Many figures question ...

WillowRaven

Although I have the LoRez males and females, that can be a pain to create realistic poses and drape dynamic fabrics on. Yes, I'm that OCD, lol. Even if my figures are small in the scene because they are further away, to me, I can see the difference too much for my needs. But on the other hand, when I created this scene of 29 V4's all in dynamic tunics, it REALLY was a pain to open and render.

My question ... While it's on sale, should I grab the Decimator for DAZ Studio and try that or is that not what I need? Is there a better way in 4.7? Does it even work in 4.7?

I need to put a lot of ship's crew members in tunics in realistic poses and want the freedom of M4 pose-ability, but don't want the headache of 40+ figures dragging my 5000-pixel scene to a crawl. Using Lorenzo is out because many will just be too visible to not see the difference.

Would maybe creating shells of the posed, textured, clothed, and frozen draped figures work?

Kendall Sears

If you can't afford the hardware to make it work normally, then:  1) load, 2) place, 3) pose, 4) dress, 5) hide until render.

Kendall

Havos

There is a loz rez version of V4 you could try, or use a Genesis model at base resolution, this has a quarter of the polys of V4.

WillowRaven

I have some rather expensive hardware, lol (a fairly new Alienware machine, fully upgraded). The scene I showed above was only an example. That scene is where I learned that 29 V4's in dynamic clothes, even frozen after posed, really took a long time to load and longer to render, even in layers.

This new scene, with two fully manned cog ships, will have more men.

So Decimator for DAZ Studio isn't recommended?

Kendall Sears

WillowRaven said:

I have some rather expensive hardware, lol (a fairly new Alienware machine, fully upgraded). The scene I showed above was only an example. That scene is where I learned that 29 V4's in dynamic clothes, even frozen after posed, really took a long time to load and longer to render, even in layers.

This new scene, with two fully manned cog ships, will have more men.

So Decimator for DAZ Studio isn't recommended?

Hi Aidana.  The hardware I was referencing isn't normally available in the Consumer channel (48 to 64 or more cores) and would likely cost $10000 or more (I was being a smart a.. in the previous post) :-)

The best option for your needs is an option you won't use so I won't mention it.  For Decimator to get a Generation4 figure to the levels of the current models would result in an unusable mess for your needs.  If you really need that many figures then using one of the current generations on "Base" resolution is the best way to go.

OK, so I ended up saying it anyway. :-/

Kendall

WillowRaven

Lol ... But I hate genesis figures, lol. Granted, genesis 3 are the best so far, but I have so little stuff for them as far as character options and skin options and poses. I have so much more stuff for M4.

Are shells any better? Would posing the figures then making a shell of the posed figure work? Then reposing the figure and making a shell of the new pose, etc? Or not? Does that change polys yet keep texture quality?

Kendall Sears

WillowRaven said:

Lol ... But I hate genesis figures, lol. Granted, genesis 3 are the best so far, but I have so little stuff for them as far as character options and skin options and poses. I have so much more stuff for M4.

Are shells any better? Would posing the figures then making a shell of the posed figure work? Then reposing the figure and making a shell of the new pose, etc? Or not? Does that change polys yet keep texture quality?

In all honesty, using the Texture Atlas to lower the textures' sizes for the far off figures in addition to just hiding them until just before render is likely the most acceptable option for you.

Kendall

kaotkbliss

I would say decimator would help (after all it does remove polys and essentially will turn your high-poly figures into lo rez where you can cut down the polys as much as your comfortable with.

Another option is using instances wherever you can. 2 characters in the same pose but turned on the Y axis or maybe even x-scaled to -100 would give the illusion of uniqueness.

I know you mentioned freezing and I'm not sure if you are refering to freezing as I've heard mentioned in dynamic clothing tips or not, but once your characters are posed and ready, you can convert them to props to help save a little.

WillowRaven

Don't even know what a texture atlas is ... lol. Where is it and how do I do it?

That prop idea sounds cool. How do I turn a posed, clothed figure into a prop? And yes. The plan was to drape the tunics to accommodate the poses then freeze them in place.

Kendall Sears

WillowRaven said:

Don't even know what a texture atlas is ... lol. Where is it and how do I do it?

That prop idea sounds cool. How do I turn a posed, clothed figure into a prop? And yes. The plan was to drape the tunics to accommodate the poses then freeze them in place.

http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/artzone/pub/faq/software_gamesdk/texture_atlas/texture_atlas

Kendall

Kendall Sears

As a followup, the majority of the resources used for figures isn't in the mesh, but in the HUGE textures that are applied to all of those polygons.  Lower the texture size and any modern machine can easily handle many, many figures.

Kendall

sriesch

There should be a little globe icon in DAZ Studio for texture atlas.  I can't remember if it's on your toolbar by default or not, but if for some reason it is not, here's how to find it:

    Window > Workspace > Customize:  
  In the Actions (left side) scroll down to and expand Texture Atlas, then drag that icon to the Tool Bars tab on the right side to wherever you want it (for example I just drop it in the Create menu.)

Also I would experiment with it once or twice before starting your real project.  It's pretty easy to use, but the first time or two it looks a bit cryptic, we can help you step through it if you have any questions.  I wrote myself a few notes that make sense to me to refer to when using it, and there are one or two non-obvious things of note.

L'Adair

Decimator will not work in 4.7. It has been updated to work in 4.9 and won't work in 4.8 either. If you plan on going to 4.9, it might make sense to get Decimator while it's on sale. But if you plan on staying with 4.7, don't bother getting Decimator. DAZ will not make earlier versions available, at least from everything I've read in the forums.

WillowRaven

Thanks, L'Adair. I have no foreseeable plan to upgrade from 4.7, so thanks for the info. :D

And thanks, sriesch. Notes are most appreciated. I'll let ya'll know if I run into trouble.

WillowRaven

OK ... I have 17 M4's in my scene of just the ship and they posed on it. Each new figure added after 10 has started slowing things down. Is it possible to save or export the ship and figures as a single prop, making it easier to work with?

sriesch

Can you parent the figures to the ship, or put them in a group, so you can simply hide/show the entire group at once?  Or save them as a scene subset and add them back into the scene later?

dracorn

I have to say, I just LOVE your render, WillowRaven.  It's gorgeous!

WillowRaven

I'm retarded, lol. I have to be able to see where everything is as I place and pose new figures, though. 

WillowRaven

dracorn said:

I have to say, I just LOVE your render, WillowRaven.  It's gorgeous!

Thank you, dracorn :D

The scene I'm working on now should have twice as many figures if I can figure out this drag problem.

KA1

Would billboards work? It's a pain, but of the lighting is in place you could render each posed figure out as png then place the picture on a plane in position? I've not tried it, I know a few use this method though.

WillowRaven

I don't think billboards will work because I want to reposition the ship and crew at another angle, too.