Importing DAZ Decals into Blender?

DrGonzo62 · July 23

Hi,
Is there a way to import DS decals into Blender?
I have this Dega Extreme Wound Decals asset, and can't figure out how to get the generated decals into Blender via Diffeo.
Each decal consists of a diffuse, additional underlying diffuse, normal and bump map.
The effect looks pretty good in DS, but I can't figure out how to achieve this in Blender.

I know, it looks pretty gross, but that's what my script calls for.
Any idea on how to import or at least replicate this effect in Blender?

Thanks!

crosswind · July 25

You still can refer to this post https://diffeomorphic.blogspot.com/2020/12/decals.html to Make a Decal. In the latest version of Differ 4.5.0.xxxx, Make Decal is under Setup > Materials > Edit Materials > Make Decal.

It works on my side. I don't have that product but just show you a result with a simple base + glossy maps.

Padone · July 25

Diffeomorphic is capable to import decals and they were improved some time ago, but I suspect the support is limited compared to what daz studio can do. Unless there's a regression. I'm on holidays will look at this the next week and let you know what I find.

https://bitbucket.org/Diffeomorphic/import_daz/issues/792/better-decals

DrGonzo62 · July 25

Thanks Crosswind, I'll see if I can get Make Decal to work for me.

And thanks to you, Padone.
I can see that Diffeo considered the decal upon import, it just doesn't show on the figure for some reason.
Enjoy your vacation! 8^)

DrGonzo62 · July 25

@crosswind

I tried using Make Decal, but I'm getting errors when I try to add a bitmap to the shader.
Both for Cycles & Extended Principled shaders. That's for Blender/Diffeo 4.4

Not sure why that is.

crosswind · July 25

DrGonzo62 said:

@crosswind

I tried using Make Decal, but I'm getting errors when I try to add a bitmap to the shader.
Both for Cycles & Extended Principled shaders. That's for Blender/Diffeo 4.4

Not sure why that is.

In Channel drop-down list, you should choose Principle Base... rather than Diffuse Color ... IIRC. I'm not by my PC. Pls check it ~~

DrGonzo62 · July 25

Yes, that worked, thanks!

I can see the new nodes inserted into the shader, but unfortunately they still don't show up in the render.

crosswind · July 25

DrGonzo62 said:

Yes, that worked, thanks!

I can see the new nodes inserted into the shader, but unfortunately they still don't show up in the render.

You need to move the empty nodes up to the head. You can strictly follow the instruction that we posted above. You'll make it.

DrGonzo62 · July 25

Got it, thanks!
Should have read more of the documentation... ;^)

DrGonzo62 · July 25

OK, my attempts at getting this to work have failed spectacularly.

Applying the same bitmap that works so well in DS, does not quite produce the same results as I get in Blender...
Slightly inferior.
I hate to say it, but I may have to create some content in Daz Studio. See? Now I like DAZ again. ;^)

Can you guess which one is Daz?

crosswind · July 26

I rarely use decal nowadays but I personally think Iray decal is easier and better for use than the one in Blender. From the left, you have Diffuse, Translucency, Roughness, Normal even Displacement on the decal node in DS but it'll be cumbersome to do the similar in Blender.

Maybe someone who has the product can help with it ~

DrGonzo62 · July 26

Thanks crosswind.
Yeah, DS still has a leg up on Blender when it comes to rendering characters and hair, IMHO.
But then again, that's mostly all DS does, so no real surprise there.

Padone · July 30

There's a regression now reported to Thomas, as a workaround you can turn off the "prune node tree" global setting until this is fixed. This will import the decal material correctly. Another issue is the specific decals use the "uvw" mode in daz studio that we don't actually support in blender, that is, blender is now limited to the "position" mode which doesn't follow the figure pose that means decals are intended for props and not for figures, also because figures usually use LIEs instead of decals. You can move and scale the gizmo in blender to reposition the decal over the figure, but again this will not follow the figure pose.

I'll see if I can get how the "uvw" mode works but this may take a while.

https://bitbucket.org/Diffeomorphic/import_daz/issues/2543/

update. "prune node tree" is fixed in the last commit.

https://bitbucket.org/Diffeomorphic/import_daz/downloads/

DrGonzo62 · July 31

Well, that looks encouraging!

Look at you, figuring this all out. Very nice, thank you Padone!
This looks so much better than the LIE wound assets I have tried since.

---

I just tried, hoping it would work via Easy Import DAZ with Prune Node Tree disabled.
So I guess you do have to go through make decal regardless?
I'm on Blender / Diffeo 4.4 right now, so I'd have to update both to 4.5 or later for this to work?

Padone · August 1

Yes of course if you don't update then you don't get the last fixes.

DrGonzo62 · August 1

Did you import the decal via Easy Import, or did you create it with Make Decal?
I was able to import the decal with Easy Import using v4.5... sort of, but it didn't look nearly as good as your render.
Couldn't really figure out how to position the empty so that the decal projected well onto the figure.
Probably because of the uvw mode you mentioned. I'll play around with it some more.

Padone · August 2

In my example above I imported the decal with easy import, then moved and scaled the gizmo to reposition the decal over the figure. I'm working on "uvw" and my results seem to work fine for the specific decals you used, but I'll test with other products before updating Thomas with a possible implementation.

DrGonzo62 · August 2

Sounds good, thanks Padone.
Yes, scaling the decal way up made it fit a lot better on the neck.

Padone · August 7

update. There's actually a number of bugs with decals, now reported to Thomas, after these are fixed we can introduce some support for uvw. But beware I didn't find any other product using uvw decals apart the Dega wounds, also because uvw defeats the purpose of decals as we can't use the decal gizmo anymore, so I suspect this is a very unique product you've stumbled into.

Usually to overlay shaders PAs use shells, not uvw decals.

https://bitbucket.org/Diffeomorphic/import_daz/issues/2546/

DrGonzo62 · August 9

Thanks for looking into this, Padone.

If the other options were at least close to the kind of realism that Dega Wounds achieve, I would have moved on already.
But they don't. At least the ones that I have tried. Those just look like tattoos. No depth to them.
I even considered just sculpting them in in Blender, but that would mean increasing the mesh density, and I'm not sure how quickly that will become messy.
Let's see what Thomas can come up with.

Padone · August 16

update. The decal bugs have been fixed in the last commit. Then I proposed a limited implementation for uvw decals, once it's done should be fine to import the Dega wounds and eventually other similar uvw decals.

https://bitbucket.org/Diffeomorphic/import_daz/downloads/

https://bitbucket.org/Diffeomorphic/import_daz/issues/2554/

DrGonzo62 · August 17

Great news!
Thanks Padone, I'll check it out.

Padone · August 18

update. The uv decals are now implemented and the Dega wounds seem to import fine, let us know if there's other products using uv decals I didn't find any. Please note that blender doesn't have the notion of uv clipping so the implementation is limited, but seems to work fine nonetheless. For now please do not download the last commit as there's code from an external contributor that has to be fixed, so get the commit below for uv decals.

https://bitbucket.org/Diffeomorphic/import_daz/get/1a13113816bebec91a7bac54948c3da4310b1f0b.zip

update. The last commit is now safe to get.

https://bitbucket.org/Diffeomorphic/import_daz/downloads/

DrGonzo62 · August 19

Thanks Padone, I'll give that a try.

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