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No problem, Spooky. As long as I got it fixed eventually.
I don't suppose there's any way to save a version of a render and keep rendering it later?
I have a render I'd like to do that looks like it'll take at least 100 hours, and ... I reeeeeeeally don't want to have my machine tied up doing that for days.
I've never let one go that long, but I have stopped it to do something else and then resumed it. If the whole render fits on your screen, you can take a screenshot periodically to save a snapshot of the render progress. That way if DAZ Studio crashes before the render finishes, at least you have something of the render saved.
It's not like Luxrender that saves out a 'resume' file, you need to keep Studio open (as it stores everything in the temp folder and it will/should wipe it on close), so it's going to tie up the machine in some way.
Well, I'm back with the same problem . . . and I know Spooky will scream with frustration, but there you go.
After finally getting a background to show in every scene, I now discover to my horror that every time I load an object (props, all saved as Scene Subsets), the Environment settings return to default - ie. No Backdrop/White Default Color. I've tried resaving the props with various options checked - Record/Ignore, etc - and closing/re-opening DS - but I can't get any combination to work at all.
What I don't understand is why the transparent bg in renders is so desirable as a default. Surely if you want transparency, you can just render a .png? I'm rendering drinks - glasses, bottles and liquids - so transparency is nothing but a pain.
Oh well, I'm going to be forced to put in a feature request for this. In the meantime, I'm going to make a large chamfered cube in Max, flip the polys to face inwards, and use that as my default 'room' in every scene. Really . . would a simple toggle be too much to ask for?
Question regarging lights and render speeds. Do renders using iray use occlusion culling? I've been trying to figure out how to improve my render speeds while preserving quality as much as possible and while I was testing yesterday I noticed this. One of my renders was going at 20% of the speed the same scene had been rendering at and it took a while to figure it out. What it ended up being was that the camera was seeing the light from the dome leaking into the scene and interacting with the floor. That light has always been there, but this time the camera could see it.
So, occlusion culling?
From the Iray documentation, not exactly. ANY contribution from the light source will be applied. This includes reflections from the floor from a light out of camera view. There appears to be ways to minimize the interactions (Max Path Length), or as you did, position the camera or object so that the interaction disappears, or is minimized.
From the docs: "Iray Photoreal does not support classic rendering features such as ambient occlusion, final gather or photon mapping but catches global illumination effects automatically without the need of explicitly controlling different stages of the rendering process and thus avoids tweaking various scene dependent parameters.
"Due to this 'push-button' simulation approach, it is not possible to exclude objects from casting or receiving global illumination, shadows, etc. The same is true for backface culling."
It sort of sounds like a video card dropped out or something. A change of that much doesn't make sense unless something in the scene has been changed. As for the dome, if light is leaking in... it sounds like light you don't want. You can set the mode to scene only instead of dome and scene and get rid of that light.
The one real difference between real life and Iray, when it comes to light set up, you can 'turn off' the 'outside' environment, without having to be inside a large soundstage...like Dumor said, setting it to scene only turns off the dome (outside environment).
Does anyone have skin (base color) settings they could share for iray? I use the G3F texture, but I want to change her nationality (skin tone). So far with what I've tried I get either orange or really dark brown and it doesn't look natural. Any tips or presets that are free?
The card is fine, if I position the camera to the original position the render speeds are back to normal. I don't not want the light in the scene, it's providing a lot of the light ambiently. Pointing the camera at the entrance to the room ( I have a room with one wall hidden providing the light ) destroys my speeds for some reason.
Yeah. It sounds like something that requires a lot of processing is coming into view. I wouldn't think it was the light so much as what the light is hitting. Anything with roughness maybe? Do you have Architectural or Cautic samplers turned on? They can cause beautiful results, but can also cause a serious hit to times. I'm sorry I can't be of much help. I think I'd have to play with the scene to figure it out since it could be a lot of things.
You are now trying to render the 'outside', too...because it's now in the camera's view. So even if everything outside the door isn't being seen, it's still being calculated.
Hmmmm, the scene is empty outside. As for the detail, the floor has some really impressive reflection for some reason. I'll see if I can remove the reflection from the floor.
Agreed — this is beginning to annoy me as well. I don't mind having the transparency as an option, it has its uses, but I can't see why it was intended to be default behaviour. Look at how many fairly regular queries we've had on the forums since it was introduced, asking how to "get rid of these squares all over the place". Fixing it to behave the way it used to every time I put a scene together, because the changes don't stick, is just one more extra thing to do that we didn't need to bother with before.
Yes, but there is still light...and shadows. That's what's being calculated in.
SpottedKitty,
I put in a feature request for a toggle and received a reply a few hours later (which makes me suspicious). They marked it 'Solved' and thanked me for my suggestion, with the caveat that it doesn't mean it will be acted upon.
Make of that what you will. Personally, I'm pessimistic.
I think a response of solved means it is done. Perhaps that request was already made and in the works for when we get a new release?
Heh. You're an optimist, Dumor!
But you could well be right and it's already in the works. I'm just used to the old bug tracker where they told you it was a duplicate of an existing request.
'Solved' can mean "working as designed." Given a response that quick, that's probably what it means.
For me, transparent BGs is exactly what I want, but I agree a sticky setting would be best. Wasn't non-transparent the default in 3.x? I've been away from D|S several years now, having come back because of Iray and other improvements, but I wonder if the change has something to do with accommodating Poser users who are switching over.
On all my renders with super shiny floors and tables (like the Conference Room re-textured for Iray), render times go through the roof. Looks beautiful, but after 4 hours and still showing <10% convergence, I stopped it and went to bed. I'll return to that scene when they set up the rendering cloud.
Anyway, do also try the Max Path Length setting, which is in the Optimization section in the Iray Render tab. It defaults to -1, meaning (I believe) "as many as it takes." The programming documentation says this about using the setting:
"Bounds the maximum number of vertices (bounces) of light paths to contribute to the result. Since this setting cuts off indirect lighting contributions (one example would be the headlight of a car that depends on a lot of indirect effects to look correct), it should only be applied when the rendering has to be accelerated at the expense of physical accuracy."
Non-transparent has been the default since the very first release of DS, and as far as I know, right up to 4.7. I missed a few versions, so I don't know when it changed. I assumed the change came in with 4.8, but I may be wrong.
As for Poser users, Poser's default is also non-transparent.
Must be a setting I made long ago, because when I reset the Render pane to use defaults, render, and save to a png, I get a transparent background. The ground is non-transparent, but the ground can be hidden, revealing the transparent world beyond.
I've carried over the same settings from Poser 8 (now using Poser 2014), so it's possible I've forgotten if there's an overriding default somewhere.
It's similar to the Max Raytrace Depth in 3Delight. -1 is 'unlimited'. Lower will increase speed (but that means between 1 and about 8)...and it probably works best by 2s (even numbers).
Forgive me if this isn't the correct thread for this question and if it's already been asked. In DimensionTheory's "Iray HDR Outdoor Environments", is there a way to get a similar sunlight effect from OutdoorB in the Maui scene without washing out the Maui background? Maybe it's just my eyes but it just seems that the Maui sun effect on the character is somewhat bland compared to the OutdoorB. I've attached a shot of each to show what I mean. I did notice while looking at the images in the Environment setting that the OutdoorB image is drastically darker than the Maui image yet the "sun" is incredibly realistic. Not sure if maybe since the Maui image is bright all around maybe it's cancelling out the Maui "sun"?
Even better, in the old bug tracker it was possible for other people to add their own "me too" to a report — making it less easy to dismiss something as "it's just you".
...
@tattooedillusions "Maui sun effect on the character is somewhat bland compared to the OutdoorB"
I'm not sure that it is enough to make the difference, but the time of day is different for the two renders. I think the Sun-Sky will use your actual settings if not overridden. At any rate you can see that the shadows are different. Vickie's face is in shadow in the Maui shot but not the OutdoorB. It almost looks like She is somewhat shadowed except that her shadow on the ground implies that the sun is in front somewhere.
That's all I've got for now. Hope it spurs some thoughts.
In the Maui scene, the light source is directly overhead, placing the face in shadow. You can quickly see how it'll look with added light by turning on the camera headlamp. If that improves things, you can turn it off and add a soft fill, which can be a spot light with an increased size emitter ,or a plane that acts as a reflector. Apply a white reflective material to it from the Iray Uber collection.
If you were to take a picture like this at midday with a camera, you'd get that same deep shadow. That's why most cameras have a flash fill feature. If you want to simulate this look, the camera headlamp will mimick it. You can alter the intensity of the lamp, and move its axis if you don't want the light straight-on.