to Blender; you definitely don't need them, but like any sortware, it can often speed up processes.
I would guess that anything you can do in Carrera, Blender can do, and so can any other 3D software. One of Blender's strengths is its numerous and often brilliant add-ons; the vast majority are free, and it's rare to see expensive ones.
can't dig it up now, but there's a 'carrara-izing blender' thread somewhere back in the carrara forums (2 years or so?) that described how to re-map some of the blender functions to match your carrara habits. I think it's also mirrored/consolidated over at carrara-cafe.com.
--ms
Thanks for sharing your perf comparisons between CPU and GPU.
I also saw a Cycles benchmark where Threadripper 3970x outperformed 2070. (but slightly slower than 2070 Super) - https://opendata.blender.org/
This was pre 2.83. So Threadripper 3970x may even beat 2070 Super in 2.83.
Makes me think that CPU rendering with Threadripper is the ultimate solution for large scenes that exceed VRAM limit.
(if you are rendering in Blender Cycles, not in Iray)
Also for those interested, I'm still working on adding Iray Uber Shader integration to a custom Blender build which is planned to be made public by the end of this year.
Nvidia guy was demonstating his workflow (etc?); he had 4 2080ti and a 3990x (I think), and it was about the same speed as one 2080ti and marginally better on occasions.
I'm not sold on the graphics card is better scenario- especially as the folks wanting you to buy em are beating that drum.
I'm not really interested in creating the Iray look; Im going for PBR, and then going for a look im happy with. All things being equal, a scene should look the same regardless of render engine - otherwise it isn't physically based. :)
... And yeh, even though it's faster in 2.83, I don't use the CPU unless I have to, but last night I had to as wouldn't fit on the card; (I'd rather wear out the GPU - arguably cheaper to replace as I'd be looking to upgrade to a 3000 series threadripper - oh the financial pain.)
Now Cycles is supposed to have some version of our of core rendering I believe; I'm wondering if I can have it drop to CPU if required, otherwise just use GPU. I don't think so, as they have to be physically enabled in preferences.
Oh and using the same scene as previously,
Both (980ti & Threadripper)
64 x 64 2:34.25, 2:30.27 - gives a 40% (approx) reduction in render time.
Oh and I much prefer the Intel denoiser, performs way better (appearance-wise) than either Blender's default or the Iray one we have. The RTX one is supposed to be great, but that forces me to buy Nvidia, whereas the Intel denoiser (handled in post via compositin) is available for anyone.
I have a question more... but it's more a curiosity.
I am using the diffeomorphic tool now. It is satisfying, but there is a thing that I want to know just to completeness: is there a way to import the limits for the bones (or rigs)? You know... just to not having the character who bend his limbs as if they were broken.
As I said, I can perfectly survive without knowing it... I am pretty good at posing, but... you know: just to knowing it