LuxusCore, basically gives the same rendering options Reality4 offers for Daz Studio (though Reality doesn't involve any scripting on the user's part).
Actually I would have to respectfully disagree with this statement (note: LuxusCore for Carrara is not the same product as Luxus for Carrara).
LuxusCore uses LuxCore, which is the API version of LuxRender 2.0 (both are currently under development), and Reality 4 uses LuxRender 1.3x. LuxRender 2.0/LuxCore and LuxRender 1.3x are vastly different in terms ao GPU rendering capabilities, and with regard to speed. LuxCore GPU rendering supports either all, or virtually all of the materials of CPU LuxRender (including volumetrics/sss). The GPU version of Lux 1.3x (SLG) only supports a scant few of the materials supported by LuxRender. Additionally, LuxCore in CPU mode (note I'm just talking about CPU rendeing here, not GPU rendering) runs consistently at least 6X to 12X faster than LuxRender 1.3x or 1.4x in CPU mode (path tracing). Another huge distinction is that neither Reality 4 nor Luxus provide an IPR that reflects changes to your project in near real-time (very similar to what Octane Render provides). Reality and Luxus can't provide an IPR for the "host" application simply because this functionality is not available in any version of LuxRender 1.x.
Keep in mind, LuxusCore is in a very early beta stage, and even at it's early stage of development it looks like it will be quite a bit different than Luxus. As I understand it, SphericLabs is planning on making the use of GPU/CPU user select-able without the need for the user to put anything into the configuration settings window. However, right now all it takes to switch from GPU rendering to CPU rendering with LuxusCore is to enter a very simple statement into the configuration settings (renderengine.type = PATHCPU), not difficult by any means.
Just for clarity, LuxCore is an API, not a stand alone program like LuxRender 1.x. When using either Reality or Luxus, you setup your scene and materials in DS/Poser/Carrara, then you export them to Luxrender for rendering. With LuxusCore, everything, including rendering is done within the Carrara interface. With the IPR running when you make a change to the materials/shaders (or lighting, or pose/placement, etc.), it is immediately reflected in the IPR. With Reality or Luxus, to see the results of any change to the materials, you must export the scene to a LuxRender file, LuxRender starts up, loads the scene, then you finally get to see your changes maybe 10-60 seconds later. Additionally, the speed of rendeing with LuxCore, even in CPU mode, is phenomenal compared to Lux 1.3x or 1.4x. In my tests, I'm consistantly getting 0.9Ms/s to 1.2Ms/s with LuxCore (the M stands for Million) on scenes that would have 70Ks/s to 100Ks/s (the K stands for 1,000). Simlpy stated, LuxCore and LuxusCore are definitely in no way similar to Reality 4/Lux 1.3x or Luxus/Lux 1.4x except for the association with "LuxRender" and they are unbiased render engines being produced by the same organization (and no doubt share quite a bit of underlying code). Even at it's current stage of development, LuxCore is able to give the user the best if both worlds - phenomenally faster rendering speeds compared to LuxRender 1.x using either CPU or GPU rendering, all without leaving the host application.
The beta/experimental version is free to try right now. Download it and give it a try, it's an amazing bit of kit!! If you have any problems with the default GPU settings, just copy and past the little "script" I gave above to go into pure CPU rendering, and see for yourself how fast LuxCore is, and how fantastic using the IPR is!!!
...well, considering the current GPU I have has 1GB of VRAM and only supports CUDA GL, GPU rendering with LuxCore is pretty much out of the question, so I would have to go with the CPU mode.
However, I am still wrestling with .duf materials (particularly skin maps) not translating properly in Carrara, so working with vertex modelling in the modelling room and creating logos is pretty much all I am using Carrara for at the moment. I don't have the resources to purchase all the Carrara specific figure skin maps that have been released and am not about to rebuild my entire cast of characters from the ground up all over again after all the work I put into them.
Shoot I haven't even got around to using the IPR rendering window n Daz 4.7.
Done with Reality 4 for DS. Just having fun "bending" light and playing with Glass/SSS shaders. The only postwork is a slight adjustment to levels and adding the sig. The render took a little over 30 hours, using Mono-directional and CPU only, 3.3K samples.
One more very similar to the one above. This render was done using the hybrid renderer in Lux 1.4.1 using Reality 4.
Again the only postwork is a slight adjustment to levels and adding the sig. The render took a little over 22 hours, using Mono-directional in hybrid CPU/GPU mode, ~3.6K samples.
7 weeks, is that a typo?
WHat are your pc specs?
What was your resolution?
A LuxRender scene (wihch Reality uses) can render until infinity.
I have a GTX 780, 4770K, 20 RAM pc and a render off 2000x2000 takes me between 8-24 hours to reach 2000sp
Dark scenes used to be troublesome for me when I was using LuxRender, here's one that Octane for DAZ Studio (still v1.2) pleasantly surprised me with yesterday, quick and practically noiseless.
Cheers!
Dark scenes used to be troublesome for me when I was using LuxRender, here's one that Octane for DAZ Studio (still v1.2) pleasantly surprised me with yesterday, quick and practically noiseless.
Cheers!
Erik
Nice Eric! Dark scenes are definitely much easier in Octane. The shaders in your render are all excellent, but the ear piece is really really good!
7 weeks, is that a typo?
WHat are your pc specs?
What was your resolution?
A LuxRender scene (wihch Reality uses) can render until infinity.
I have a GTX 780, 4770K, 20 RAM pc and a render off 2000x2000 takes me between 8-24 hours to reach 2000sp
I have an i7 920 2.6 GHz/12GB/GTS 250 1GB DDR3 and I can get finished results at 2400x3600 res in about 8 - 24 hrs with Reality/Lux.
Seven weeks just sounds... Nuts!
Dark scenes used to be troublesome for me when I was using LuxRender, here's one that Octane for DAZ Studio (still v1.2) pleasantly surprised me with yesterday, quick and practically noiseless.
Cheers!
Erik
With any scene in LuxRender you can change the exposure, f-stop, levels, gamma of individual lights, overall gamma and film response as it's rendering so any dark scene I have I can fix on the fly in a few seconds.
I see that Octane has real-time post rendering tools but do they allow these kinds of adjustments? I'm asking because I truly don't know, since I don't use or own Octane.
With any scene in LuxRender you can change the exposure, f-stop, levels, gamma of individual lights, overall gamma and film response as it's rendering so any dark scene I have I can fix on the fly in a few seconds.
I see that Octane has real-time post rendering tools but do they allow these kinds of adjustments? I'm asking because I truly don't know, since I don't use or own Octane.
Octane doesn't give you the ability to change the individual light settings "on the fly" without restarting the render like Lux does. But there are several settings that can be changed on the fly without the render restarting. These settings include: exposure, gamma, highlight compression, (film) response, vignetting, saturation, hot pixel removal, as well as several "post processing" effects. See the attached image for the complete "list", everything under Imager and Post Processing (highlighted) can be modified on the fly without the render re-starting.
It's really amazing how little light Octane needs.
This one was lit by an HDR environment image outside (!) the subway station.
I just turned the ceiling lights into portals, and simply let the light in through the tunnel and stairs without any manipulation.
Sure it could do with an other hour or so rendering to get rid of the residual noise, but nevertheless, WOW!
By the way, the image is titled 'Razor', but you'll have to look really hard to see why ; )
It's really amazing how little light Octane needs.
This one was lit by an HDR environment image outside (!) the subway station.
I just turned the ceiling lights into portals, and simply let the light in through the tunnel and stairs without any manipulation.
Sure it could do with an other hour or so rendering to get rid of the residual noise, but nevertheless, WOW!
By the way, the image is titled 'Razor', but you'll have to look really hard to see why ; )
Cheers!
Erik
Great lighting and render! I haven't used portals yet - now it's on my must do list.
Octane definitely does extremely well with low lighting. With this image I was just testing volumetrics in Octane. The only lighting is the Octane sun environment with the sun shining through the doorway (plus the environment light coming through the other three doorways), and one very low intensity mesh light to help give just a bit more illumination on the backs of the columns.
Nothing special here, I just decided to do a quick re-work of a quick render I did in to show that G2F does work in Carrara. I wanted to try it with short hair, and add some shoes (I also did some morph work on V6). The pose isn't great, but I like the way it "captures" the rim light. I also tried SSS for the hair for the first time, I kind of like the effect. It is lit with one of the studio HDRI's that come with Octane, and one mesh (rim) light.
Not good enough to post to my gallery, but I thought a few people watching this thread might find it interesting.
...my issue isn't whether G2F works in Carrara, I know it does. It's not being able to Import the character presets I created in Daz without all the shaders and custom morphs not translating over (I use a number of morph resource kits and custom morphs, the controls for which do not show in the Carrara parameters when I load G2F).
Once you've taken the hurdle of getting to know the quirks of the plugin and Octane itself (I'm still using good old v1.2) it really becomes a joy to be able to 'paint' with light and shadows in such a logical, natural way.
Here's another version of my subway scene, nice and dark (in more than one way).
...my issue isn't whether G2F works in Carrara, I know it does. It's not being able to Import the character presets I created in Daz without all the shaders and custom morphs not translating over (I use a number of morph resource kits and custom morphs, the controls for which do not show in the Carrara parameters when I load G2F).
Hey KK!
Hmmm ... I think you may have missed the intent of my mentioning the purpose of the original image, it was to indicate the level of investment in the pose/artistic quality of the image, rather than the fact that G2F works in Carrara. Obviously when making an image to show a software's capability the quality will be much different than when doing an image from an aesthetic/artistic point of view.
With regard to your statement about morphs not working in Carrara with G2F. Below is a list of the morphs that I have that seem to work fine with Genesis and Genesis 2 Female and Carrara 8.5. I would guess that you are using some other morphs for your character I don't have, since you are experiencing issues?? Or possibly your characters are saved to a location that doesn't work well with Carrara. When creating Genesis or Genesis 2 figures for use in Carrara with DS, it is very important that you save the character in the proper directory, or loading it in Carrara will probably fail at some level. I'm on a PC, and I've had good luck using the following: for Genesis the proper location is "My DAZ3D Library>People>Genesis>Characters", for Genesis 2F it's "My DAZ3D Library>People>Genesis 2 Female>Characters"). There have been posts from other users who have saved their characters to other locations and experienced problems with the characters loading properly.
Here is the list of morphs I have found to work with Genesis and Genesis 2 Female in Carrara. I'm sure I missed one or two (or three or four), but this should help anyone interested to know what morph packages I've been able to use in/with Carrara (your milage may vary).
Genesis 2 Female
Breast Control for Genesis 2 Female(s)
Genesis 2 Female Mixed Morph Resource Kit
Poke-Away2! for Genesis 2 Female(s)
Clothing Breast Fixes For Genesis 2 Female
Genesis 2 Female Morph Resource Kit II
Genesis 2 Head Morph Resource Kit
Shape Shift for Genesis 2 Female and V6
Genesis 2 Female Body Morphs
Genesis 2 Female Head Morphs
Victoria 4 for Genesis 2 Female
Victoria 6
Olympia 6
Lilith 6
Girl 6
Genesis
Genesis Body Morph Resource Kit 1
Genesis Head Morph Resource Kit 1
Genesis Head Morph Resource Kit 2
Genesis Head Morph Resource Kit 3
Genesis Evolution: Body Morphs
Genesis Evolution: Head Morphs
Genesis Evolution: Muscularity
FM Muscle Flexing for Genesis 2 Female(s)
A3 and H3 Shapes for Genesis
Stephanie 3 and FREAK Shapes for Genesis
Victoria 4 for Genesis 2 Female
Shape Shift for Genesis
G4 and F4 for Genesis
Gorilla for Genesis
Nata for Genesis
Ethnicity for Genesis: African
Ethnicity for Genesis: Asian
Ethnicity for Genesis: Native American
NGM for Genesis Female
Glute and Breast Movement for Genesis
Victoria 5
Aiko 5
As for DS shader support in Carrara, could/should Carrara do a better job of importing DS shaders? Yes, definitely! Just keep in mind that shaders in DS have gotten increasingly complex over the past two years, and this does create a bit of a moving target for shader import. Even Reality 4, which has outstanding shader conversion (and took what, over 2 years to develop) typically needs some shader adjustment for the unsupported shaders (and sometimes the supported shaders). There are a couple plugins for Carrara that help a great deal and make the basic adjustments very quick and easy, but shader translation between render engines will never be perfect, especially with complex shaders (and Carrara has to convert both DS and Poser shaders which are very different). Because I have been using Carrara to render Poser/DAZ content since Carrara 2, I'm quite used to fixing the shaders. That is probably why I don't find using 3rd party render engines in either DS or Carrara a problem, because I've learned from using Poser, DS, and Carrara that seldom do the default shaders work perfectly in any given scene/application, even those designed for use in that particular render engine.
Anyway, enough about Genesis and Carrara. If you want any help with Carrara, just start a thread for it and I'll try to do the best I can to point you in the right direction.
some things just will not work esp using any DAZ shadermixer stuff and bone scaling
Mec4D's characters do not namely the wizard and hobbit
neither does the vines and rocks on Midnight stories Swamp creature though they will conform to other characters
because I presume some bone scaling is used
a few legacy items had that problem too namely Garrees Puss in boots
Comments
Actually I would have to respectfully disagree with this statement (note: LuxusCore for Carrara is not the same product as Luxus for Carrara).
LuxusCore uses LuxCore, which is the API version of LuxRender 2.0 (both are currently under development), and Reality 4 uses LuxRender 1.3x. LuxRender 2.0/LuxCore and LuxRender 1.3x are vastly different in terms ao GPU rendering capabilities, and with regard to speed. LuxCore GPU rendering supports either all, or virtually all of the materials of CPU LuxRender (including volumetrics/sss). The GPU version of Lux 1.3x (SLG) only supports a scant few of the materials supported by LuxRender. Additionally, LuxCore in CPU mode (note I'm just talking about CPU rendeing here, not GPU rendering) runs consistently at least 6X to 12X faster than LuxRender 1.3x or 1.4x in CPU mode (path tracing). Another huge distinction is that neither Reality 4 nor Luxus provide an IPR that reflects changes to your project in near real-time (very similar to what Octane Render provides). Reality and Luxus can't provide an IPR for the "host" application simply because this functionality is not available in any version of LuxRender 1.x.
Keep in mind, LuxusCore is in a very early beta stage, and even at it's early stage of development it looks like it will be quite a bit different than Luxus. As I understand it, SphericLabs is planning on making the use of GPU/CPU user select-able without the need for the user to put anything into the configuration settings window. However, right now all it takes to switch from GPU rendering to CPU rendering with LuxusCore is to enter a very simple statement into the configuration settings (renderengine.type = PATHCPU), not difficult by any means.
Just for clarity, LuxCore is an API, not a stand alone program like LuxRender 1.x. When using either Reality or Luxus, you setup your scene and materials in DS/Poser/Carrara, then you export them to Luxrender for rendering. With LuxusCore, everything, including rendering is done within the Carrara interface. With the IPR running when you make a change to the materials/shaders (or lighting, or pose/placement, etc.), it is immediately reflected in the IPR. With Reality or Luxus, to see the results of any change to the materials, you must export the scene to a LuxRender file, LuxRender starts up, loads the scene, then you finally get to see your changes maybe 10-60 seconds later. Additionally, the speed of rendeing with LuxCore, even in CPU mode, is phenomenal compared to Lux 1.3x or 1.4x. In my tests, I'm consistantly getting 0.9Ms/s to 1.2Ms/s with LuxCore (the M stands for Million) on scenes that would have 70Ks/s to 100Ks/s (the K stands for 1,000). Simlpy stated, LuxCore and LuxusCore are definitely in no way similar to Reality 4/Lux 1.3x or Luxus/Lux 1.4x except for the association with "LuxRender" and they are unbiased render engines being produced by the same organization (and no doubt share quite a bit of underlying code). Even at it's current stage of development, LuxCore is able to give the user the best if both worlds - phenomenally faster rendering speeds compared to LuxRender 1.x using either CPU or GPU rendering, all without leaving the host application.
The beta/experimental version is free to try right now. Download it and give it a try, it's an amazing bit of kit!! If you have any problems with the default GPU settings, just copy and past the little "script" I gave above to go into pure CPU rendering, and see for yourself how fast LuxCore is, and how fantastic using the IPR is!!!
...well, considering the current GPU I have has 1GB of VRAM and only supports CUDA GL, GPU rendering with LuxCore is pretty much out of the question, so I would have to go with the CPU mode.
However, I am still wrestling with .duf materials (particularly skin maps) not translating properly in Carrara, so working with vertex modelling in the modelling room and creating logos is pretty much all I am using Carrara for at the moment. I don't have the resources to purchase all the Carrara specific figure skin maps that have been released and am not about to rebuild my entire cast of characters from the ground up all over again after all the work I put into them.
Shoot I haven't even got around to using the IPR rendering window n Daz 4.7.
Another one, fresh out of the oven!
Done with Reality 4 for DS. Just having fun "bending" light and playing with Glass/SSS shaders. The only postwork is a slight adjustment to levels and adding the sig. The render took a little over 30 hours, using Mono-directional and CPU only, 3.3K samples.
The figure is a custom figure based on V6.
One more very similar to the one above. This render was done using the hybrid renderer in Lux 1.4.1 using Reality 4.
Again the only postwork is a slight adjustment to levels and adding the sig. The render took a little over 22 hours, using Mono-directional in hybrid CPU/GPU mode, ~3.6K samples.
Very nice renders
The attached are two renders I've done using Reality/Lux. The Christmas pic took almost seven weeks to render.
Nice results- but seven weeks to render? You must be mad!
lol .... I've got to agree with Phil, both on the results and the time.
I thought I was patient, but I doubt I would ever be able to wait seven weeks to complete a render :bug:
Well done!!
Two more just links due to nudity
http://fav.me/d8fphmv
http://fav.me/d8fph9d
7 weeks, is that a typo?
WHat are your pc specs?
What was your resolution?
A LuxRender scene (wihch Reality uses) can render until infinity.
I have a GTX 780, 4770K, 20 RAM pc and a render off 2000x2000 takes me between 8-24 hours to reach 2000sp
Dark scenes used to be troublesome for me when I was using LuxRender, here's one that Octane for DAZ Studio (still v1.2) pleasantly surprised me with yesterday, quick and practically noiseless.
Cheers!
Erik
Nice Robert - Thanks for posting them!
Nice Eric! Dark scenes are definitely much easier in Octane. The shaders in your render are all excellent, but the ear piece is really really good!
This was just a quick test render of Stone Mason's Village Courtyard using Octane for Carrara.
With any scene in LuxRender you can change the exposure, f-stop, levels, gamma of individual lights, overall gamma and film response as it's rendering so any dark scene I have I can fix on the fly in a few seconds.
I see that Octane has real-time post rendering tools but do they allow these kinds of adjustments? I'm asking because I truly don't know, since I don't use or own Octane.
Octane doesn't give you the ability to change the individual light settings "on the fly" without restarting the render like Lux does. But there are several settings that can be changed on the fly without the render restarting. These settings include: exposure, gamma, highlight compression, (film) response, vignetting, saturation, hot pixel removal, as well as several "post processing" effects. See the attached image for the complete "list", everything under Imager and Post Processing (highlighted) can be modified on the fly without the render re-starting.
It's really amazing how little light Octane needs.
This one was lit by an HDR environment image outside (!) the subway station.
I just turned the ceiling lights into portals, and simply let the light in through the tunnel and stairs without any manipulation.
Sure it could do with an other hour or so rendering to get rid of the residual noise, but nevertheless, WOW!
By the way, the image is titled 'Razor', but you'll have to look really hard to see why ; )
Cheers!
Erik
Razor in right hand perhaps
Indeed! Well spotted : )
Not quite the regular standard issue two-handed broadsword or battle axe, but still adequately effective in the wrong hands.
Cheers!
Erik
I purchased Reality 4 and this is my first render with it. It definitely is easier to manage materials.
A triumphant Templar Knight.
Great lighting and render! I haven't used portals yet - now it's on my must do list.
Octane definitely does extremely well with low lighting. With this image I was just testing volumetrics in Octane. The only lighting is the Octane sun environment with the sun shining through the doorway (plus the environment light coming through the other three doorways), and one very low intensity mesh light to help give just a bit more illumination on the backs of the columns.
Outstanding first Reality 4 render! The soft shadows are perfect.
Nothing special here, I just decided to do a quick re-work of a quick render I did in to show that G2F does work in Carrara. I wanted to try it with short hair, and add some shoes (I also did some morph work on V6). The pose isn't great, but I like the way it "captures" the rim light. I also tried SSS for the hair for the first time, I kind of like the effect. It is lit with one of the studio HDRI's that come with Octane, and one mesh (rim) light.
Not good enough to post to my gallery, but I thought a few people watching this thread might find it interesting.
...my issue isn't whether G2F works in Carrara, I know it does. It's not being able to Import the character presets I created in Daz without all the shaders and custom morphs not translating over (I use a number of morph resource kits and custom morphs, the controls for which do not show in the Carrara parameters when I load G2F).
My second render using Reality. I ad to stop it after 52 hours -
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=2594391
***WARNING****
There's nudity
Once you've taken the hurdle of getting to know the quirks of the plugin and Octane itself (I'm still using good old v1.2) it really becomes a joy to be able to 'paint' with light and shadows in such a logical, natural way.
Here's another version of my subway scene, nice and dark (in more than one way).
Cheers!
Erik
...nice, looks a bit like Trinity there.
Just don't have the resources for both Octane and a GPU with enough horsepower to support it (yet).
Alas Lux's GPU rendering has a bit of a ways to go. (actually have a GPU that will support it provided I don't get too complex with the scene).
Hey KK!
Hmmm ... I think you may have missed the intent of my mentioning the purpose of the original image, it was to indicate the level of investment in the pose/artistic quality of the image, rather than the fact that G2F works in Carrara. Obviously when making an image to show a software's capability the quality will be much different than when doing an image from an aesthetic/artistic point of view.
With regard to your statement about morphs not working in Carrara with G2F. Below is a list of the morphs that I have that seem to work fine with Genesis and Genesis 2 Female and Carrara 8.5. I would guess that you are using some other morphs for your character I don't have, since you are experiencing issues?? Or possibly your characters are saved to a location that doesn't work well with Carrara. When creating Genesis or Genesis 2 figures for use in Carrara with DS, it is very important that you save the character in the proper directory, or loading it in Carrara will probably fail at some level. I'm on a PC, and I've had good luck using the following: for Genesis the proper location is "My DAZ3D Library>People>Genesis>Characters", for Genesis 2F it's "My DAZ3D Library>People>Genesis 2 Female>Characters"). There have been posts from other users who have saved their characters to other locations and experienced problems with the characters loading properly.
Here is the list of morphs I have found to work with Genesis and Genesis 2 Female in Carrara. I'm sure I missed one or two (or three or four), but this should help anyone interested to know what morph packages I've been able to use in/with Carrara (your milage may vary).
Genesis 2 Female
Breast Control for Genesis 2 Female(s)
Genesis 2 Female Mixed Morph Resource Kit
Poke-Away2! for Genesis 2 Female(s)
Clothing Breast Fixes For Genesis 2 Female
Genesis 2 Female Morph Resource Kit II
Genesis 2 Head Morph Resource Kit
Shape Shift for Genesis 2 Female and V6
Genesis 2 Female Body Morphs
Genesis 2 Female Head Morphs
Victoria 4 for Genesis 2 Female
Victoria 6
Olympia 6
Lilith 6
Girl 6
Genesis
Genesis Body Morph Resource Kit 1
Genesis Head Morph Resource Kit 1
Genesis Head Morph Resource Kit 2
Genesis Head Morph Resource Kit 3
Genesis Evolution: Body Morphs
Genesis Evolution: Head Morphs
Genesis Evolution: Muscularity
FM Muscle Flexing for Genesis 2 Female(s)
A3 and H3 Shapes for Genesis
Stephanie 3 and FREAK Shapes for Genesis
Victoria 4 for Genesis 2 Female
Shape Shift for Genesis
G4 and F4 for Genesis
Gorilla for Genesis
Nata for Genesis
Ethnicity for Genesis: African
Ethnicity for Genesis: Asian
Ethnicity for Genesis: Native American
NGM for Genesis Female
Glute and Breast Movement for Genesis
Victoria 5
Aiko 5
As for DS shader support in Carrara, could/should Carrara do a better job of importing DS shaders? Yes, definitely! Just keep in mind that shaders in DS have gotten increasingly complex over the past two years, and this does create a bit of a moving target for shader import. Even Reality 4, which has outstanding shader conversion (and took what, over 2 years to develop) typically needs some shader adjustment for the unsupported shaders (and sometimes the supported shaders). There are a couple plugins for Carrara that help a great deal and make the basic adjustments very quick and easy, but shader translation between render engines will never be perfect, especially with complex shaders (and Carrara has to convert both DS and Poser shaders which are very different). Because I have been using Carrara to render Poser/DAZ content since Carrara 2, I'm quite used to fixing the shaders. That is probably why I don't find using 3rd party render engines in either DS or Carrara a problem, because I've learned from using Poser, DS, and Carrara that seldom do the default shaders work perfectly in any given scene/application, even those designed for use in that particular render engine.
Anyway, enough about Genesis and Carrara. If you want any help with Carrara, just start a thread for it and I'll try to do the best I can to point you in the right direction.
...my presets are in the Library/Presets/Characters Folder which is mapped in Carrara. The characters will load but all the textures bomb.
some things just will not work esp using any DAZ shadermixer stuff and bone scaling
Mec4D's characters do not namely the wizard and hobbit
neither does the vines and rocks on Midnight stories Swamp creature though they will conform to other characters
because I presume some bone scaling is used
a few legacy items had that problem too namely Garrees Puss in boots