HDR Pro-Sets: Urban Recreation for DAZ Studio Out Now! [Commercial]

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Comments

  • peteVaultpeteVault Posts: 308
    edited December 1969

    I thought I'd say I'm still waiting....and I want to keep this thread alive

  • JOdelJOdel Posts: 6,246
    edited December 1969

    This is probably a totally ridiculous question. But will the lighting of this set work with Magix101's new WorldBase environment? People have been posting all kinds of problems with UberEnvironment lights with it, so I won't be surprised if it doesn't, but it would be nice to know.

  • DimensionTheoryDimensionTheory Posts: 434
    edited December 1969

    I mentioned a couple posts in that a Poser version shouldn't be too hard, though right now I'm not quite ready to work on it. I'd like to get the Carrara version figured out as well so the releases aren't anymore drawn out.

    These files when they're released will not contain the full resolution .HDR images. At full resolution the HDRIs are around 300-400 MB a piece. DAZ Studio doesn't really make use of that much information, UberEnvironment works just fine with low resolution and JPG backgrounds are worth what those HDR files do to downloads and DS's memory. They will be included with the Carrara version though since GI and background comes from the same map there, and it supports .HDR native etc.

    As for World Base I don't really know, I've not used it myself. If people say it has issues with UberEnvironment it probably with with these, since these use UberEnvironment.

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 23,049
    edited September 2012

    It's in the store now!
    http://www.daz3d.com/shop/urban-recreation
    Bought it! Didn't even stop to read the details. Just in the cart and checked out. I won't have time to play tonight. It's already almost 1:00 AM.

    Post edited by barbult on
  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 37,711
    edited December 1969

    I am very hesitant about buying if there is still a Carrara version with full sized HDRI images coming.
    as for one thing, I would be using it in Carrara and while jpgs would surfice for my simple shadow catch scenes, I do indeed use hdri files where I can.
    not overpriced but too much to spend twice.
    so sorry DT, waiting for now.

  • LindLind Posts: 1
    edited December 1969

    when is it coming to Carrara PRO 8.5

  • deepindigodeepindigo Posts: 1
    edited December 1969

    I've just bought this and its fantastic, excellent base for shadows, very realistic texture, takes no time at all to render and wonderful lighting my absolutely fave purchase so far this year. I hope you make many add ons, alien worlds, winter scenes etc I will buy the lot. Thank you.

  • My Virtual LadyMy Virtual Lady Posts: 5
    edited December 1969

    Hi there,

    Wow, this HDR Pro Sets are very interesting! I have one question about them...Are they compatible with Reality plugin for DAZ Studio?

    Do you test a Reality scene with the Shadow Catcher and these 360 Degree HDR Environments?

  • KeryaKerya Posts: 10,943
    edited December 1969

    Zaarin said:
    I think Bagginsbill made a post at Renderosity about how to set up a shadow catcher that works with IDL.

    Bagginsbill's Poser Shadow Catcher
    https://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/free-stuff/shadow-catcher

  • Midnight_storiesMidnight_stories Posts: 4,112
    edited December 1969

    Got to say I'm very pleased with it. The shadow catcher is amazing nice and soft, fiber mesh hair comes up nicely to, a big thumbs up here. I think I'll rending some HDRI with Vue should come up with some nice BGs.

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  • JabbaJabba Posts: 1,458
    edited December 1969

    nice, cheap at half the price ;)

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  • cridgitcridgit Posts: 1,757
    edited May 2022

    Redacted

    Post edited by cridgit on
  • DimensionTheoryDimensionTheory Posts: 434
    edited December 1969

    Thanks to everyone for the comments! I just updated the main post with the product page etc.

    To address the questions asked...

    Any additional versions of this set will be released at no additional cost to those who buy it. When the Poser and Carrara versions are released I'll have DAZ send out some coupons for those who bought the DS only version. Any additional sets after I get the work done figuring out other programs will be released with all versions in the same product. The only reason you're not getting those versions now is because of the time involved and my need to get something released.

    That slight toon effect is probably bringing some misunderstandings. Reality tries to render the same perfect image that DS does, it's unbiased in it's lighting calculation but there's no actual optics involved. It doesn't pass the image through numerous layers of different quality glass going through a camera lens, or pass it onto a camera sensor that has imperfections. All of these pictures were taken with a real camera that has this glass and imperfection, the tooning is just there to remove that. It's not there to add a cartoon style, but to get rid of these things so it looks better with ALL renderers. I'm just calling it toon because that's technically what the effect is.

    The shadow catcher will work with any other HDRI you setup with these rigs, though you need to keep in mind there's additional lights here to help with directional shadows etc. For it to look just as good with another HDRI you would have to modify or add lights to make it match. My other products would work great because they already have the lights there, you would just need to load those presets and use the shadow catcher. Just make sure you're not rendering with two UberEnvironments lol.

    These don't work in Reality, I'm not really sure if there's a way to do proper shadow catchers there or not. If someone can point me in that direction I'll take a look at it. I've got no problem continuing to support Reality with presets, but the act of making promo content and multiple render tests etc for it eats up too much time these days with how slow it goes. So I'll need a bit of help making it work in order to keep myself from pulling hairs.

  • DimensionTheoryDimensionTheory Posts: 434
    edited December 1969

    I wanted to mention that the rest of my store is also 50% off in celebration of the PA sale today! If you'd like some additional HDRIs or backgrounds to use with the shadow catcher like people mentioned now's the best time to grab them.

    http://www.daz3d.com/shop/dimensiontheory

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 23,049
    edited December 1969

    Question: Am I supposed to rotate the camera or the lights and skydome to view another area of the environment?

    With Skies of Terra, the lights were parented to the skydome as I recall, and everything was rotated together by rotating the skydome. In UR, the lights are not parented to the skydome. So, I'm a little confused. Did I overlook some usage documentation? Sorry, I don't have lots of experience with HDR lighting.

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 37,711
    edited December 1969

    ok, sold
    I chose your photographs over Faveral's Medieval docks btw!!!
    simply because I realized I might do one video render using that awesome set if I am lucky, have had Le village bundle for over a year and yet to even render a single image!!
    but I am far more likely, in fact very likely to use your images in many renders, esp as backgrounds for even indoor scenes with windows so infact better value by a for use factor!

  • DimensionTheoryDimensionTheory Posts: 434
    edited December 1969

    barbult said:
    Question: Am I supposed to rotate the camera or the lights and skydome to view another area of the environment?

    With Skies of Terra, the lights were parented to the skydome as I recall, and everything was rotated together by rotating the skydome. In UR, the lights are not parented to the skydome. So, I'm a little confused. Did I overlook some usage documentation? Sorry, I don't have lots of experience with HDR lighting.

    I'm actually in the process of putting together a little tutorial to show some usage and stuff, this just got released two days ahead of schedule so I'm a bit behind on that so I apologize.

    When I was doing Skies of Terra I noticed UberEnv doing some weird things when being parented to objects that have movements applied. UberEnv's relation to the skydome is kind of hard to keep track of like that, when it's changing values on it's own during modifying it gets confusing lol. These are pretty much locked down because of that, the lights and background aren't really meant to be moved or rotated. You're welcome to do it that way if it's easier, it's not going to make anything blow up. I just wanted to make sure it looks the way it's supposed to as much as possible. One easy way around it is to parent the things in your scene (aside from the Pro-Set stuff) and just rotate that. Move everything BUT the background basically, it's really quick and easy so it'll be in the video tutorial.

    ok, sold
    I chose your photographs over Faveral's Medieval docks btw!!!
    simply because I realized I might do one video render using that awesome set if I am lucky, have had Le village bundle for over a year and yet to even render a single image!!
    but I am far more likely, in fact very likely to use your images in many renders, esp as backgrounds for even indoor scenes with windows so infact better value by a for use factor!

    Thank you, Wendy! If you'd like to use what's here in Carrara now you can, it just won't have the same effect until those HDR files are there. JPG backgrounds can cast GI too and you'll have the full resolution background that way, but the GI won't be as accurate and there's no shadow catcher etc yet.

  • RAMWolffRAMWolff Posts: 10,142
    edited December 1969

    Questions. Are you dude or a lady? Sorry, I like to know to use he or she when I'm talking about a product I like to a friend.

    Are you planning on doing a fantasy set using this with allot of mood lighting? I'm really more into deep forest types of settings and have no idea how to set up anything like that myself.

    Thanks kind person! :P

  • DimensionTheoryDimensionTheory Posts: 434
    edited December 1969

    I'm male lol. I guess the avatar does it, I get the female card a lot but it doesn't bother me. :lol:

    I've got a lot of plans for these, various locations and themes. Unlike doing these digitally though, I have to actually find these places and get there. I already made a trip to Monterey Bay a month or so ago that I've got some great maps for, they're more along the lines of fantasy but still a bit urban. I'm planning on going up to the redwood forests though, and possibly back to Yellowstone. Those would be good for seclusion.

    Here's some pictures from Monterey showing what they'll kinda be like. None of these are from the maps but the areas are similar.

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  • BurstAngelBurstAngel Posts: 761
    edited December 1969

    I would love to have a set using city streets as a background also. Awfully useful using those Stonemason sets.:)

  • RAMWolffRAMWolff Posts: 10,142
    edited December 1969

    Nice to know the sex.... the last image looks really nice! Love that forest.

    I think a city scape would be good but it going to be nearly impossible to get streets free of people and most cars. Wouldn't give you much room to populate the scene with your own cars and people. That's my way of thinking about it anyways....

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 37,711
    edited September 2012

    better delete this

    Post edited by WendyLuvsCatz on
  • DimensionTheoryDimensionTheory Posts: 434
    edited December 1969

    I've added a usage tutorial to the first post, or if you like you can find it here...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8v8AaLYnqM

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 23,049
    edited September 2012

    I've added a usage tutorial to the first post, or if you like you can find it here...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8v8AaLYnqM


    Thanks for posting that so quickly, it was very helpful, and reinforced your earlier text reply. Thanks for that extra tip about the apparent size of the Genesis based on positioning (picnic table).

    One place I could use some help is with the lighting of my character's faces. In the environments I've tried so far, the sun seems to be at a high angle and my character's eyes always seem to be in deep shadow, even if I turn my character to face the sun. Do you have any suggestions, or is that just the way the accurate lighting is, because of the sun angle in your original photos? I noticed in the tutorial, the character's face is turned up toward the sun, but I don't want all my poses to do that, of course. Thanks for any advice you can provide. I'm having fun playing.

    Edit: added photo.

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    Post edited by barbult on
  • DimensionTheoryDimensionTheory Posts: 434
    edited December 1969

    You're welcome!

    The sun direction is meant to match the sun in the photos so the lights are "theoretically" locked in place. They're only stuck there if you want it to be completely accurate. In your picture there it wouldn't really break any effects if you rotated the distant light to light up those eyes. Something else you may want to do is increase your gamma value in render settings, I usually have mine set to 1.10 or 1.15. That will help take out some of that contrast.

  • ZaarinZaarin Posts: 356
    edited December 1969

    Thanks to everyone for the comments! I just updated the main post with the product page etc.

    To address the questions asked...

    Any additional versions of this set will be released at no additional cost to those who buy it. When the Poser and Carrara versions are released I'll have DAZ send out some coupons for those who bought the DS only version. Any additional sets after I get the work done figuring out other programs will be released with all versions in the same product. The only reason you're not getting those versions now is because of the time involved and my need to get something released.

    That slight toon effect is probably bringing some misunderstandings. Reality tries to render the same perfect image that DS does, it's unbiased in it's lighting calculation but there's no actual optics involved. It doesn't pass the image through numerous layers of different quality glass going through a camera lens, or pass it onto a camera sensor that has imperfections. All of these pictures were taken with a real camera that has this glass and imperfection, the tooning is just there to remove that. It's not there to add a cartoon style, but to get rid of these things so it looks better with ALL renderers. I'm just calling it toon because that's technically what the effect is.

    The shadow catcher will work with any other HDRI you setup with these rigs, though you need to keep in mind there's additional lights here to help with directional shadows etc. For it to look just as good with another HDRI you would have to modify or add lights to make it match. My other products would work great because they already have the lights there, you would just need to load those presets and use the shadow catcher. Just make sure you're not rendering with two UberEnvironments lol.

    These don't work in Reality, I'm not really sure if there's a way to do proper shadow catchers there or not. If someone can point me in that direction I'll take a look at it. I've got no problem continuing to support Reality with presets, but the act of making promo content and multiple render tests etc for it eats up too much time these days with how slow it goes. So I'll need a bit of help making it work in order to keep myself from pulling hairs.


    Thanks for clarifying that since, even though I'm a Poser user, I would have liked to have the full-sized HDRI files as well. :) Any plans for more/less urban settings with large HDRI like this? Perhaps even interiors?
  • anikadanikad Posts: 1,919
    edited December 1969

    Does anyone have any of the reality sets? What are they like?

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 37,711
    edited December 1969

    I just started rendering a test Carrara animation, no indirect lighting, camera locked to ball joint
    trying out shadowcatch planes for ground and the table,
    not precisely lined up (did my best) hopefully animated it will not be so obvious
    I could ofcourse drop another table in!

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  • ZaarinZaarin Posts: 356
    edited December 1969

    Oh, looks like I missed a few posts. I like those images look very promising, especially the first and third. :)

  • peteVaultpeteVault Posts: 308
    edited September 2012

    I'm really crazy about this product. It renders quickly and well. Plus, I can tweak the settings to my satisfaction. I think I've finally found the update to Movie Maker I've been seeking.

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    Post edited by peteVault on
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