3Delight Laboratory Thread: tips, questions, experiments

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  • RogerbeeRogerbee Posts: 4,460
    edited April 2015

    mjc1016 said:
    Rogerbee said:
    Not just intake and/or exhaust fans. What do the intakes have covering them (AKA restricting the airflow)? Reminds me of another computer, lol. "Zar"
    http://www.zarcondeegrissom.org/comps/ZAR.html

    Not much though it is a little cramped what with it being a mini tower, it was all I had space for. There is ventilation next to the GPU via a grille, but it doesn't offer much. The PSU is 750w so it'll take it.

    I'll sort it!

    CHEERS!

    PS (The good old desktop case, those were the days! My first two were and the rest have been mini towers and 3 laptops.)

    Mini-tower...you might as well just build it in a toaster oven and be done with it. Your average closet has more ventilation than a mini.

    LOL, I know, I just don't have the space. I couldn't have a full height tower as I couldn't open the paper outlet tray on my printer and I can't put that anywhere else. Everything was done to precisely match the available space, case, monitor, keyboard mouse. It all fits with little room to spare.

    CHEERS!

    PS (We'd better start talking about 3Delight or Kettu will evict us!)

    Post edited by Rogerbee on
  • RogerbeeRogerbee Posts: 4,460
    edited December 1969

    Rogerbee said:
    I just caught that (In bold by me) bit. 3delight is CPU only, to the best of my knowledge. So the only reason for the Graphics card to be screaming would be another program putting it threw it's paces, or the case is not letting in enough fresh air in (or exhausting hot air that well enough), to keep the CPU cool.

    No, it's GPU, if you look at the requirements in the About Your Video Card in the troubleshooting menu, it tells you what your card supports. Why do that if it's CPU!? The fans speed up only when 3Delight is rendering, and there are no other programs open, so it has to be using it.

    CHEERS!

    DOH! It is CPU, but, isn't the viewport using the GPU?

    CHEERS!

  • scorpioscorpio Posts: 8,312
    edited December 1969

    Rogerbee said:
    Rogerbee said:
    I just caught that (In bold by me) bit. 3delight is CPU only, to the best of my knowledge. So the only reason for the Graphics card to be screaming would be another program putting it threw it's paces, or the case is not letting in enough fresh air in (or exhausting hot air that well enough), to keep the CPU cool.

    No, it's GPU, if you look at the requirements in the About Your Video Card in the troubleshooting menu, it tells you what your card supports. Why do that if it's CPU!? The fans speed up only when 3Delight is rendering, and there are no other programs open, so it has to be using it.

    CHEERS!

    DOH! It is CPU, but, isn't the viewport using the GPU?

    CHEERS!

    Yes the viewport relies on the Graphics card, as mine is pretty basic scenes get real sluggish pretty quick, I might be able to render them but building them is difficult, so I usually build in sections.

  • RogerbeeRogerbee Posts: 4,460
    edited April 2015

    Ok, so, why then do the graphics card fans scream when DS is rendering? I very rarely have other programs running and it's done what it needs to with the viewport. I'm resting DS till I can get myself more cooling fans, which will be by the end of the week. Still, it'd be good to know why the graphics card is working that hard. Unless of course it's the CPU fan I can hear. I'll take the side off my case and have a gander....

    CHEERS!

    EDIT:

    It was the CPU fan going nuts, not the graphics card! Without the case side on it was easier to hear where the noise was coming from. Now that makes more sense! I'll still get the extra cooling though as that front fan makes naff all difference.

    Post edited by Rogerbee on
  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001
    edited December 1969

    Without looking at a temperature monitor, fan noise is not a good judge of what is going on. Temps may be fine, but the fan just noisy at full speed. Lots of cooling fans are pretty quiet when running at lower speeds, but sound like a 747 taxiing when running at full speed...but they still are 'working' correctly.

  • RogerbeeRogerbee Posts: 4,460
    edited April 2015

    I just downloaded a temperature monitor. Rendering my Horde took just over 6 minutes with all 6 cores at 100% load and the maximum CPU temperature was 68 degrees. Is that good, or would the additional cooling help?

    CHEERS!

    Post edited by Rogerbee on
  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001
    edited December 1969

    Rogerbee said:
    I just downloaded a temperature monitor. Rendering my Horde took just over 6 minutes with all 6 cores at 100% load and the maximum CPU temperature was 68 degrees. Is that good, or would the additional cooling help?

    CHEERS!

    If that is 68 F, yeah, it's fine...but if it's 68 C, then no, it's way too hot. And it's much more likely to 68 C than 68F...because most monitoring programs I've seen default to C.

  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001
    edited April 2015

    Someone posted a render of this model in one of the PBR threads...so I thought I'd give it a go in 3DL.

    This is just standard surfaces, with free presets. Reflection maps are removed to get environmental reflections and Kettu's Raytrace scripted render; 6 pixel samples, 2 diffuse bounces, 8 raytrace depth and .5 shading rate...rendered at 1024 x 1280 in just under 20 minutes.

    Oh yeah...forgot lighting. Envlight2 with an hdrr and same hdr mapped to the EnvSphere.

    Not perfect, but...for a quick and dirty, I think it's pretty good.

    mosquito_killer.png
    1024 x 1280 - 1M
    Post edited by mjc1016 on
  • RogerbeeRogerbee Posts: 4,460
    edited December 1969

    mjc1016 said:
    Rogerbee said:
    I just downloaded a temperature monitor. Rendering my Horde took just over 6 minutes with all 6 cores at 100% load and the maximum CPU temperature was 68 degrees. Is that good, or would the additional cooling help?

    CHEERS!

    If that is 68 F, yeah, it's fine...but if it's 68 C, then no, it's way too hot. And it's much more likely to 68 C than 68F...because most monitoring programs I've seen default to C.

    Yep, it was C! It's getting hot in there! The GPU is constantly at 58 degrees, so, it's definitely fan time! If that's what 3Delight does, I dread to think what Iray would do. I'll stick with Lux if I want unbiased as I know that it uses the GPU.

    CHEERS!

  • RogerbeeRogerbee Posts: 4,460
    edited December 1969

    mjc1016 said:
    Someone posted a render of this model in one of the PBR threads...so I thought I'd give it a go in 3DL.

    This is just standard surfaces, with free presets. Reflection maps are removed to get environmental reflections and Kettu's Raytrace scripted render; 6 pixel samples, 2 diffuse bounces, 8 raytrace depth and .5 shading rate...rendered at 1024 x 1280 in just under 20 minutes.

    Oh yeah...forgot lighting. Envlight2 with an hdrr and same hdr mapped to the EnvSphere.

    Not perfect, but...for a quick and dirty, I think it's pretty good.

    Yeah, he's pretty neat, till he bites!

    CHEERS!

  • Mustakettu85Mustakettu85 Posts: 2,933
    edited December 1969

    Rogerbee said:

    Ok, following on from what we were discussing about the Horde's mouth, I set most of it up like the skin, but, I set the sharpness to 30% and used the Skin3 preset for the SSS. With the teeth I dialled in some translucency and left off Fresnel2, I think I got the look just right. I dialled back diffuse strength to 75% so everything wasn't too in your face. If everyone is happy I can save the full MAT.

    Super neat!

    Is there a place this model is still available from?

    As for Garibaldi & LAMH, I find Garibaldi (much) easier to use, but LAMH works better with scripted rendering, i.e. no fuss, just renders. Garibaldi requires doing some shamanic dancing to actually get it to generate the curves.
    There's a lot of helpful documentation for Garibaldi here: http://www.garibaldiexpress.com/help.html

  • RogerbeeRogerbee Posts: 4,460
    edited December 1969

    Rogerbee said:

    Ok, following on from what we were discussing about the Horde's mouth, I set most of it up like the skin, but, I set the sharpness to 30% and used the Skin3 preset for the SSS. With the teeth I dialled in some translucency and left off Fresnel2, I think I got the look just right. I dialled back diffuse strength to 75% so everything wasn't too in your face. If everyone is happy I can save the full MAT.

    Super neat!

    Is there a place this model is still available from?

    As for Garibaldi & LAMH, I find Garibaldi (much) easier to use, but LAMH works better with scripted rendering, i.e. no fuss, just renders. Garibaldi requires doing some shamanic dancing to actually get it to generate the curves.
    There's a lot of helpful documentation for Garibaldi here: http://www.garibaldiexpress.com/help.html

    Thanks,

    I'll consider that MAT saved then. I am still looking into LAMH for the fur issue as I believe it generates hair that other render engines recognise which Garibaldi doesn't. Still, I'm getting my cooling sorted before I do too much else.

    Sadly the Horde is long gone, Sanctum Arts now works in the gaming industry and is responsible in part for the Gears of War games. He is on DeviantArt apparently, if he could see my fully updated Horde I wonder if he could be persuaded to let Daz have my .duf and an LAMH preset......

    CHEERS!

    PS (It occurred to me that I could do with Swidhelm's Alien what I did with the Horde. He is still around so if I showed it to him and he liked what he saw he could maybe do some updated textures for it.)

  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001
    edited December 1969

    Rogerbee said:

    PS (It occurred to me that I could do with Swidhelm's Alien what I did with the Horde. He is still around so if I showed it to him and he liked what he saw he could maybe do some updated textures for it.)

    I've been playing on and off with doing that to one of Swindhelm's dragons....I really want to get all of them. I'm somewhat of a dragon collector (I've got just about every free one, many bought ones and quite a few Blendswap ones waiting to rig in DS).

  • Mustakettu85Mustakettu85 Posts: 2,933
    edited December 1969

    Rogerbee said:

    I am still looking into LAMH for the fur issue as I believe it generates hair that other render engines recognise which Garibaldi doesn't.

    Yes LAMH will export nice-looking FiberMesh that you can load into any program. Garibaldi also does OBJ exporting, but I find it's not as pretty as the FiberMesh one.


    Sadly the Horde is long gone, Sanctum Arts now works in the gaming industry and is responsible in part for the Gears of War games. He is on DeviantArt apparently, if he could see my fully updated Horde I wonder if he could be persuaded to let Daz have my .duf and an LAMH preset......

    I see, thanks for explaining. Could you please keep us posted if you manage to do this?

  • Mustakettu85Mustakettu85 Posts: 2,933
    edited December 1969

    Having played with the figures that come with Poser, I have to say I now fully understand why most Poser users will use DAZ figures.

    I mean, really. What's that with the neck region of James G2? Okay, maybe the original P6 one also has this and I didn't notice. Shame they don't share UV mapping: I like the original texture better. Anyone know of nice freebie skins for any of these two?

    I was also tidying up my shader code and made better checks against diffuse ray hits. With that code being in the right place (Mjc, you were right about order of operations being important), I like the GI response better. The first version of P6 James, before the changes, was posted in the previous thread.

    I believe the 3Delight build that comes with 4.8 is the one with the scatter distance related artefacts of RT SSS already fixed (notice the gray lines around the outer corners of JamesG2 eyelids), but still: "oldschool" SSS is better suited for non-physical applications like those no-thickness nails. Sorta expected, right?
    The skin/eyewhites is my shader, the nails are US2. Those measured values from Jensen et al.'s article, they look the same whatever SSS model you take. Isn't that awesome?

    jamesG2.jpg
    512 x 640 - 54K
    james_diffbeforeSSSraycheck.jpg
    512 x 640 - 54K
  • RogerbeeRogerbee Posts: 4,460
    edited December 1969

    mjc1016 said:
    Rogerbee said:

    PS (It occurred to me that I could do with Swidhelm's Alien what I did with the Horde. He is still around so if I showed it to him and he liked what he saw he could maybe do some updated textures for it.)

    I've been playing on and off with doing that to one of Swindhelm's dragons....I really want to get all of them. I'm somewhat of a dragon collector (I've got just about every free one, many bought ones and quite a few Blendswap ones waiting to rig in DS).

    You made me go and look at them, that Skywyrm is amazing! I want it now!

    CHEERS!

  • RogerbeeRogerbee Posts: 4,460
    edited December 1969

    Rogerbee said:

    I am still looking into LAMH for the fur issue as I believe it generates hair that other render engines recognise which Garibaldi doesn't.

    Yes LAMH will export nice-looking FiberMesh that you can load into any program. Garibaldi also does OBJ exporting, but I find it's not as pretty as the FiberMesh one.


    Sadly the Horde is long gone, Sanctum Arts now works in the gaming industry and is responsible in part for the Gears of War games. He is on DeviantArt apparently, if he could see my fully updated Horde I wonder if he could be persuaded to let Daz have my .duf and an LAMH preset......

    I see, thanks for explaining. Could you please keep us posted if you manage to do this?

    Cool, I think I'll get LAMH then. I'll have to perfect it before I approach him.

    CHEERS!

  • Mustakettu85Mustakettu85 Posts: 2,933
    edited April 2015

    mjc1016 said:
    I'm somewhat of a dragon collector

    Same here =)
    There's some I don't want, but that's not too many LOL

    Post edited by Mustakettu85 on
  • RogerbeeRogerbee Posts: 4,460
    edited April 2015

    Having played with the figures that come with Poser, I have to say I now fully understand why most Poser users will use DAZ figures.

    I mean, really. What's that with the neck region of James G2? Okay, maybe the original P6 one also has this and I didn't notice. Shame they don't share UV mapping: I like the original texture better. Anyone know of nice freebie skins for any of these two?

    I was also tidying up my shader code and made better checks against diffuse ray hits. With that code being in the right place (Mjc, you were right about order of operations being important), I like the GI response better. The first version of P6 James, before the changes, was posted in the previous thread.

    I believe the 3Delight build that comes with 4.8 is the one with the scatter distance related artefacts of RT SSS already fixed (notice the gray lines around the outer corners of JamesG2 eyelids), but still: "oldschool" SSS is better suited for non-physical applications like those no-thickness nails. Sorta expected, right?
    The skin/eyewhites is my shader, the nails are US2. Those measured values from Jensen et al.'s article, they look the same whatever SSS model you take. Isn't that awesome?

    This shader intrigues me, how close are you to perfecting it?

    I didn't realise you could import Poser characters into DS. I have Miki2 and a really nice character and texture for her. If that could be turned into a weight mapped SubD figure with US2 textures it would be awesome!

    CHEERS!


    Post edited by Rogerbee on
  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001
    edited December 1969

    Rogerbee said:
    Having played with the figures that come with Poser, I have to say I now fully understand why most Poser users will use DAZ figures.

    I mean, really. What's that with the neck region of James G2? Okay, maybe the original P6 one also has this and I didn't notice. Shame they don't share UV mapping: I like the original texture better. Anyone know of nice freebie skins for any of these two?

    I was also tidying up my shader code and made better checks against diffuse ray hits. With that code being in the right place (Mjc, you were right about order of operations being important), I like the GI response better. The first version of P6 James, before the changes, was posted in the previous thread.

    I believe the 3Delight build that comes with 4.8 is the one with the scatter distance related artefacts of RT SSS already fixed (notice the gray lines around the outer corners of JamesG2 eyelids), but still: "oldschool" SSS is better suited for non-physical applications like those no-thickness nails. Sorta expected, right?
    The skin/eyewhites is my shader, the nails are US2. Those measured values from Jensen et al.'s article, they look the same whatever SSS model you take. Isn't that awesome?

    This shader intrigues me, how close are you to perfecting it?

    I didn't realise you could import Poser characters into DS. I have Miki2 and a really nice character and texture for her. If that could be turned into a weight mapped SubD figure with US2 textures it would be awesome!

    CHEERS!


    There are some newer ones that can't be imported. They are using the Poser weight mapping and there is no way of importing them (there are things I could go on about...but I'll refrain).

  • RogerbeeRogerbee Posts: 4,460
    edited December 1969

    Cool, I think I'll have a play with Miki 2 sometime then. If I can reinstall PP2012, I can load her up, turn her into the character and export the .cr2. Then I'll import her and see what I can do...

    CHEERS!

  • wowiewowie Posts: 2,029
    edited December 1969

    Rogerbee said:
    I just downloaded a temperature monitor. Rendering my Horde took just over 6 minutes with all 6 cores at 100% load and the maximum CPU temperature was 68 degrees. Is that good, or would the additional cooling help?

    A bit off topic.

    Are you looking at core temperatures (thermal diode within (yes, inside the actual processor) or the one on the base of the heatsink? These two are very different. In general CPU core temps (the first one) can reach up to 80 degrees Celsius and the processor will go about doing its business and do just fine. It's the second one that's more worrisome.

    Best way is to measure temperature on the heatsink is with laser temp sensor. But that's probably not on everybody's shelf. Best software utility to tell is the HWMonitor from CPUID.com. As a reference, my core temps generally flat lines at around 65 degrees Celsius with 100% CPU utilization for long periods of time (mostly rendering nowadays), but actual temperature on the heatsink is about 45 degree Celsius (well within normal operating conditions).

    When idling, core temp generally drops to around 30is degree Celsius.

  • RogerbeeRogerbee Posts: 4,460
    edited April 2015

    wowie said:
    Rogerbee said:
    I just downloaded a temperature monitor. Rendering my Horde took just over 6 minutes with all 6 cores at 100% load and the maximum CPU temperature was 68 degrees. Is that good, or would the additional cooling help?

    A bit off topic.

    Are you looking at core temperatures (thermal diode within (yes, inside the actual processor) or the one on the base of the heatsink? These two are very different. In general CPU core temps (the first one) can reach up to 80 degrees Celsius and the processor will go about doing its business and do just fine. It's the second one that's more worrisome.

    Best way is to measure temperature on the heatsink is with laser temp sensor. But that's probably not on everybody's shelf. Best software utility to tell is the HWMonitor from CPUID.com. As a reference, my core temps generally flat lines at around 65 degrees Celsius with 100% CPU utilization for long periods of time (mostly rendering nowadays), but actual temperature on the heatsink is about 45 degree Celsius (well within normal operating conditions).

    When idling, core temp generally drops to around 30is degree Celsius.

    I just downloaded HW Monitor and it only showed temperatures for 3 of the cores, but the readings did tally with what I got from the Core Temp program. They also tally for the GPU temperature readings. I still need more fans though, that hasn't changed.

    And there was me thinking a black case was sexy! (It's not black on the inside though!)

    CHEERS!

    PS (It doesn't help that the temperature of my room is over 25 degrees C!)

    Post edited by Rogerbee on
  • RogerbeeRogerbee Posts: 4,460
    edited December 1969

    I imported Miki 2 into DS, having successfully installed PP2012. She looks good and if she can be SubD'd and weight mapped she could be a winner!

    CHEERS!

  • ZarconDeeGrissomZarconDeeGrissom Posts: 5,412
    edited December 1969

    I decided to play a bit. There was a bit of discussion over bump vs Displacement vs Normal maps in the Iray skin thread, And I figured it was a good time to look at an old floor I had made.

    This was a first test render for a few things I've been hunting down the past few days in the CL. Microraptor, and Fawne for Genesis, from another site. Also the floor, and the room lights.

    Original I only had a Glossiness map on the floor, I've just added a Specular map to control where the gloss and reflection is on the floor. I am quite pleased by the results, and updated the posts for the floor.
    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewreply/613705/

    This was done in Studio 4.8 with the dzSpotlights spot lights replaced with Photometric spotlights. I think I nailed the light levels in 3delight, the Iray settings still need adjustment. (some of many things still in the works.)

    bump vs Displacement vs Normal maps. Well this test was with the displacement map in the displacement channel and set to 100% and +0.25 -0.25 min/mat.
    :coolsmile:
    So I'm going to tinker a bit with some of the stuff I was going to work on, and then see how it all looks with the floor set to Bump rather then Displacement.

    20150413ZdgDenSumMosc1_Wachiwi_009pr001_Render_4.jpg
    1800 x 1200 - 2M
  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001
    edited April 2015


    bump vs Displacement vs Normal maps. Well this test was with the displacement map in the displacement channel and set to 100% and +0.25 -0.25 min/mat.
    :coolsmile:
    So I'm going to tinker a bit with some of the stuff I was going to work on, and then see how it all looks with the floor set to Bump rather then Displacement.

    Remember, the 'base' unit in Studio is a centimeter. So that +0.25 and -0.25 is a range of half a centimeter. Is that enough?

    That comes out to about 1/5 of an inch...total distance. So that would be about a tenth of an inch to the bottom of the grout line in the tile...that's fine for something like a countertop, but floor tiles are usually a bit deeper than that.

    Also, I'm not sure where all the stuff in the Iray thread was leading...but remember, displacement will actually 'move' the geometry. So it's best used for details that require it...things like grout lines, mortar joints, 'fuzzy' stuff...all good candidates for displacement. Bump and normal maps are great for details that don't need to cast shadows, make actual movement. Something that wasn't mentioned in the Iray stuff, but kind of hinted at/implied, is that the level of subdivision going up allows for finer and finer details.

    All three can be used together...but you either really need to know what the capabilities and limitations are or use each one for doing slightly differing details. The second option can give you an enormous range of details and control over them.

    PS: What was said above is pretty much valid for ANY renderer that is capable of both subdivision and bump/normal/displacement maps...more or less all modern ones.

    PPS: It is also very useful to know, exactly, what the base unit of measurement is (both the exporter and the renderer). In Studio it's the centimeter...in Luxrender it's the meter. If you don't convert (or your exporter doesn't do it) then you're -0.25 displacement becomes 1/4 m 'down', instead of 1/4 cm 'down'. With Studio 'native' renderers, it shouldn't be a problem, but when exporting to other renderers, it does matter.

    Post edited by mjc1016 on
  • ZarconDeeGrissomZarconDeeGrissom Posts: 5,412
    edited April 2015

    lol. yea that was a brain dead moment. Been working on PCBs for far to long, thinking that was 0.25 inches, lol. Good enough to see the effects.

    I've been plugging away at Iray Uber Shader values, and not getting much els done. :coolsmirk:

    The curious bit was, I recall plugging a gray-scale bump map into the 'Normal' slot, tho I don't recall where or when that was, lol.

    Post edited by ZarconDeeGrissom on
  • RogerbeeRogerbee Posts: 4,460
    edited April 2015

    Looking good!

    I've been playing too. Behold Miki2, weight mapped, high res with a set of clothes she can wear and hair. The character, texture and clothes are from a set I got from Renderosity and they are no longer available. It took some doing to get the clothes right. If you apply things like subD and weight mapping before you fit the clothes, autofit doesn't mangle them. Sometimes you have to switch between General and TriAx and then back again and things don't go awry and then you can apply a smoothing modifier.

    Once you've done that, you can save the clothes as wearables, remembering to check the target pose and you should have a set of clothes she can wear. I think I know now why autofit mangled some of the other clothes I'd copied from Poser. They were copied when the library wasn't actually in Poser. Now it is, autofit works like a champ.

    Anyway, here she is

    CHEERS!

    PS (I haven't Uber'd her skin yet.)

    Miki2_New.jpg
    577 x 750 - 201K
    Post edited by Rogerbee on
  • RogerbeeRogerbee Posts: 4,460
    edited April 2015

    Well, so much for my theory about copying over clothing files from an already installed Poser Library not causing Autofit to mangle clothing. What seemed to work for Miki2 didn't for M4 clothing I wanted to fit to M6, Autofit still did a great job of mangling them! Ah well, back to the drawing board!

    By the way, have you seen this: http://www.daz3d.com/macro-skin-for-genesis-and-genesis-2-female-s

    Could this make UberSurface2 redundant as the shader of choice for skin!?

    CHEERS!

    EDIT: Tried six ways to flipping Sunday to get the Xurge3D HEV suit to fit M6, nothing doing! You win some.....

    Post edited by Rogerbee on
  • Mustakettu85Mustakettu85 Posts: 2,933
    edited April 2015

    Rogerbee said:

    This shader intrigues me, how close are you to perfecting it?


    It's basically done, it's just that there are always things that can be improved. It will be packaged with the whole kit - render scripts, other shaders like that glass, etc. I'm writing doooocumentation at the time.

    It's the same shader that was used for the metal ring in the caustic teaser back then at the end of the old thread, BTW. * evil laughter *


    Rogerbee said:
    What seemed to work for Miki2 didn't for M4 clothing I wanted to fit to M6, Autofit still did a great job of mangling them!


    Have you checked out SickleYield's helpers here in the store? I haven't done that many conversions from Gen4 to Genesis2, but I know that her SRMS is a must when converting from Gen4 to the original Genesis.

    Then there were tutorials here on the forum about using Transfer Utility for conversion... I'm sorry I can't find them right now, but maybe someone else has a link handy?



    By the way, have you seen this: http://www.daz3d.com/macro-skin-for-genesis-and-genesis-2-female-s

    Could this make UberSurface2 redundant as the shader of choice for skin!?

    Parris did a great job (although I don't understand the purpose of trying to make a super realistic skin texture, but including mostly "fantasy" makeup options). I also don't understand if there are glossiness/roughness maps or not. I'd say, these are crucial for that sort of realism. In most people, skin will have varied reflectivity across their bodies. // It's how you can tell when I was lazy about a render, LOL - like those test James ones, obviously the skin on the hands should have used higher roughness values, but I realistically cannot paint a map for every random figure I test //

    I'm not too fond of two facts: a) if I get it right, it's a shader mixer network, not a "proper" RSL shader with human-readable source code; so just imagine all the potential issues, especially given how complex the network must be with all the bells and whistles (autodetecting if GC is on or not, etc) - if a customer ever runs into a bug, fixing it would be hell, if possible at all; b) per-shader GC. It's just so oldschool... just like the SSS approximation (likely to be something like this: http://www.iryoku.com/sssss/ or http://http.developer.nvidia.com/GPUGems3/gpugems3_ch14.html )

    I wonder why there are no promos that show backlit translucency.

    And I'm not sure that US2 has ever truly been "a shader of choice" for the community. I mean, just how many people outside of Wowie's customers and those few who have managed to sit through my tutorial are using it?


    ----------


    bump vs Displacement vs Normal maps. Well this test was with the displacement map in the displacement channel and set to 100% and +0.25 -0.25 min/mat.
    :coolsmile:
    So I'm going to tinker a bit with some of the stuff I was going to work on, and then see how it all looks with the floor set to Bump rather then Displacement.

    Keep in mind that displacement, when overdone, may "physically" break geometry, making holes. Bump will just look weird when there's too much of it.

    Post edited by Mustakettu85 on
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