Daz Studio Pro BETA - version 4.20.0.17! (*UPDATED*)

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  • jbowler said:

    Gedan said:

    Thanks for this, that makes sense - kinda weird though increasing opacity increases brightness, cheers anyway

    That's why it's actually called "alpha"; it is not the opacity of an object, it is the amount of an object that is actually there.  If you set opacity to 0.5 the object is only half there; it only interacts with half the colour, the other half goes unmolested.  In DAZ true opacity seems to be the surface "refraction weight" property; the amount of colour that actually goes through the surface rather than being reflected.

    No it's not called alpha, because alpha compositing or alpha blending is a totally different thing:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_compositing

    It's literally called Cutout Opacity and it refers to the optical opacity of a 2D surface (which can be part of a 3D object or standalone), not to the whole 3D object (unless said object is a volume which most 3D objects aren't):

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opacity_(optics)

    With that out of the way, are you saying that if you set opacity to 2.0, the object is there twice?

    I am not aware of any natural objects that can be more than 100% opaque.

  • johndoe_36eb90b0 said:

    jbowler said:

    Gedan said:

    Thanks for this, that makes sense - kinda weird though increasing opacity increases brightness, cheers anyway

    That's why it's actually called "alpha"; it is not the opacity of an object, it is the amount of an object that is actually there.  If you set opacity to 0.5 the object is only half there; it only interacts with half the colour, the other half goes unmolested.  In DAZ true opacity seems to be the surface "refraction weight" property; the amount of colour that actually goes through the surface rather than being reflected.

    No it's not called alpha, because alpha compositing or alpha blending is a totally different thing:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_compositing

    It's literally called Cutout Opacity and it refers to the optical opacity of a 2D surface (which can be part of a 3D object or standalone), not to the whole 3D object (unless said object is a volume which most 3D objects aren't):

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opacity_(optics)

    With that out of the way, are you saying that if you set opacity to 2.0, the object is there twice?

    I am not aware of any natural objects that can be more than 100% opaque.

    The Iray docs agre with you https://raytracing-docs.nvidia.com/mdl/index.html . My expectation would be that setting the value to 2 would clip any map - the actual value of the channel is map times value, so a value of 2 would make any tone of 50% or more fully opaque and would stretch the values from 0 to 50% over the 0 to 100% range.

  • Alowe49Alowe49 Posts: 40

    Am I the only one to keep copies of downloaded versions of Daz - all the way back to Daz 3!!

  • MasterstrokeMasterstroke Posts: 1,757

    Alowe49 said:

    Am I the only one to keep copies of downloaded versions of Daz - all the way back to Daz 3!!

    No, not the only one  ;)

  • jbowlerjbowler Posts: 741

    Richard Haseltine said:

     

    jbowler said:

    Gedan said:

    Thanks for this, that makes sense - kinda weird though increasing opacity increases brightness, cheers anyway

    That's why it's actually called "alpha"; it is not the opacity of an object, it is the amount of an object that is actually there. 

     

    The Iray docs agre with you https://raytracing-docs.nvidia.com/mdl/index.html . My expectation would be that setting the value to 2 would clip any map - the actual value of the channel is map times value, so a value of 2 would make any tone of 50% or more fully opaque and would stretch the values from 0 to 50% over the 0 to 100% range.

    From those documents (the only definition I could find):

    cutout_opacity – A value between 0.0 and 1.0 for a cutout mask, where for a value of 0.0 the object geometry is ignored and for a value of 1.0 the object geometry is there.

    As I said "the amount of an object that is actually there".

    It's dangerous to deduce the meaning of a term used by doctors, lawayers, engineers or computer programmers from the actual English meaning; as in this case where "opacity" is used in a very different way.  In general technical terms are opaque ;-)

    Yes, higher numerical cutout opacities can be used to fix up cutout masks with don't have a full range, but in practice I use cutout opacity to make objects more transparent; perhaps that was @gedan's original assumption.  When an object is emitting reducing the amount of the object that is there causes, or rather should cause, the emission to reduce; cf the Round Tomb candles.  Something of Carroll's Cheshire Cat, though I'm sure we can argue about that too.

  • takezo_3001takezo_3001 Posts: 1,914

    Alowe49 said:

    Am I the only one to keep copies of downloaded versions of Daz - all the way back to Daz 3!!

    Still have my DS 3 advance and pro, though they're collecting virtual dust... :P

  • ProPoseProPose Posts: 520

    Alowe49 said:

    Am I the only one to keep copies of downloaded versions of Daz - all the way back to Daz 3!!

    I still have DS3.1 installed and is used frequently, mostly for all my Generation 2,3, and 4 stuff.  

  • Daz should give coupon 50% discount for who collect all version .laugh

  • Is it just me or does the new version now takes a while before sending data to GPU for rendering? And it's not just a few seconds but actually a few minutes.

    This only happens for the new renders. After the first render, other seems to take normal time to send the render to GPU.

  • Richard Haseltine said:

    The Iray docs agre with you https://raytracing-docs.nvidia.com/mdl/index.html . My expectation would be that setting the value to 2 would clip any map - the actual value of the channel is map times value, so a value of 2 would make any tone of 50% or more fully opaque and would stretch the values from 0 to 50% over the 0 to 100% range.

    NVIDIA Iray team says it is a bug (i.e. the value >1.0 should be clamped to 1.0). It will be fixed in the next Iray version, not sure when Daz is going to get it though.

    I am still waiting for them to confirm or deny the Caustic Sampler bug.

  • kyoto kidkyoto kid Posts: 40,517

    ...I have installers that go all the way back to ver 1.81, save for 4.6 which I forgot to copy off.  I actually have 1.81, 2.0, and 3.1 concurrently installed just for nostalgia sake as well as being able to use some older content that is not compatible with 4.x. 

  • marblemarble Posts: 7,449

    So is there an up-to-date summary of what does and does not work in 4.20. I want to update but reading through this thread does not encorage me to do so. I am still on 4.15 and am missing some later developments on the animation timeline. I guess I should install the Beta but I really dislike having to switch between viewport layouts and I believe that is one of the things that is still broken in 4.20?

  • jbowlerjbowler Posts: 741

    marble said:

    So is there an up-to-date summary of what does and does not work in 4.20. I want to update but reading through this thread does not encorage me to do so. I am still on 4.15 and am missing some later developments on the animation timeline. I guess I should install the Beta but I really dislike having to switch between viewport layouts and I believe that is one of the things that is still broken in 4.20?

    The problem with viewport layouts should be fixed in, I believe, both general and beta.  It was a problem with writing them; I never saw an issue because I never change my layout (I use instances) and it was always possible to restore it from a pre-4.20 general release while using the 4.20 beta.

    If you are installing a beta for the first time you can overwrite the %AppData% *.dsx files for the beta from General (from %AppData%/Studio4 to %AppData%/Studio4 Public Build) to copy the configurations over, or you can use the script Richard gave a link to (I find it is easier to locate %AppData% that it is to locate a script :-)  This will copy the layout.

  • ImagoImago Posts: 4,874

    jbowler said:

    The problem with viewport layouts should be fixed in, I believe, both general and beta.  It was a problem with writing them; I never saw an issue because I never change my layout (I use instances) and it was always possible to restore it from a pre-4.20 general release while using the 4.20 beta.

    If you are installing a beta for the first time you can overwrite the %AppData% *.dsx files for the beta from General (from %AppData%/Studio4 to %AppData%/Studio4 Public Build) to copy the configurations over, or you can use the script Richard gave a link to (I find it is easier to locate %AppData% that it is to locate a script :-)  This will copy the layout.

    Also, make the file Layout.dsx read-only. This will avoid DAZ Studio messing it in the future.
    Obviously, when you want to make changes on the interface, you have to disable the read-only, make the cahnegs and put the read-olny on again.

  • marblemarble Posts: 7,449
    edited April 2022

    jbowler said:

    marble said:

    So is there an up-to-date summary of what does and does not work in 4.20. I want to update but reading through this thread does not encorage me to do so. I am still on 4.15 and am missing some later developments on the animation timeline. I guess I should install the Beta but I really dislike having to switch between viewport layouts and I believe that is one of the things that is still broken in 4.20?

    The problem with viewport layouts should be fixed in, I believe, both general and beta.  It was a problem with writing them; I never saw an issue because I never change my layout (I use instances) and it was always possible to restore it from a pre-4.20 general release while using the 4.20 beta.

    If you are installing a beta for the first time you can overwrite the %AppData% *.dsx files for the beta from General (from %AppData%/Studio4 to %AppData%/Studio4 Public Build) to copy the configurations over, or you can use the script Richard gave a link to (I find it is easier to locate %AppData% that it is to locate a script :-)  This will copy the layout.

    Well, I did install the latest beta and when I fired it up it loaded the viewport layout that I had when I last used a beta version. Luckily, that layout was the one I used as the basis for my General Release version layout too so a couple of tweaks and I was ready to go. Now I need to play with the beta to see what works.

    By the way, I do wish DAZ would call the Beta what it is: a Beta Release. Calling it a "Public Release" is confusing, at least for me, because I immediately think that means the General Release version.

    Post edited by marble on
  • marble said:

    jbowler said:

    marble said:

    So is there an up-to-date summary of what does and does not work in 4.20. I want to update but reading through this thread does not encorage me to do so. I am still on 4.15 and am missing some later developments on the animation timeline. I guess I should install the Beta but I really dislike having to switch between viewport layouts and I believe that is one of the things that is still broken in 4.20?

    The problem with viewport layouts should be fixed in, I believe, both general and beta.  It was a problem with writing them; I never saw an issue because I never change my layout (I use instances) and it was always possible to restore it from a pre-4.20 general release while using the 4.20 beta.

    If you are installing a beta for the first time you can overwrite the %AppData% *.dsx files for the beta from General (from %AppData%/Studio4 to %AppData%/Studio4 Public Build) to copy the configurations over, or you can use the script Richard gave a link to (I find it is easier to locate %AppData% that it is to locate a script :-)  This will copy the layout.

    Well, I did install the latest beta and when I fired it up it loaded the viewport layout that I had when I last used a beta version. Luckily, that layout was the one I used as the basis for my General Release version layout too so a couple of tweaks and I was ready to go. Now I need to play with the beta to see what works.

    By the way, I do wish DAZ would call the Beta what it is: a Beta Release. Calling it a "Public Release" is confusing, at least for me, because I immediately think that means the General Release version.

    Public Build (rather than Public Release) is a standard name for such builds, which may not always be betas per se.

    Each release channel has its own settings, including layouts, so it isn't being claimed that the Public Build is a fix for the General Release - just that it is a build in which layout saving works (and from which the layout can be copied across to the General Release once that is updated).

  • jbowler said:

    marble said:

    So is there an up-to-date summary of what does and does not work in 4.20. I want to update but reading through this thread does not encorage me to do so. I am still on 4.15 and am missing some later developments on the animation timeline. I guess I should install the Beta but I really dislike having to switch between viewport layouts and I believe that is one of the things that is still broken in 4.20?

    The problem with viewport layouts should be fixed in, I believe, both general and beta.  It was a problem with writing them; I never saw an issue because I never change my layout (I use instances) and it was always possible to restore it from a pre-4.20 general release while using the 4.20 beta.

    Only the Public Build has the proposed fix for now.

    If you are installing a beta for the first time you can overwrite the %AppData% *.dsx files for the beta from General (from %AppData%/Studio4 to %AppData%/Studio4 Public Build) to copy the configurations over, or you can use the script Richard gave a link to (I find it is easier to locate %AppData% that it is to locate a script :-)  This will copy the layout.

  • Where can I see what changed in 4.20.11?

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 96,219
    edited April 2022

    second_technician_rimmer_9571136c47 said:

    Where can I see what changed in 4.20.11?

    http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/change_log - though it is 4.20.0.11

    Post edited by Richard Haseltine on
  • RL_MediaRL_Media Posts: 339
    edited April 2022

    Is there a magic trick I forgot about to make DIM show the beta? I have public built checked, but it's only showing me the GoZ beta
    Nevermind, seems I had to buy the beta. Now it's showing.

    Post edited by RL_Media on
  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 37,712

    this is a first, I hid part of something in a scene with the geometry editor and saved a scene subset with just another garment and when I reoppened my original scene it was hidden in that too

    so and I will have to test this, the original duf garment has it hidden

    ( I was doing Dforce sims and hiding parts of garments I did not want stuff colliding with)

  • Editing the geometry will affect all instances of the mesh in memory - if you want to hide selectively use a new surface and make it transparent, or assign the area to be hidden as the selection group of a new bone and hide that - both can have different values for different items derived from the same asset.

  • sandmanmaxsandmanmax Posts: 992

    Richard Haseltine said:

    cgidesign said:

    VEGA said:

    ... The Iray statistics from the small window disapeared, texture memory, geometry etc. ...

    I wrote a ticket some time ago about it missing in the log file. Answer is: "Solved" but that only means that it was forwarded to the dev team as I understand the answer text. No information whether it will be implemented or when that happens (a bit uncommon in the software world to tell the enduser a ticket is "solved" when it was just forwarded to the next team).

    Just tested in ...43 beta. No vram details in the log file.

    The infor,ation is coming (or not) from Iray - messages that appear in the log file with the form Date Iray [Severity] are from iray, if they were daz Studio's work they would start Date [Severity] Iray

    I was just trawling thru my log file from DS 4.20 and comparing back to DS 4.16.  It appears the vram message are considered "VERBOSE", which aren't appearing at all in 4.20.  Is there a way to turn that on manually?

  • How do I download and install the latest version of Daz Studio? I have 4.20.0.2 currently installed, but there appear to be later versions, including a 4.20.0.12 beta. I've gone to https://www.daz3d.com/dazcentral where there's a link to download Daz Studio, but that link actually download Daz Install Manager—not Daz Studio. I already the latest version of DIM (1.4.0.80).

  • Grendelbert said:

    How do I download and install the latest version of Daz Studio? I have 4.20.0.2 currently installed, but there appear to be later versions, including a 4.20.0.12 beta. I've gone to https://www.daz3d.com/dazcentral where there's a link to download Daz Studio, but that link actually download Daz Install Manager—not Daz Studio. I already the latest version of DIM (1.4.0.80).

    You need to "purchase" it, then it will show up in DIM. Make sure the Public Build option is checked in DIM.

  • marblemarble Posts: 7,449

    Just started using the 4.20 beta and I notice a few obvious changes. One is the dialogue for saving a scene. I'm not clear on what is saved or why I should select any of the options. For example, does "Backdrop" include my HDR environment background? And what happens if I don't save the render settings? Does it apply some default settings? So far I have just left everything ticked except Compress File as I believe I have plenty of disk space. I don't know what advantage, other than smaller file size, compressing might have though.

  • IceCrMnIceCrMn Posts: 2,103

    Backdrop refers to the actual backdrop image and color if you used them.
    It's set on the "Environment" pane.

    The HDR file set in Render Settings>Environment is included in the the Render Settings part of the save.

    If you choose NOT to save them; you can merge this scene/subset into another and it won't overwrite the currently used render settings or backdrop.
    Very handy if,like myself, you tend to make large scenes then save them out as smaller subsets so the characters/vehicles/environment can be imported into another scene "ready to go".

    Compression is just like you've already figured out.

    It's to save drive storage space.

    I don't use it either.It's prone to corruption.

    I'd rather have GB sized scene files rather than have hours, or even weeks, worth of work lost to a compression corruption.

  • marblemarble Posts: 7,449

    IceCrMn said:

    Backdrop refers to the actual backdrop image and color if you used them.
    It's set on the "Environment" pane.

    The HDR file set in Render Settings>Environment is included in the the Render Settings part of the save.

    If you choose NOT to save them; you can merge this scene/subset into another and it won't overwrite the currently used render settings or backdrop.
    Very handy if,like myself, you tend to make large scenes then save them out as smaller subsets so the characters/vehicles/environment can be imported into another scene "ready to go".

    Compression is just like you've already figured out.

    It's to save drive storage space.

    I don't use it either.It's prone to corruption.

    I'd rather have GB sized scene files rather than have hours, or even weeks, worth of work lost to a compression corruption.

     

    Thanks for the confirmation. Mostly as I assumed.

    I usually save a base scene with the environment and main structures like buildings, rooms, furniture, lights, etc. That becomes the working scne to which I add my characters. So I then save iterations of that scene with the characters moved around or swapped out. I save my characters as Scene Subsets so they don't interfere with the main scene settings.

  • Masterstroke said:

    Alowe49 said:

    Am I the only one to keep copies of downloaded versions of Daz - all the way back to Daz 3!!

    No, not the only one  ;)

     

    I wish I had backed up 4.12 I don't know why I didn't this version because that is what I use. I did back up 4.11 what a dork I am.

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