is there an easy way to tell if a texture is Iray?
myotherworld
Posts: 576
in The Commons
As I was looking through my library. I noticed the different ways vendors have named the materials folder of their items. Some use materials then sub folders Iray and 3DL. But some don’t say anything other than “materials” with no sub fo;ders, so its hard to tell if its 3dl or iray.Very helpful.
So I ask is there an easy way to tell if a texture is Iray or if its 3DL
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I'd like to know this myself. I have the same problem with lights, no idea if they are iray or not and definitely no instructions on how to use them.
I assume you mean material (preset) rather than texture. If the product hasmetadata the Iray presets should be tagged MDL and the 3Delight should be tagged RSL. If not, and there is only one set of materials, check the product page - older items are likely to be 3Delight, newer are likely to be Iray (but will usually specify). Simply looking the file won't help unles you open it in a text editor and look to see which shader it is applying (assuming ti isn't a custom Shader Mixer shader) or look at the material properties affected.
Daz Studio has been around over 20 years. But Iray only came along in 2015. So there are years and years worth of old products that predate Iray. These products will not have any reference to Iray because it didn't exist, thus there is no distinction of it not having Iray materials. While some products will say they have 3DL materials, for a long time 3DL was the primary render option and products were assumed to support it. If you see "Daz Studio Shaders" those are also 3DL.
One thing to look at is the product's age. If it predates Iray's integration into Daz Studio, then it is certainly going to be 3DL. There are sill products that came after Iray that support 3DL, but these usually clarify this. Most of the products that support both came when Iray was still new and establishing itself. Just about everything in the past few years is Iray and Iray only.
Transition comes around SKU 21000+ as the move to Iray beginss. Can't remember exactly when. (Except that old items from RDNA (SKU higher 20000s) are 3DL.)
many thanks all
not really what i was hoping for.
Guess i will just have to see how things go
Just be aware that some PAs like Maclean and Jack Tomaline are/were updating their old 3DL sets to Iray versions as well. They are clearly marked.
I have also ran into some materials that have just been coded to Material with no reference to MDL, RSL, 3Delight or anything else. And the promo pages are not clear and some of them from the transition period and could easily be either material.
So in the Surfaces tab, is there a 'no fail' clue for everyone to tell if we have Iray vs 3DL materials? Or Iray Uber vs Iray PBR?
I totally get confused on this all the time.
In the surfaces tab it will tell you what shader is used, so Iray Uber and Iray PBR are easy to tell, the tricky one is "DAZ Default" which I believe is still the name for the 3Delight default shader. Keep in mind there are custom shaders for both 3Delight and Iray that it could say, but at least in those cases the name should usually be clear enough that you can look it up in the store here.
Daz Default uses 3DL, and these items mostly predate Iray. Once Iray was included with Daz, they started being more specific. The transition to Iray was quite fast, too. Genesis 3 launched with Iray as its default shader and Daz (and PAs) basically never looked back.
I can understand the confusion, it really can be very confusing. I started using Daz Studio right around when Iray came out, and I had to figure all this stuff out. Sheesh.
Custom shaders can be a question mark, but those are more rare and still generally marked for Iray or 3DL. Also, the rule of release dates applies here as well. If the custom shader released after Iray launched, odds are it is built upon Iray. Like OutOfTouch hairs or Oso shader packs to name a couple. Their store pages also tell you they are for Iray.
BTW there are lots of products that are designed to convert 3DL shaders to Iray. If you get familiar with using surface settings, you will probably be able to convert them on your own, too. And you can always use any number of various shader presets to totally transform old 3DL stuff into something new. So you don't necessarily need to avoid old 3DL items, if that is a concern.
in theory one could create one that is both and am surprised nobody has, I sort of did myself in shadermixer but it wasn't great as I really don't know what I am doing
(I just combined the bricks and put the appropriate maps in each)
Thank you. This also reminded me that it is wise to look at the 'Info' tab in Smart Content when first checking our a new product's materials. I have found the occasional item where the Iray or 3DL products are in the code, but they are marked as the opposite property in the metadata. Which means fixing the metadata and maybe a submission to DAZ Customer Service if a newish item.