Reality 4.3 Win10x64
ATLPR
Posts: 147
I purchased Reality 4.3, installed the DS version (on a Win10x64 system), but it never asked me to register it, and it will not launch.
I can see it under the render menu "reality render editor" => nothing happens when you click it.
Also, the "about installed plugins" status is green (loaded).
Also, nothing happens if you go to the Reality exe file and double click it.
Luxrender opens just fine when you double click the executible.
Can someone tell me what the problem is with Reality 4.3?
Thank you
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Comments
Might need to reinstall.
Possibly redownload, and reinstall.
Also, try the default short cut:CTRL+ALT+Y to get the launcher.
The registration happens the first time you click the "Reality render editor" under Render settings, it's a separate pop out, and after you enter the necessary information, then it's active. It'll show as green(loaded) even if you haven't registered/activated it.
As i understand it, paolo(pret-a-3d) hasn't updated this in about 5 years, so there maybe something that's happened between then and now.
not on windows spyware(10), so i don't know if there's something specific to the O.S. or possibly something in DS has changed significantly enough to break it.
I'm still using 4.12 for hardware reasons and was able to install/register with no problem.
The product is no longer supported by its producer, and has become open source. I'm not sure why it's still for sale in the store.
I don't know why it won't launch, though. Unfortunately, I don't have Reality installed on this system, so I can't say what the steps should be to register it properly. I know that Paolo has kept his server running because it's needed to register in the first place, but it sounds like you're not getting that far.
Looking through the Preta3d.com forum, it appears that Reality is having issues with Windows 10 20H2 (the second "major" 2020 release) and with Nvidia drivers from 456.38 and later. Are you running either of those?
It also appears that if you get far enough to register, you'll run into another issue. It requires you to enter your Daz order number on the registration screen. However, when Reality was last updated (2017, it appears), the store used purely numeric order numbers, with a different arrangement. The order number now includes letters and is a different length, and people in the preta3d.com forum are reporting that Reality is rejecting the order number. It can't accept the order number without an update, and Paolo is no longer updating the program, so ....
Honestly, if you purchased in the last 30 days, I would strongly recommend that you return it.
The version provided "open source" has to be compiled before you can actually use it.
https://sourceforge.net/p/reality-plugin/code/ci/default/tree/
So it's not as "user friendly" as the existing plugin.
I'd also recommend a refund, not just because of the activation problem(thanks for that heads up btw, as well as the win10 mess), but because it's available on Preta-3d's site for $15. About 1/3 what it's sold for here.
Thank you for Reply,
Do you like Reality : ) ? e.g. what difference have you noticed?
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Yes I tried to redownload it manually and reinstall last week.
I just tried CTRL+ALT+Y, but it didn't work.
I created a forum acct at the Reality website, and asked about the issue, and a user said Reality has been abandoned and there is not a way to register it, see:
https://preta3d.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=1194
I'm still researching the issue, and grateful for your thoughts
Thank you for your throughts and reply,
SYSTEM: yup, running Windows 10 20H2 (the second "major" 2020 release), but do not have a graphics card installed at the moment.
REGISTER THE ORDER NUMBER: Yes I tried but it did not send me any confirming email, and did not work right.
I bought Reality a few months ago, but couldn't figure out the problem because I'm semi-new to DAZ ... I then shifted my time to take care of a sick relative, and just circled back to the Reality issue last week.
=>Yes, true the refund policy is outside the 30 day window ... perhaps, theoretically I could issue a complaint for legal judgement on the basis of product misrepresentation, with compelling interest to stop further sales and customers from being ripped off ... but, I have no desire to terrorize people needlessly with legal problems. I did however warn DAZ numerous times that it is negative conditioning each time I buy a broken product, I trust DAZ less and my desire to buy from them decreases.
=>Businesses spend millions on R&D to ensure they deliver functional products, in fact, case law demands it - buyer beware is not an acceptible principle in modern times - DAZ should strive to be better, or accumulate risk and perhaps eventually face buyer backlash.
I tried to complie Reality from that source URL using cmake, but still never got it to work, and assumed I was doing something wrong ... so I bought it while on sale at the DAZ store, and it still never worked : (
I don't see Reality in my render settings ... see attached screen capture
As I recall, Reality appeared in the render menu, not the render settings. That said, because you've been unable to register, the program can't initialize, so it may not appear in either place.
When did you purchase? If it was before November, then you should have one of the old-style order numbers, so that wouldn't be an issue. If it was after the store change, then it would still be an issue. However, the compatibility issues with the current version of Windows may not let you register anyway.
In any event, it might be worth pursuing a refund with Daz, even though it's past the deadline, on the basis that they shouldn't be selling a product that has been effectively (and quite publicly) abandoned by its producer, and which updates to the Daz site have made even less usable than before. (Seriously, it should not be in the store for sale. I'm puzzled as to why Paolo himself hasn't pulled it, if Daz allows that, and why Daz didn't pull it for him when he announced in the forum that development and support were ceasing.)
Thank you, yes, and I tried running Reality in compatibility mode (Win 8 & 7), but it still does not work, so perhaps it is the registration issue... and the website says my serial number is not found (see attached image).
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I BOUGHT REALITY IN SEPTEMBER: I want Reality to work - I bought it because I was having issues with white-dot noise in my Iray Renders (and they take too long). I tested Reality right away after I bought it, but could not get it to work (I thought it was just a user error) ... circled back to it a couple times, never figured out how to fix it, then got caught up in life-stuff.
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TICKET: I've reported the issue 2x to DAZ, but there has been no solution or satisfaction of the issue.
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I've identified numerous product issues in the last 11 months, and reported them - My experience has been that (when DAZ wants to blow you off), they either don't reply to your ticket for a long time then close it after e.g. a month, or they claim they cannot duplicate the problem (non quod erat demonstrandum status = problem does not exist) therefore, they have no obligation to help you.
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I was energetic in finding a fix for my first 20-30 DAZ product problems, (or purchase something that is missing), but now my opinion is that I'm being taken advantage of (I've purchased too many untested, underdeveloped, or outdated products).
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Negative conditioning = deminished interest = decreased purchases
DAZ has to do some quality control.
I hope the owner of Reality is OK, he has not responded to my request for help (see attached image).
The serial number probably could not be found because I expect that script at preta3d.com hasn't been updated to deal with the changes to the store database at daz3d.com. The product is no longer supported by the person who produced Reality -- it was released to open source, as noted. People in that site's forum have noted that Paolo has been nonresponsive of late, so I hope he's OK as well.
Since you bought your software before the store change, it may be that the Daz storefront needs to communicate somehow with Paolo's servers, so there may be some issues at both ends of that communication chain.
Another thread somewhere in this forum in the last few days mentioned that the update to Windows 10 20H2 changed a DLL that Reality needs, and they were able to get it back somehow by rolling the update back and somehow finding the DLL, but I think you'd need to search Google (try site:www.daz3d.com/forums reality dll) to find that thread. (You can try the forum search, but it is notoriously terrible.) I remember seeing it, but not anything else about it.
I really would recommend at least trying for a refund. Daz should not be selling the product since Paolo has officially and publicly abandoned it, they should be supporting it if it's in the store, and they should be responding to tickets. Sales support tends to be a bit better at responding, so requesting a refund may at least get some wheels in motion.
By the by, should you get it working, Reality/LuxRender will probably not take THAT much less time than your Iray renders.
Also, If I recall correctly what Paolo said at the time he released Reality to open source, you need to go through the source code and pull out the bits of Reality that check with his servers for validation before it will work properly, so maybe that was an issue with the version you compiled.
If you bought Reality from Daz then you will find the Serial Number under "My Account - Serial Numbers"
THANK YOU EVERYONE, PROBLEM PARTIALLY-SOLVED.
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I GOT THE 32BIT VERSION OF REALITY WORKING
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WORK-AROUND:
I downloaded the 32Bit version of Reality, and installed it, then launched it within my DAZ 32Bit ver4.12, it let me launch Reality and I was able to register Reality and it worked.
Then I closed everything.
Then I launched my DAZ 64Bit ver4.15, and Reality (x32Bit) now launches.
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ANALYSIS:
1. I tried the WINDOWS DEBUGGER, to gather error information, but got different confusing results for the program breakpoint each time (see attached image).
2. CROSS CHECK-1: Windows Task Manager shows that my DAZ-64bit is calling-relying upon the 32bit version of Reality!!!
3. CROSS CHECK-2: Double clicking the x64bit Reality.exe still does not launch.
4. CROSS CHECK-3: Tried to reinstall x64bit Reality to see if it would inherit the registration status from some unknown windows registry location, but now reality will not launch again (tested both 32Bit DAZ 4.12 and 64 Bit DAZ 4.15 won’t work with x64Bit Reality 4.3).
=>Then clicked install for Reality 32Bit, and DAZ x64 ver 4.15 launches Reality 32Bit no problem without registering.
=>I don’t have a DAZ x64bit 4.12 version to test.
5. The difference between the Reality 32Bit version vs. the Reality 64Bit version is 32 files (I could systematically test them later (see attached image).
6. Registry values are here, (but won’t help): \HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\preta3d.com\Reality
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CONCLUSION/ASSUMPTION:
The launch and registration problem for Reality x64 seems to be related to DAZ version 4.15.
I WILL FUDGE AROUND WITH THE 64X BIT VERSION TO TRY TO FIX IT LATER
I downloaded the user manual, now I just have to figure out how to use Reality : )
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P.S. The Reality website FORUM is now shut down (but website still exists).
Thank you
Oh, I was hoping for more speed, but mainly to eliminate noise from renders.
Thank you
A MAJOR CAVEAT TO THE WORK-AROUND:
I discovered today that 32bit Reality 4.3 passes the Render to 32Bit LuxRender, which then crashes while loading the scene on my 64Bit Operating System, says "Bad Server allocation".
=>Therefore, you have to manually click and open the 64Bit Lux Render, and use it to open the file created for the 32Bit luxRender by the 32Bit Reality4.3 plugin : (
(I can perhaps remedy this by switching the 64Bit lux Render into the 32 bit folder, but have not tested this theory yet).
UPDATE (TODAY4-1-21): Yes, I successfully switched out the "lux" folder within the 32bit Reality (within Programs x86 folder), and replaced it with my 64bit "lux" folder (that I collected from Programs folder).
=>TEST: I SUCCESSFULLY RENDERED VICTORIA-4 AND VICTORIA-6 WITH 64BIT LUX LAUNCHED VIA THE 32BIT REALITY, BUT CANNOT RENDER VICTORIA-8 (JUST HER EYES SHOW UP).
2 QUESTIONS:
1. Attempting my first luxrender, and after 30 minutes it still looks like starwars, is this normal?
2. Is there a way to tell luxrender to use half of my system resources? ... my system resources are maxed out ... I burned up a motherboard before, and do not want to do it again ... (gonna PAUSE the render for now).
If it's a very complicated scene, yes. I've been using Reality since the very first version, and back then, 15-20 hours was normal to bake the render. It produced excellent results, but with the death of Luxrender, and the rebirth of Lux Core Render, you'll never get an update to the actual render engine. That means the materials you have are all the materials you're going to get, and there's no help any more for prob lems.
It was excellent for its time, and Paolo did an excellent job, but Iray has pretty much made the package redundant.
..Joe
Sorry. missed the second question.
Yes, on the render page you can specify how many threads to use.
..Joe
Thank you!
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I noticed that Reality-lux does not seem to be using my wimpy 4Gig Intel GPU ... does it use any GPU?
Thanks
WORK-AROUND SUMMARY ...
PROBLEM: Reality didn't work in 64bit Daz3D v4.15. I discovered I could use 32 bit Reality, but then I discovered yesterday that 32bit Reality 4.3 passes the Render to 32Bit LuxRender, (within my 64Bit DAZ software) - it then crashes while loading the scene on my 64Bit Operating System.
SOLUTION: After installing 32Bit Reality, I successfully switched out the "lux" folder within the 32bit Reality (within Program Files x86 folder), and replaced it with my 64bit "lux" folder (that I collected from the Program Files folder). Therefore, my Program Files x86 32Bit Reality (now) contains the full "lux" 64bit directory (instead of the 32bit "lux" directory).
=>TEST: I SUCCESSFULLY RENDERED VICTORIA-4 AND VICTORIA-6 WITH 64BIT LUX LAUNCHED VIA THE 32BIT REALITY, WITHIN 64BIT DAZ V4.15.
CONCLUSION: Therefore, the overall work-around is to install the 32bit Reality, register the product, then switch out the 32bit "lux" folder and replace it with the 64-bit "lux" folder, then launch 64bit DAZ and render as-per-usual.
It can, but the GPU rendering was based off the DAZ GPU rendering at the time, and it was at best, archaic. Look again on the Render tab and see how to activate the GPU processing.
Honestly, Reality is such old technology, and has several really big bugs in it (such as the inability for the 4.x version to work well with anything prior to Victoria 4) that I finally had to give it up and move to Studio 4.14 (just last December) and Iray. I used the venerable Millennium Girls Preteen (MGPT) for a LOT of fae renders. That meant I had to stay on Studio 3.x (because of the above issue) and its limited shaders. It got to be too little, so I went to Iray. Gotta say, it's a much faster renderer, and all the shaders out there can make for some really photographic renders.
Finally, remember that Reality is simply a bridge to DAZ. It's using the (old) DAZ SDK to create the photorealistic renders, and as Studio moves forward, that old SDK will have more and more issues working with Studio as parts of the meshes change. One off the top of my head is that the weight maps have been completely changed from G3 to G8, and the results of that is unknown how that will affect Reality. With Luxrender gone forever (a very poor idea on the part of the Lux people IMHO) there might come a time when it simply won't render anything that isn't old and limited.
..Joe
Wow, you are really knowledgeable, thank you Sir!
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Yes, I'll look again at a way to get my GPU working within DAZ ... In the alternative, I went looking for:
=>The Iray SDK download to play with and ponder some kind of patchwork, but everyone only allows a 30 day free trial, so I have not collected the SDK yet.
=>Also, I was looking at a Thunderbolt-3 PCIe Card and an external GPU docking station (connects via Thunderbolt).
"Wow, you are really knowledgeable, thank you Sir!"
I pre-ordered Reality before it was even available. (Guess that's the definition of "pre-order..."
) It took a while to master, but once I got it down it was wicked fast to set up scenes for rendering. My problem occurred when Reality 2.x came out- it wouldn't work with anything less than Victoria 4-era characters, and was set up for Studio 4. It left all sorts of weird black facets on the faces of the older characters, so I had to stick with 1.25. Also, early DAZ 4 had a horrendous interface, and I loathed it so much that I simply stayed with Studio 3.25. I still can't use the default interface for 4: that idiotic orange on the textures page flashing on and off as you move over items really hurts these old eyes. DAZ doesn't consider the consequenses of their choices for the people out there, they're more interested in lertting you know they're really cool in how they do things, so I had to customize my interface to look as much like 3.x as I could.
Anyway, IIRC, I think the GPU stuff is on the "Ouput tab." Once last thing to be aware of- Reality is terrible at memory management. Keep your Hidden Items open on the scene list, because as you reuse scenes, it will add iteration after of "Reality_Scene_Data files." I've jad scenes of over half a Gig before I realized the issue. Spent a whole day deleting the extrameous files in the various scenes. Delete any one that's numbered and you will still be good.
..Joe
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When I started using DAZ last year I thought Carrara and DAZ were interchangable, purchased Carrara products (e.g. Mimic Pro For Carrara) and have never figured out hot to use them in DAZ.
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My Daz minimum size scenes (character+Backdrop) are always >1.5Gigs in memory (in task manager).
=>Are you saying something is building up that I can't see?
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I know DAZ is freemium, but some basic things should be free, e.g. color picker
...and I spent alot of my money on DAZ products to fix problems with other DAZ products (or things that were missing)
=>Are you saying something is building up that I can't see?
Yes. Something called Reality_Scene_Data files. One is created every time you go to Reality. If you use a scene more than once it creates a second Reality_Scene_Data(2), and Reality_Scene_Data(3). It gets crazy if you merge scenes. there were some smallish scenes I created (<700k) that were 1-1.5 Gig in size because of this. Reality was supposed to merge the files, but in reality (see what I did there???) it would just ad a second, third, fourth, etc. Some of them ended up with over a hundred of these, and the size was ridiculous.
By viewing hidden objects, you can see if this starts to happen. All you ever need is the core file (Reality_Scene_Data.) All the others can immediately be deleted, and your files will be much smaller.
..Joe
PS: I got Carrara years ago, (I think when DAZ first offered it) looked at it, shut it down, and haven't looked at it since. Can't help you there.
THANK YOU
I just searched my program File and output directory but didn't find "Reality_Scene_Data" ... I'll have to deep-dive it and see where it is.
You can see it in the Scene Tab.
Yes. Sorry, I should have been more clear. vwrangler is correct.
..Joe
You can see it in the Scene Tab.
Thank you,
Hmmm not sure... I dont see a scene tab, but I do see a scene configuration ... see screen capture ... (and it does not recognize that I have OpenCL installed).
The Scene tab in DAZ (upper right) - I don't know how to identify where the objects are.
The Reality scenes folder only contains the Reality.duf
In my case, it appears that junk is accumulating in a folder called "Reality_scene-Resources" in my output folder.
No, no. We mean the scene tab in Studio, not reality.
Sorry. Sometimes hard to help when typing it out.
..Joe