Luxus discussion II

MBusch · November 2013

I would like to ask something to Spheric Labs. When I render something without apply Luxus Material, I get a very decent render, but when I just apply Luxus Material copying DS parameters and do not adjust the values in the Surface pane what I get is very unusable.

It is evident that some conversion formula exist to send the material to Lux. Does it make sense bring this default conversion formula as a starting point when applying Luxus Material with copy DS parameters?

Barubary · November 2013

SpottedKitty said:
The problem is, the bump map provides all the fine detail of the engraving on the metal parts. I'll try with the bump value turned down a bit more. What's the scale on that dial again, metres?

in my experience, you have to turn the bump settings for luxus waaay down. For skin textures I usually have to go in the <0.0005 area.</p>

SphericLabs · November 2013

MBusch said:
I would like to ask something to Spheric Labs. When I render something without apply Luxus Material, I get a very decent render, but when I just apply Luxus Material copying DS parameters and do not adjust the values in the Surface pane what I get is very unusable.
It is evident that some conversion formula exist to send the material to Lux. Does it make sense bring this default conversion formula as a starting point when applying Luxus Material with copy DS parameters?

Sort answer: Yes it makes sense, but its complicated.

When I sent the first Luxus build out to a few people for feedback, there was no checkbox for "copying DS parameters". For each material, you had to live with the auto-convert or you had to setup everything manually. The copying DS parameters was only meant to alleviate clicking on each materials Diffuse, bump, opacity, etc maps.

Some aspects won't translate over, but the "copying" certainly could be improved to be much closer and it does make sense to do that.

Barubary · November 2013

Here's a problem I've been having with Luxus, strictly with Gen6 characters so far.

If I set up a Luxus glossy translucent material on a Gen6 character, then save the scene and load it up again, although it still is a glossy translucent material, the LuxRender 'volume' is lost. At least the box where you choose between a 'clear and 'homogeneous' volume is completely empty. It is easily solved by just reapplying a glossy translucent material to the same surface and choosing the right type of volume again, but it is slightly annoying.

Same problem with saving and applying material presets for Gen6. It seems to work just fine for Gen4.

cwichura · November 2013

SpottedKitty said:
The problem is, the bump map provides all the fine detail of the engraving on the metal parts. I'll try with the bump value turned down a bit more. What's the scale on that dial again, metres?

For the most consistent and predictable results, you are better off using something like ShaderMap or other normal map tool to convert the bumps to normals. I do it for pretty much everything I render with LuxRender these days. You can get bump maps to look decent, but you have to do so many test renders to 'dial it in' that it's just a huge time sink. Especially since just letting it run for ~5 minutes usually isn't enough to properly see how the bump is coming in. (It's not just a matter of 'what's the scale' (which in Lux itself is 1unit=1meter), but also the overall contrast level of the bump map image itself.) Using something like ShaderMap, you get a visual representation of what things will look like very quickly, and usually don't have to tweak it much once you apply it in LuxRender (might have to adjust the intensity +/- 1 tick in ShaderMap once you get good at setting intensity).

For ShaderMap, I load the bump map as a displacement image node. Then use a normal-from-displacement and adjust the intensity value to tailor the level. (Intensity defaults to 100, which is 99% of the time MASSIVELY too high. Values of 5-15 are usually more in the realm of what you need. Basically, start low and increase intensity by one until the material preview 'pops'. Either the pop'd value or one below that is what you want.)

SpottedKitty · November 2013

cwichura said:
For the most consistent and predictable results, you are better off using something like ShaderMap or other normal map tool to convert the bumps to normals. I do it for pretty much everything I render with LuxRender these days.

Interesting. I've never had much success using normals, whether in Luxus or just plain D|S renders in 3Delight. Maybe I was just not using good normal maps in the first place?

ShaderMap itself might not be practical for me; even if I could afford that much right now, looking at their website it seems to be buyable only using PayPal... which I'm allergic to. Any other recommendations? I wouldn't need all those other ShaderMap features, only bump-to-normal conversion and bump value setting.

cwichura · November 2013

There are some free options (plugin for GIMP, etc) that I've never tried. Crazy Bump is even more expensive once you get past the free trial period. And I found ShaderMap had more control when I looked into them. So I'm not really qualified to comment on any other normal map tools. In the Reality forums over on yonder website, I've seen other folks mention they use ShaderMap as well. So it's not uncommon with LuxRender.

As to PayPal, I have kind of the opposite view as you do. With the exception of a couple really big stores (like Amazon), I will not give anyone my credit card info any more. Either they take PayPal, or they don't get a sale from me.

SpottedKitty · November 2013

Hmm, OK, I might have to start saving up for it then. Thanks for the info.

Andrey.Behrens_63c4706843 · November 2013

HI,

is there a way to contact 'Spheric Labs'? I would like to request for a lbm2 file format support. With that file format it would be quite easy to create materials in blender, export them into a lbm2 file and and simply assign that file to a surface.

Regards

SphericLabs · November 2013

Andrey.Behrens said:
HI,
is there a way to contact 'Spheric Labs'? I would like to request for a lbm2 file format support. With that file format it would be quite easy to create materials in blender, export them into a lbm2 file and and simply assign that file to a surface.
Regards

You can do stuff like this in the extra settings. I should probably give you a script that does it automatically.


eval{
    var v = include("/data/CJ/AlienEgg.lbm2");
    Lux.writeValue( v );
} 
NamedMaterial "Material"

If you want to get fancy, See this post for hooking up DAZ Properties to drive values of an lbm2 material.
-> http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/21492/P30/#321764

Andrey.Behrens_63c4706843 · November 2013

SphericLabs said:

If you want to get fancy, See this post for hooking up DAZ Properties to drive values of an lbm2 material.
-> http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/21492/P30/#321764

Oh oh. I thought that I read _all_ of the Luxus messages. But obviously did I miss something. Thank you. :-)

Andrey.Behrens_63c4706843 · December 2013

SphericLabs said:

You can do stuff like this in the extra settings. I should probably give you a script that does it automatically.

Hi SphericLabs,

could you add something to link a file to an object? Entering the path + filename as part of a Javascript snippet works but perfect would be a button which opens a 'file open' window and let me locate the material file.

Regards

starionwolf · December 2013

Hi, can someone help me? I am trying to follow the tutorial to create a glass sphere in http://docs.daz3d.com/lib/exe/fetch.php/public/read_me/index/15891/15891_luxus-manual.pdf

I am stuck at step 8:
7. Click on the word “LuxRender” that is now shown as a child Parameter of Default (the only
material of the sphere).
8. Find “LuxRender Volume - Type” and change the option to “clear”.
9. Find “LuxRender Volume - Refractive Index”. Change the value from 1 to 1.6

I cannot find LuxRender Volume - Type. Did I install Luxus incorrectly?

Here is a screenshot of the surfaces pane:

SimonJM · December 2013

When you click on the surfaces context menu to apply the "Luxus - Luxrender material" settings, there are a set of check boxes that you can select which will dictate what sort of surface settings you will get. Once of those is Volume Parameters.

starionwolf · December 2013

ah, looks like I skipped a step. :red:

SphericLabs · December 2013

Andrey.Behrens said:
SphericLabs said:

You can do stuff like this in the extra settings. I should probably give you a script that does it automatically.

Hi SphericLabs,

could you add something to link a file to an object? Entering the path + filename as part of a Javascript snippet works but perfect would be a button which opens a 'file open' window and let me locate the material file.

Regards

Here is a script you can put in your content library
-> http://www.sphericlabs.com/preview/Luxus_Lbm2.dsa

starionwolf · December 2013

Observation: the hybrid renderer is slower than the sampler render. I think my CPU and mother board are too old. My GPU's load is around 12%.

I'll stick to the sampler render until I get a new computer. Bye

edit: I'm using the sampler renderer with path surface integrator. The hybrid renderer is more efficient than the sampler, but it produces renders with more noise. I guess each renderer displays each picture differently. I should change the surface integrator back to bi-directional.

edit 2: I found the answer at GPU Efficiency stat in LuxRender

ok, bye

starionwolf · December 2013

dpm316 said:
SphericLabs,
Do you have any idea why Luxus would generate a truncated lxs file?

After a bit of troubleshooting, I noticed the lxs file for this scene is always getting truncated at 90,908 KB. If I hide some of the objects so it falls below that number, then it works - regardless of which objects I hide. This is how I know that it's not related to any particular object in the scene. I opened another scene and Luxus truncated the lxs file when it went above 60,607 KB. So the threshold is not always the same.

Thanks,
dpm316

I have a similar issue where my Lux files are truncated at about 90 megabytes as well. I wonder if the momoery usage of Daz Studio 4 and Luxus are approaching the 2 GB memory limit in 32 bit Windows. I will test Luxus and Genesis soon.

starionwolf · December 2013

dpm316, are you using a 32 bit version of Windows? I think Luxus is running out of memory when it is trying to save the Lux file, but I am not sure. Two memory monitors that I am using keeps crashing.

dpm316 · December 2013

starionwolf said:
dpm316, are you using a 32 bit version of Windows? I think Luxus is running out of memory when it is trying to save the Lux file, but I am not sure. Two memory monitors that I am using keeps crashing.

Yes, I'm using a 32-bit version of Windows. I've sorry to say that I've given up on Luxus and have been using Reality 2.5 exclusively. Maybe I'll go back to Luxus if I ever upgrade my computer, but for now, Reality does a much better job at memory management. I think it has to do with the way Reality takes a modular approach to exporting the LuxRender files vs. Luxus' method of exporting everything into one big file.

Peace \/
dpm316

starionwolf · December 2013

Hi dpm316, thank you for the detailed information. Perhaps I should buy Reality after I have saved some money. I do like Luxus's interface and the materials. This will be my last post for a while unless I have issues with Luxus in my simple scenes.

Bye

Kerya · December 2013

Freebie
LuxRender Bokeh Balls for DAZ Studio
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/details.php?item_id=72888
Bring every room to life with this lighting prop designed simulate out of focus light. Include an individual prop, a group prop, a default material, and a 9-page user manual.
Requirements: DAZ Studio 4.x, Luxus for DAZ Studio, LuxRender.

none01ohone · December 2013

Kerya said:
Freebie
LuxRender Bokeh Balls for DAZ Studio
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/details.php?item_id=72888
Bring every room to life with this lighting prop designed simulate out of focus light. Include an individual prop, a group prop, a default material, and a 9-page user manual.
Requirements: DAZ Studio 4.x, Luxus for DAZ Studio, LuxRender.

Thanks for posting Kerya.

jax_512b7aea09 · January 2014

Is development of this still ongoing?

If it is, I'd like to mention that auto-conversion seems to ignore displacement.

And, I'd like to reiterate my earlier request for an option to output auto-conversion values to Luxus surface settings. Tweaking Studio surface settings to play nice with auto-conversion isn't an ideal solution, and figuring out Luxus settings for each material takes a great deal of time.

SpottedKitty · January 2014

Mordur said:
If it is, I'd like to mention that auto-conversion seems to ignore displacement.

Not just auto-convert, I'd like to be able to manually convert a surface and have an existing displacement setting picked up without having to rebuild the settings from scratch with lots of guesstimating. It's not uncommon to see both bump and displacement on the same Poser or D|S surface, and setting up both at once for LuxRender can get a bit fiddly.

In addition, better handling of high specularity really is a must. I keep getting both auto and manual conversions with specular values over about 100 coming out in the render very washed-out. Lots of tweaking later, I can usually get the colours to come back properly, but accurate shininess is very hit-and-miss... usually "miss".

agdep · January 2014

Mordur said:
Is development of this still ongoing?
...

Same question... new version of luxrender is out, and no update of luxus...?

CypherFOX · January 2014

Greetings,
Luxus doesn't typically need updating when there's a new LuxRender version, as far as I know.

-- Morgan

mjc1016 · January 2014

agdep said:
Mordur said:
Is development of this still ongoing?
...

Same question... new version of luxrender is out, and no update of luxus...?

1.3.1?

That's been out since Nov...and there were no 'feature' updates...just a maintenance release. So there's no real reason Luxus would need an update. In fact I don't really see a need, until Luxrender 2.0 (or maybe some interim release with some 2.0 features...).

Besides, it's been behaving quite nicely since the last update, which should have cover DS4.6.x...

Platnumk · January 2014

Latest Beta of Daz Studio has broken the Luxus plugin, there is no option to make a LuxRender Light, the menu item
"Luxus -LuxRender Light' no longer appears, see screenshot, the option should be underneath the 'Edit Mode' option

Platnumk · January 2014

PlatnumK said:
Latest Beta of Daz Studio has broken the Luxus plugin, there is no option to make a LuxRender Light, the menu item
"Luxus -LuxRender Light' no longer appears, see screenshot, the option should be underneath the 'Edit Mode' option

Not to worry, I think I have managed to fix it, I had to go into the 'Window - Workspace - Customize' and re-add the menu item

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Luxus discussion II

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