OMG 16K, I live in Australia and that's actually more than my yearly income! (early retirement living on Superannuation)

main thing you need is a good Nvidia graphics card, more VRAM the better otherwise there is always Filament Render

(I have a Ryzen3 BTW which is very entry level, and I do animations, I do have an RTX2080Ti though a gift and 32GB of RAM)

ssaqibalitipu_627e275e4d said:

Richard Haseltine said:

Inj/Rem require pre-defined channels for the morph, just as the current native morph system does. The morphs were not enbedded in the saved files (which would not be desirable as it would then be impossible to share scenes under the license terms).

A lot of work has in fact been done to improve loading times, especially when there are issues (for me Duplicate Formula clashes now have no perceptible impact on load time) - try the beta to see this.

One option is to install morphs to one or more additional content directories, then hook up only the ones you need for a given session (you can save content directory sets to make that quick).

Thanks for giving a pretty understandable licensing reason. Yes I am running multiple runtimes... Plus i extract character morphs from the directory and place those in similar structure and place only what i need for the moment, and it works pretty good and fast (though still a dirty hack). I do appreciate the performance improvements Daz has been doing and yes i have been playing with beta for some time. Although I still wisth Daz would have done some more work on either Filament or some new open source real time renderer. I know it's not a mundane task, esp when daz is giving away this wonderful piece of software for free.  But that's their business model and that's what keeps the clock ticking ;). 

As I understand it the issue with Filament on mac was one of Qt version, DS 5 will be built on a newer version of the Qt framework and will have parity with respect to Filament.

Richard Haseltine said:

Inj/Rem require pre-defined channels for the morph, just as the current native morph system does. The morphs were not enbedded in the saved files (which would not be desirable as it would then be impossible to share scenes under the license terms).

A lot of work has in fact been done to improve loading times, especially when there are issues (for me Duplicate Formula clashes now have no perceptible impact on load time) - try the beta to see this.

One option is to install morphs to one or more additional content directories, then hook up only the ones you need for a given session (you can save content directory sets to make that quick).

Thanks for giving a pretty understandable licensing reason. Yes I am running multiple runtimes... Plus i extract character morphs from the directory and place those in similar structure and place only what i need for the moment, and it works pretty good and fast (though still a dirty hack). I do appreciate the performance improvements Daz has been doing and yes i have been playing with beta for some time. Although I still wisth Daz would have done some more work on either Filament or some new open source real time renderer. I know it's not a mundane task, esp when daz is giving away this wonderful piece of software for free.  But that's their business model and that's what keeps the clock ticking ;). 

If you want to see in advance the area that will render, then you need to enable Aspect Ratio in the display (from the hamburger menu at the top of the viewport). Not sure it will show in Filament  Mode, but definitely will in Texture Shaded.

Griffin Avid said:

It's all straight Filament, the freeze frame into post work is a frame from the video- exported and affected in Photoshop to look more like my comics.

And the song is also mine. I've made a bunch of storytelling songs over the years and a few complete albums.

This animation, where the screen is a render that tilts in 3D was done with the AI-powered LeiaPix.

"Nucleon: Eve of Destruction"  

I feel like the Daz animation "engine" or workflow is still based on...like...flash....as opposed to pathfinding.

Like, place a point and instruct the character to walk there (and choose the style of HOW) and I'm surprised no one (Vendors) are making animations.

Like full sets of animations...With poses, they do several walk poses, so I'd expect a variety of runs in an animation package.

And there's very little content in all the offerings. I was always thinking "How do they expect this to catch on, with so few options?"

I'm kinda hanging back to see what happens next.

I didn't realize that was your music, too, so colour me double-impressed!

The AI-aided effects in "Nucleon: Eve of Destruction" were pretty cool, seemed to fit with the song while the solid shots of your hero contrasted nicely to snap it back to "real".

There are a number of animotion blocks in the store beyond walk cycles and while I've tested a few here and there but I find animtion awkward and possibly a little buggy (it could also be me but I seem to see things gummed up if I save and close the file, then open it later, etc.). There are also some sets at "the other place".

Wolf359 posted this very helpful, very easy tutorial to pulling in animations from Adobe's Mixamo site (still free as far as I know) with a huge amount of animation clips to choose from:

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/3940711/#Comment_3940711

I'll probably finish off the second half of my animation test in the next day or so, once I've got another project finished, then probably hold off for a bit to see if or when DAZ 5 hits the streets. I don't want to invest too much time in a more serious animation until I see what it offers.

Thanks again for sharing your work, I'll have dig into it a little more, it all looks like stuff I like.

-- Walt Sterdan

It's all straight Filament, the freeze frame into post work is a frame from the video- exported and affected in Photoshop to look more like my comics.

And the song is also mine. I've made a bunch of storytelling songs over the years and a few complete albums.

This animation, where the screen is a render that tilts in 3D was done with the AI-powered LeiaPix.

"Nucleon: Eve of Destruction"  

I feel like the Daz animation "engine" or workflow is still based on...like...flash....as opposed to pathfinding.

Like, place a point and instruct the character to walk there (and choose the style of HOW) and I'm surprised no one (Vendors) are making animations.

Like full sets of animations...With poses, they do several walk poses, so I'd expect a variety of runs in an animation package.

And there's very little content in all the offerings. I was always thinking "How do they expect this to catch on, with so few options?"

I'm kinda hanging back to see what happens next.

Griffin Avid said:

Your script was really well done and the syncing of the characters. You really nailed the Trekker vibe.

Um, Filament....Tiffanie who specializes in PD Howler suggested I use Filament. She's a whiz.

The render speed is insane. For some of the clips, it was almost in real time. I wish I had discovered it earlier.

I find the look of the textures and lack of color and lighting control a hassle. Everything is a work-around. 

As an idea, it's incredible, in practice, it needs a few more products.  I have everything related to Filament- and even some of those products have "guide icons" that still render.

BUT! The best part is - being able to work in Filament Preview mode, to see exactly what you're going to get when you render. That's a blessing.

Thanks for the comments. I'm mostly happy with OpenGL for now, I'm expecting better things from Filament.

I liked the output quality of Filament from what I've tested so far; I've picked up most of the filament store items so far, but I'm waiting for DAZ 5 to really give it a work out. As Kyoto Kid mentioned elsewhere, the renders often have a more "illustrated" look to them, which is perfect for the Toon stuff I'm working with.

Did you do any post work on the rendered frames, or is the movie mostly straight Filament? 

I also forgot to mention how well you lined eveything up with the lyrics, you've rendered everything in the "story". Impressive when working with someone else's song.

-- Walt Sterdan

Edited for typos.

Your script was really well done and the syncing of the characters. You really nailed the Trekker vibe.

Um, Filament....Tiffanie who specializes in PD Howler suggested I use Filament. She's a whiz.

The render speed is insane. For some of the clips, it was almost in real time. I wish I had discovered it earlier.

I find the look of the textures and lack of color and lighting control a hassle. Everything is a work-around. 

As an idea, it's incredible, in practice, it needs a few more products.  I have everything related to Filament- and even some of those products have "guide icons" that still render.

BUT! The best part is - being able to work in Filament Preview mode, to see exactly what you're going to get when you render. That's a blessing.

I forgot to ask, feel free to share any tips or tricks. How was it working with Filament (still waiting for the Mac version, hopefully this year)?

-- Walt Sterdan

Griffin Avid said:

Animation I did for the song "Big Dynamic Robot".

Was hoping that Daz would have a lot more resources for Filament. 

Pure fun, thanks for sharing!

-- Walt Sterdan 

Animation I did for the song "Big Dynamic Robot".

Was hoping that Daz would have a lot more resources for Filament. 

WendyLuvsCatz said:

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/22245/carrara-monthly-challenge-fabulous-prizes-voting-now-open/p7

trying to find the specific post where they gave me issues

not this one

it might have been animated 

Roygee seems to touch on the issue

it's like DAZ Filament cutout opacity how it behaves

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/973233/#Comment_973233

yes Carrara plays up when transmapped thingies are superimposed or various light gels go through transmaps etc , no reason not to go splatting though. We all have to work around our inadequacies - that's why I use spill chicker everytime I post!

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/22245/carrara-monthly-challenge-fabulous-prizes-voting-now-open/p7

trying to find the specific post where they gave me issues

not this one

it might have been animated 

Roygee seems to touch on the issue

it's like DAZ Filament cutout opacity how it behaves

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/973233/#Comment_973233

NorthOf45 said:

The viewport uses OpenGL for all modes except NVIDIA Iray and Filament, so Texture Shaded is, in fact, an OpenGL mode, so doing a render with OpenGL should give you the same, with better lighting. There is no longer an OpenGL option for the renders, you need to select Viewport from the dropdown list while the appropriate Draw Mode is selected. The Shanda Hair doesn't come out as well as it did before, those transparency maps make it transparent right through the background. (That might be the result of one of the changes to 3DL and Studio.)

Yes, it is a screen capture of the Viewport while in Texture Shaded mode. I didn't do a Viewport render (as described above) because of the hair; it just doesn't show very well, you can see the checkerboard background. You can see what I mean here (I have Morrigan Outfit and Rosemill Moor). I vaguely remember a fix for that transparency thing, or maybe it was for something else...

Yes, that all makes sense. I did test OpenGL recently (it is available if, as you said, some settings are correctly seleceted, like texture shaded in the viewport etc)but yeah, the hair comes off as transparent. That's one change that is a bit of a bummer since OpenGL is not an option anymore. I still remember using mostly 3Delight, but maybe it was closer to Open GL before the changes....?

Or maybe my memory is worse than I thought and I used mostly OpenGL for those renders...... It is fast.

Regardless, this is not feasible anymore. Well, I guess after all this testing I should be able to produce better renders than before. Still, since they will be different I will have to, over time, redo the whole project. Oh well, whatever. I might jsut do something different then.

This one of my test with OpenGL after reinstalling.

Anyways, that helps. I guess I was mostly using OpenGL but that won't be possible now. Bummer, but it's the way it is..

Thank you very much for your input. Nothing I can fix but at least now I mostly understand the issue.

EDIT: Except.... this is super weird. When I saw the render in Daz the hair was transparent, like in the image you posted, but now that I uploaded the render I thought was defective, the Shanda hair looks okay.....

What the hell.....?

The viewport uses OpenGL for all modes except NVIDIA Iray and Filament, so Texture Shaded is, in fact, an OpenGL mode, so doing a render with OpenGL should give you the same, with better lighting. There is no longer an OpenGL option for the renders, you need to select Viewport from the dropdown list while the appropriate Draw Mode is selected. The Shanda Hair doesn't come out as well as it did before, those transparency maps make it transparent right through the background. (That might be the result of one of the changes to 3DL and Studio.)

Yes, it is a screen capture of the Viewport while in Texture Shaded mode. I didn't do a Viewport render (as described above) because of the hair; it just doesn't show very well, you can see the checkerboard background. You can see what I mean here (I have Morrigan Outfit and Rosemill Moor). I vaguely remember a fix for that transparency thing, or maybe it was for something else...

soapwell said:

Looking for help I saw a lot of people saying that in  Blender, their objects are being rendered as pink, but this seems to be no more than a coincidence, as I don't do anything in Blender.  I chose not to mention it because it seemed like it could distract from what Im trying to do.  

As far as I can tell, that's to make it really obvious when an object doesn't have a valid shader. The only suggestion I can give you as someone who doesn't use Filament is to check your lighting, maybe try scene lights instead of an HDRI or vice versa depending on your circumstances. 

Thank you both, but it's clear from Uncanny's post that the pink I'm seeing is not the purple you both are talking about.  When the scene loads, or when I switch from another view into PBR view, I see the dark bluish-purple shades at first, but they quickly blink into their new shades, which are smoothly rendered except that they  are stained pink .... blues and greens are nearly black, and whites and reds are nearly indistinguishable. 

Looking for help I saw a lot of people saying that in  Blender, their objects are being rendered as pink, but this seems to be no more than a coincidence, as I don't do anything in Blender.  I chose not to mention it because it seemed like it could distract from what Im trying to do.  

At first I was prepared to just put this aside and stick with the lower-quality OpenGL and 3Delight renders, but if I could get PBR/Filament to work properly it would save me a lot of time.  

My computer is from 2015, so it is possible that it has old drivers, or perhaps a graphics card for which new drivers don't exist. Ive never heard of OpenCL and Im not sure I can download new drivers for it, and it's even possible that my computer doesnt support OpenCL at all.  Having an old computer is one main reason why Im willing to sacrifice quality for speed of rendering.  That said, the OpenGL, 3Delight, and LRay render engines are all working perfectly for me .... they're just very slow, with LRay being by far the slowest.  If I could only get rid of the pink shading, the PBR/Filament would be as good of a rendering engine as I'd need.  I recognize that it has a few faults too, but I can deal with those.

Here is a picture to show what I'm seeing ... the cyclist's outfit is supposed to be green, not black.  The trees in the background are a JPG projected onto a card and are supposed to be shades of green as well. Thus it seems that different greens are handling the shading in different ways, but in no case is there even a hint of actual green in the picture.

Best regards, 

Soap

lucky you. 

I've been requesting this feature: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/599126/matcaps-for-filament-renderer

while Filament is loading the surfaces are a purple shade, maybe your OpenCL needs an update 

Even when creating a new scene with just a primitive box in it with no shader, if i switch to the PBR rendering it turns it pink, and i can see four different shades of pink depending on whether i want dome, dome+scene, scene, or sun-sky mode, but none of them allows me to view the surface as it is.  all blues, greens, etc look nearly black and i think they are being multiplied with the pink light. 

this problem seems basic, but nobody else seems to be experiencing the same issue. is it possible to use PBR/Filament to view the "true" colors of objects in their full brightness? if not, can the pink tint be cancelled out with another tint so that they  appear true to color?  I notice that spotlights and distant lights dont seem to change this either ... i even tried adding a blue distant light, but it, too just made thinks darker instead of bluer.

ive been using DAZ for nearly three years now, but Im an off-and-on hobbyist so I am still posting in the new-user forum as Ive noticed my posts so far have tended to be answered quickly. I appreciate the help people here have given me and hope that this problem is as easily solved as the others. I have looked for answers in the forums and on other sites, but as Ive mentioned, no one else seems to have this specific problem.  

Thank you,

Soap