Iray Canvases and Interactive Mode Questions

joeshelton0001_f3a8ae879b

Hey there! I have a set of questions regarding canvases and Iray's interactive mode.  

1. Interactive Mode yields bizarre results on most canvases when I'm using scene lights (it seems to mostly behave okay with skydome lighting). Here is a comparison of the Beauty pass in Photoreal/Interactive modes. This is an example of the Shadow canvas (exposure from tone mapping removed).  Are these outputs correct?  If so, how are they supposed to be utilized in the workflow? 
2. Normal and AO canvases don't seem to recognize surface-based alpha (like opacity maps on hair) in either mode.  This is pretty crippling for their usage since all Daz hair products utilize this.  Can this be enabled?
3. How do you assign lights to light groups to work with the Light Group canvas?  There are no additional options for this canvas as I would expect there to be.
4. From what I've read you can supposedly turn shadows off on scene lights in Interactive Mode, but I haven't been able to get this to work. Is this possible?  Or, is there another way to isolate shadows for doing work on them in post?

Granville

What happens when you color balance with HDR toning?

joeshelton0001_f3a8ae879b

Hm I don't see a color balance option with HDR Toning.  We've realized that canvases probably weren't meant to be used in Interactive Mode, however the results on the Shadow Canvas (which can only be done in Interactive Mode) still baffle us.  

So, I suppose question 1 could be changed to:  Is shadow canvas output correct in Daz?  If so, how's it meant to be utilized? 

The other questions are still valid :D.

kitakoredaz

About 3, I only played with photo real mode, then if your question is about interective mode, I do not know. (I seldome use interective mode and not plan with canvas)

when you set canvase type as light group, you can set Light nodes.  it need to assgin each light as new Node gorup. (at least I use it)

1. set each canvas with light group type.  

2 add Node list, (click + icon then, add new node list group)

3 assgin each light in each node group which you include in your canvase.

4 set node group for each canvas.

that work for me,, I do not clear remember, if we use surface emission light (with iray shader), how separate those surface.

I may think, those emission light need to be set as Node group too, but may not work with light group type.  LPE (simple coding) or may need to use other type to remove

surface emisison light ,I feel.  I may hope to test, with combination. 

kitakoredaz

If I only include the obj(which emit light by emission shader, and added opacity reflaction shader) without toher iray light, as new node group = " light1 remove"

then set it as Canvas (Type = Light group), and Nodes =" light1 remove" , it show which I expected. then at least Light group can separate or include emission surface obj I think.

Tobor

If you're going to stay with Interactive mode forget lighting with emissive surfaces. Interactive does not support emissive lighting, though the object may appear to be lit. Put another way, the object will not light anything around it.

Many of your questions have been addressed in other posts, including #2, which is a known "feature" of these canvas modes. The search  function within the forum is pretty sucky, but if you do a Google or Bing search, these threads should show up. Look for keywords such as 'light path' and LPE.