Iray: Apply "iray shader" to prexisting textures?
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I've only started reading up on iray, SY's tutorials, the threads, but a question that I imagine I'll eventuall find an answer to, but it's a big make or break one....are there "shaders" or something... you can apply to prexisting textures, which just makes them work, rather than replacing them?
Such as, I select a v4 character and click the button and she's better in Iray, rather than replacing the character's skin with some new iray skin?

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I'm sure others will chime in and give very different answers, but my answer for you is "sort of." The 4.8 builds of DAZ Studio include something called Iray lights and shaders starter pack, or something along those lines. In your content folder/shader presets there should be an Uber Iray base shader, among other things.
How well stuff is going to auto convert depends on a few things, like what 3Delight shader you started with, where the texture maps are in the original character, etc. Some things will convert better than others without a lot of futzing.
Another good starting point might be to pick up one the customized Iray characters or skin settings presets already in the store, and then manually replace your maps in the appropriate places.
Definitely also try to render the existing 3Delight materials too. I have found "much better than expected" to "really super good" results on almost everything I have let Iray auto convert for me.
Best of luck.
Thanks DG.
Also just found this in SY's Getting started: " Leaving that selected, go to your Product Library and Shader Presets/Iray Uber Defaults. There is a preset here called !Iray Uber Base. Double-click on it. This isn't really a shader itself, it just converts all selected shaders to Iray.. " So at least a starting point!
I gather you mean to use the Iray Shader on an existing texture? If that is the case select the surfaces you want changed, then with the Iray shader you hold the CTRL key (PC's not sure on Macs) and double click the shader you want and a small menu will pop up you should see one tab say Selected, the other say All click that one to bring up a drop down menu and select ignore then click ok.. What that does is enables the Iray shader without wiping out the original textures..
...you can simply apply the Iray Base Shader which doesn't overwrite the texture. I do this all the time and it gives me the Iray sliders for that particular surface.
Thanks all! I found I had my dates wrong for an art contest and decided that I could try to do the scene in iray..asuming it doesn't do the crash or kernal panic it seems to like to do.
Note that if you're using G2F/G2M, there are shader converters for them in each figure's Materials folder; they work just like the Iray Uber Base converter. These also automatically alter the glossiness of things like the finger and toenails, and apply the proper water materials to the eyes for a good shiny reflection.
Where do I find the iray uber base shader? I know a stupid question but I don't know where to look
It's the first one among the list of Iray shader presets in your content library.
But where, I can't find them anywhere?
Content Library > DAZ Studo Formats > Studio > Shader Presets > Iray > DAZ Uber > !Iray Uber Base
Helps to install them :) :) Sorry
:: slap ::
;)
LOL Bee
:) :) :) I know :)
It should also be noted that for a bunch of shaders, the render engine will autoconvert them so you don't even need to change them.
I think it's still better to convert them to lighten the load of a render and so you can see any weirdness that crops up -- for example, some textures end up with Glossy 0, which ends up lighting the surface up too much. It also doesn't take a lot of familiarity to tweak the surface a little to make it better; if something is supposed to be metal, for example, just shrugging and setting Metalicity to .8 or 1 can help a lot.
Some special shaders just won't work in Iray, flat-out. (pwEffects, dirt shader. Alas)
That's because they're custom-built 3Delight shaders, not the default shaders. There's no way any of these will ever convert to Iray, the only thing to do is reverse-engineer how they've been put together and create Iray settings that do the same things. It's exactly the same situation we've had for years with Poser procedural materials created in the Shader Room not working at all in D|S — the two systems are just too different.
EEEEEK! They really, really lighten the skin. I can't get that to only go on the Cornea, Eye Reflection, Irises, etc over in surfaces when using the Surface Tool. Have the eyes selected in Scene in addion to the individual parts in Surfaces. When I click on the "Iray Optimized Genesis 2 Female Mat in Content Library, it changes all the skin, the entire ball of wax. And Carissa becomes a Caucasian with a lot lighter skin. How do you do only the eyes?
EEEEEK! They really, really lighten the skin. I can't get that to only go on the Cornea, Eye Reflection, Irises, etc over in surfaces when using the Surface Tool. Have the eyes selected in Scene in addion to the individual parts in Surfaces. When I click on the "Iray Optimized Genesis 2 Female Mat in Content Library, it changes all the skin, the entire ball of wax. And Carissa becomes a Caucasian with a lot lighter skin. How do you do only the eyes?
I don't have Carissa, but I do have Nabila, who's even darker. The base shader conversion did an OK job, all I needed to do was tweak the lips settings to deal with a nasty case of Super Gloss Spray-on Varnish. The rest of the skin had a good faint sheen as if it was just slightly sweating, although I think a different lighting setp (I was just using the default environment) would probably have benefitted from a bit more generalised skin tweaking.
Is it possible to combine original texures with the Simple Fabric Iray Shaders? When I hold the CTRL key down and load the shader, I get a jumbled mess...
tx
EDIT: Nevermind. After hours wasted trying to figure this out, I went ahead and bought an Iray fabric shader that included the option to preserve existing maps.
Try Iray Skin Converter for V4 (google)