Basic OpenGL render engine?
Mouser
Posts: 675
Is there any documentation on using (improving) renders with the OpenGL render engine?
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I did some tests some time ago with the opengl engine and the main issue I found is that shadow maps don't seem to work fine. So it's pretty useless unless you want to render without shadows at all. If you use 3DL without raytracing it's extremely fast so you can use that instead of opengl.
Or you can export to blender and render with eevee. See my signature.
Exactly, 3DL can be dumbed down to render ridiculously fast, and you don't need to worry about transmapped stuff causing issues. And you get properly antialiased renders. But if you want to use the basic OpenGL, insert the Uberenvironment2 with ambient mode, and set light color to a dark grey, that way you'll get rid of totally black areas, or use the ambient channel per surface the same way.
I was afraid that was the case, is DS using an older version?
I found a reference to DS using version 1.6 on the documentation site.
I think OpenGl is now at version 4.6 or more now.
I see in the log that DS is using GLEW 1.9.0 that's not bad at all. Unfortunately this doesn't mean that the OpenGL engine will support all the features it can. I believe the DS OpenGL engine is pretty basic.
Looking at the specs for GLEW 1.9.0 it says it supports up to OpenGL 4.3 so thats not far from the latest version.
I do get the impression though that the OpenGl engine isnt utilised to the fullest on DS.
The GLSL option adds a bit and I have noticed some impressive toon renders using the same engine.
I'm getting some decent (less worse) results with the M4 & V4 textures but the Genesis materials & above are coming out less than stellar.
I know Genesis & above use Iray & 3DL textures, is their an option to convert them to something more like those used for V4 & M4?
So what exactly is the problem you're having? Examples of renders would be helpful.
I'm just trying to get the best quality from my OpenGl renders as they render so fast.
The Iray textures comes out looking very faded and 3Delight like plastic.
For some reason on OpenGl the textures for M4 & V4 render better so I'm trying to understand the difference between the texture types.
Textures are something (among many) I'm a bit clueless about.
When using opengl I guess it is better to convert everything to the standard daz shader first. So you can fix the materials as you like before rendering. Though I know DS is quite good converting everything to the iray uber shader "on the fly", I don't know how good it is with the other shaders.
To convert to the daz standard shader just select the materials you want to convert, then apply the standard shader from the shaders preset. Or any other shader for what it matters. You can also save your own presets to apply later.
But again, I'd rather advice you to use 3DL instead.
I agree with Padone.
What happens when you load a poser(M4/V4) mat in DS is it gets the DS default shader, only specular- and ambient settings are way off for 3DL, maybe that looks better for you with OpenGL, but it certainly looks bad with 3DL:) Almost every poser mat gets some amount of ambient color and strength which makes it appear in 3DL as it is glowing. That may look better in OpenGL as you won't ever get totally black areas. But I'd suggest instead of using the ambient channel for the surfaces, just kill the ambient strength and instead load an Uberenvironment2 light, set the lighting mode to ambient and set light color to a dark to mid gray. That should give you more consistant results than using ambient strength on surfaces. Glossiness is usually very high like 95 to 100, which in 3DL makes the specular highlights look like tiny bright dots on the skin. A proper amount for skin in DS would be around 65. Then again, it might work for what you do, but I suggest you set the glossiness to a proper value and instead lower specular strength.
Since you haven't posted any renders, I'm only speculating and trying to figure out what you're up to. But this atleast explains why there is a difference between poser mats and the presets that come with DS figures.
Its a bit of a trade off, speed vs quality.
I love the renders Iray produce but OpenGl has the speed.
Yeah I keep finding myself looking at 3DL as a bit of both worlds.
But I'm going to see what I can drag out of Opengl before I just give up;)
Yup OpenGL is fast, but 3DL with no raytracing renders just a tad slower, I do motion testrenders that way (or sometimes use OpenGL) and can get down to 2-3 sec/frame. Not much slower, and looks so much better IMO;)
How do you convert to the "Standard Shader"?
I did a search and evey result indicates people consider 3DL to be the standard shader.
He probably means the DS default shader (3DL). In your content library/shader presets/DS default/ default shader, or something like that.
And you need to select both the object/figure and the surface(s), then doubleclick on the shader preset.
Yes that's it. As for the shadows limitations there's an example below. It seems in OpenGL the shadow map resolution is very limited and you can't adjust it. So basically it's useless.
Thanks;)
there is a new Ogre render out
was curious as it is opensource, how hard would it be to make a plugin for DAZ studio using it?
I don't know anything about codeing at all so have no idea
but as a user and someone rendering animations it might be a better option than openGL for something fast that can do stuffs like shaders and particles etc
Is there a site link to this Ogre engine?
re: Ogre - for anyone motivated/able enough, the developer (Paulo?) recently open-sourced his Reality render engine plugin (github, I believe), which integrated the first generation lux-renderer into the DS infrastructure. Perhaps there are some hints and usable code-snippits available there that would ...
2c,
--ms
No idea why you'd use Ogre if you can use Unreal Engine (or even Unity).
...
(I'll get my coat)
OpenGL is good to render my timeline quickly.... such that I can look for any poor camera positions, poke through, then fix the things that came out worst. Once it passes I polish it with 3Delight or Iray.
Often in 3Delight and Iray I am doing characters isolated with no environment or background such that I can post work in GIMP, and hence save results in PNG.
Note when saving PNG from OpenGL hair and eye lashes tends to get transparency that becomes white instead of black. Simply put one need to render the OpenGL to jpeg. Use 3Delight to with no shadows to make isolated PNG's because of this behavior.
OpenGL Intermediate simply tends to miss the mark too much for me, or it locks up my systen. I do want it to have better Shader support, or want the GLSL to connect to something that works.