How do I get daz to actually render shadows? and why is it making the ground reflect!!!!

jtp_909beac77a

Hi, Longtime user of Daz 3- still my preferred version as it is so much easier to use. 
BUT needing to use newer resources so trying to get the stupid 4 version to work properly and...

Render consists of:

Brodie 6 (gen2) standing on Toon road with one of the low res Sandy Bay buildings in background. Using the Surfer lights. Except that the road is reflecting the building and Brodie. WHY!!! Note I have used these straight out of the box- have not made any alterations to either- the ones I have tried dont change anything.

So have got rid of the toon road and am instead using the Sandy Bay base as floor plane. I've tried loading the Sandy Bay lights but get an error message- where does flipping Daz 4 PUT stuff, this was manually installed some time ago but daz4 seems to have no option to browse to find stuff so you can move it to where it should go. Trying to use Sandy Bay lights and the scene just renders completely black. So have gone back to the surfer lights and have tried the after school hangout lights as well but CANNOT get shadows! Daz 3 had options on the figures to casty shadows or not for this sort of stuff but daz 4- well trying to find anything is a ****** mission.

I've checked the lights. Shadows are on ray trace for the main lights- but on render no shadows. This is unuseable. 

I hate daz 4 with a passion, if I didnt want to use Brodie I'd go back to Daz 3- which works, is easy on the eye rather than that awful dull grey interface and gives you error messages which you can do something about rather than just throwing up an error that doesnt give you an easy option to fix!

HOW CAN I GET SHADOWS PLEASE! 

HOW DO I GET THE TOON ROAD TO STOP REFLECTING ITS SURROUNDINGS?????

argh!

Thanks

WendyLuvsCatz

is it a Poser file? The specular is likely too high on everything

some 3Delight ones do this too

jtp_909beac77a

Having found an online quick tips-

Its on dome and scene as default- is there ANY way of it actually using your scene lights in this mode? it appears to completely ignore them- why even have that as an option if it just gives the same result as dome only? what a waste of time and effort!

Using just the above scene lights (both sets) everything is virtually pitch black. The preview window gives no hint as to lighting ( lights preview is on) so you can turn up intensity and the preview window is still virtually pitch black. Is there any way of actually seeing what you are doing while you work?

How are you supposed to use this rubbish? 

I've loved using daz 3 for years, and hey, guess what it is actually functional. Daz 4 has become more and more unfriendly and unsusable with each iteration- I say this as someone who went out and bought a brand new pc purely so I could work more in Daz 4 as my old pc can't handle renders in 4.

Is there some magic setting to actually a) let me see what my lighting alterations are doing as I work, b) let me find the resources daz 4 can't, c) CAST SHADOWS d) illuminate the scene adequately using Daz supplied resources (surfer lights) and e) not have reflections where I don't want them. Oh and f) if I want to use open gl renders how do I get it to NOT give me an error message about obscuring the viewport and corrupting the render?

As you can tell daz 4 is driving me nuts- I have a very simple scene to render which I used to be able to manage easily in daz 3 and what appear to be major flaws in 4 are making it impossible to get it done in a timely manner!

 

WendyLuvsCatz

it has a skydome because it is older than iray

you need to delete the skydome and use an enviroment HDR

or

if you are an old user (joined before me)

Use 3Delight not iray

but back up your DAZ studio install and plugins because they are phasing it out next build

Richard Haseltine

Your local lights may well be dim relative to the evironment, in which case they may make no visible difference and may not show at all if you turn the dome element off - for the latter, adjust the Tone mapping (settings will be exposed after the first IrayFilament render or draw, or they can be added from ther Create menu).

Poser materials (or soem 3Delight materials) can look weird in Iray - there are a number of generic materials installed as part of the Default Resources, or you could try adjusting the surface settings in the Surfaces pane or by applying a material that looks more apt froma Shader preset and holding down the cmd/ctrl key as you do so then choosing the ignore maps option (so you keep the existing textues but use the new settings). Still, in the absence of native materials it can be tricky to get good results.