Flashlights Set by ile-avalon

zombiewhacker

I picked up the Flashlights Set by ile-avalon a while back and only now started to play around with it.

https://www.daz3d.com/flashlights-set

The promos depict props projecting volumetric lighting in Iray, but so far I haven't been able to make it work. No volumetrics show up. Scenes remain pitch black.  Increasing the Luminance Intensity in the surfaces profile at least makes the light surface shine, but it gives off no actual illumination, akin to the old ambient strength surfaces setting in 3Delight. There's no helpful info in the ReadMe at Daz docs, either.

This product was released in the G3 era, so I'm wondering whether later versions of Studio may have broken the volumetric settings.(I'm using 4.14.0.8). 

IceCrMn

That effect is usually done with something like

https://www.daz3d.com/fast-fog-iray

I have that flashlight set and a volumetric cube or anything like that isn't included.

The IES light profiles are, and they work very well.

On DA Sickleyield has a tutorial that I bookmarked if you would like to learn how to do it.

https://www.deviantart.com/sickleyield/journal/Tutorial-Creating-Dust-And-Atmosphere-in-Iray-522291773

zombiewhacker

Thanks for the response. How do you use the IES profiles, then -- for example, which Environmental mode are the Flashlights Sets designed for?

As stated above, I can't even get the props to illuminate the scene, even after increasing intensity on the light surface, so clearly I'm doing something wrong.

 

IceCrMn

Here's what I do

1) load flashlight

2) Select Flashlight in "Scene" pane

3)Apply "03 Light Amplified" preset

4) Apply "Profile 1" (This is one of the IES profiles that controls how the light is shaped)

5) Start Iray Preview mode to see the light effect

 

The "02 - Light on" or "realistic intensity is very dim, so you won't see much using the default tone mapping settings.

Default tone mapping is more for a sunny day outside.

You can change those settings  to make it easier to see, or just use one of the higher intensity settings.

IceCrMn

Note:

You will need a dark environment so your flashlight will have something to illuminate.

Create > New primitive

Cube

Size 20 ft 

8 Division(this won't matter at all)

Now you have a quick and simple " dark room" to work in.

Zoom inside the cube and pick the flashlight up off the "floor"

Won't shine on HDRI's at all.So when creating scenes you will want something like walls or other things for your flashlight to shine on.

NorthOf45

I don't think they will work very well on those billboard-type fog or smoke products. The IES profiles are three dimensional and might look good on a wall, but for those nifty god-rays, you really need volumetrics. Try one in a scene that already has the volume set up (there are a few, e.g., Jack Tomalin's Iray updates to his older sets often have a volume included).