If you leave the files alone and create links (which you could place in an entirely separate content directory, so you would never need to see the "bad" tree) then the links will inherity nay metadata settings for the file they point to, regardless of how you move the link files.

Padone said:

The best option you have is to get a custom skin shader for blender. Otherwise you can use the principled shader and fine tune the textures there. As for diffeomorphic the bsdf option will try to import the iray materials and usually does a good job, but the materials in blender will then have the same issues they have in iray that you commented about.

My personal opinion is that most daz PAs are very "creative" when it comes to materials especially for skins, and rarely they follow the pbr rules that are also explained in the uber shader docs. Since iray is very flexible and allows for non-pbr materials this results in a mess with daz materials in general.

https://blendermarket.com/products/real-skin-shader-v2

Interesting shader. Can you recommend something similar for Cycles? 

Yeah, No, sorry. I still want Metadata attached to files.

I wont put the artists on blast but theres one artist (not here) who always puts Clothing in "Clothes" (cant rename folders in daz to exsisting folder names they wont merge)

Another issue I just had Daz artist put a shader preset pack in Iray/Artist Name/Iray (again)/ and then in Product Name.

So If you have to create new folders, then find n copy from old folder, retrack to new folder and paste, each time for every folders duf set, and still possible the data breaks. Dont you think it'd be much easier to have data connected and just drag n drop/copy n paste in bulk with file explorer, refresh in DS, and be done with it?  

The best option you have is to get a custom skin shader for blender. Otherwise you can use the principled shader and fine tune the textures there. As for diffeomorphic the bsdf option will try to import the iray materials and usually does a good job, but the materials in blender will then have the same issues they have in iray that you commented about.

My personal opinion is that most daz PAs are very "creative" when it comes to materials especially for skins, and rarely they follow the pbr rules that are also explained in the uber shader docs. Since iray is very flexible and allows for non-pbr materials this results in a mess with daz materials in general.

https://blendermarket.com/products/real-skin-shader-v2

For DAZ products, I install with DAZ Connect when possible.  All files are installed in separate product folders by SKU in your user defined DAZ Connect folder.  DAZ Connect does not install anything in DAZ Studio Formats library.  You do that by creating links/shortcuts to populate the DAZ Studio Formats library in any folder structure that YOU prefer.  You can even build the folder structure via Windows OS in the DAZ Studio Formats folder tree before creating the links/shortcuts within DAZ Studio. Just refresh your DAZ Studio Formats library to update the folders structure.  You need to have the Smart Content Tab and DAZ Studio Formats library on separate pane to populate the DAZ Studio Formats library with links and move the tab after finishing.  I've attached a picture of a working setup for creating the links/shortcuts.

You'll run into a couple of issues.

1. Some products won't work when installed via DAZ Connect, typically scripts or some product has some special characters in the product icons and they don't work (a few pose products I've ran into.)  I install those using DIM into a separate DAZ Studio Formats library.  The Smart Content tab will show the product where you can create the links/shortcuts into your "Work from" DAZ Studio Formats library.

2. 3rd party products you can continue to install manually.  I create DIM installers with metadata using Content Package Assist and install with DIM. 

3. Multi-figure products, such as hair, can be a challenge to decipher what files are for which figure using the Smart Content Tab because those products aren't typically categorized by figure. To assist in separating the product by figure, I "Browse to folder location" to see the folder structure by figure, ie: G8M, G8F and place an x in front of the folder name I want to block those files from displaying.  Refresh Smart Content and those figure's files will show "missing", but you'll be able to display the files for the figure you're working on.  Links/shortcuts will not be created from the "missing" files so you can grab visible and missing files and shortcuts will only be created for the visible files.  This blocking and unblocking folders within a product helps identifying what is what when creating your links/shortcuts. When finished with a figure, I change the x to a z and unblock the next figure.  After finishing with that product, I unblock everything allowing all files visible in Smart Content and the DAZ Studio format library. 

I even go the extra mile and re-categorized those products by figure so they show separated on the Smart Content tab.  ie:   Hair/Genesis 8 Female/  then the typical subcategories of a hair product.  Make sure to create new support files for these products and Export User Data regularily.

Using links/shortcuts to populate your DAZ Studio Formats allows you to create alternate libraries easily.  For instance, I have a Bundle folder when I create links/shortcuts for each Bundle and it's products. When each bundle is complete, from the Windows OS, I COPY each product into to their final folder structure ie: People, Hair, Poses, etc.  You can do the same for a theme folder structure.

BTW, if you have Poser format products that you buy from DAZ3D and can see them in the Smart Content tab, you can create working links/shortcuts to populate your DAZ Studio Format library.  Ironically, the attached picture I had created long ago shows creating links/shortcuts with a Poser product, but concept is the same with a DAZ Studio product.

As products are updated via DAZ Connect the links/shortcuts will be up to date too.  The only drawback is if the update involves a folder structure change.  You'll notice this when your DAZ Studio Formats library show broken links.  With a little sleuthing you can figure out the product and update the links accordingly.

Try a few products to get a feel if this is the way to organize your product library.  

xyer0 said:

Daywalker Designs said:

Padone said:

benniewoodell said:

I'm going to have to pick them up and see how well they transfer into Blender through Diffeo and wait to see how they are in Maya after the Maya Bridge is updated for G9.

Again, since G9 is HD based it is harder both to import and use in blender or any other platform. May be the toon figures don't use HD but it would be an exception. Actually G9 imports fine with diffeo for the base jcms and the HD shape via multires, while HD morphs require baking to displacement maps and a whole lot of manual work to make them functional, and displacement doesn't work in eevee.

To export to blender or other apps G3-G8 is much better than G9.

It's not HD based; it has a higher base mesh density than G8 and older did. The only things that have HD morphs that load by default are the Navel and the Mouth.

Padone's definition of "HD based," if I've been paying attention, is something like: "Cannot be used as a convincing naked human without HD." So, yeah, HD based.

Daywalker Designs said:

Padone said:

benniewoodell said:

I'm going to have to pick them up and see how well they transfer into Blender through Diffeo and wait to see how they are in Maya after the Maya Bridge is updated for G9.

Again, since G9 is HD based it is harder both to import and use in blender or any other platform. May be the toon figures don't use HD but it would be an exception. Actually G9 imports fine with diffeo for the base jcms and the HD shape via multires, while HD morphs require baking to displacement maps and a whole lot of manual work to make them functional, and displacement doesn't work in eevee.

To export to blender or other apps G3-G8 is much better than G9.

It's not HD based; it has a higher base mesh density than G8 and older did. The only things that have HD morphs that load by default are the Navel and the Mouth.

Padone's definition of "HD based," if I've been paying attention, is something like: "Cannot be used as a convincing naked human without HD." So, yeah, HD based.

Padone said:

benniewoodell said:

I'm going to have to pick them up and see how well they transfer into Blender through Diffeo and wait to see how they are in Maya after the Maya Bridge is updated for G9.

Again, since G9 is HD based it is harder both to import and use in blender or any other platform. May be the toon figures don't use HD but it would be an exception. Actually G9 imports fine with diffeo for the base jcms and the HD shape via multires, while HD morphs require baking to displacement maps and a whole lot of manual work to make them functional, and displacement doesn't work in eevee.

To export to blender or other apps G3-G8 is much better than G9.

It's not HD based; it has a higher base mesh density than G8 and older did. The only things that have HD morphs that load by default are the Navel and the Mouth.

benniewoodell said:

I'm going to have to pick them up and see how well they transfer into Blender through Diffeo and wait to see how they are in Maya after the Maya Bridge is updated for G9.

Again, since G9 is HD based it is harder both to import and use in blender or any other platform. May be the toon figures don't use HD but it would be an exception. Actually G9 imports fine with diffeo for the base jcms and the HD shape via multires, while HD morphs require baking to displacement maps and a whole lot of manual work to make them functional, and displacement doesn't work in eevee.

To export to blender or other apps G3-G8 is much better than G9.

Zev0 said:

"It would be nice if the script didn't break if the pose being converted isn't in /People."

This tells me nothing. What exactly happens? Regardless it is an issue we addressed.

- Metadata now considered when suggesting whether pose is G3 or G8 (before it was only based on file path)

This right here is you fixing the problem without knowing that that was what I was referring to. Thank you!

Hi everyone! I created this material with Quixel Mixer, it has some problems but it's just an example.

I'm interested in showing the Celtic relief in the center.
When I import it into Daz studio it is hardly noticeable

And when I render it, it shows even less.

On Quixel Mixer, however, it can be seen well and also in Unity on which I wanted to do a further test.

How can I make it equally visible in Daz studio? Maybe I need to change some render settings? Which?
Thank you.

PS:

Even if I put a brighter light the rendering is always dark

Absolutely. Open the Content DB Maintenance panel and select "Export User Data". One or more "UserData_nn.dsx" files will be saved in the Runtime/Support folder (i.e., all the metadata files) of the first Library in your setup (if you have more than one). Copy those files to the same relative location in the library on the new machine. Make sure your paths are properly defined in Studio. On the new machine, open the Content DB Maintenance panel and now "Re-Import Metadata". You will be presented with a list of all known installed products and the User Data. You will probably want to import everything to restore the full database. The "known installed products" comes from the Manifest Archive, which has a record of every installed product. You should copy that folder to the new machine to the same location, too, before re-importing the metadata, if it wasn't on the same disk as the library.

Some users just copy the entire database, but I have never tried that.

Hello, everyone.

I have purchased a new PC. Now, I should install Daz on the new PC, have the content directory point to the old hard drive, but import the custom categories where I have all the model material before genesis 3.
Daz on the old PC is version 4.20, on the new one DAZ 4.21 will be installed with the DAZ Central utility

Daz Studio will be installed on disk C, while the MyLibrary directory is on disk Y (it has always been called that since Daz Studio version 3)

How can I do this?
Should I first export something from the old PC and then re-import it on the new PC?

Thank you, I would like to avoid losing the old categories. It took me years to get them right.

Tagan

Charlie Judge said:

@ KK: I guess so. It is Corsair CMK32GX4M2A2666C16 Vengeance LPX 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 DRAM 2666MHz (PC4-21300) C16 Memory Kit.

...yeah that's standard PC memory. 

I am looking at server components to get a high core count CPU while still on W7. Broadwell Xeons are about the last generation CPUs before the move to Kaby Lake which requires W10/11. (Skylake is the last but tend to be more expensive and exclusive to data centres).  Not going to go into why anymore other than saying its a personal choice.

As to the CPU I can get a 16 core E5-2683v4 for under 400$ from a reputable source. However the downside is EEC memory is more expensive than PC memory so no 65$ deals here. For 64 GB of DDR4 2133 Kingston ECC memory the cost is about 225$.  the interesting part is moving to 128 GB doesn't cost much more as for 4 x 32 DDR4 2133 is 258$  the one rub is the motherboard as LGA 2011-3 ATX tower boards are not easy to find new these days, though I did find one at Newegg with 4 PCIe 3.0x16 slots for 379$ . So for about 1030$ I will have a pretty respectable system  with a 16 core/32 thread CPU and 128 GB of memory even given it's a few generations old, as it still supports W7.

Yeah, I know it limits me given W7 reached EOL over 2 years ago, but that hasn't stopped me.  I have a driver that works for Iray rendering (5 revisions above the current required one for Daz Iray).  I also still mess around with 3DL and Carrara so that is where the core count and memory is important.  Also who knows, maybe Daz5 sill might make use of all CPU cores in the assembly phase (which would be a real blessing). Carrara is still the best for large scale environment creation, all it needs is a bridge to Daz. to import characters (odd they don't have one when they have them for non Daz software).  3DL using Wowies Awe Shader system (which I understand is getting another update) and scripted rendering it  opens more capabilities of the render engine allowing for near photo real quality.  

At this stage in life I'm done keeping up with the Joneses particularly as I am on a fixed income.  I just need a system that's reliable and is capable of supporting the work I do

Something you recently installed has taken over the compatibility base. Try re-installing Genesis 8 Starter Essentials.

This has happened in the past where the metadata was in error, and defines something incorrectly. Some have been corrected, others might still be lurking. Which products have you installed just before you noticed the problem?

markusmatern said:

jdavison67 said:

markusmatern said:

Have not tried them, but other assets in the past. Usually their stuff is really good and free. May need some work to get them into DAZ. And not a real pirate ship.

https://polyhaven.com/a/ship_pinnace

https://polyhaven.com/a/dutch_ship_medium

https://polyhaven.com/a/dutch_ship_large_01

https://polyhaven.com/a/dutch_ship_large_02

 

I have pulled one of these in to DAZ....and it's actually pretty good!

I just have one question for those of you with some Blender smarts....

How do I import this in to DAZ retaining all of the object groups?

It comes in as a single mesh...and in Blender... it is a group of individual objects...

I would like to retain the individual objects if possible.

 

JD   

I'm not a Blender expert myself and am using version 3.3.1

There are at least two possible options

1.     You can select one of the objects in Blender in the Outliner and export to OBJ  with the option Object Properties ► Limit to Selected Only checked.
       Repeat this for all parts and import all in DAZ.
2.     If you want something like a figure (where the groups are converted to bones) you can disable the above mentioned option and export everything with the option Grouping ► Export Material Groups
       To get the individual groups converted to bones you need to use the pane Figure Setup in DAZ and create a new figure by importing the geometry using the context menu Add geometry
       For more info on the process see here in the official documentation

 

 

Thanks! That was very helpful!

JD

Basically you use a similar technique as is used to port over the morphs from G8 to G9. Export a G8F/G8M obj in base resolution, then import them back in as obj. I deleted the eye and internal mouth polygons before I exported. Use the Transfer utility to fit this to G9 (taking advantage of the G8 clone), then Sub divide the fitted item. You can either load the G3/G8 skins on to this "clothing" item on G9, or geo shell attached to it. Hide the G9 base, but not the eyes etc. Finally save this G8 skin as a G9 asset like you would with any autofitted clothing item.

It works, but there are some major snags. First is the nipples don't line up, as was mentioned above, but worse than that is when the mouth is opened the lips don't follow G9's lips properly and the result looks horrible. I guess an edit of the UV map would overcome the first issue, and a weight map to make the lips move properly should overcome the second. Either way it is a compromise, and ideally the skins need to be converted to G9 UV maps. It is however a stop gap solution to give G9 more variety in skins now, since not many have been released up to now. Anyway, judge the result for yourself. Below is V9 wearing Bridget 8's skin. Note that only Bridget's skin is used, the eyes and lashes are still those of V9.

Diomede said:

Thanks for the comments, UB, Stezza, and Bunyip.

Looking good, ed3D.  Did you decide to import the Bryce pyramids?  Or are those Carrara objects?

And  only Sphere is an Carraia object  +   All others is Blenders  -  And  Thanx 

@ ShelLuser / Just because a software program doesn't get frequent updates doesn't imply that it's also dead or suddenly "unusable", that's plain out silly.

Hello Sheeuser,

you yourself write that you have not actively used Hexagon, we on the other hand use Hexagon intensively and import the models created with it across other platforms, which in the meantime have problems depending on the version. They would thus see, if they worked intensively with it, that there are problems here, in building as well as in exporting.

What good are the models you build in Hexagon if I can't use them ?

Apart from the fact that Hexagon crashes during certain actions or the models are displayed incorrectly or not at all after the export, the modeling software of other manufacturers is constantly evolving to keep up with this, which Hexagon has not been doing for years. One has the impression that prefers to limit itself to the core business of selling the models.
Especially newcomers are faced with an insoluble problem when a tool does not work properly, unsettled is added that it is simply ignored by the manufacturer and mine doesn't get any information if and how it will continue.

You can work around some problems by importing models built in Hexagon to Blender and exporting them from Blender. Then they will be displayed correctly. But does this make sense?

Please do not take my answer as an attack on you, we are discussing.

ok.. I guess I need to update my Gimp... I have version 2.8.2 and exr is not showing up to import or just open ... I'll update asap... Thanks one and all.