The Dreaded OTHER SSS! Aaargh!

Prince Wao

Nope, nothing to do with subsurfaces, but the arch-dreaded STRIPY SKIN SYNDROME!

The cut-out image below is one character from rock band and audience scene with 38 characters in it, 30 of which have bare arms or legs, but only this one is infected with the non-contagious stripy skin syndrome. So today's question is:

What causes stripy skin syndrome in 3DL renders?

I've often found that stripy skin will appear when I spot render a small area, but the skin is then fine on a full render, and also vice-versa, so it's not a flaw with the scene per se, but I guess it's to do with lighting. I've also found that when it does appear in a full render altering the actual Daz skin SSS can sometimes prevent it, but not always. I can't recall what it is offhand, but the icon of one product in my Content Library has stripy skin syndrome, so it may not be curable. I've often found the only solution, when possible, is to change the character's outfit, but some scenes make that illogical. EG: you can't put trousers or a long sleeved garment on a sunbather!

What thinkest thou, noble Dazzlers? Is there a solution?

 

Richard Haseltine

Most often stripy skin is self-shadowing and can be addressed via the Shadow Bias setting on the lights you are using. I am surrpised it is affecting only the one character, though - that might be down to the shader or settings used, but I do winder if she in fact has slightly visible sleeves on her top.

Prince Wao

Richard Haseltine said:

Most often stripy skin is self-shadowing and can be addressed via the Shadow Bias setting on the lights you are using. I am surrpised it is affecting only the one character, though - that might be down to the shader or settings used, but I do winder if she in fact has slightly visible sleeves on her top.

I've often found that it's one character in a scene which has the stripy skin, while others don't, plus as I wrote above, a character which has stripy skin in a spot mostly won't in a full render and vice-versa. When I did a full viewport spot render of this scene this character didn't have stripy sline while 3 or 4 others did, nearly allways those with darker skins, but it was only this one which had it on the full render. I never considered shadow bias as I would have thought that would affect many. I also doubt there are slightly visible sleeves as the top never had any and the coat option was never used (it's the Vampire Hunter outfit for G2F if I recall the name correctly).

Prince Wao

This is where the outfit is from:
https://www.daz3d.com/mec4d-the-vampire-huntress-for-genesis-2-female-s

Sven Dullah

Prince Wao said:

Nope, nothing to do with subsurfaces, but the arch-dreaded STRIPY SKIN SYNDROME!

 It is related to SSS. If you get those artifacts you need to lower the SS shading rate in the surface editor.