Luxus discussion
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I think I am finally beginning to crack this "skin" mystery. This just stared cooking (13 minutes in), but I have to leave for work. I will let it go for the next 9 hours and hopefully end up with something great.
I got impatient and decided to post this early start. I will gladly share details later, maybe even write up a quick tut. Everyone have a great day!!!
Edit, much later in the day: Look at the pic in the next reply.
Fast forward 9 and a half hours. I just got home from work and took a look (hmm, rhymes) at this render that has been cooking all day. I have spent the better part of the last week tweaking and rendering, tweaking and rendering, to come up with this skin. Overall, I am very happy with it. I still haven't delved into the eye settings, although the HSS eyes in this pic look pretty good. Also, there is supposed to be vein displacement in this image, but I don't see it. Have to up the strength and try again. I used SSS for this guy, so it does actually work in Luxus, but you have to set it pretty high for a thick character like Freak 5.
As I develop this, I will be happy to share some of my insights and trials. I really, really like Luxus and LuxRender, despite the crazy long render times. Also, the fact that this still has fireflies after 9+ hours is disconcerting, but I think that has to do with the fact that I enclosed him in a box (thanks for the advice cwichura). Going to try the next render with just a ground plane for shadow catching.
Let me know what you think, please! And ask questions. I have only had the plugin for a week, so it can only get better, right?
A super render by anybody's standards, well done.
I am glad I still subscribe to this thread. I may even buy the video course myself this week.
Nice.
Hope you bang out a tutorial cause all I've produced in the last couple of days is orange jelly skin.
Think I'll leave mastering skin tone to you pros.
@SphericLabs, thanks for the subdivision hint it helped.
@Kerya, thanks for the skin settings repost, for Lux Glossy translucent settings.
I could only find volume scattering color in the glass material, no worries.
Think I'll make life easier and wait for Ubersurface2 to go on sale.
Thank-you. I am certainly not one of the "pros" (yet), but I am trying hard to render like they do. Have you seen any of Hellboy's work? He definitely has a handle on LuxRender. That is the quality I am striving for, the Gold Standard, if you will. He has set the bar very high, IMO. I am not familiar with too many others, yet, but I am definitely watching out for more inspiration.
I will most definitely write some sort of tutorial, even if it's just a sharing of information and what went wrong when I did what. Maybe I will keep some notes in my Journal on dA for now, just to give people stuff to try out, then they can share info and we can all learn something new.
I did some tweaking to the Tone Mapping and Color Space settings in Lux and improved the image even more, but I don't want to over-post in this thread as it is not a WIP thread.
Well, I am at 15.5 hours now, and it actually seems like the little red dots (SSS) have gotten worse before they will get better. At least, I hope so. I am still only at 870 S/p, which seems crazy low for the amount of time rendering. Again, could be the box I have on my guy, but I am afraid to start over without seeing it through.
I have a feature request.
When using the 'Spot Render' feature, I would like an option to render the scene at render size instead of viewport size. This would allow me to do spot renders to correct errors in a finished render without having to render out the entire scene again.
It's fairly easy to edit the .lxs file and set "integer xresolution" and "integer yresolution" to the desired size, but an on/off button would be even easier :)
This can now be done - the latest DAZ Studio Beta has a new feature to render spot renders to new window, which renders at resolution size set in render settings.
I just tried a spot render using this with Luxus set for render and it opened in Luxrender... rendering only the selected area and at the same resolution to match a full-on render.
That is a beautiful skin setting! You mind to share it? I want it! :)
That is a beautiful skin setting! You mind to share it? I want it! :)
Are you kidding me right now? Read post #1325. Of course I will share. Hopefully you don't mind waiting until tomorrow. Fiddling with those settings kept me up all night last night, then I worked a full day today and the new beta release has me still awake. Shutting down now because my aging body can't take 41 hours without sleep.
BUT, if I share, you have to share, too. I want the settings for python guy. :-P
@slosh I have freak 5 as well and I found problems with the vein displacement as well. Thats a very nice version of freak, the skin looks good, did you render him in a closed box? if so it will draw out the render times but you should notice the render efficiency go through the roof because less light rays are being wasted.
If possible, would anyone be able to tell me what Lux is trying to tell me with the following:
(I tried using the code thing, but it broke the forum.)
The .TIFs are, of course, made by the render engine; the source images are all JPG.
I get that error no matter what I do, but depending on what I did before I sent it to Lux, the results are very different.
If I use Luxus to convert Aandras' texture to Lux materials (I've only tried converting to glossy translucent without volume so far), two things happen:
1) The first time I try to render him in a given session, his head -- Lip, Nostril, SkinFace -- and only his head come out glossy and shiny, as though he's wearing a glass mask.
2) I quit Lux, try and fail to find the difference between his head and other textures, try to render again, and get a completely grayscale, slow to render (even for Lux) image. Unfortunately, I overwrote it, or I'd show it here.
If I leave his textures completely alone, do absolutely nothing to them, don't convert to Lux materials with Luxus, don't do anything at all ... I get the same error message, but he comes out pretty much completely fine. Completely repeatable, no matter what I do. No immediately visible issues at all. He doesn't have Human Surface or Ubersurface or anything but the DAZ Default shader, whatever that is.
To the extent that I understand the error message, I *think* Lux has issues with his facial bump map. Something's going wrong with how Lux converts the file maybe? But it's the same thing every time, only it can handle it better when the materials are unconverted by Luxus first. What it is, I can't tell, and I'm really baffled why it would be so much worse when he's converted to Lux materials with Luxus than when I leave him alone. I mean, I'm perfectly happy to leave him be, but it would be nice to have a clue what's happening.
Thanks, Michael. Yes, he is in a box. I did that because of the efficiency ratings, but now after 18 hours and still sparkling red, I am eager to try a different approach. Did you ever solve the displacement issue? I think it is one of two things... displacement does not come up as an option when using glossy-translucent with volume. I filled in a map and value anyway, but not sure it is even acknowledging it. Or, I just don't have the value high enough. Not sure how to get the Lux Displacement option activated when choosing a material, like you can with volume and light. Although, bump is not included in that either. They only seem to be under the mesh category, which I don't think we can activate at the same time as glossy-translucent. Hopefully putting in a value automatically turns them on.
(I tried using the code thing, but it broke the forum.)
The .TIFs are, of course, made by the render engine; the source images are all JPG.
I get that error no matter what I do, but depending on what I did before I sent it to Lux, the results are very different.
If I use Luxus to convert Aandras' texture to Lux materials (I've only tried converting to glossy translucent without volume so far), two things happen:
1) The first time I try to render him in a given session, his head -- Lip, Nostril, SkinFace -- and only his head come out glossy and shiny, as though he's wearing a glass mask.
2) I quit Lux, try and fail to find the difference between his head and other textures, try to render again, and get a completely grayscale, slow to render (even for Lux) image. Unfortunately, I overwrote it, or I'd show it here.
If I leave his textures completely alone, do absolutely nothing to them, don't convert to Lux materials with Luxus, don't do anything at all ... I get the same error message, but he comes out pretty much completely fine. Completely repeatable, no matter what I do. No immediately visible issues at all. He doesn't have Human Surface or Ubersurface or anything but the DAZ Default shader, whatever that is.
To the extent that I understand the error message, I *think* Lux has issues with his facial bump map. Something's going wrong with how Lux converts the file maybe? But it's the same thing every time, only it can handle it better when the materials are unconverted by Luxus first. What it is, I can't tell, and I'm really baffled why it would be so much worse when he's converted to Lux materials with Luxus than when I leave him alone. I mean, I'm perfectly happy to leave him be, but it would be nice to have a clue what's happening.
My first thought was to tell you that maybe Lux doesn't work with 8 bit .tif files, because I am using .tif files in a current render and I get no such error messages, but my .tifs are 16 bit. Did you try converting the .tif to .jpg or .bmp? Maybe that would help get rid of the error and might solve the gray issue, too. Just a suggestion, I really don't have any idea.
Really nice skin there!
One thing I have found playing with SSS is that the metropolis sampler will cause those splotches. It finds an 'important' pixel then works on other pixels close to it, if I read the documentation correctly, but it seems that SSS can throw the heuristics.
I've been using the lowdiscrepancy sampler for SSS - it can take a bit longer to remove ordinary noise, but you do not get the splotches forming.
Just my ha'penth worth :coolsmile:
Really nice skin there!
One thing I have found playing with SSS is that the metropolis sampler will cause those splotches. It finds an 'important' pixel then works on other pixels close to it, if I read the documentation correctly, but it seems that SSS can throw the heuristics.
I've been using the lowdiscrepancy sampler for SSS - it can take a bit longer to remove ordinary noise, but you do not get the splotches forming.
Just my ha'penth worth :coolsmile:
I will definitely give that a try! Thank-you
I think I've finally got my SSS settings nailed down, but what do you guys think? I decided to redo an old 3DL render in Luxus using homogeneous volumes and the results are below. For some reason, which I'm still unable to figure out, displacement seems very hit or miss with Luxrender.
Here's the deal: I can SEE that Luxus is exporting the displacement information in the LXS file. However, regardless of whether I set it to loop or microdisplacement, there is no displacing of the mesh at all. I also went as far as to try insanely high settings to see if it made a difference. Suffice to say, there's no displacement.
I had a similar issue a while back with a shower render I did. I had set displacement on the floor tiles to give them some dimension, but Luxrender had other ideas and didn't actually displace anything. At the time I had assumed it was the mirror mix material reflecting as if it were a flat surface, and figured that mirrors and displacement don't mix. Now that I'm revisiting the issue, it's clear it's something else.
Has anyone else had problems with displacement in Lux?
Thanks, Michael. Yes, he is in a box. I did that because of the efficiency ratings, but now after 18 hours and still sparkling red, I am eager to try a different approach. Did you ever solve the displacement issue? I think it is one of two things... displacement does not come up as an option when using glossy-translucent with volume. I filled in a map and value anyway, but not sure it is even acknowledging it. Or, I just don't have the value high enough. Not sure how to get the Lux Displacement option activated when choosing a material, like you can with volume and light. Although, bump is not included in that either. They only seem to be under the mesh category, which I don't think we can activate at the same time as glossy-translucent. Hopefully putting in a value automatically turns them on.
Use the extra mesh settings this enables displacement but no I didn't solve it, I need to have another go with the freak.
Just testing out the new Kimberley character for Genesis.
Use the extra mesh settings this enables displacement but no I didn't solve it, I need to have another go with the freak.
I think I remember reading, in this thread, Spherical mentioned something about having enough mesh division for the displacement to be effective. I might have a stab at increasing divisions in the Lux settings. I really like the way Andrei's skin looks in my render, but I honestly don't see any bump, either. In other attempts, I raised the bump amount, but that really seemed to F up the surface. Made it look like sand paper. Currently, this is set at .002 for head and .003 for body/limbs. I tried at .02 and .03, but even that was too much.
@slosh if its any consolation I had the same problem with Reality so i don`t think it`s LUXUS it`s some thing to do with LUXrender.
My first thought was to tell you that maybe Lux doesn't work with 8 bit .tif files, because I am using .tif files in a current render and I get no such error messages, but my .tifs are 16 bit. Did you try converting the .tif to .jpg or .bmp? Maybe that would help get rid of the error and might solve the gray issue, too. Just a suggestion, I really don't have any idea.
I was having the same prob;em with some tiffs that luxus could not seem to create properly and I got a copy of a trial Luxus which sorted it out. I don't know whether the latest update includes that or not.
This can now be done - the latest DAZ Studio Beta has a new feature to render spot renders to new window, which renders at resolution size set in render settings.
I just tried a spot render using this with Luxus set for render and it opened in Luxrender... rendering only the selected area and at the same resolution to match a full-on render.
Thanks for telling me! Tempted to install the beta.. have to think about it, since I can't run both versions and I don't want anything to break. Having the control built in to Studio is a better option than having the plugin do it, just didn't know that was in the works :)
Oh way oh way does my renders stop when s/s and c/s gets to 0.00, nothing in the render settings have been chaged since the last image I rendered out which didn't stop until I stopped it. This is driving me cazy trying to figure out what the hell is causing it, yep ready to launch the computer across the room at this stage. It doesn't matter which settings I use or if I use the Lux UI or not.
All I have is one bird figure, a simple branch prop, HDRI and Sun and rendering small.
Does it do it even on a simple one sphere scene?
you are welcome to zip up your lxs file and pm me a link to it.
I am testing a sphere now. I will let you know who it goes SphericLabs thank you
C/s stuck at zero suggests you are trying to use GPU acceleration and have GPU settings miss-configured, like workgroup size set to 0 with NVidia OpenCL drivers.
Oh yeah you said this before and I forgot. Yes I am using Hybrid but why would it do it with one image and not another even when the image that rendered out was more complex that the one I am doing now? I have a ATI HD5450
For GPU issues, you're probably best off asking over on the LuxRender forums where Dade (the head GPU coder for the Lux project) can help out. But as a quick test, you could export it with GPU acceleration disabled to ensure that it is, in fact, the GPU settings that are causing your problems.