If you choose to make your own island in Bryce using the terrain editor, you can of course make it any shape or height you want. You might be able to do it all in one shot, or it might make sense to compose it of several terrains like one flat one for the beach sand, another one for any higher rocky portion or central hill, etc.)

If you decide to try to create an island in Bryce, but decide to transfer that to DAZ Studio instead of transferring your figures to Bryce, there are two things you should keep in mind:

1. Bryce shaders are not compatible with DAZ Studio. when you do the transfer, Bryce will make a half-hearted attempt to bake a material onto the terrain if you choose to do that, but it won't look the same. Make sure you have DAZ Studio materials available to re-texture it, or do a quick test to see if you are happy with the default.

2. Don't use the bridge ("Send to DAZ Studio") which degrades the terrain to an unusably low level. Instead, do this:
Select the terrain, then from the menu bar select File > "Export Object". Change the filename to have no spaces, or it won't work. Change the "Save as type" dropdown to "Wavefront OBJ Files (*.obj)(Mesh Export)" and press the Save button. Drag the slider at the bottom of the next window all the way to the right to increase the resolution to the desired level (the default is far too low) and press the green checkmark.
Then in DAZ Studio, import the exported terrain.

I've been through a few minor tornados. Trees down, lost a fence, etc. But my most memorable experience was on a nice sunny day with a couple of dark patches of cloud in Florida on the central east coast near Melbourne. My home was only a couple hundred yards from the ocean. I came out of my door, looked up for some reason and noticed that I was looking up at a shaft of bright white vertical cloud almost above me. I thought "that's strange". I grabbed my binoculars off of the piano and took a closer look and could see that it was swirling really fast. By that time I was looking almost straight up this column of white cloud and realized that it was a waterspout in the ocean just off the beach less than a quarter mile away. Then it disappeared in a few moments. Poof, gone.

I was at the Sheetz flagship store in Altoona, PA.

Sheetz is a gas station with cool computer consoles to order food. Their central location has gelato and amazing food options, it's like Heaven's gas station.

I started taking pictures so I could relay how cool it is to friends, and was told I'd have to refrain.

Dumor3D said:

The free HDR site I linked is for sIBLs. They have an extra file in them that allows you to create lights within them. So, for softwares that support sIBL, and if the sIBL is a good one, there are extra lights in the scene which combined with the HDR, the ENV.hdr, there is a lot more information and the scene should look good or great.

I've spent a good bit of time on using HDRs with Iray and so far the only truly successful renders included using the backdrop in combination with the HDR. Some HDRs do work pretty good on their own. What I've found is the central portion, where you figures would be are in a shaded area and not bright sun. Of course use of a HDR for indirect lighting into a room works very good as long as there is not a super clear view to the outdoors through a window or opening.

The number 11 hdr in the second Yosemite set works really good as a standalone in Environment Map as it is a shaded scene.

My two favorites from there are Malibu Overlook and Ditch River...also any of the DutchSkies ones are pretty nice.

Now here's a quickie I did last night. Just the HDR...but it was a big one with a pretty good ev (over 20, if I remember correctly). I made sure the headlamp was OFF and that's about it...yeah, it could 'cook' a little longer, but I went with default values so it quit at 95% in about 30 mins on my 1 GB 430GT and dual core 3 GB HTPC....

The free HDR site I linked is for sIBLs. They have an extra file in them that allows you to create lights within them. So, for softwares that support sIBL, and if the sIBL is a good one, there are extra lights in the scene which combined with the HDR, the ENV.hdr, there is a lot more information and the scene should look good or great.

I've spent a good bit of time on using HDRs with Iray and so far the only truly successful renders included using the backdrop in combination with the HDR. Some HDRs do work pretty good on their own. What I've found is the central portion, where you figures would be are in a shaded area and not bright sun. Of course use of a HDR for indirect lighting into a room works very good as long as there is not a super clear view to the outdoors through a window or opening.

The number 11 hdr in the second Yosemite set works really good as a standalone in Environment Map as it is a shaded scene.

Linwelly said:

kaotkbliss said:

I've made modifications to the lower figures bend and hand and also added a scene (of which I still need to mess with lights and change stop settings to get rid of the graininess)

Welcome back to the newts contest kaotkbliss.
You have chosen a very complex scene, with a lot of changes compared to the originals. That is not a bad thing, but it makes comparing difficult. I guess the poses are rather close to your orignals, what I am missing is ther correspondanceof the two figures with each other, wich obviously is not central in this case as they come from different scenarios. But I believe it would make your scene more complete if you could achieve that.

... guess I'm not of big help here

ps: yes I know what newts are :coolsmile:

If you look at the 2nd reference image, that character isn't even looking at the opponents and I was trying to keep that same feeling of surprising the enemy (you know, pretending to not be ready when you actually are) Unfortunately the unclear render washed away the angry face of that character and I think I need to make the open-mouthed surprise face on the white one more apparent. Although it is hard to see through those helmets lol.
*edit*
maybe I can add some motion to the character on the bottom without losing the pose to make the interaction more complete...

kaotkbliss said:

I've made modifications to the lower figures bend and hand and also added a scene (of which I still need to mess with lights and change stop settings to get rid of the graininess)

Welcome back to the newts contest kaotkbliss.
You have chosen a very complex scene, with a lot of changes compared to the originals. That is not a bad thing, but it makes comparing difficult. I guess the poses are rather close to your orignals, what I am missing is ther correspondanceof the two figures with each other, wich obviously is not central in this case as they come from different scenarios. But I believe it would make your scene more complete if you could achieve that.

... guess I'm not of big help here

ps: yes I know what newts are :coolsmile:

You have closed the Viewport pane - Window>Panes(Tabs)>Viewport, drag the tab into the dicking area (just under thetoolbar) to place in in the central well.

EDIT: New question asked in this post here.

EDIT 2: New question solution found.

I apologize for the redundancy, since I'm sure this question has been asked and answered more than a few times by now, but basic search isn't specific enough, and advanced search is still broken.

So: I may be getting a new computer and/or moving the location of my content in the next few weeks. I was wondering where the actual database that PostgreSQL is using is located on my computer. Is it just the startling number of DSX files stored in Runtime\Support? Is there an actual database other than that somewhere? If so, where?

I've exported UserData more than once, and those files are in Runtime\Support, but there's nothing remotely approaching the size of the UserData files in there.

I don't mean the PostgreSQL.exe itself; I know where that is. I'm just looking to find the actual database with the content.

I'm using Windows 7 64-bit.

I've looked in Appdata/Roaming/DAZ 3D, but there wasn't anything big enough to look like a database that I saw there.

Any information will be much appreciated. (Also, perhaps it could be added to the FAQ in this forum section so that there's a central location. Or if there actually is a main post with that information, maybe a crosslink?)

Finally got shaders not to crash.

Robot on left is default shaders, without touching it at all. Obviously, in Iray, the ambient channel does nothing.

Middle robot is 'convert to Iray base' and use emitting plastic for the 'eye.' Doesn't look all that different, really.

Third robot was originally going to be converted to brushed aluminum until I uncovered that crashing issue. After some poking around, decided to take the shaders from the middle robot and then play with metallic flakes. Just added metallic flake weight .3, .5 for flake roughness/weight/etc.

Ended up with a rather satisfactory aluminum-looking robot with good highlights. When I poke at this for projects, I'll spend more time to adjust materials (the joints should be a smoother material, tweak the pistons, make the central ball rubber or something)

BE CAREFUL and check your cart before you check out if you are shopping right now- (6:26am Central Time)
The PC items went full price for two minutes then flashed back to the right pricing. I was logged in, no changes made by me. They just went back to correct price about 45 seconds ago. But if you are in the middle of checking out, before you hit submit order, double check your total!

Then you can add emitters etc from there

Ah, so all interior light needs to be done with either emitters or Photometric spot lights? Got it. :)

Pic attached, default Photometric Spotlight not too far from the central objects.

DAZ_Spooky said:

Paradigm67 said:

Oh baby viewport optimization! Sounds like my night is going to be stress-test central.

LOL. I'll take that bet. I'll bet you are playing with something else. LOL

I've got 2 hands.

Paradigm67 said:

Oh baby viewport optimization! Sounds like my night is going to be stress-test central.

LOL. I'll take that bet. I'll bet you are playing with something else. LOL

Oh baby viewport optimization! Sounds like my night is going to be stress-test central.

Kyoto Kid said:

...well just got home from spending a wonderful day in the sun. Hit 74° in the hood today 69° at the airport (but who lives at the airport?).

Never understood why the "official" temperature is recorded at the airport when it is pretty much outside of the central city. Here in Portland it is along the Columbia River, which depending on the winds, can be quite different than here in the middle of town. In the centre of town it hit 81°

Wuz warm here as well but there is a little chill in the air, crowds started to thin out when the sun went down, even the fireworks were a little lame tonight, definitely the end of summer here *le sigh*

...well just got home from spending a wonderful day in the sun. Hit 74° in the hood today 69° at the airport (but who lives at the airport?).

Never understood why the "official" temperature is recorded at the airport when it is pretty much outside of the central city. Here in Portland it is along the Columbia River, which depending on the winds, can be quite different than here in the middle of town. In the centre of town it hit 81°

fyredrygyon said:

Kyoto Kid said:

...congratulations on winning the thread Rezca

Happy however many trips around the central stellar primary you made, Frye. Best wishes for a quick recovery. Missed seeing the illos from your story.

Thanks for all the happy b-day wishes, everyone.

As for my story, I had a technical problem with a scene which then crashed into a brick wall but I must be starting to feel better as my Muse woke up at long last with ideas for my art story. Well, she's been awake but more fixated on my written stories and tapping her foot very impatiently as I limp along with my bad double vision. I'm hoping to get something in the works in the near future. I'm probably going to have to break the silence though.

HBD Fyre *\0/*\0/*\0/*\0/*\0/*\0/*\0/*\0/*\0/*\0/*\0/*\0/*\0/*\0/*\0/*\0/*\0/*\0/*\0/*\0/*\0/*\0/*\0/*\0/*\0/*

Kyoto Kid said:

...congratulations on winning the thread Rezca

Happy however many trips around the central stellar primary you made, Frye. Best wishes for a quick recovery. Missed seeing the illos from your story.

Thanks for all the happy b-day wishes, everyone.

As for my story, I had a technical problem with a scene which then crashed into a brick wall but I must be starting to feel better as my Muse woke up at long last with ideas for my art story. Well, she's been awake but more fixated on my written stories and tapping her foot very impatiently as I limp along with my bad double vision. I'm hoping to get something in the works in the near future. I'm probably going to have to break the silence though.

...congratulations on winning the thread Rezca

Happy however many trips around the central stellar primary you made, Frye. Best wishes for a quick recovery. Missed seeing the illos from your story.