schouwenberg,

Here’s my vastly over simplified techno-babble view on how this works, and why it’s so complicated:

There’s a few major players: Studio, Iray, CUDA, and Windows 10. Studio does the highest level user interaction to build the scene, and when it comes time to render Studio packs everything up (ie, scene description parameters) and hands it off to Iray, which figures out the lower level details of how the light rays bounce around the scene. Once Iray has that figured, it interacts with CUDA to do the actual GPU calculations, and CUDA handles the lower level hardware interactions with the GPU cores and memory. And since the GPU is a system resource, CUDA also interacts with Windows 10 VidMm and VidSch to manage the GPU memory, which involves the Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM). Oh, and there’s the other very low level GPU/hardware drivers that do a bunch of other lower level stuff in the chain between CPU, system memory, PCI bus, monitors, and GPU.

Now, I can write a C/C++ code today that works with CUDA to use the GPU to calculate stuff, and it’s fairly simple. And Iray would have absolutely nothing to do with it.

For example, let’s say I want to modify a 1920x1080 image, which has around 2 million pixels. Ideally, I could assign each of those pixels to a thread in the GPU and it could calculate each of the 2 million pixels simultaneously in 2 million parallel threads.

In a normal C/C++ program, I’d write a “for” loop that loops thru each pixel in succession and does the calculation, then on to the next one. With a GPU I write the same sequential “for” loop, but I use some CUDA code that magically takes that sequential code and allocates GPU memory and converts the sequential code into parallel calculations and a gazillion threads operating simultaneously on the GPU. It also handles copying data between system RAM and GPU VRAM and a bunch of other stuff. So I’d write my “for” loop, ask CUDA to allocate memory on the GPU (using “cudaMalloc”), then transfer the image from system RAM to GPU VRAM (using “cudaMemcpy”), and CUDA handles the simultaneous calcs. And presumably, somewhere in there are CUDA interactions with Windows 10 VidMm and VidSch in the form of requests back and forth since Windows 10 is the boss of system resources. 

Now, presumably I’d think you could do a “cudaMalloc” request for the entire 11GB on a GTX-180ti and see what happens, whether you get push back from Windows 10 because it wants to hog everything. And I may try that this weekend. Though I fully expect there’s a lot more to it that I’m not considering, and I’ll probably have to study CUDA a lot more. If you’ve ever seen the CUDA documentation you’ll understand why. Maybe cudaMalloc is just a "request" for memory, but not an indication of what is actually assigned/dedicated to your process by Windows 10. Hence the confusion...  

But as far as figuring out how much memory is used, it seems to me that VRAM is quite different from system RAM, in that there are tons of background system processes running in system RAM at any time, but I think a GPU is pretty much dead until Studio or a game needs it. And usually not many apps are using the GPU. So you’d think it would be relatively easy to figure how much is being used. Just write some code to request a certain amount of memory and see what shows up in Task Manager as being used. And there’s also a “cudaMemGetInfo” function that “gets free and total device memory”, so maybe this issue can be resolved by writing a fairly simple C++ application that tries to grab GPU memory and checks the result. And maybe by checking the memory usage that cudaMemGetInfo returns versus what Task Manager says you might get some useful data. Though maybe Iray is also using "cudaMemGetInfo" when it gives the possibly incorrect "available" memory numbers in the log, so maybe it won't match Task Manager.

Anyway, this approach seems certainly far more simple and direct than worrying about Iray and getting Studio and all that other stuff involved by doing render test comparisons between W10 and W7. Far too many unnecessary variables with something like that.

Victoria 8 is Genesis 8. She's a morph from the Genesis 8 figure. And of course, she has her own skin textures, makeups, etc - like any of the Official Daz Original Genesis 8 Female figures.

So if a product says it requires Victoria 8, like a character, does it really just require Genesis 8?

No it will need the V8 morph for the character to look the same.

Victoria 8 is Genesis 8. She's a morph from the Genesis 8 figure. And of course, she has her own skin textures, makeups, etc - like any of the Official Daz Original Genesis 8 Female figures.

So if a product says it requires Victoria 8, like a character, does it really just require Genesis 8?

Victoria 8 is Genesis 8. She's a morph from the Genesis 8 figure. And of course, she has her own skin textures, makeups, etc - like any of the Official Daz Original Genesis 8 Female figures.

there's no thinking involved in the tasks I mentioned.
imagine you're making 1000 products:

• you need to copy your images to a similar directory under your product name 1000 times, the machine should do that
• you need to change all addresses to your new texture locations 1000 times, the machine should do that
• you need to render a bigger thumbnail for each item and put them into their directory probably more than 1000 times, the machine should do that
• you need to create a data/yourname/ folder, copy your product in it and package the whole thing 1000 times, the machine should do that

while it's our job to create an item, pose, morph and adjust the figures for taking the thumbnails, the machines are made to do the repetitive tasks that have a fixed formula

Believe me... you are N E V E R going to make a thousand products.  Especially NOT at once.

The computer is not telepathic.

 - After you make your textures in whatever program, you cannot expect it to know where to place them.  Each project will have its own folders.  Copy and paste or drag and drop is the closest you will get to the computer doing that for you.

 - If you have a Windows machine, download Notepad++, drop ALL your presets into it (as long as they are not compressed) and do a search and replace.  It will process all of them at the same time and save them afterwards, all at the same time.  If you tell it to.  But you still have to input the information that needs to be changed. 

 - What if you want to add text before you finalize the thumbnail?  Its not going to do that for you.  The larger thumbnail should be the one you render and then batch process all of them in software like XN Convert to the smaller 91x91. 

 - It does do that for you, when you save your product into your library, it creates the Data folders.  But yes, you still have a lot of work to do.  Its part of the business

Parented props don't get morphs, if you want to have it receive projected morphs it needs to be set up as a figure. You can, if it fits on the base figure without needing adjustments, use Edit>Figure>Transfer Utility, setting the helmet as the Target and the base figure as the Source - however, you may then find the weight maps need adjusting.

Hello! I'll try to be brief. I'm completely new and pretty much don't know anything.

1. I want to build a fence. Found a freebie .obj and after googling for a while managed to open it in hexagon, transfer to DS in chunks(split the gate and main fence chunk into 2 different objects) and after some scaling/exporting/importing back and saving as scene assets they are ready to be merged and used to build a proper fence of my choosing. But there is one problem. They seem to each have their own 0,0,0 points. NOT parented. Makes that kinda hard to allign them properly. Is there a way to reset their 0 points or at least sync them to one coordinates system?

2. While trying to adjust a pose model keeps "jumping up" without actually changing Y coord. But every time I lower it to the ground(y goes more and more negative) and try to change a pose again it instantly jumps back up. I'm not really sure how to describe that properly, sorry. If you somehow understood that, please tell me, what am I doing wrong?

3. After applying shaders to the fence this happens

Shaders are the same on every board. You can't see any difference at render but at viewport some boards turn green, sometimes pink, sometimes they just decice to "unturn" and become normal again. Doesn't really affect anything, just a bit irritating. 

Thanks!

Golf Shirt continued - some issues for details like collars, cuffs, and hems.

Since The Groom outft has been brought up, I'd like to discuss some usage issues that also affect modeling choices.  I did purchase the product, and I believe I will get some good use from it with a few morphs.  But in any case, there are a few issues that have to be addressed with the golf shirt project that I hope it is OK to use the groom wedding outfit to illustrate.  This is in no way a criticism of that product.  It is just an illustration of how modeling for old-style conforming and modeling for DForce present some interesting issues.  How do you plan to use your custom content?  The answer might affect some important modeling decisions, or maybe details rather than decisions.

1) Sense of thickness.  Most users want their custom content to give a sense of thickness; however, it is generally wasteful of memory and other computer resources to include interior polygons that would never face the camera.  Therefore, simply doubling the polygons of the mesh for inside and outside polygons is generally frowned upon.

--- Sense of Thickness - Old-Style Conforming.  With an old style conforming shirt, the bottom hem can be given a sense of thickness by curling the edge back on itself and extruding back up the inside of the garment for a row or two of polygons.  That is how the shirt for this The Groom product handles giving a sense of thickness to the bottom of the shirt (and the collar, and the sleeve cuffs).

--- Sense of Thickness - DForce. Aha!  A "curled in" row of polygons with DForce applied and no other adjustments might attempt to drape back out during the DForce calculations.  

2) Anticipate Morphs such as Open/Close.  For your project, is this the kind of garment that you will want to have morphs for open/close?  Golf shirt?  Probably.  But, a formal garmet like the shirt for The Groom tux, which has a bowtie, might not be expected to be unbuttoned (or maybe you do).  The Groom product does not anticipate relying entirely on morphs for open/close.  The shirt mesh for where the front comes together is a single contiguous mesh.  It is not separated and overlapping to allow for easy morphing to open/unbutton.  While a contiguous front mesh makes it hard to morph the shirt open, it is better for draping in a cloth simulation.  As always, choices.  Open might still be successful using a texture map with an alpha mask, perhaps.

3) Buttons - the buttons of The Groom shirt do not connect to the shirt mesh.  They float above it.

Sorry not to comment in so long; been a bit busy here.

-BeeMkay: Thanks for that link. I've bookmarked the it for future referencer; a LOT of info there and it's going to take me some time to get through it.

-btetzli: 1) I've been using the character marked 'Genesis 8 Dev Load' in SmartContent which loads ONLY the base Genesis 8 mesh; doesn't even load a texture to it let alone any attachments so I know that isn't causing the problem, though I'm pretty sure it's still operator error :p 2) I've made sure that all rotatations, scaling, translastion, etc. are zeroed and I don't use subdivisions at all when I'm making changes. So the CHANGED mesh IS all zeroed out before I try loading it as a morph. I also zero the Genesis 8 mesh before I export it to make changes to.

My thanks to all for the help. From what I can tell, DAZ Studio just isn't detecting the changes I've made for some reason. Keep in mind the only modeling software I've ever used up until now is Blender, which works a lot differently. It's most likely some very basic, dumb step that I'm leaving out or forgetting to do that's causing all the trouble. I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually.

Working on a scene for Llola's challenge, which will have two teen brothers rough-housing in their bedroom. The bedroom is done. Here are the brothers, so far.

I'm using the G8M version of Growing Up, and dialing in amounts of G8 characters to get the body and head shapes I want. They both have Giuseppe in the head, for the family resemblance. The older boy has more. If this old memory serves, that is the only character they have in common. I used the head morphs and the "200" product to make some minor variations to both heads. The skin is the G3M Growing Up Skin resource, with a bit of light gray in the Base Color channel for the older boy.

It's been too hot to spend a lot of time in the office, and impossible to run both computers for more time than it takes to transfer a few files. I'll count myself lucky if I can get this scene done and rendered in time for the challenge! (Fingers crossed!)

So far this is the best I've been able to do with a morph from zBrush. It's not bad in the realm of things, but when compared to the actual character I'm trying to replicate, I can't seem to get enough delicate linework into the brows because there aren't enough polys to grab onto. As I said, if I subdivide up, I can sculpt away and make them finely detailed...but that detail doesn't translate into DAZ when you turn it back down. 

Wait...now I'm confused. I already have a Genesis 8 muscle morph set in my wishlist and it's not by Xenic. Are there two full sets now?

Likely.

The other set is by SimonWM, maker of Swole.  I tend to prefer his style of morphs and flexions, but I own them both. Simon did not do a set for Genesis3 which was unfortunate. Xenic is servicable, IMO, but SimonWM did fantastic JCM/Flexion morphs for Genesis2.

Since you altered the mesh and rerigged it it can't be considered as a morphed G3 anymore. It might be possible to create a G3 clone for this "new figure", using the same method as for creating one for G3 (there should be a tutorial somewhere in the forums for that)

However if all you did was alter the face you might try transforming your new face into a geograft that you could use to replace the face on a "real" G3 character, rather than using a whoke new figure.

All of the tutorials I've read regarding the creation of clones involve using the Morph Loader, which because this is no longer a DAZ figure, I can't use. Unless there's a tutorial I haven't seen...I've been digging around Google all day. 

I went back to zBrush and tried sculpting directly on the mesh again to make a morph using GoZ, however the problem is there aren't enough polys to sculpt with, even with dynamic subdivision. I can subdivide up to 2+ mil and then I can sculpt all day til the cows come home and make those brow stalks perfect with all the little details...however, when I turn the subdivision back down and then port it back to DAZ, all of that detail is gone and I'm left with round nubs. 

The other path I tried was making a geograft of just the brow stalks. However, when I tried loading it onto the character, it wouldn't fit correctly. When I selected "fit to", it would float over his head. When I fit it manually, if I remember correctly, expressions didn't work properly. 

Greetings, all. I have a figure created in Daz Studio 4.10 starting with a Genesis 2 male figure. I added this third party helmet

https://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/verona-helmet/61087

and after a little trial and error figured out how to import the .obj file so it appears on the head where it's supposed to and fits snugly. I believe it was originally designed in Poser, but the designer says it should work in most 3D programs. (When I imported the helmet at first it was really tiny and not in the right place because I was using the Daz scale (1 unit=1 cm) so then I tried the Poser scale (1 unit = 8 feet), and that worked.)  At first if I scaled the figure up or down the helmet wouldn't scale along with the rest of the figure, and when I right-clicked on it in the scene tab I didn't see any "fit to" option"; but I was able to work around that by parenting it under the Genesis 2 figure, under "Chest". After that it stayed on the figure's head and shrank or grew along with it when I scaled it larger or smaller.

The problem came when I saved the scaled up figure as a morph. I zeroed out the figure and made the necessary mesh adjustments, loaded the morph, imported the helmet and started dialing it up. The figure grew larger, but the helmet stayed where it was (now stuck in the figure's chest), even after I parented it under the Gen2 character.

I've spent the last few hours googling for a solution, but haven't been able to find anything that a noob like me would understand. If any of you could shed some light on this, I'd definitely appreciate it.

Thanks!

This is very good tutorial. A couple of things I don't remember whether or not it mentions (I know it skipped at least one of the below).

- you need to make the morph just using the naked figure. Don't save to an .obj file if it has any clothes, props, etc.

- before you load the morph back into the original figure, make sure it's zeroed out and the mesh resolution level is set to base and the subdivision level is set to 0 - just the way it was when you saved the morph.

Does anyone know of a character morph that is even remotely similar to Stefanie Joosten - Quiet in Metal Gear Solid V for Genesis 3 Female? I have tried and failed with morphs as she has a very distinctive facial structure, her profile in particular is beyond me. I have even imported the XNALara model and tried to morph to the same proportions but my efforts came up miserably short.

I am currently forced to render her from behind :(

M4 clone morph is not supposed to look like M4, it has intentional differences supposed to help make the clothes fit better. So it may well be like that on purpose...

I have two other sets. I tend to have trouble with muscle morph sets due to the fit of clothing. Most of which never seems to be resolved. I’m not sure if that will be the case with this one... just that there tends to be pokerhrough and fit issues

Wait...now I'm confused. I already have a Genesis 8 muscle morph set in my wishlist and it's not by Xenic. Are there two full sets now?

The Daz development team is already spread a bit thin, between Studio, Hexagon, and (presumably) Carrara; stealing time from them isn't going to happen.

So the bulk of the 'how to' documentation continues to be generated by forum posters and spread throughout many threads.

To be fair, the "War On Literacy" is prosecuted by Marketing Managers of every product. DAZ cannot be singled out in their total failure to provide professional product documentation. Tom Peters would have said, "We're No Worse Than Anybody Else." Add to that the fact that, for a number of reasons, professional tech writers are very nearly extinct.  It is ironic, actually. Certainly the "Push Every Button And See What Happens" approach increases profits by reducing the payroll. At the same time, it limits profits by limiting what the average user is able to do. It is what it is.

The problem is/was that even when comprehensive documentation exists it isn't always used - there was a column in Scientific American a few months back related to this topic, according to which back when Office came with huge manuals a substantial proportion of feature requests were for things that the applications already did and that were in the manuals. If the manuals are not substantially reducing support overheads (and realistically, those of us who read manuals are also those who can more-or-less figure things out without) then the argument for assigning resources to them is greatly weakened.

I personally think that there are way too many variables 
in most  modern 3DCC applications for one big definative manual to realisticly cover them all.

Ongoing Wikkis are better suited

A manual for your vehicle is relatively easy to produce because
most motorist are only ever going to simply drive the vehicle with its  standardized factory components therefore it is easy to
 anicipate everything the motorist would need to know about that particular vehicle

And as soon as the motorist starts installing non factory, third party components the maufactures make it abundantly clear that they are not liable.

Sure we could have a manual comprehensively covering the basic use of a "Vanilla" install of Daz studio with the latest  Default genesis bases....lovely

Right then..who here is actually running such a basic set up??

New third party products are being introduced Daily and
much of the extended functionality such as scripts and plugins have been developed by parties other than Daz.
Some well documented and some.... frankly not so well documented. 
Some of these third parties  have vanished entirely......some have Died.

And then there is the fact that Daz is a 3D content company that supports industry standard in/out formats that involve the use of external programs.

Are the Daz tech writers expected to have expertise in every 3D program on the bloody planet, so that the official "DAZ manual" will have warnings for obscure factoids such as ??:

"sculptris creates "symmetry" by splitting the model in half and combing the two peices which will bugger up your vertex count for morph loader pro in Daz studio."

This "manual" situation is no different with the so called "pro apps like Houdini ,Maya or C4D. and they are demanding thousands of Dollars or monthly pay plans to use thier software.

IMHO , Daz Studio users need to be willing to "discover" the deeper parts of this (or any) 3D software from the vast,dynamic, existing user knowledge experience based  on their immediate needs
because,IMHO expecting some single,static source to have all of the answers is a fools gambit.