Luxus discussion

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  • agent unawaresagent unawares Posts: 3,513
    edited December 1969

    Zev0 said:
    Just bought this and I love that all the settings are native in Daz. I just want one preset. A human skin one:)

    For the 1.0.0.4 update to Luxus, UberSurface to LuxRender translation is significantly improved.

    We won't realize the ultimate until we actually model skeleton and muscles inside the figure and make the skin more translucent. For the advanced artist out there, the geometry shell available in DAZ Studio pushed inside the figure with a texture map would be a start.
    I was working on an attempt to do something along those lines with a mix of multiple glossytranslucents. Never hit the effect I wanted though, and dear god it was slow. :lol:

    Have you gotten the geometry shell to work at negative numbers? The one time I tried it there were parts that didn't turn out right, like it was scaling the figure instead of displacing the surface.

  • SphericLabsSphericLabs Posts: 598
    edited December 1969

    Zev0 said:
    Just bought this and I love that all the settings are native in Daz. I just want one preset. A human skin one:)

    For the 1.0.0.4 update to Luxus, UberSurface to LuxRender translation is significantly improved.

    We won't realize the ultimate until we actually model skeleton and muscles inside the figure and make the skin more translucent. For the advanced artist out there, the geometry shell available in DAZ Studio pushed inside the figure with a texture map would be a start.


    I was working on an attempt to do something along those lines with a mix of multiple glossytranslucents. Never hit the effect I wanted though, and dear god it was slow. :lol:

    Have you gotten the geometry shell to work at negative numbers? The one time I tried it there were parts that didn't turn out right, like it was scaling the figure instead of displacing the surface.

    I have been toying with Offset Distance of -0.10 and turned off all the materials between the 4_Gums and 7_Tears. Seems OK. Need to do more tests.

  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    Zev0 said:
    Just bought this and I love that all the settings are native in Daz. I just want one preset. A human skin one:)

    For the 1.0.0.4 update to Luxus, UberSurface to LuxRender translation is significantly improved.

    We won't realize the ultimate until we actually model skeleton and muscles inside the figure and make the skin more translucent. For the advanced artist out there, the geometry shell available in DAZ Studio pushed inside the figure with a texture map would be a start.For any with M/V4 muscle maps should be able to do this, obviously the skin would have to be M/V4 maps.

    Yes the shell only works well at low positive and negative settings, Any thing large and yes the mesh wierds out.:) But when we are talking about skin, the value should be low.

  • agent unawaresagent unawares Posts: 3,513
    edited March 2013

    Zev0 said:
    Just bought this and I love that all the settings are native in Daz. I just want one preset. A human skin one:)

    For the 1.0.0.4 update to Luxus, UberSurface to LuxRender translation is significantly improved.

    We won't realize the ultimate until we actually model skeleton and muscles inside the figure and make the skin more translucent. For the advanced artist out there, the geometry shell available in DAZ Studio pushed inside the figure with a texture map would be a start.


    I was working on an attempt to do something along those lines with a mix of multiple glossytranslucents. Never hit the effect I wanted though, and dear god it was slow. :lol:

    Have you gotten the geometry shell to work at negative numbers? The one time I tried it there were parts that didn't turn out right, like it was scaling the figure instead of displacing the surface.

    I have been toying with Offset Distance of -0.10 and turned off all the materials between the 4_Gums and 7_Tears. Seems OK. Need to do more tests.
    That sounds like it'll be a lot less complicated than what I was doing.

    Any chance of a glossycoating material in Eluxir? That would be really useful for building a new car paint shader. I know one comes with Lux but that doesn't look like car paint to me, just three stacked glossy materials with a little sparkle.

    Post edited by agent unawares on
  • SphericLabsSphericLabs Posts: 598
    edited March 2013

    Zev0 said:
    Just bought this and I love that all the settings are native in Daz. I just want one preset. A human skin one:)

    For the 1.0.0.4 update to Luxus, UberSurface to LuxRender translation is significantly improved.

    We won't realize the ultimate until we actually model skeleton and muscles inside the figure and make the skin more translucent. For the advanced artist out there, the geometry shell available in DAZ Studio pushed inside the figure with a texture map would be a start.


    I was working on an attempt to do something along those lines with a mix of multiple glossytranslucents. Never hit the effect I wanted though, and dear god it was slow. :lol:

    Have you gotten the geometry shell to work at negative numbers? The one time I tried it there were parts that didn't turn out right, like it was scaling the figure instead of displacing the surface.

    I have been toying with Offset Distance of -0.10 and turned off all the materials between the 4_Gums and 7_Tears. Seems OK. Need to do more tests.
    That sounds like it'll be a lot less complicated than what I was doing.

    Any chance of a glossycoating material in Eluxir? That would be really useful for building a new car paint shader. I know one comes with Lux but that doesn't look like car paint to me, just three stacked glossy materials with a little sparkle.

    One of my handicaps in this game is that I am not an artist nor do I have an artist eye. We could try the layered brick and then stack 3 glossy's on top of each other.

    I did do one test where I took just an object and added a geometry shell. On the shell I made it a glass2 material with a clear volume with a index of refraction of 1.33. So the idea is that the object was completely encased in water. It was glossy. Higher IOR would probably be better.

    Post edited by SphericLabs on
  • SphericLabsSphericLabs Posts: 598
    edited March 2013

    Water gloss.

    render2_b.jpg
    1600 x 1200 - 564K
    Post edited by SphericLabs on
  • agent unawaresagent unawares Posts: 3,513
    edited March 2013

    Zev0 said:
    Just bought this and I love that all the settings are native in Daz. I just want one preset. A human skin one:)

    For the 1.0.0.4 update to Luxus, UberSurface to LuxRender translation is significantly improved.

    We won't realize the ultimate until we actually model skeleton and muscles inside the figure and make the skin more translucent. For the advanced artist out there, the geometry shell available in DAZ Studio pushed inside the figure with a texture map would be a start.


    I was working on an attempt to do something along those lines with a mix of multiple glossytranslucents. Never hit the effect I wanted though, and dear god it was slow. :lol:

    Have you gotten the geometry shell to work at negative numbers? The one time I tried it there were parts that didn't turn out right, like it was scaling the figure instead of displacing the surface.

    I have been toying with Offset Distance of -0.10 and turned off all the materials between the 4_Gums and 7_Tears. Seems OK. Need to do more tests.
    That sounds like it'll be a lot less complicated than what I was doing.

    Any chance of a glossycoating material in Eluxir? That would be really useful for building a new car paint shader. I know one comes with Lux but that doesn't look like car paint to me, just three stacked glossy materials with a little sparkle.

    One of my handicaps in this game is that I am not an artist nor do I have an artist eye. We could try the layered brick and then stack 3 glossy's on top of each other.

    I did do one test where I took just an object and added a geometry shell. On the shell I made it a glass2 material with a clear volume with a index of refraction of 1.33. So the idea is that the object was completely encased in water. It was glossy. Higher IOR would probably be better.
    That would actually be ideal for simulating real car paint, especially a candy coating, but this would be useful to build a quick hack in cases where using volumes isn't wanted, or just if people didn't want to fiddle with geometry shells.

    A good base for car paint would be a basecoat [with metallic or not, sometimes colored], then a clear effect layer [colored or pearlescent or left out altogether], then a clear reflective high-gloss layer on top which may or may not be colored, but probably isn't. I'm not sure yet if the second layer would work as glossycoating, but the final clearcoat would.

    EDIT: That looks pretty nice on the troll.

    Post edited by agent unawares on
  • SphericLabsSphericLabs Posts: 598
    edited December 1969

    glossycoating's absence from Eluxir is a bug. I will add it.

  • agent unawaresagent unawares Posts: 3,513
    edited March 2013

    Hurray! Thanks. This is going to be a lot of fun.

    Post edited by agent unawares on
  • BeaBea Posts: 743
    edited December 1969

    Is it possible to get official notifications when the software is updated? This thread grows so quickly that the notifications get lost.

  • SphericLabsSphericLabs Posts: 598
    edited December 1969

    I will ask DAZ.

  • BeaBea Posts: 743
    edited December 1969

    Any progress on the skull caps yet :(

  • Jim_1831252Jim_1831252 Posts: 728
    edited March 2013

    Great update, Spheric! How many updates has there been to Luxus thus far - 4 (going by the .4)? Is there a change log?

    Noted the update in my blog http://digisprawl.com/blog/luxus-updated/ I'm very keen on LuxRender and Luxus at the moment, if you can't tell :p

    Post edited by Jim_1831252 on
  • SphericLabsSphericLabs Posts: 598
    edited December 1969

    Bea said:
    Any progress on the skull caps yet :(

    The 1.0.0.4 update addressed many transmap/opacitymap issues.

    If that is still not working for you then please PM me or post up the specific hair that is giving you trouble. Almost always manually fixing the scull cap works:
    -> Select the scull cap material
    -> Luxus - LuxRender Material
    -> choose matte or glossy as the type
    -> make sure the copy Studio parameters option is checked.

  • SphericLabsSphericLabs Posts: 598
    edited December 1969

    jimzombie said:
    Great update, Spheric! How many updates has there been to Luxus thus far - 4 (going by the .4)? Is there a change log?

    Noted the update in my blog http://digisprawl.com/blog/luxus-updated/ I'm very keen on LuxRender and Luxus at the moment, if you can't tell :p

    1.0.0.2 was the first publicly released version. So only two updates. The readme has the list of changes
    -> http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/read_me/index/15891/start

    If you are interested in the prior changes(before it went public) I guess I could look through my notes and provide those.

  • SphericLabsSphericLabs Posts: 598
    edited December 1969

    In regards to DOF, I did not try to get it to match Studio exactly. The values though seem to accurately reflect what a real world camera would do.

  • jax_512b7aea09jax_512b7aea09 Posts: 61
    edited March 2013

    I'm still having problems with transparency on hair.

    I'm posting renders done with Reality and Luxus. The hair is Zac Hair; the image on the left is with standard transparency map, the image on the right has an edited transparency map that makes it easier to see the problem.

    This isn't a LuxRender problem, since the Reality render comes out right.

    Top is Luxus, bottom is Reality.

    Zac_Hair_(Reality).jpg
    1266 x 528 - 320K
    Zac_Hair_(Luxus_1.0_.0)_.jpg
    1266 x 531 - 273K
    Post edited by jax_512b7aea09 on
  • IppotamusIppotamus Posts: 1,578
    edited December 1969

    Tutorials are now available in the store. :/
    http://www.daz3d.com/new-releases/luxus-pro-training

    Good luck all. :)

  • Jim_1831252Jim_1831252 Posts: 728
    edited December 1969

    jimzombie said:
    Great update, Spheric! How many updates has there been to Luxus thus far - 4 (going by the .4)? Is there a change log?

    Noted the update in my blog http://digisprawl.com/blog/luxus-updated/ I'm very keen on LuxRender and Luxus at the moment, if you can't tell :p

    1.0.0.2 was the first publicly released version. So only two updates. The readme has the list of changes
    -> http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/read_me/index/15891/start

    If you are interested in the prior changes(before it went public) I guess I could look through my notes and provide those.

    Thanks, and no I don't really need to peek at the pre release changes. I wasn't aware that the readme contained the changes. That's got everything I'm interested in. Thanks again.

  • Jim_1831252Jim_1831252 Posts: 728
    edited March 2013

    In regards to DOF, I did not try to get it to match Studio exactly. The values though seem to accurately reflect what a real world camera would do.

    I'll think you find the DAZ camera is very bad at providing a reliable f-stop, but this might more an issue with the guides provided by the DAZ camera that indicate what will and won't be in focus. So, actually I think you're right. You can use the guide to establish the focal distance and manually set an appropriate f-stop. Using the provided camera guides I ended up with an f-stop of 200 for one image. Of course everything in that render was perfectly in focus when luxified:)

    Seems to be working very well.

    Edit: I think what is really needed is a way to auto set focal distance to an object. This way we can be sure our object is in focus when setting our f-stop. Consider this a feature request.

    Post edited by Jim_1831252 on
  • BeaBea Posts: 743
    edited March 2013

    Bea said:
    Any progress on the skull caps yet :(

    The 1.0.0.4 update addressed many transmap/opacitymap issues.

    If that is still not working for you then please PM me or post up the specific hair that is giving you trouble. Almost always manually fixing the scull cap works:
    -> Select the scull cap material
    -> Luxus - LuxRender Material
    -> choose matte or glossy as the type
    -> make sure the copy Studio parameters option is checked.

    done that but the skull cap is still showing. I am rendering now I set it to matte
    I am using this hair
    http://www.runtimedna.com/The-DragonBraid-for-Victoria-4.html
    the skull cap is showing down to around where the circlet is.

    Post edited by Bea on
  • Bluebird 3DBluebird 3D Posts: 995
    edited December 1969

    Hi Everyone!

    As promised earlier on in this thread, my Luxus video training series is available at the store:

    Luxus Pro Video Training

    This is a series geared towards people looking to take a no-nonsense, no complications approach to rendering with LuxRender via Luxus. No math, no theory, no secrets. I start by going through how use 3Delight (Studio's default render engine) for my test renders and then I show how that translates over via Luxus.

    Shhh. A Secret...
    Most common rendering problems don't have anything to do with the render engine at all. It usually has to do with lighting. Therefore this training covers the straight forward approach I take on lighting regardless of the render engine. Once you can light any scene, you can render anywhere. Why not start with LuxRender and see where things go? :)

    ~Bluebird

  • BlackFeather1973BlackFeather1973 Posts: 739
    edited December 1969

    Hi Everyone!

    As promised earlier on in this thread, my Luxus video training series is available at the store:

    Luxus Pro Video Training

    This is a series geared towards people looking to take a no-nonsense, no complications approach to rendering with LuxRender via Luxus. No math, no theory, no secrets. I start by going through how use 3Delight (Studio's default render engine) for my test renders and then I show how that translates over via Luxus.

    Shhh. A Secret...
    Most common rendering problems don't have anything to do with the render engine at all. It usually has to do with lighting. Therefore this training covers the straight forward approach I take on lighting regardless of the render engine. Once you can light any scene, you can render anywhere. Why not start with LuxRender and see where things go? :)

    ~Bluebird


    Bought and downloaded :)
    But there seem to be some vids missing, there's four installers (each about 450-500 megs) and they installed vids 1-13 and 17. No trace of vids 14-16. Is there supposed to be a fifth installer ?
  • Bluebird 3DBluebird 3D Posts: 995
    edited December 1969

    Hi Everyone!

    As promised earlier on in this thread, my Luxus video training series is available at the store:

    Luxus Pro Video Training

    This is a series geared towards people looking to take a no-nonsense, no complications approach to rendering with LuxRender via Luxus. No math, no theory, no secrets. I start by going through how use 3Delight (Studio's default render engine) for my test renders and then I show how that translates over via Luxus.

    Shhh. A Secret...
    Most common rendering problems don't have anything to do with the render engine at all. It usually has to do with lighting. Therefore this training covers the straight forward approach I take on lighting regardless of the render engine. Once you can light any scene, you can render anywhere. Why not start with LuxRender and see where things go? :)

    ~Bluebird


    Bought and downloaded :)
    But there seem to be some vids missing, there's four installers (each about 450-500 megs) and they installed vids 1-13 and 17. No trace of vids 14-16. Is there supposed to be a fifth installer ?

    Thanks for the heads up! I reached out to Daz for their help with this. I am sorry for the trouble!

    ~Bluebird

  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    Szark said:
    Luxus 1.0.0.4 is updated and available in your accounts. Just the plugin is updated, content is the same.

    Here is what this fixes:

    * Gamma - Colors are now properly linearized. This is important, everyone is encouraged to update and to click on Reset To Default at the bottom of Render Settings.

    Can you expand a little more on this please. Are you saying with me changing all the Gamma settings to 2.2, with this update I will no longer need to do that as it will be automatic?

    And thank you for the updates..very cool

    Yes, but there is more. All the colors(like in the Surfaces Pane) also need to be linearized when sent to LuxRender to be correct and now they are. Now I see the difference it makes, the colours are so more crisp and more like what I thought the surfaces should have looked like when I set up the mats in the first place. :) I can see it with my last image I posted, I loaded the same scene made no changes to the materials, reset the render settings and set up my camera setttings for Linear rendering again and I noticed the rendered difference straight away. This explains why I was having trouble setting up the materials. Nice update.

  • SphericLabsSphericLabs Posts: 598
    edited December 1969

    Hurray videos!

  • CzexanaCzexana Posts: 167
    edited December 1969

    Luxus 1.0.0.4 is updated and available in your accounts. Just the plugin is updated, content is the same.

    Here is what this fixes:

    * Gamma - Colors are now properly linearized. This is important, everyone is encouraged to update and to click on Reset To Default at the bottom of Render Settings.
    * Depth of Field values are now passed into LuxRender and work.
    * Accidental resuming when overwriting is fixed
    * Autotranslation of UberSurface tweaked in regards to the Gamma changes and to favor subsurface color.
    * Transmap issues improved
    * Extra Command Line for passing command line arguements to LuxRender. This allows advanced control of number of threads and even theoretically master/slave rendering control.
    * IES lights files belong on the area light(in the material light section) and work.

    Thanks for the update!

    The proper gamma correction, and not gamma correcting the greyscale maps, I believe makes for a much better image.

    Can I suggest three things that I think may improve the ease of setting up the autoconversion to Luxus materials settings from DS materials, as well as making the shaders more intuitive for users?

    First, combine a mapped 'strength' channel with the colour channels that don't have one. These maps, especially the specular strength, are often set (see the materials on today's 'Turtleneck Sweater dress' for example, or many of Stonemason's products) and your autoconversion appears to be ignoring these channels completely (although I haven't had a chance to heck this on the latest update). It also makes it easier to set the materials by hand.

    Second, use glossiness channels rather than roughness. Most of the DS shaders use glossiness so it's easier to autoconvert, and it means you can use a standard specular map in this channel to give meaningful variation (more specular materials tend to be glossier).

    Third, in volumes use a transmission colour at depth rather than absorption colour and scale. This is, I believe, similar to how the absorption colour is handled in uberSurface2, and is a recommended method for exporters and plugins in the Luxrender wiki. Also, this again lets you use a standard map to give meaningful colour variation (darkening the colour increases absorption).

    These variations are easily mapped back to Lux operators/materials.

  • SphericLabsSphericLabs Posts: 598
    edited December 1969

    If some strength and color are not getting combined I am guessing its because its not the standard DAZ Default material.

    I have not evern attempted any of stone masons or any other's shader(besides the uber family).

    Absorption color certainly is backwards, but I find the scale easier to think about. I assume most would disagree. I think of it as a density of the microscopic particles. I have not looked at the LuxRender code, but I assume this is what it is.

  • cwichuracwichura Posts: 1,042
    edited December 1969

    Use of the colordepth texture is highly recommended over calculating absorption yourself and passing it as (often very large) pseudo-RGB values. Using the colordepth texture avoids some internal numerical stability issues.

  • Mari-AnneMari-Anne Posts: 363
    edited December 1969

    Hi Everyone!

    As promised earlier on in this thread, my Luxus video training series is available at the store:

    Luxus Pro Video Training

    This is a series geared towards people looking to take a no-nonsense, no complications approach to rendering with LuxRender via Luxus. No math, no theory, no secrets. I start by going through how use 3Delight (Studio's default render engine) for my test renders and then I show how that translates over via Luxus.

    Shhh. A Secret...
    Most common rendering problems don't have anything to do with the render engine at all. It usually has to do with lighting. Therefore this training covers the straight forward approach I take on lighting regardless of the render engine. Once you can light any scene, you can render anywhere. Why not start with LuxRender and see where things go? :)

    ~Bluebird


    Bought and downloaded :)
    But there seem to be some vids missing, there's four installers (each about 450-500 megs) and they installed vids 1-13 and 17. No trace of vids 14-16. Is there supposed to be a fifth installer ?

    Thanks for the heads up! I reached out to Daz for their help with this. I am sorry for the trouble!

    ~Bluebird

    Tutorials purchased and downloaded! I'm very happy they are here!! However, as of (almost) noon Mountain Daylight Time, tutorials 14-16 are still missing.

This discussion has been closed.