Comments

• 3dcheapskate Posts: 2,719

  July 2015 edited July 2015

  DAZ Studio WorldBall Version 2 (Updated Files ONLY) Released

  Version 2 of the DAZ Studio WorldBall finally fixes a couple of rather irritating problems:

  • automatically parents the WorldBall Sun and IBL to the WorldBall.
  • you now see the background in the preview pane.

  Download links:
  ShareCG: Ver 2 [UPDATE ONLY] Simple DAZ Studio WorldBall
  Renderosity: Ver 2 [UPDATE ONLY] Simple DAZ Studio WorldBall

  

  Post edited by 3dcheapskate on July 2015
• atticanne Posts: 3,009

  July 2015

  Thank you, Pete.  Now to find time to play again.
• 3dcheapskate Posts: 2,719

  August 2015 edited September 2015

  In these modern days with LuxRender/Octane/Cycles, and with DS4.8 and its nVidia renderer this li'l' ol' worl'ball is rather behind the times. But I like it, and it seems that a few other folks do too. So I've started looking at a couple more minor changes (improvements perhaps? ;o) ) to the DAZ Studio version. Something to make the shadowcatcher groundplane more sensible in the preview pane (millighost and mjc1016 have shown me how to get the basics working for DS4, but still no luck with DS3), and adding AO to the WorldBall IBL (no luck there so far, although I think I'm on the right path. Maybe).

  I've recently opened up the ShaderBuilder light again and started playing with it - mainly trying to work out how an occlusion brick would be connected up. The lack of documentation reminds me of the fun I had creating it originally! Also I've realized that a little bit of explanation of the IBL in the DAZ Studio WorldBall may be useful.

  Firstly, I've recently taken to calling it a 'faked 'IBL. It's basically a ShaderBuilder point light (i.e. a light that radiates outward from that point in all directions). But I did a bit of lateral thinking (with some assistance from others) and positioned the light at the end of the surface normal. If that doesn't mean anything think of it this way - at any point on any surface in the scene this light is a fixed distance out along the perpendicular from the surface. The surface normal is also used to pick the correct point on the light image map. The result of this is that this IBL light shader simply 'projects' the IBL image map onto everything in the scene. Adding some 'blur' to the image map prevents it just looking like a reflection. I've attached a couple of screenshots to show this (worldball with scrub set, two sphere primitives and one plane primitive,sun disabled). The default blur is 0.3. A value of 0.0 looks like a reflection*. A value of 1.0 looks like a fixed colour everywhere. I think values between 0.2 and 0.7 probably work best.

  Another thing I noticed (again) is that there's a tiny white spot in the middle of each sphere. I think this is unintentional specularity from the IBL (the surface normal at those points is pointing directly into the camera). I still don't know how to fix it.

  *but it isn't - for a reflection ReflectedAngle = IncidentAngle, but here the light you see (from any viewpoint) at any point on any surface always has a 90° IncidentAngle (or is that a 0° IncidentAngle? I can't remember whether incident angle is measured relative to the surface or to the perpendicular... )

  

  

  fakedIBLnotes.jpg

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  Post edited by 3dcheapskate on September 2015
• 3dcheapskate Posts: 2,719

  August 2015 edited August 2015

  Concrete Plaza WorldBall Environment Set (E20)

  First one for a long time.

  Downloads available from the usual places...

  ShareCG: Concrete Plaza WorldBall Environment Set E20

  Renderosity: Concrete Plaza WorldBall Environment Set E20

  This set is basically a test of my new procedure for creating higher resolution backgrounds in Terragen, and using Poser to incorporate props like buildings and trees ( http://www.sharecg.com/v/81918/view/8/Script/26FaceWB  ).

  I think I had the incorrect render settings in Terragen Classic, resulting in colour banding in the sky. I do intend to fix this... sometime...  :D The colour banding is in the sky of every environment set I've done - I'm fairly sure it's just the old CG colour banding issue.

  You'll also notice (look at the shadows in the render, bottom right of promo image) that the buildings appear to be a miniature model futuristic city - either that or the characters are giants. Scaling the buildings down seemed a good idea when I created this set, but that was something I didn't foresee. Like I said, this set was mainly a test for my procedure. I'm doing a bit more playing to try and get this more realistic...

  N.B. Several of the free Dystopia City Blocks 001-010 and 011-020 were used to create this.
  I requested and received the creators' permission to distribute this derivative work.
  Big thank you to 'billy home'.

   

  

  

  E20promo1-800.jpg

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  Post edited by 3dcheapskate on August 2015
• 3dcheapskate Posts: 2,719

  August 2015 edited August 2015

  Above The City WorldBall Environment Set (E21)

  Downloads available from the usual places...

  ShareCG: E21 Above The City Worldball Environment Set

  Renderosity: E21 Above The City Worldball Environment Set

  This is another test of the Poser part of my new procedure for incorporating props like buildings and trees into backgrounds( http://www.sharecg.com/v/81918/view/8/Script/26FaceWB  ).

  Fairly obviously this set works best for aerial scenes, or looking out from a high-rise balcony/window. And you'll probably want to adjust the default light intensities, maybe 60-75% for both? I think the default 50% that I've set is a bit low.

  Once again several of the free Dystopia City Blocks 001-010 and Dystopia City Blocks 011-020 were used to create this. Rather than leaving the blocks at their default 100% scale when I created the scene in Poser (as with E20), I increased it to 5000%. This made the city blocks look about right if I had figures in the scene too. I also added a city block at the centre (instead of leaving an open 'plaza') and raised the camera to be in the air above it (instead of 6' off the ground as in E20).

  

  

  E21promo800.jpg

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  Post edited by 3dcheapskate on August 2015
• sueya Posts: 832

  September 2015

  Please can you clarify where the data file goes. I installed as per the instructions and Daz studio is still complaining that it can't find the data file.
• 3dcheapskate Posts: 2,719

  September 2015 edited September 2015

  sueya said:

  Please can you clarify where the data file goes. I installed as per the instructions and Daz studio is still complaining that it can't find the data file.

  Sure thing. It needs to go either (if you only use DAZ Studio) in one of your mapped DAZ Studio content directories, or (if you use just Poser, or if you use both Poser and DAZ Studio) in one of your mapped Poser runtimes. The actual path will be one of the following:

  {mapped DAZ Studio content directory}/Scripts/3DCheapskate/WorldBall/WorldBallData.txt

  {mapped Poser runtime}/Python/poserScripts/3DCheapskate/WorldBall/WorldBallData.txt

   

  If you're uncertain about what directories/runtimes you have mapped in DAZ Studio, from the menu bar select Edit > Preferences > Content Library > Content Directory Manager and expand "Daz Studio Formats" and "Poser Formats" (see first screenshot below - note, this is from DAZ Studio 4.6 but 4.8 should be the same. {edit: Also note that you'll probably only have one or two entries - my setup is unusual} )

  

   

  You can double check exactly where the "WorldBall Setup DS3,4" script looks by attempting to load the worldball and then from the DS menu bar selecting Help > *TroubleShooting > View Log File (see second screenshot below - note, this is from DAZ Studio 4.6 but 4.8 should be the same...)

  

   

  When the logfile is displayed scroll to the very bottom. You should see something similar to the third screenshot below (for a normal setup it should only find one datafile) - the lines highlighted in yellow are the full pathname/filename/extension that the script checked. {edit: they should correspond to the mapped DAZ Studio content directories and Poser runtimes that you found when you looked in your preferences}

  

   

   

  If you still have any problems let me know.

   

  *P.S. The popup that appears when it can't find the datafile was correct for DAZ Studio 3 (Help > View Log File). In DAZ Studio 4 they added the extra "Troubleshooting" step (Help > Troubleshooting > View Log File). I should really correct that in the next DS worldball update ...

  

   

  Post edited by 3dcheapskate on September 2015
• Oso3D Posts: 15,004

  September 2015

  Is there any easy way to access just the images? I can't for the life of me figure out how to make the worldball work at all, and since I use Iray I'm not sure it'd do much anyway, but I could use the images to make something similar to the worldball on my own.

  (I've been making a sphere with a 180 degree spotlight where the sun should be)

   
• 3dcheapskate Posts: 2,719

  September 2015 edited November 2015

  timmins.william said:

  Is there any easy way to access just the images? I can't for the life of me figure out how to make the worldball work at all, and since I use Iray I'm not sure it'd do much anyway, but I could use the images to make something similar to the worldball on my own.

  (I've been making a sphere with a 180 degree spotlight where the sun should be)

   

  If you just want the background image and/or reflection map (which is just a mirror image reduced resolution version of the background image) they're in the following subfolders. There are 7 JPGs in each of those two folders in the main DSworldball zip - two test environments plus five different variants of the same terrain, i.e. snow, lake, sand, scrub and mars:

  • DS Content\Runtime\Textures\3DCheapskate\EnvironmentMaps\
  • DS Content\Runtime\Textures\3DCheapskate\ReflectionMaps\

  Note: the DS version of the worldball doesn't need the angular map (lightprobe) mapping - if you want those you'll need to download the Poser version of the worldball, or convert them yourself.Here's the path:

  • DS Content\Runtime\Textures\3DCheapskate\LightProbes\

  With all the other environment sets all three images (environment, reflection, and lightprobe) are provided, and the readme gives you all the necessary info. The images are in the same folders as above.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Regarding your not being able to get the worldball to work at all, the latest version of DS I have installed is 4.6 - so it's possible that there may be problems I don't know about in DS4.8 which is what I assume you're using (I had a similar problem back with DS4.0). Also check my response to nakamuram's question about 3Delight/nVidia renderer on the Renderosity worldball thread here https://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/?thread_id=2867793&page_number=2#msg4218570

  Also bear in mind that version 2 of the DS worldball was released as an "Update Only" variant which require the earlier full release of version 1 to be already installed. If you've inadvertantly just downloaded the update it won't work.

  I'm more than happy to try and help if you want to try and resolve the problems. I'm also more than happy for you to just use the images if you want.

  But you've raised a good question...

  *** Is anybody using the DS worldball successfully with DS4.8 ? ***

  *** With 3Delight? With the nVidia renderer? With both? With neither? ***

  Question answered - skyspheres, terraballs, worlddomes, environmentboxes and whatevers will not work in PBRs (physically based renderers) because they are a specific workaround designed for biased renderers - opaque, visble, all-enclosing objects that cast no shadows and have no effect on the light that passes through them.

  
   

   

  Post edited by 3dcheapskate on November 2015
• Oso3D Posts: 15,004

  September 2015

  It's easier to simply do my own 'worldball' in DS 4.8, so it's all good.

  (Sphere, add texture to diffuse and emission, place spotlight where sun is, angle it, then parent it all to a zero hinge, and scale it up)

  I've been converting a bunch of old skydomes this way.

   
• 3dcheapskate Posts: 2,719

  September 2015 edited September 2015

  Whatever keeps you happy !  When I created this there were many skyballs, terraboxes, worlddomes, etc, available already, but I just wanted to do one for myself. So I know the feeling. :)

  (maybe an infinite/distant light, rather than a spot, is more appropriate for the sun?)

  Post edited by 3dcheapskate on September 2015
• Oso3D Posts: 15,004

  September 2015

  Distant light is blocked by skydomes in Iray unless you lop off the top or something weird.
• 3dcheapskate Posts: 2,719

  September 2015 edited September 2015

  Missing Preview Thumbnails For E20 And E21

   

  Edit: Missing files uploaded to ShareCG as "Missing E20,E21 WorldBall Preview Thumbnails"

   

  Just realized that I forgot to include preview thumbnails with the last two environment sets (E20 and E21). A PP2 and a PNG for each set, so four files in total.

  • E20_ConcretePlaza.pp2
  • E20_ConcretePlaza.png
  • E21_AboveTheCity.pp2
  • E21_AboveTheCity.png

  All four should go in the same folder as all the other previews, which will be one of these:

  • {The DS Content DirectoryWhere You Put The WorldBall}\Runtime\Libraries\Props\3DCheapskate\WorldBall\!Previews\
  • {The Poser Runtime Where You Put The WorldBall}\Libraries\Props\3DCheapskate\WorldBall\!Previews\

  The two PNG files are attached. The E20_ConcretePlaza.pp2 and E21_AboveTheCity.pp2 files should be exactly the same as all the other preview PP2 files, i.e.

  {
  version
      {
      number 5.0
      }
      {
      // just a thumbnail place holder file
      }
  }

  You'll have to create those yourself, or download from ShareCG (link at top of this post)

   

  

  

  E20_ConcretePlaza.png

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  E21_AboveTheCity.png

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  Post edited by 3dcheapskate on September 2015
• 3dcheapskate Posts: 2,719

  September 2015 edited September 2015

  timmins.william said:

  Distant light is blocked by skydomes in Iray unless you lop off the top or something weird. 

  Ah, of course - Iray's a physically based renderer so you won't have an option to turn off shadowcasting for the sphere.... so my li'l' ole worldball wouldn't work - the ball would be blocking the sun. I've added a note to the OP and thread title.

  I recall in the DS/Poser > Reality > Luxrender route you could dispense with the sphere completely and plug the environment map directly into a GI lighting and/or backdrop 'channel' (not sure of the terminology) - can't recall whether the GI and backdrop were separate, or a single 'channel'?).

  I'd guess that Iray has something similar?

  Maybe it's time for me to update my installation (currently DS3 32/64bit, DS4.5 32bit, DS4.6 64bit). Don't think many people will still be using DS4.5, so maybe go for DS4.6 32 bit and DS4.8 64 bit - I even have an nVidia GeForce GT525M (but not sure that'll be recent enough to use Iray?)

   

  Post edited by 3dcheapskate on September 2015
• Oso3D Posts: 15,004

  September 2015

  You have environment map, which works great. But then you have to place a spotlight carefully to align with the backdrop.
• 3dcheapskate Posts: 2,719

  September 2015 edited September 2015

  Possible Simple Workaround To Use Worldball In Iray

  Just installed DS4.8, and using the worldball in an Iray render (CPU, as I can't get it to use my GPU) I get a completely black render.

  But simply making the worldball invisible allows both lights to work correctly (I checked the IBL and sun individually and they both work fine)

  And if I then (in the nVidia render settings) plug the environment map (the one that's plugged into the worldball) into Environment Map, set Environment Mode = Dome And Scene, set Dome Mode = Infinite Sphere, and set Draw Dome = On ... well... see the screenshot.

  Needs some tweaking of levels obviously, but it should be fairly simple to automatically do all that in the script (provided DAZ Script gives access to those render settings). And obviously it needs a bit more looking at - I only spent a couple of minutes looking at it so far...

  (just goes to show that you should always double/triple-check things for yourself !  ;o) )

   

  Edit: Notes for things to check...

  Sun and IBL should be automatically be correctly aligned, provided the Iray environment map is aligned the same way as the worldball. If not it should be a simple azimuth offset, and since the sun/IBL will still rotate with the worldball sphere that should be easy.

  Shadowcatcher groundplane not working (no real surprise... in PBR terms a shadowcatcher makes as much sense as an opaque sphere that doesn't cast shadows! ;o) )

   

  

  

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  Post edited by 3dcheapskate on September 2015
• Oso3D Posts: 15,004

  September 2015

  That's interesting, I'll try that.

   
• 3dcheapskate Posts: 2,719

  September 2015 edited September 2015

  I've had a PM that somebody is getting the following error when they try to run the DS worldball:

  15 var g_oFILE = new DzFile( getScriptFileName() );
  error in line 15

   

  I'm puzzled by this one, since it doesn't happen on my system, and yet it seems to indicate a DAZ Script parsing error on the very first line of code. So has anybody else seen this ?

  (I'm guessing that when you run the worldball script nothing seems to happen, and you have to go Help > Troubleshooting > View Log File and scroll to the bottom to see the error message)

  ~ ~ ~ edit ~ ~ ~

  I've just noticed that the EOL characters in the .DSA file are inconsistent - some lines have just LF, others have CRLF (see attached screenshot of the DS worldball version 1a script). This doesn't seem to cause any problem on a Windows system, but might cause a problem on a MAC... ? (I don't have access to a MAC so can'tcheck)

  

  

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  Post edited by 3dcheapskate on September 2015
• sueya Posts: 832

  September 2015 edited September 2015

  It's ok I managed to get the Worldball to work in the end as you can see from this render.

   

  

  

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  Post edited by sueya on September 2015
• 3dcheapskate Posts: 2,719

  September 2015 edited September 2015

  Glad you got it working - sorry about the problems. (by the way - your image attachment didn't upload... one of the many ongoing DAZ forum problems - image attachment uploads often fail)

  I'm still interested in details of any problems anybody has - that way I can fix them. Please post problems in this thread, or PM me - I'm happy with either way.

  Post edited by 3dcheapskate on September 2015
• sueya Posts: 832

  September 2015

  I managed to upload a smaller copy of the image as you can see from the post above.
• Mjvol Posts: 93

  October 2015

  Hello there 3dcheapskate I like the name. Anyway just want to say , I am a fan of you Materials,  love your skydome, they don't work for me, only because I lack the knowledge to use them. But they sure look nice and so does your other stuff. I just wanted to say keep the good work. Take care

  Mjvol
• 3dcheapskate Posts: 2,719

  October 2015

  Mjvol said:

  Hello there 3dcheapskate I like the name. Anyway just want to say , I am a fan of you Materials,  love your skydome, they don't work for me, only because I lack the knowledge to use them. But they sure look nice and so does your other stuff. I just wanted to say keep the good work. Take care

  Mjvol

  Thanks for the compliment (first time, I think, that somebody who can't use my stuff says they like it! LOL) - and I like the name too!  :D (the 'cheapskate' bit is because I have a very limited budget, and need to really watch the pennies for non-essential hobby-related stuff)

  One of the main aims with all the stuff I've uploaded was to make it easy to use, so if you're having problems trying to use anything I've made, then I probably need to improve the instructions !

  P.S. If there's anything specific you want to get working, you're welcome to PM me - I'm happy to try and help you get it working step by step. :)

   
• 3dcheapskate Posts: 2,719

  November 2015 edited November 2015

  Test Version Of DAZ Studio WorldBall Script With Added NVIDIA Iray Setup

  I've got a new test version of the DAZ Studio Worldball script that sets things up more-or-less correctly for the NVIDIA Iray renderer. If anybody's interested in having a play with it I can upload it to ShareCG. I might do that even if nobody's interested... ;o)

  One double-click to run the script, plus six clicks on various dialogs is all it took to setup/switch between the environment sets for the attached NVIDIA Iray renders.

  There's quite a few things still not right - if you look at the attached renders 45.jpg you'll notice I'm using the wrong dome mode !

   

  

  

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  Post edited by 3dcheapskate on November 2015
• MilosGulan Posts: 1,955

  November 2015

  Sure I am interested :) not yet into Iray but might be hopefully.
• Oso3D Posts: 15,004

  November 2015

  Definitely interested.
• 3dcheapskate Posts: 2,719

  November 2015

  That's two more responses than I expected ! 

  Just off to package this up for upload...
• 3dcheapskate Posts: 2,719

  November 2015 edited November 2015

  Almost ready. Here's a couple of screenshots running the test script in DS4.8 (attached images are in the wrong order because I didn't spot that one initially failed to upload)

  1 - the initial dialog is a health warning, indicating that this is a test script !

  2 - the environment set selection dialog now has an extra drop-down for renderer (if your DS version has multiple renderers - you won't see anything different if you're using DS3). By default the NVIDIA Iray is selected. The other options (on my system) are "3Delight" and "Scripted 3Delight", but they don't do anything - if you select either of those the WorldBall will be set up in the original way.

  3 - you should get a confirmation dialog telling you that the environment set has been successfully set up (if you don't then the script has probably *crashed !) - your Iray renders should now use the selected worldball environment set for lighting and background. If you look at the Iray render settings the ones outlined in orange are the main ones the script has set up. If you look at the Scene pane you should see the Worldball, Sun, IBL and Ground loaded, but only the WorldBall Sun (a standard DAZ Distant Light) will be visible. The Worldball node should be automatically expanded so you can see the IBL and Sun, but there appears to be a bug in DS4 preventing this from happening.

  A few additional notes to follow once I've uploaded...

   

  *If you do get a crash look at Help > Troubleshooting > View Log File and scroll to the bottom to see debug for the crash.  I haven't seen any recently, but then I've been mainly repeating the same sequence. If it crashes on you then please let me know the details so I can try and fix it!

  

  

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  Post edited by 3dcheapskate on November 2015
• 3dcheapskate Posts: 2,719

  November 2015

  Test Version Of DS WorldBall With Iray Setup Available At ShareCG

  Okay, it's uploaded - please see the previous post for some background information.

  TEST version of DS WorldBall with Iray setup - http://www.sharecg.com/v/82884/view/21/DAZ-Studio/TEST-version-of-DS-WorldBall-with-Iray-setup

  This is a TEST version (2.04) of the WorldBall that adds setup for Iray.
  
  It is provided as-is for anybody who wants to test it.
  I have done some basic checks and it appears to work correctly.
  However, the code is written in my usual haphazard style, and there are almost certainly bugs in it.
  
  THEREFORE USE OF THIS SCRIPT IS AT YOUR OWN RISK ! :)
  
  If you wish to cancel this script you can do so in the next (or next-but-one) dialog.
  
  There are only two files:
  
  IrayTEST2-04 WorldBall Setup DS3,4.dsa   ...the modified script with Iray setup for testing
  IrayTEST2-04 WorldBall Setup DS3,4.pp2   ...a renamed copy of the most recent official release of "WorldBall Setup DS3,4.pp2"
  
  They are both in an "IrayTEST" subfolder in the normal Worldball Poser runtime location (so they won't overwrite your existing worldball, which you can continue using as normal)
  
  You need to have the latest version of the DS worldball already installed.
  You can then simply copy the two files to the correct subfolder (the default folder structure is already in the zip)

   

  If you have any problems, crashes, questions, suggestions, etc related to this thens please post here or contact me via any of the usual channels.

  I may be away from the internet from sometime mid-weekend till midweek
• 3dcheapskate Posts: 2,719

  November 2015 edited November 2015

  A couple of further thoughts/comments/observations:

  - I'm not sure what will happen if you have Reality installed. It should just appear as an option on the renderer dropdown, but if you select it then the worldball should just be set up in the original manner.

  - To see the backdrop in the preview pane simply make the WorldBall visible in the Scene pane. But remember to make it invisible again before rendering or you'll get a total blackout render (unless the camera's outside the worldball prop)

  - You probably want to load a camera and set it to 35mm to see a reasonable section of background

  - The WorldBall prop is very small and centred at the world origin, so if you move the camera you won't be viewing it from the centre of the ball. With the Iray infinite sphere the camera view should always be from the centre of the sphere. Therefore unless your viewpoint is at the world origin you'll probably see a mismatch between the Worldball prop (if you make it visible) and your Iray render.

  - I should of course be setting dome mode to "Infinite Sphere" and NOT "Infinite Sphere w/ Ground" ! You'll have to do this manually for now.

  - If you're a proper programmer (as opposed to a code monkey) remember to put on your peril-sensitive sunglasses before looking at the code !

   

  A couple of known bugs:

  - The WorldBall node is collapsed in the Scene pane when you first run the script after opening DS. This may be a DS4 bug as noted in an earlier post.

  - I'm using the wrong dome mode - it should of course be "Infinite Sphere" and NOT "Infinite Sphere w/ Ground" !

  - Regardless of the renderer you select I think it sets NVIDIA Iray!

   

   

  And another point - the main purpose of the worldball was twofold:

  1) to allow me to easily change the lighting and backdrop by selecting from a list of available environment sets.

  2) to let me easily add environment sets to the list.

  I'm more than happy that it's met both those goals.

  Post edited by 3dcheapskate on November 2015