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It may well be that your Valentina database was starting to corrupt. Had you customised it? if so, uninstall PostgreSQL, with DS closed, then open DS, from the Content Library pane's option menu (lined button in the top corner) choose Content DB Maintenance, check export User Data and click Accept. Close DS. Install PosergreSQL. Start DS, go tot the Content DB Maintenance dialogue again and choose Import Metadata, in the dialogue make sur that you check the option to include user data.
The problem was that the PostgreSQL install that is available for download now [I had never previouslu installed it] does not work correctly, it fails to create a needed role and every single sql statement after that errors out.
There was just one missing step in your suggested course of action, whcih was to execute Content Db Maint / Reset database after starting DS 4.7 with the new CMS and no content data; that recreates the sql database correctly and the Re-import subsequently works. Thanks for your help, and to Christina at the help desk for the missing step.
It sure would be better if the installer actually worked....
Any particular reason why you used the standalone installer, and not via DIM?
No worries, my friend :) I would spend a bit too much time in post making sure I got rid of those halos when I saw them (probably would have been easier if I'd used that tool instead....).
In any case, for all of us wondering about this, I finished a test render in 4.7 just now that I could directly compare to an identical previous render from 4.6... I wanted to see the new fix in action for myself, and I'm delighted that it works as advertised. (It's maybe not the most egregious example, but it's one I had the scene file handy for, and I remembered it had the issue).
Both of these were rendered with same settings against empty backgrounds with a dark viewport color and saved as PNGs, then overlayed on a white background in post. In the one from 4.6, there's the dark halo on the edge, and in the one from 4.7, ta-da... no halo. A clean edge. Yay.
(showing regular size, and zoomed 300%)
Cross-posted
We've got a definition confusion here. Backdrop vs background vs viewport background? We had only one background up to this point, and now we have three?
If I want to have an image behind my scene which definition is it loaded into? The backdrop or the background?
You just said whether the backdrop is included or not you will NOT get haloing? So where's the haloing in the example I saw coming from?
Also selecting the tab also means you have to have the right options already selected inside the tab. That is in no way as quick. I want my icon back. :( Seriously.
There's the backdrop - which can be a solid colour or an image, can render or not, and is controlled from the Environment pane - and there's the viewport background colour - which doesn't render at all. So an image always goes into the backdrop via the Environment pane. You will get an unhaloed alpha channel if there's no backdrop or if the backdrop is set not to render; if there's a backdrop and it's set to render then the alpha will be solid white.
Still can't get Reality 2.5 to show up anyone else having this issue?
Okay, I see what you mean and see it (just barely) along the edges in my examples where white meets white. Honestly it's not nearly as bad as in the days of old with lower resolution. But we do want perfection.
Your examples use PNG, is it the same with TIF?
Any particular reason why you used the standalone installer, and not via DIM?
Perhaps like some of us he does not care for DIM?
So I have to change how I do things now. Render with a picture in back and get no alpha for my scene, or render with no backdrop to get the alpha. Or do BOTH.
The way it is now I render with a background image visible and still get an alpha for my scene. If I want to switch backgrounds or layer something in between my scene and image after the fact, I cannot do it unless I've done TWO renders.
To fix one thing (which to me is quite minor now with the resolutions we work with and easy to 'fix') you broke another.
Greetings,
When you rendered with a background image visible and an alpha you got fringing in your renders, especially at translucency points and (I believe) anti-alias points. This does away with that fringing, at the minor expense of making something that was rarely used, i.e. a background image with (essentially) zero in the alpha channel, a little more difficult. I would be mildly interested to know what value a backdrop with a zero alpha was, that couldn't be replicated with the new tools, but the elimination of fringing is a huge win.
I wonder if you promoted your background images to TIFF files, set the alpha channel to zero, then used them as backgrounds, if DAZ Studio would preserve that in the output file...might be interesting.
-- Morgan
Genesis Starter Essentials 11/8/2014 renamed a Scene Builder light set, updated metadata
Genesis 2 Female Starter Essentials 11/8/2014 added 2 outfits, 1 hair, ToXic Toulouse hair, 2 settings, 3 light sets, & poses
Genesis 2 Male Starter Essentials 11/8/2014 added lumberjack hair, clothing, props
Genesis 2 Female Starter Essentials PoserCF 11/8/2014 added ToXic Toulouse hair
Soooo - not necessary
I think there's something missing here and that is the fact that anti-aliasing is a GOOD thing and that only in special circumstances does it get in the way. If I render a scene against a background image I WANT that anti-aliasing to occur. It's not 'fringing' unless you use the alpha channel of the scene and lay it over an entirely different background (I use this method but if I switch backgrounds the differences in backgrounds are usually minor. If I add a layer in between and paint or paste something in I can catch anything that's terribly obvious.)
The way the new system works (if I'm understanding Richard) is if I render a scene with a background image visible I will not get an alpha of the scene part at all. If I want an alpha of the scene I have to do a separate render without the background. And this alpha will have 'no fringing' which means whatever I paste it on will look pasted on.
All I want is my alpha channel of the scene back when the background image is visible and if that can't be done without the dreaded 'fringing' that's perfectly fine, even preferred. Leave the 'no fringe' to renders without the background image visible.
I haven't had a problem with it—it was exactly as before and it launches fine. Is it showing as registered in your plugins? If so, could it just be that the icon has gone AWOL? You could try the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift L which runs Reality (that's what it is on mine, anyway, and I don't think I programmed it).
I think there's something missing here and that is the fact that anti-aliasing is a GOOD thing and that only in special circumstances does it get in the way. If I render a scene against a background image I WANT that anti-aliasing to occur. It's not 'fringing' unless you use the alpha channel of the scene and lay it over an entirely different background (I use this method but if I switch backgrounds the differences in backgrounds are usually minor. If I add a layer in between and paint or paste something in I can catch anything that's terribly obvious.)
The way the new system works (if I'm understanding Richard) is if I render a scene with a background image visible I will not get an alpha of the scene part at all. If I want an alpha of the scene I have to do a separate render without the background. And this alpha will have 'no fringing' which means whatever I paste it on will look pasted on.
All I want is my alpha channel of the scene back when the background image is visible and if that can't be done without the dreaded 'fringing' that's perfectly fine, even preferred. Leave the 'no fringe' to renders without the background image visible.
It should less pasted on as there will be residual colour from the old backdrop - you don't lose the translucent anti-aliased edge pixels, they are still there from the alpha channel - but they are translucent pixels purely of the object colour, not yet blended with any backdrop colour (that will happen in your image editor, when you add a backdrop layer to blend with).
I haven't had a problem with it—it was exactly as before and it launches fine. Is it showing as registered in your plugins? If so, could it just be that the icon has gone AWOL? You could try the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift L which runs Reality (that's what it is on mine, anyway, and I don't think I programmed it).
Keyboard shortcut didn't work, it's not in any of the drop down menus. I can't find it anywhere in the program after the update. I reran the 2.5 installer, i did a complete uninstall and reinstall of 2.5 even. I wonder if i'm installing it in the wrong location.
:\applications\DAZ 3D - 64bit\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4 is my main program install location.
Genesis Starter Essentials 11/8/2014 renamed a Scene Builder light set, updated metadata
Genesis 2 Female Starter Essentials 11/8/2014 added 2 outfits, 1 hair, ToXic Toulouse hair, 2 settings, 3 light sets, & poses
Genesis 2 Male Starter Essentials 11/8/2014 added lumberjack hair, clothing, props
Genesis 2 Female Starter Essentials PoserCF 11/8/2014 added ToXic Toulouse hair
Soooo - not necessary
Thank you for that information (and thanks to others who've helped) - I'll leave those updates till another month (or I find a free Wifi place with a speed greater than a dawdling tortoise).
I want to say thank you so much to the nice folks at DAZ for this update. Without the (brilliant) new IPR Render preview the image below, and so many more I've made already, would have taken ages to position the lights just were I want them. Now it's a snap to adjust and get near-immediate feedback where the shadows are falling.
So thanks again, and keep up the great work!
Keyboard shortcut didn't work, it's not in any of the drop down menus. I can't find it anywhere in the program after the update. I reran the 2.5 installer, i did a complete uninstall and reinstall of 2.5 even. I wonder if i'm installing it in the wrong location.
:\applications\DAZ 3D - 64bit\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4 is my main program install location.
I haven't installed Reality for a very long time, so I don't remember the process. The Reality plugin resides here on my computer:
C:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4\plugins\Reality which contains Reality_2.0.dll which is the plugin (I believe this is a .dylib file on a Mac).
Have you checked in "About Plugins" in DAZ, under the Help menu?
I pretty much like the way this is looking so far. Just one thing I've noticed it that on closing down I get a fatal error crash report. Anyone else getting this?
I upgraded to 4.7.0.12 but Gen x isn't working/showing in my tabs. Is there a place I need to go to register it so it will load? (It worked before the upgrade).
I also don't seem to have a 4.7 serial number in my DAZ serial number list. Should I register one of the other numbers?
It should less pasted on as there will be residual colour from the old backdrop - you don't lose the translucent anti-aliased edge pixels, they are still there from the alpha channel - but they are translucent pixels purely of the object colour, not yet blended with any backdrop colour (that will happen in your image editor, when you add a backdrop layer to blend with).
My bad. You're right about translucent pixels.
But I"m still left with these concerns:
(1) What's going on with TIF?
(2) I'd still like the alpha channel for a render with background image to contain only the scene elements. If that's impossible at least tell me why Studio can no longer do it? Because I now may have to do two renders instead of one.
(3) I'd like an Action for loading a background image so I can at least have it on my scripts menu.
Thanks
1) I couldn't see a difference between tiff and png, nott hat that proves much - could you post an example of what you are seeing?
2) If the image is output with the backdrop then it's not possible to have the unhaloed pixels (unless it's also output as a layered file) so, speculatively, it may be that they felt it better to avoid having two different behaviours in the way the masked section behaved.
3) I'm not seeing the difference between opening the Backdrop dialogue from a button and switching to the Environment pane - both leave you having to click the image selection/load button and browse to your image. It may well be possible to write a script that would open a file dialogue and load an image, if that's what you want, but I haven't poked at the new version to see what I can find (assuming the required functions are findable) though I didn't think there was a one-click way to load and assign a backdrop image in 4.6.
Try reinstalling, though that shouldn't be necessary.
Keyboard shortcut didn't work, it's not in any of the drop down menus. I can't find it anywhere in the program after the update. I reran the 2.5 installer, i did a complete uninstall and reinstall of 2.5 even. I wonder if i'm installing it in the wrong location.
:\applications\DAZ 3D - 64bit\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4 is my main program install location.
I haven't installed Reality for a very long time, so I don't remember the process. The Reality plugin resides here on my computer:
C:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4\plugins\Reality which contains Reality_2.0.dll which is the plugin (I believe this is a .dylib file on a Mac).
Have you checked in "About Plugins" in DAZ, under the Help menu?
Everything is there just nothing in the menus. I'll submit a ticket on monday and see what we can come up with. Thanks Hiro
Greetings,
:coolgrin: This is me, drooling at the idea of rendering directly to PSD, and being able to assign different objects to render to different output layers but with a single pass render. It's not that you could magically make an object disappear (that would require whatever was behind them to have been rendered as well) but that you could apply effects more specifically to individual objects as they're on their own layer.Re: the highlighted section:
But then I also would love to render to a widely supported PNG-like image format that supports a built-in Z-buffer so compositing can take into account "in front"/"behind". (Imagine character 'John' rendered with their arms around, like they're hugging someone. Then taking a render of a second character Jack standing still, and compositing automatically handling Johns arms being in front as well as their body being behind Jack by using their Z-buffer depth values appropriately.)
I suppose both of these things are possible if we render to (optionally multi-layer) OpenEXR files...dunno what image tools support those, but my understanding is that OpenEXR supports RGBA+Z *and* supports multiple layers.
I can dream...
-- Morgan
p.s. Fun fact I ran into while digging around this; alpha channels were invented at my alma mater, NYIT. I remember the CGL very fondly, and in the early 80's the folks there were super-nice to a young teenage brat running around checking out all the cool stuff being built. :)
That's a wonderful dream... :coolsmile:
Thanks for the specific responses, Richard.
(1). I haven't installed yet, long story. The example of junk around a tif I saw on page 11 is what I'm referring to.
(2). Okay, the explanation makes sense. Two different behaviors would be confusing though I certainly wouldn't mind. So I can save as layered psd then? I'll do almost anything to prevent having to do multiple renders on this older machine.
(3) Well, I guess for this specifically I'll wait until I actually have the version installed. I'll get back to you. or Not.
But then I also would love to render to a widely supported PNG-like image format that supports a built-in Z-buffer so compositing can take into account "in front"/"behind". (Imagine character 'John' rendered with their arms around, like they're hugging someone. Then taking a render of a second character Jack standing still, and compositing automatically handling Johns arms being in front as well as their body being behind Jack by using their Z-buffer depth values appropriately.)
I suppose both of these things are possible if we render to (optionally multi-layer) OpenEXR files...dunno what image tools support those, but my understanding is that OpenEXR supports RGBA+Z *and* supports multiple layers.
I can dream...
-- Morgan
p.s. Fun fact I ran into while digging around this; alpha channels were invented at my alma mater, NYIT. I remember the CGL very fondly, and in the early 80's the folks there were super-nice to a young teenage brat running around checking out all the cool stuff being built. :)
So this is all your fault? Sounds good except the transition will take years. Anyway I don't know why you love PNG so much. I much prefer a format with a real alpha channel. ::shrug:: The format wars were twenty years ago. Nobody won.
Thanks for the specific responses, Richard.
(1). I haven't installed yet, long story. The example of junk around a tif I saw on page 11 is what I'm referring to.
(2). Okay, the explanation makes sense. Two different behaviors would be confusing though I certainly wouldn't mind. So I can save as layered psd then? I'll do almost anything to prevent having to do multiple renders on this older machine.
(3) Well, I guess for this specifically I'll wait until I actually have the version installed. I'll get back to you. or Not.
Sorry, no rendering to layered files - I meant if we had that it would offer a solution.
Do you have to do two renders? Can't you just layer the render with alpha over a copy of the original backdrop file for the same result?