It's time for a new RRRR Render Contest!

The theme for this round is Turn the tide - The  challenge of making the best of a bad situation. Something went south, but how was it turned into something better, like the classic when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
RRRR stands for Random Runtime Roulette Renders, and it's a contest that has been running for over twelve years now, on and off. We invite anyone to enter, specially all those new users who have shown up the past years. This is not the usual make a very nice render contest but more like tell a really great story, often fun, with your render!

How does it work?
Make your pull of 4 items, and if your any Lucky Bastards, you pull one extra item per LB.

Who can play?

Anyone can play!

How do you prepare yourself for play?

The rules are very simple, but first you need to have all your items in some kind of order in a text file, dumped from the itemized history into a text file or a spread sheet. Remove things like software, gift certs, and special plugins from the list and items that wil not work with the software you work with.
 For example if you have items for Poser, Bryce or Carrara, and want to use DAZ Studio, remove those other items from your list. If you have loads of older figures, M3, M4, a ton of non Iray stuff and you only want to use Studio with Iray, remove all the junk from you list. 

Then you use a randomizer to randomly pick items from your list (your Runtime/My Library) for your start pull . You can use items from any store. Now build a scene with those 4 items plus any other items you want to add to make a fun scene. For newcomers I heartly recommend looking at the previous contests below to get ideas how you can do this. 

Working randomizer:: https://www.random.org/integers

There are some situations where you allowed to redraw, these are:


- You pulled something that doesn’t work, broken thing, only works in a version / software not used etc etc, or you forgot to remove that item from you list even though you knew it wont work, or figure that out later.
- You pulled a software or add-on to a software or anything you should have filtered out from the list.
- You pulled only huge environment props and will not be able to render a scene without crashing.
- You pulled an item you already have been using in two RRRR renders in this content and that was picked randomly. Three is a curse - rule!

Lucky Bastard Rule!
I say this again: If you have Lucky Bastards, you pull one extra item for each LB you have, simple as that. 
Explaination of Lucky Bastards. 
Lucky Bastards, or LBs, are a form of handicap system which makes the contest a little more difficult for those who have won.

Current Lucky Bastards Standings

Player	LBs
Totte	3
acb	2
Fae3D	1
katywhite	1
emanuela1	1
luci45	1
aprilshowers2065	1

How to play?
You pull, you compose and you Render. You post your images and pulls in this thread (Don't miss that, entries without pulls and posts in this thread will be disqualified!!).
Then the entry should also be posted in the Entries only thread.

Bundles
If you pull a bundle, use two or three complete items from it, or more if you like, but you do not need to use all, but only picking a hairpin from Victoria 8 Pro Bundle is “too little”. Clarification: A bundle still counts as only one pulled item.

Poses, Expressions and textures/colors
If you pull a pose pack, an expression pack or a texture/color pack, you only need to use one of them, not all. For example if you pull 500 expressions for Genesis 8 Female, use one, if you pull 128 colors for Frappe Hair, use one.
Accidenty breaking the TOS
If your entry is removed by the forum mods because it accidentally, not deliberate, broke the TOS, you do not have to redo that entry but can move on and make a new pull. 

The rules of madness! 
Now you have successfully and randomly picked your items, make a scene, you can add other items as well but the one you picked should be prominent or cleverly used. Render it, post it and make us all laugh! Remember though that the renders must follow the TOS of the forum. As we have a theme on the contest, the render should in some way touch that theme. 

The contest categories! 
There are two categories Best and Funniest. Every image will compete in both categories.

Contest duration!
It starts now at Friday August 7 - 2026, and will go on until Sunday September 27 2026 at 23:59:59 local DAZ time. 

This months sponsors so far:
Totte (Code 66) is sponsoring with two items from his store
Dartanbeck is sponsoring with items from his store

We want more sponsors!

Do you want to sponsor the RRRR?
Please chip in a gift card sponsorship, sponsors can play, they should play, they are even extra encouraged to play, as sponsors always plays for keeps.

Maximum number of entries? 
For this round it will be a maximum of 12 entries per player.

So, good luck and start your render engines!

Cybersox said:

DasTri said:

Cybersox said:

paulawp (marahzen) said: Take Star Wars: ... "

The first Star Wars was also a heavy plot rip from Akira Kurasawa's The Hidden Fortress with other lifts from Herbert's Dune, Flash Gordon, and the climax of Dambusters stuck on the end, while C3PO is a blantantly obvious male version of the iconic Maria robotrix from Metropolis.   

I would say that "Valerian and Laureline" holds so much iconic similarity to many of Star wars "famours" originals that I always wondered that they were not sued on it.
Just do a search on "valerian star wars similarities" and put on the images...
Perhaps European comic artists are more relaxed about this then American movie lawyers...

The problem with that argument is that the Valerian comic started running in France in 1967, a full ten years before Star Wars, and the storyline that eventually became the movie, Ambssador of Shadows, started running in 1975, so any possible theft would have been going the other way. ;)  And, of course, both were building on a long tradition of space opera stories, with Lucas only coming up with the his idea for Star Wars after h'de tried to buy the rights to remake Flash Gordon in the early 70s only to find that DIno Delaurentis had already bought the remake rights in 1964 (around the same time that Dino had also bought the rights to Barberella and Danger: Diabolik.) Now, if you want to talk serious similarities, Luc Besson really wanted to make a film of Valerian back in the early 90s as he'd loved it as a kid, but he ended up making The FIfth Element first as a less-expensive to produce kind of homage eventually tackling the original when digital technology made it more possible. Ironic that 5th Element turned out to be a much better film, but there you go...    

DasTri  was aware of and saying that by my reading.

Hi folks, 

I've been setting up a number of new film sets with various Riversoft Now-Billboards but now its time to sort the camera movement and angles etc, I'm getting errors when clicking on any of the 3 Now Billboard scripts.     Having wasted almost a day trawling various forums, websites, YouTube etc etc, I finally landed on this forum.    Would anyone happen to know where I can find working scripts for Daz Studio6 version 6.25  (running on MacOS Sequoia, and Windows 11 Pro) ?     

Hoping we can get this resolved before Monday 10th August as we have the studio Execs coming in to catch up on the set builds :-).   Many thanks for any help.

Jon

 

 

Here is a dump of the errors in the latest logfile:

Loading script: /Volumes/PROD004_CGI/DAZ 3D/Applications/Data/DAZ 3D/My DAZ 3D Library/scripts/riversoft art/now-crowd billboards/now-crowd move away.dse
2026-08-06 17:33:38.764 [WARNING] :: Script Error (/Volumes/PROD004_CGI/DAZ 3D/Applications/Data/DAZ 3D/My DAZ 3D Library/scripts/riversoft art/now-crowd billboards/now-crowd move away.dse): Line 39
2026-08-06 17:33:38.764 [WARNING] :: ReferenceError: Could not load module at: data/RiverSoft Art/2025Common/RSConstants.dsa
2026-08-06 17:33:38.764 [WARNING] :: Error in script execution: /Volumes/PROD004_CGI/DAZ 3D/Applications/Data/DAZ 3D/My DAZ 3D Library/scripts/riversoft art/now-crowd billboards/now-crowd move away.dse
2026-08-06 17:34:30.413 [WARNING] :: /src/sdksource/fileoutput/dzassetoutfile.cpp(11618): No geometries match the vertex count of morph "PHMEyelashesCurl"
2026-08-06 17:34:30.419 [WARNING] :: /src/sdksource/fileoutput/dzassetoutfile.cpp(11618): No geometries match the vertex count of morph "PHMEyelashesCurl"
2026-08-06 17:34:30.426 [WARNING] :: /src/sdksource/fileoutput/dzassetoutfile.cpp(11618): No geometries match the vertex count of morph "PHMEyelashesCurl"
2026-08-06 17:34:30.433 [WARNING] :: /src/sdksource/fileoutput/dzassetoutfile.cpp(11618): No geometries match the vertex count of morph "PHMEyelashesCurl"
2026-08-06 17:34:30.441 [WARNING] :: /src/sdksource/fileoutput/dzassetoutfile.cpp(11618): No geometries match the vertex count of morph "PHMEyelashesCurl"

You can use the canvas function to render only certain nodes. Search how to use canvas in daz3d to find more info and videos in Google.

Hi All,

Has anyone had any luck creating an Iray Shader with an RGB mask?   

Specifucally I'm trying to create a shader that takes an RGB texture map as an input and have that drive 3 sperate materials within the shader.  In the past I've been able to do this with seperate Black and White masks as inputs for each of the materials (so 3 seperate image files) but I'm hoping to consolidate this down to a single map using each channel as its own mask.   

I'm coming unstuck becuase I can't seem to find a Get Component or Split RGB brick in the brickyard.    

As an aside, this may be user error but is there anyway to search for bricks by name rather than scrolling through 

Thanks 

 

LZY

 

 

DasTri said:

Cybersox said:

paulawp (marahzen) said: Take Star Wars: ... "

The first Star Wars was also a heavy plot rip from Akira Kurasawa's The Hidden Fortress with other lifts from Herbert's Dune, Flash Gordon, and the climax of Dambusters stuck on the end, while C3PO is a blantantly obvious male version of the iconic Maria robotrix from Metropolis.   

I would say that "Valerian and Laureline" holds so much iconic similarity to many of Star wars "famours" originals that I always wondered that they were not sued on it.
Just do a search on "valerian star wars similarities" and put on the images...
Perhaps European comic artists are more relaxed about this then American movie lawyers...

The problem with that argument is that the Valerian comic started running in France in 1967, a full ten years before Star Wars, and the storyline that eventually became the movie, Ambssador of Shadows, started running in 1975, so any possible theft would have been going the other way. ;)  And, of course, both were building on a long tradition of space opera stories, with Lucas only coming up with the his idea for Star Wars after h'de tried to buy the rights to remake Flash Gordon in the early 70s only to find that DIno Delaurentis had already bought the remake rights in 1964 (around the same time that Dino had also bought the rights to Barberella and Danger: Diabolik.) Now, if you want to talk serious similarities, Luc Besson really wanted to make a film of Valerian back in the early 90s as he'd loved it as a kid, but he ended up making The FIfth Element first as a less-expensive to produce kind of homage eventually tackling the original when digital technology made it more possible. Ironic that 5th Element turned out to be a much better film, but there you go...    

Hi Sky 

I'm only 2 years behind you and things creep up rather quickly. 

Yep, Hivewire closed their forums and website end of July, I was posting up till the end as were a couple of old faithfulls. There is a thread over in Rendo if you can find it, it has to be one of if not the worst forum to navigate. 

It sure was fun back in the day... the missus said to me the other night whilst watching MasterChef Australia on TV that we are saying 'back in the day' a lot more these days lol 

Keep safe and pop in here anytime you want for a chat or whatever 

Hi, I posted this in the tech support forum by mistake, I hope you can help me.

I use 'Ultimate Zero' by Riversoft a lot and it has stopped working in DAZ 4.24. I recently installed an update for the product and it now works in DAZ 6 but no longer works in DAZ 4.24. Log file details are shown below.

I share the same database for both DAZ 4.24 and DAZ 6 because I have a 5090 video card and frankly the viewport performance in DAZ 6 is simply not good enough. I do my work in 4.24 and then render in 6 and I'm sure I'm not the only one doing this. Since 'Ultimate Zero' no longer works in 4.24 I am really frustrated. How can I revert to the old version of 'Ultimate Zero' from before the update?

Thanks for your help, John

Here is what happens in 4.24.

In some cases when I run a script a message pops up saying "... file could not be loaded." Here is an example of what the log says in this case:

2026-08-05 10:06:15.024 [INFO] :: Loading script: D:/DAZ Content/My DAZ 3D Library/Scripts/RiverSoft Art/Ultimate Zero/Ultimate Zero Selected.dse
2026-08-05 10:06:15.024 [WARNING] :: Failed to load script: D:/DAZ Content/My DAZ 3D Library/Scripts/RiverSoft Art/Ultimate Zero/Ultimate Zero Selected.dse

For some of the scripts no message appears but nothing happens. Here is an example of what the log says in this case:
2026-08-05 10:02:18.494 [INFO] :: Loading script: D:/DAZ Content/My DAZ 3D Library/Scripts/RiverSoft Art/Ultimate Zero/Ultimate Zero Expression.dse
2026-08-05 10:02:18.496 [DEBUG] :: FOUND: D:/DAZ Content/My DAZ 3D Library/data/RiverSoft Art/2025Common/RSConstants.dsa
2026-08-05 10:02:18.496 [DEBUG] :: D:/DAZ Content/My DAZ 3D Library/data/RiverSoft Art/2025Common/RSConstants.dsa
2026-08-05 10:02:18.496 [DEBUG] :: Execute Script: D:/DAZ Content/My DAZ 3D Library/Scripts/RiverSoft Art/Ultimate Zero/Ultimate Zero Selected.dse <Settings> <Setting Type="String" Key="Title">Ultimate Zero Expression</Setting> <Setting Type="Bool" Key="Recursive">yes</Setting> <Setting Type="String" Key="Body Part">Expression</Setting></Settings>
2026-08-05 10:03:21.633 [INFO] :: Script executed successfully: D:/DAZ Content/My DAZ 3D Library/Scripts/RiverSoft Art/Ultimate Zero/Ultimate Zero Expression.dse

Just send him a message and ask. Lol

I need to knooooowwwwwww......argghhhh

----------

And don't hate me. I got the Wendys confused. It's Wendy Carlos the synthesizer pioneer.

Even a google search shows her with her cat. lol

-

Correction: EVERY picture shows her with her cat.

Mystery solved.

Have to confess that searching using the DAZ search (yes, I know, silly me) didn't turn up those two. I'm not doing animations - in theory I know how, but I find it takes an inordinate time to get right. So in effect the pose is a momentary snapshot. Regards, Richard.

Hi, Another question about 'Ultimate Zero'. When I search for it on the DAZ web site it is very hard to find. Searching on "ultimate zero" from the "Shop" page finds 59 products but does not include the product who's name is an exact match. If I do a search for 'Riversoft' on the DAZ web site it displays "193 of 258 items". I un-checked "hide items I own" and all other filters but it still hides 65 items and I guess 'Ultimate Zero' is one of them because it does not show up. The only way I can find the product is to go to my account and search my product library for it. What is going on with this product?

nemesis10 said:

barbult said:

nemesis10 said:

barbult said:

I bought the Iray Interior Speed Lights. The only documentation in the product is a single TIP file. It refers to a "culling slider added to the camera". I can't find any such slider. Does anyone know where it is?

are you able to load the culling camera?  It is basically a camera with section panes attached.

Yes, the camera loads with section planes attached. It seems to work well. But I can't find any "culling slider" that the tip says can be used to adjust how much of the scene is culled. I made a screenshot of the tip message, but of course it won't upload.

I have purchased it but haven't installed it yet... but the readme describes 

/data/KindredArts/KAHDRMSHDAT/ISpeed Lights Culling Camera/Camera.dsf

/data/KindredArts/KAHDRMSHDAT/ISpeed Lights Culling Camera/Morphs/KindredArts/Base/Culling.dsf

so it is a morph... try selecting the camera, expand it in the library so you can see the section planes, and with them all selected and the camera, search for "culling" in the shaping pane and library pane. I suspect it is a morph for the shaping panes.

Thanks for your help! Those dsf files are in my content library's data folder, just as you described, but I cannot for the life of me find the morph in the Daz Studio interface.I've turned on Show Hidden Properties. I've looked in the Parameters pane and the Shaping pane. When you get time to try the new product, if you find the slider (morph), please tell me how to find it. I've submitted a help request, too.
One thing I see is that the camera's DUF name in the Content Library is "ISpeed Lights Culling Camera" but in my Scene pane, the loaded camera is "ISpeed Lights Light Camera". I don't know if those label differences matter or not. The camera's Scene ID is "/data/KindredArts/KAHDRMSHDAT/ISpeed%20Lights%20Culling%20Camera/Camera.dsf#Camera".

---

@barbult,

Hello.  Your post above is from a thread that was closed quite a while ago so I could not quote copy it to ask whether your issues with Kindred Arts’ Iray Interior Speed Lights (https://www.daz3d.com/iray-interior-speed-lights) were ever resolved.  Iray Interior Speed Lights is in a group of products that can be discounted today with code LOVE-ARTISTS.

Thanks.

Hi Stezza...I just discovered that Hivewire3D forum was shut down end of July, so thought I'd stop by to say hi...and keep in touch. Sad to see so much work and valuable information lost, but we sure had fun back in the day. I'm in and out of the hospital...being 70 can be a real drag sometimes. Hope all is well with you! -sky :)

joanna said:

Alley Rat said:

The freebies display a price, but go to free in the cart/checkout.

emanuela1 said:

There are problems not only with QG and OS, but also with the weekly and monthly freebies for membership: they have now been announced on the forum and not on the dedicated page and are not free, and the moderator has asked for patience. Perhaps the DAZ site is experiencing a more general problem, which we users are unaware of.

Both freebies were free on the page and in the cart for me an hour ago (when I first checked Daz) and still are, so it might be a caching issue.

Yhank you! Now I see  them for free. :)

On Museums:  During my motorcycle trip around the country back in '95, I stopped in Utah at the Dinosaur National Monument museum.  Inside the main exhibit hall, in air-conditioned comfort, away from the 100F degree July sun, was a long inclined wall of dinosaur fossils neatly, partially extracted for easy viewing in-situ.  There were other complete, assembled skeletons there also, but the wall of bones stick in my memory.  Also, that was the place that I again dropped my motorcycle.  I had parked in the paved parking lot, and had put down my kickstand instead of lifting the heavy bike & luggage up onto the more sturdy double risers.  I came out of the museum to find my motorcycle on its side, with it's top heavy assemblage of luggage and camping gear laying askew.  The large BMW was a bear to get upright when unloaded anyway, so I had to remove the extras to get it back upright, then repack.  The sun had made the asphalt soft, and the kickstand had poked completely through, pinning the bike down until I wiggled it free.  It was there that I decided that I needed a heavy, flat metal plate to slip under the end of the kickstand to avoid a repeat of that problem.  Soon afterwards I found a suitable piece of iron about 2x3 inches that had a hole in one end, tied a spare shoelace to it, and when stopping on uncertain ground, could hold the string and swing the metal plate down under the kickstand while still sitting, and retrieve the plate easily after getting back on.  I kept that metal plate with me for all the years afterwards that I had the bike.

Cybersox said:

paulawp (marahzen) said: Take Star Wars: ... "

The first Star Wars was also a heavy plot rip from Akira Kurasawa's The Hidden Fortress with other lifts from Herbert's Dune, Flash Gordon, and the climax of Dambusters stuck on the end, while C3PO is a blantantly obvious male version of the iconic Maria robotrix from Metropolis.   

I would say that "Valerian and Laureline" holds so much iconic similarity to many of Star wars "famours" originals that I always wondered that they were not sued on it.
Just do a search on "valerian star wars similarities" and put on the images...
Perhaps European comic artists are more relaxed about this then American movie lawyers...

ANGELREAPER1972 said:

joanna said:

I have no need for it at all, but the new Daz+ release, SE Nekobini Cafe, is super cute.

so guessing the editorial license is no longer a thing at least for new stuff now cause I've seen a lot of that as real physical products sold in various stores, doing a google lens search found out the name of the cat Maneki-Neko and doing a search of that found out about the different versions/meanings pretty cool and all those little figurines the cat, mice, puppies, mugs, pillows Space Elsa has ctreated something special and at that price too so glad didn't cop the EL Japan has some great themed cafes/places

The Maneki-neko is a famous Japanese good-luck cat figurine that features a raised paw, a gold coin, and various symbolic colors. 

When something is centuries old, you can pretty safely assume that copyright will not be an issue

jmucchiello said:

jjoyner said:

vwrangler said:

You might try posting in one of the Now-Crowd threads, which I think Riversoft Art monitors.

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/270591/coming-soon-now-crowd-billboards-school-life-and-asian-school-life-2-products

My guess -- and it's only a guess -- is that the updates are intended to make the scripts work in Studio 6 -- were you using Studio 4.24 or Studio 6? Maybe they work in one and not the other version?

The forum moderators get upset when you post the same message in two different forums.   :(

Not in this specific instance. Ask the mods to close this thread and go post in RiverArt's Now Crowd thread. You want to make this as easy as possible for the PA.

OK.  Will do. 

jjoyner said:

vwrangler said:

You might try posting in one of the Now-Crowd threads, which I think Riversoft Art monitors.

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/270591/coming-soon-now-crowd-billboards-school-life-and-asian-school-life-2-products

My guess -- and it's only a guess -- is that the updates are intended to make the scripts work in Studio 6 -- were you using Studio 4.24 or Studio 6? Maybe they work in one and not the other version?

The forum moderators get upset when you post the same message in two different forums.   :(

Not in this specific instance. Ask the mods to close this thread and go post in RiverArt's Now Crowd thread. You want to make this as easy as possible for the PA.

Riversoft Art,

I posted an issue with three recently updated billboard products in a post at  https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/9609336/#Comment_9609336.  Another user suggested posting in this forum but the forum moderators get upset when you post the same message in two different forums.  :(