Can you use LuxRender without Reality?
Scavenger
Posts: 2,674
I haven't tried renderers outside of 3Delight yet...
I've tried the 3Delight stand alone, but as Daz's Rib generation is broken, it only works sort of.
I'm curious about LuxRender (and Reality)...but Reality is rather pricey for a "i wonder if I'd like this" test. I know Reality does a lot of work making Daz and Lux work together, but can it be done manually?
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I don't know any way to do it, but there is also Luxus which is a bit cheaper : http://www.daz3d.com/luxus.
It also uses the Luxrender engine.
Theoretically, yes... but realistically? I doubt it...
There is no easy standard functionality in LuxRender for importing scenes. You need to convert geometry, materials and lights to something Lux can understand. There are tons of information on how that works in the LuxRender documentation, but it's not exactly a manual task to be undertaken by each user. There is a reason Reality exists and that a pro like Paolo Ciccione have spent thousands of hours perfecting it.
Reality is excellent value for money, so don't hesitate trying it out.
There are a few ways of using LuxRender
Blender plugin is AFIIK the only free way
or pose2lux if you have Poser
No, you can not use LuxRender directly out of DS without something to convert the shaders in 3Delight to shaders that LuxRender would understand. An .RIB file would be complete gibberish to LuxRender just as an .LXS would be total nonsense for any Renderman compliant (like 3Delight) rendering engine but Yes, Reality is not the only option for Daz Studio:
If you use DS 3 you can use the LuxrenderDS
http://www.luxrender.net/wiki/LuxRenderDS
LuxRenderDS is free but it only worked in Daz Studio 3, it will not work in Daz Studi 4 and if you don't already own 3 you can no longer obtain it and development for this plugin has more or less gone into the Bermuda Triangle. I think it's only Windows as well. I don't remember there being a Mac development for this, so Parallels or Bootcamp but not MacOS
Another option: You could export your entire scene from OBJ or FXB format, then import it into something like Blender and redo all your textures, set your lights and camera. This would be incredibly time consuming and difficult (even for an experienced Blender user) then you LuxRender out of Blender, that free too.
all that being said the money I spent on Reality was the best investment I ever made for 3D. Personally I think Reality the superior product for my workflow: it's an absolute workhorse, the interface is very efficient and the support is above and beyond what I expected. I could not produce realistic renders without it because it allows me to do the things in 3Delight and Firefly I could not do.
(Not sugar coated impression)
As for using Studio with Lux, All I've seen through the shopping windows is Luxus and Reality. Other methods, would require converting the daz scene to that other program (Gimp, Poser, Silo, Nuke, etc), and then exporting it from there to LuxRender.
The LuxRender interface is all new (if you've never used it), yes it has it's own interface. And each Luxus and Reality add there own NEW interface bits to Daz Studio. Ive had both for a while now, and never rendered a scene. Both Luxus and Reality use slightingly different surface&lights; program-socket-interfaces, etc. Luxus is mostly backed by a (translator missing) LuxRender website manual. Reality wont even let you get to the 'How to install' part of the manual, until you have got the thing to install and 'registered' it.
So, looking at that, I guess. Using Luxus can be openly discussed on the forums, and many do. I got Luxus into my computer within hours of purchase, thanks to many on this forum. Reality has a 'strange' tos that I still don't understand. It took quite some time to drag the "how to get this into my computer" out of someone, a month after I had purchased Reality (It was a hectic month tho). Enough of that, People have some how figured out how to install and use Reality, and they love using it.
Good news, There are things made to work with Luxus here at daz. And I get the vibe that Reality has a devoted backing constantly adding stuff to that surface catalog thing. And there are lots of tutorials as well, not all of them are free tho.
If you want to try something else free that is unbiased, there is Blender Cycles.
If you want your finance manager, family etc to kill me, try the Octane render standalone demo using obj import.
You cannot save anything but seeing it render unbiased in real time may make you want to pry gold fillings out of your grandads teeth to buy it.
there is no Octane for Mac unless you have Parallels or BootCamp running windows.
Reality was developed simultaneously on Mac and Windows. it's fully Mac supported and the developer is a Mac owner.
If all you want to do is see what Reality can do, surely the easiest way is to buy it, and then return it if you are not happy with the results (or is software ineligble for return?).
Due to the 20$ off purchases of 50$ or more offer today, you can get reality for just 30$ (if you add another very cheap product to the cart as well).
Not only is Octane limited to PC, it's also limited to nVidia graphic cards... since it uses nVidia's CUDA technology.
ah did not realize not Mac, knew limited to nVidia
standalone has Mac downloads BTW
think maybe just DAZ studio plugin not Mac
Yes, Octane standalone as well as the Poser plugin appears to have a Mac OS version.
The DAZ Studio plugin is PC only. It's in Beta still, so maybe the final release will have a Mac and Linux version...
Dose it at least come with an "Install guide" that is in Daz Studio language, and is not under Exclusive former-version-user lock-n-key?
Whoa, thanks for the heads up on this, I would never have noticed this coupon/deal if you hadn't mentioned. Allowed me to pick up PD Howler at a good discount :) I know that's slightly off topic but just wanted to say: Thanks!
Dose it at least come with an "Install guide" that is in Daz Studio language, and is not under Exclusive former-version-user lock-n-key?
Yes, Otoy has excellent manuals for Octane. The manuals for Octane standalone and all plugins can be found here: http://render.otoy.com/manuals/
For anyone interested, the manual for Reality 4 can be found here: http://preta3d.com/repository/Reality_docs/R4/Reality_Users_Guide.pdf
While I'm at it, the manual for Luxus for DS can be found here: http://docs.daz3d.com/lib/exe/fetch.php/public/read_me/index/15891/15891_luxus-manual.pdf
Oh, here is the manual for LuxBlend (LuxRender for Blender): http://www.luxrender.net/wiki/LuxBlend25_Manual
Thank you so much dustrider. I was aware that the Reality manual was 'Somewhere' in my computer after registering it in dasz studio. Having an 'Install Guide' that dose not require running the gauntlet will be so nice to others that just want to "give it a go" for the first time.
I didn't even know that PDF existed for Luxus, wow. That is a keeper. I watched a few tutorials, and was not looking forward to doing that much more work just to make a scene in Studio, then export it threw Luxus it to LuxRender. The included with Studio DzLights, Uber Lights, etc don't natively work, you must go threw each one, and add the properties to them for Luxus. I gather Reality is no different for scenes made in Studio for the included 3delight (however there is that internet based materials database thing, I guess).
F.Y.I. LuxRender is incredibly easy to install, it doesn't even care where in the computer, as long as the proper paths are st up somewhere. I just threw it in the default path and left it, it was happy there on Window7 64bit (some other programs don't like that permissions thing with the Programs folders).
What! I thought Studio was made to work with 3delight clusters, or are you describing a method that is not a 'Render-It-Now' Studio to 3dellight interface. 3delight "RIB Archives"? What about the Render tad in studio?
When you use the Render to RIB file option in the Render tab, it makes two rib files, one inside the collected folder, one outside of it. The one in the collected folder is supposed to refer to the files in the collected folder so you can use move it, que files, whatever. HOWEVER, it isn't generated properly, and just an empty 0k file is made.
The other RIB file that is made uses the files that D|S has loaded into memory at that time, and CAN be used with the stand alone renderer, but if you close D|S or close the project, then all the shader files go away and the render fails. So, you can only render one file at a time. There are some speed savings over the built in rendering (seems to take 2/3's of the time on a large several hour render).
I know this is a mac problem. I think it's a PC problem, too. I loaded D|S in Parallels and I think I saw the same problem, but I can't remember for sure now. I've heard this will be fixed in the next update. (see the MAC support thread for more details).
Thanks for the comments and ideas.
I'm sure that for some, it's a no brainer to buy Reality. And I'm not saying it's overpriced. But it is beyond what I'm willing to pay for a "try it to see if I like it" thing.
I'll explore some of the other options presented here.
I tried the various free options for using Luxrender when i was using poser and before Reality and it was a royal pain trying to change the lights and the various materials and their settings. This is what lead me to trying Reality and it was a game changer for me, so much so I stopped using poser all together and started learning/using DS and never looked back .
If the collected folder is otherwise correct (i.e. contains all the images and shaders and stuff), you can just use the "uncollected" rib file (outside the folder) and strip all directories in all paths within it. E.g. change "c:/users/scavy/fur.tdl" into "fur.tdl" and so on. Then copy the rib file into the collected folder. The uncollected and collected rib files are otherwise identical. You will need some kind of text editor for that though, but depending on the what you do with the exported files, you might need one with Reality, too, because Reality also writes pathnames to the output file. Also, since you mentioned that you want to use the external 3delight because it is faster: replacing it with luxrender/Reality might not be the best choice, because luxrender is not exactly fast in the common sense.