DAZ Studio Pro BETA (4.5.2.40) Update!

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  • rbtwhizrbtwhiz Posts: 2,171
    edited April 2013

    Look on the previous page... near the end of my last post:

    And better still… Surface Selection Sets can be hierarchical.
    Post edited by rbtwhiz on
  • wancowwancow Posts: 2,708
    edited December 1969

    Okay, I wasn't sure that's what that meant! That's BLOODY AWESOME! I'll Get this tomorrow!!!

  • SloshSlosh Posts: 2,391
    edited December 1969

    Slosh said:
    Okay, just a little time to play around and already I like some of the new features very much. My favorite so far is Surface Selection Sets. Easy to set up, wonderful to use. You just got to the Surfaces Tab context menu, Edit Selection Sets, create names for your sets, such as Body, Eyes, then assign the materials to the set. Iris, Pupil, Sclera go to the Eyes, and I would do a separate one for the cornea and tear, maybe call it "Clear". Then, you just choose that set out of the regular list on the left side of the surfaces tab and it automatically selects all the mats in that group.

    The gamma correction option is pretty cool, too. Takes that ultra-shine off of items in the scene. Spot render to new window is great, for the reasons listed above (re-render only portion of scene to composite later).

    The only drawback, so far, is that I don't seem to be able to convert a material to LuxMaterials. The option doesn't even show up in the context menu. It is there for lights, but not materials. BUT, if I load a scene from before I installed the beta, in which I used LuxMaterials, the material settings appear in the left side list.. Just can't create new conversions.

    This is probably just an issue with menu updating. You can put it back by going to Window > Workspace > Select Layout... and re-apply your chosen layout, your you can re-add it with the Customize Dialog (Window > Workspace > Customize...)

    Thanks! That did the trick. I chose your second option because I customized my layout and did not save it recently, so I didn't want to lose my customization.

  • SnowSultanSnowSultan Posts: 3,495
    edited December 1969

    Forgot to add that I also tried SubD on some medieval cups and it made a huge difference. Guess I hadn't tried it on the right things before today. Thanks for the inspiration. :)

  • SloshSlosh Posts: 2,391
    edited December 1969

    cwichura said:
    How will export plugins like Reality or Luxus see the surface selection sets? I'm guessing they will only see the base surfaces and none of the selection sets.

    Although it would be handy if one could collapse the base materials away and have Reality/etc see only the surface selection sets. It would make applying material settings in Reality to the SuperSuit with its hundreds of mat zones MUCH easier if one could group them in Studio and then tell Studio to only make the custom selection sets show as if they were the base materials to the export plugins.

    I did a test, assigning Hiro 5's like-textured material zones into 4 groups: Head, Torso, Limbs, Eyes. Then, to test the spot render to new window feature, I grabbed a portion of my scene and sent it over to LuxRender, via Luxus. Rendered just fine.

    Also, maybe you meant something else by your question. The original material zones are listed in a main group at the bottom of the list, so they are still receiving individual settings and you can continue to edit them individually. So, I believe Luxus and Reality will probably refer to this final list when exporting material data to LuxRender. Hopefully, I am wrong, because like you said with the Supersuit as an example, if I only have Black Leather, silver trim, and chain mail comprising my entire suit, it would be nice for Lux to recognize it as only 3 materials, rather than 120 or whatever supersuit has! I may test it later to find out, but assigning the groups is going to be tedious.

  • rbtwhizrbtwhiz Posts: 2,171
    edited December 1969

    External renderers will see whatever the developers of the respective translators/convertors/exporters want them to see; where there is a will, there may be a way. That being said, collapsing/baking Surface Selection Sets into actual surfaces can get very complex, impractical even, very quickly... because a surface can participate in any number of selection sets (for quick access to a specific subset of their collective parameters) and those selection sets may or may not also be hierarchical. Quite a bit of potential for conflicts (in the values of the various parameters) while attempting to define a "surface" in that case.

  • cwichuracwichura Posts: 1,042
    edited December 1969

    The collapse/bake was more wishful thinking than anything.

    What I'm worried about is since you say they are in the same namespace as the base surfaces, that Reality for example will end up seeing both the surface selection sets AND the base materials until such time as it's updated to have native knowledge of the surface selection sets. If it sees both of them, it will end up trying to export the material (and hence geometry) multiple times, which would be bad.

    Put another way, the SDK needs to work such that existing plugins only see the original base surfaces of the object and only ones specifically updated should see the surface selection sets as they'll have the appropriate knowledge of how to deal with them.

  • SloshSlosh Posts: 2,391
    edited December 1969

    I just set up a selection set on Michael 5, then applied Benjamin material preset and the new setting went into the texture set I created perfectly! Then, I tried saving the material, with selection sets, as a material preset, but unfortunately when I reloaded Michael 5 and applied the saved preset, the selection sets were gone. Hopefully there is a way to save them out that we don't know about yet.

  • kyoto kidkyoto kid Posts: 40,514
    edited December 1969

    rbtwhiz said:
    When the Spot Render tool is active, the options for that tool are displayed in the Tool Settings pane; this is true of all Viewport Tools, the Spot Render tool just never had any options before now. The option that has been added to the Spot Render tool is one in which you can now choose where the image will render to. The Viewport option, the default [and only option prior to this release], causes the render to occur in the same place it always has... directly within the viewport, sized according to the size of the rectangle you drag within the viewport. Choosing the New Window option now causes the area of the viewport within the rectangle you drag with the tool to be rendered to a new window (just like a full render), with a relative size and position that corresponds with your current Render Settings. This is useful, for instance, because you can now re-render just a portion of an image and layer it above a previous render to "patch" that image without having to re-render the entire thing... and the re-rendered portion is already appropriately sized and positioned, waiting for you to do just that.

    ..so in a sense, a "mini multi pass render". Fascinating. Been struggling all day with a portion I couldn't get to light properly without having to run the whole thing over again and again. Thus would have saved a lot of time
  • kyoto kidkyoto kid Posts: 40,514
    edited December 1969

    ...very tempting but going to wait as I am still figuring all the new stuff out in the last version. 5 years at this and 4.5 made me a n00b again.

  • RAMWolffRAMWolff Posts: 10,142
    edited December 1969

    Just updated my own "SuperSuit" (still trying to figure out how to make concentric circles using ZBrush, hmmph) and found the Transfer Utility had moved below the divider, which confused me for a minute or two as I kept selecting Transfer Active Morphs instead and kept getting an error message! LOL Once I got that through my thick head I was good to go but then noticed that the suit was not instantly working with Genesis, had to save it out and then reload it. Also noticed that the Fit To seems changed somehow. Not sure if there was something changed but seems different *shrugs*.

    Other than that all seems stable so far. Brought in the obj to rename the group nodes and then create surfaces with them and well in the previous version it crashed here and there doing stuff like that. This stayed nice and stable through the whole process. There are 18 zones in my suit so got me nervous about 3/4's the way down the list! lol

    Looks like the weight mapping is displaying a bit differently or am I just seeing things?? Could be, it's late here.....

    Thanks for the update. :coolsmile:

  • martinez.zora77@gmail.com[email protected] Posts: 1,343
    edited December 1969

    Slosh said:
    Okay, just a little time to play around and already I like some of the new features very much. My favorite so far is Surface Selection Sets. Easy to set up, wonderful to use. You just got to the Surfaces Tab context menu, Edit Selection Sets, create names for your sets, such as Body, Eyes, then assign the materials to the set. Iris, Pupil, Sclera go to the Eyes, and I would do a separate one for the cornea and tear, maybe call it "Clear". Then, you just choose that set out of the regular list on the left side of the surfaces tab and it automatically selects all the mats in that group.

    The gamma correction option is pretty cool, too. Takes that ultra-shine off of items in the scene. Spot render to new window is great, for the reasons listed above (re-render only portion of scene to composite later).

    The only drawback, so far, is that I don't seem to be able to convert a material to LuxMaterials. The option doesn't even show up in the context menu. It is there for lights, but not materials. BUT, if I load a scene from before I installed the beta, in which I used LuxMaterials, the material settings appear in the left side list.. Just can't create new conversions.

    This sound like the solution to my problem. I need change the same parameter in the shader for multiple surface in several figures and change parameters in an UE light. It is a total torture select and re-select all those surface.

  • SloshSlosh Posts: 2,391
    edited December 1969

    I installed the 32-bit version of the beta because I already have 64-bit for 4.5, then decided I liked it enough to go 64-bit with the beta. Somehow, installing the 64-bit version, I lost access to the Mimic plugin. It was there in the 32-bit version, and even though I uninstalled 32bit and installed correct 64bit version, it won't appear in my panes list. I checked the plugins and it is there, but unregistered and I didn't get serial #'s with this. I'm not extremely worried about it because I have yet to want to do an animation, but it would be nice to play with for a bit. Also, haven't been able to figure out dynamic clothing pane yet, but then I just winged it without reading first, so I will give that a go tomorrow.

  • martinez.zora77@gmail.com[email protected] Posts: 1,343
    edited December 1969

    3) Added support for TriAx to TriAx Auto-Fit.

    This means???


    5) Added support for Ptex.

    Can I think in this like a new toy for shader builder too?

    6) Added support for independent UV set selection on Geometry Shells.
    Wow

  • prixatprixat Posts: 1,585
    edited April 2013

    I like the way Catmull-Clark subdiv is now labeled as 'Legacy' :-)

    The new methods alter my models a bit but they haven't broken anything yet.
    So far, I actually prefer the slightly more rounded and expanded shapes the newer algorithms produce.

    I'll have to make something with more holes and internals and see if that expansion has an effect on it.

    It looks like I wont have to throw away Cinema just yet, though I need to get a Ptex plugin. :coolsmile:


    In future, will there be the same control over the Render subdiv levels as we have over the Preview subdiv levels?

    Post edited by prixat on
  • MattymanxMattymanx Posts: 6,877
    edited December 1969

    We have to remember that the new features are something we are moving forward with. While little or nothing can take direct advantage of it at the moment, DAZ3D is making DS more advanced for the future by adding in these new features now. Like all new things, support will come in slowly at first and then increase. I am looking forward to the future of DS and what it can do.

    How these new features get translated into another render engine is up to those who make the other render engine and those who make the exporters. Lux Render is free and Open source so if anyone wants to help them add Ptex and OpendSubdiv support, they can.

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 96,207
    edited December 1969

    Slosh said:
    I installed the 32-bit version of the beta because I already have 64-bit for 4.5, then decided I liked it enough to go 64-bit with the beta. Somehow, installing the 64-bit version, I lost access to the Mimic plugin. It was there in the 32-bit version, and even though I uninstalled 32bit and installed correct 64bit version, it won't appear in my panes list. I checked the plugins and it is there, but unregistered and I didn't get serial #'s with this. I'm not extremely worried about it because I have yet to want to do an animation, but it would be nice to play with for a bit. Also, haven't been able to figure out dynamic clothing pane yet, but then I just winged it without reading first, so I will give that a go tomorrow.

    Mimic in DS (LipSync) is 32 bit only, though the standalone version will write pz2 files that can be used in any version.

  • KeryaKerya Posts: 10,943
    edited December 1969

    2) Updated the 3Delight render engine to 10.0.125; see 3Delight Change Log for more details.

    As I am in the middle of something, I can't test - but could somebody take a look whether the DeepShadowMap artifacts issue is solved?
    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/20152/

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 96,207
    edited December 1969

    Ramwolff - note that one of the changes in the rigging tools is the ability to turn normalisation off, which should make handles (including your cape) much easier to implement.

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 96,207
    edited December 1969

    I haven't noticed the DSM issue, though it's a random thing so that's hardly conclusive.

    As a semi-related note - with gamma correction on the point lights in DS now produce a useful effect. Of course that does mean old scenes may need adjusting - I wanted to turn the lights down a touch.

  • WitchStormWitchStorm Posts: 186
    edited December 1969

    Slosh said:
    cwichura said:
    How will export plugins like Reality or Luxus see the surface selection sets? I'm guessing they will only see the base surfaces and none of the selection sets.

    Although it would be handy if one could collapse the base materials away and have Reality/etc see only the surface selection sets. It would make applying material settings in Reality to the SuperSuit with its hundreds of mat zones MUCH easier if one could group them in Studio and then tell Studio to only make the custom selection sets show as if they were the base materials to the export plugins.

    I did a test, assigning Hiro 5's like-textured material zones into 4 groups: Head, Torso, Limbs, Eyes. Then, to test the spot render to new window feature, I grabbed a portion of my scene and sent it over to LuxRender, via Luxus. Rendered just fine.

    Also, maybe you meant something else by your question. The original material zones are listed in a main group at the bottom of the list, so they are still receiving individual settings and you can continue to edit them individually. So, I believe Luxus and Reality will probably refer to this final list when exporting material data to LuxRender. Hopefully, I am wrong, because like you said with the Supersuit as an example, if I only have Black Leather, silver trim, and chain mail comprising my entire suit, it would be nice for Lux to recognize it as only 3 materials, rather than 120 or whatever supersuit has! I may test it later to find out, but assigning the groups is going to be tedious.

    LuxRender? via Luxus? I am so behind the times. Still trying to put Eilir Works BSP Atmosphere Clouds into Daz 3. And, it won't let me. It says it can not find Daz. I have Daz 3 and Daz 4 Pro. Back to this LuxRender and Luxus. What are they? Where can I get more information on them?

  • DAZ_cjonesDAZ_cjones Posts: 637
    edited April 2013

    cwichura said:
    The collapse/bake was more wishful thinking than anything.

    What I'm worried about is since you say they are in the same namespace as the base surfaces, that Reality for example will end up seeing both the surface selection sets AND the base materials until such time as it's updated to have native knowledge of the surface selection sets. If it sees both of them, it will end up trying to export the material (and hence geometry) multiple times, which would be bad.

    Put another way, the SDK needs to work such that existing plugins only see the original base surfaces of the object and only ones specifically updated should see the surface selection sets as they'll have the appropriate knowledge of how to deal with them.

    By name space we simply mean that you should not create a surface selection set that has the same name as another material or selection set. That said the selection sets are a separate list provided by separate functions, so plugin developers current code will continue to work as it does without update, unless they wish to use the surface selection sets for something in an update to their plug-ins.

    Post edited by DAZ_cjones on
  • DAZ_cjonesDAZ_cjones Posts: 637
    edited December 1969

    Slosh said:
    I just set up a selection set on Michael 5, then applied Benjamin material preset and the new setting went into the texture set I created perfectly! Then, I tried saving the material, with selection sets, as a material preset, but unfortunately when I reloaded Michael 5 and applied the saved preset, the selection sets were gone. Hopefully there is a way to save them out that we don't know about yet.

    Surface Selection Sets are currently saved with scenes, scene subset, and wearables.

  • araneldonaraneldon Posts: 712
    edited December 1969

    LuxRender? via Luxus? I am so behind the times. Still trying to put Eilir Works BSP Atmosphere Clouds into Daz 3. And, it won't let me. It says it can not find Daz. I have Daz 3 and Daz 4 Pro. Back to this LuxRender and Luxus. What are they? Where can I get more information on them?

    LuxRender (wikipedia)
    LuxRender home
    Luxus at DAZ
  • DAZ_cjonesDAZ_cjones Posts: 637
    edited December 1969

    prixat said:
    I like the way Catmull-Clark subdiv is now labeled as 'Legacy' :-)

    The new methods alter my models a bit but they haven't broken anything yet.
    So far, I actually prefer the slightly more rounded and expanded shapes the newer algorithms produce.

    I'll have to make something with more holes and internals and see if that expansion has an effect on it.

    It looks like I wont have to throw away Cinema just yet, though I need to get a Ptex plugin. :coolsmile:


    In future, will there be the same control over the Render subdiv levels as we have over the Preview subdiv levels?

    Couple notes on the new subdivision. Its more "correct" according to industry standards so it will be a little different for most shapes and completely different for others. It is also more sensitive to ill formed geometry things like topology construction, errant welding, and winding order matter significantly. We kept the legacy for cases where this cause strangeness in the subdivision.

  • DAZ_cjonesDAZ_cjones Posts: 637
    edited December 1969

    gilikshe said:

    5) Added support for Ptex.
    Can I think in this like a new toy for shader builder too?

    Ptex variables are activated whenever a material has a property using a PTex map. Should be able to use it with Shader Mixer and Builder.

  • WitchStormWitchStorm Posts: 186
    edited December 1969

    araneldon said:
    LuxRender? via Luxus? I am so behind the times. Still trying to put Eilir Works BSP Atmosphere Clouds into Daz 3. And, it won't let me. It says it can not find Daz. I have Daz 3 and Daz 4 Pro. Back to this LuxRender and Luxus. What are they? Where can I get more information on them?

    LuxRender (wikipedia)
    LuxRender home
    Luxus at DAZ

    Thanks araneldon! Going to check it out....

  • jepegraphicsjepegraphics Posts: 863
    edited December 1969

    I am very happy about two new features, the independent UV for Geometry Shells - my Body Jewels are so much more versatile now! :) and the Spot Render in a new window, saves a lot of time when only a small detail has to be changed and you don't need to render the whole image again - I so missed this feature when switched from Poser to DS for a scene with Genesis.

  • ReDaveReDave Posts: 815
    edited December 1969

    That's a fantastic set of features! Thanks DAZ!

  • RAMWolffRAMWolff Posts: 10,142
    edited April 2013

    Ramwolff - note that one of the changes in the rigging tools is the ability to turn normalisation off, which should make handles (including your cape) much easier to implement.

    Sounds great. Don't know what you said but sounds great. :P Not sure what Normalisation is or does.

    One thing I've not had a chance to ask is with all these new subdivision options will there be one that will be a little less intensive so when I pose Bruno's arms up the weight mapping doesn't over extend itself and cause bulbous shoulders?? Just thought I'd ask.

    On the weight mapping, I guess since I'm getting a little better at it, is there a way to save out an altered weight mapping that fixes these areas to include with Bruno when he's finally released?

    Post edited by RAMWolff on
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