NEW! Novica & Invited Guest Contributors Tips & Product Reviews Pt 6
This discussion has been closed.
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
That happens with a few HDRI when used as a backdrop. It has something to do with the ground plane I think. I have fixed it on a few renders I have done but each one is different :) If I remember changing the Ground Plane multiplier helps as does turning the ground off. I can't look ATM as I have a long render, 19 hours and 90%, running.
Who's coming to dinner?
He wont eat much
Be sure you have selected "Infinite Sphere" in the Dome Mode. I'm guessing you selected "Infinite Sphere w/ Ground" by mistake..
Edit: Updated after Daz fixed some of the bugs March 8, 2016.
I'd like to showcase Uniform Dress for Genesis 3 Female(s) by Dogz. Dogz is one of my favorite vendors in the Daz store.
Rating: Recommended with Reservations (Highly Recommended after Daz fixed the worst bugs).
The modeling is top notch and there are lots of included textures and morphs. I noticed that when I pose G3F legs, the pleats in the dress open or close automatically to match the leg pose!!! I've never seen that before and I am very impressed. It supports several Daz Original character shapes and even the Growing Up Youth morph. But the "with Reservations" part of my rating comes from the Iray surface settings errors (in my opinion) and metadata errors that detract from this product. I have attached some annotated renders to show off some of the features and problems with the Uniform Dress product. I tested only Iray materials. The product loads with 3Delight materials by default, but I did not render any 3Delight images.
These are the bugs I reported:
I have not updated these renders. They represent the product before the bug fixes. The only significant difference would be the socks, which now look like socks with ribbing at the top and not all splotchy anymore. The comments about metadata errors for the duster gasp pose and missing headband material no longer appy. Metadata was fixed.
Barbult, I really liked your detailed product review with images and captions. You are really good at testing! (I've seen your feedback on many threads) Daz vendors should hire you for their final quality check and those that do get to put your logo on their product page.
By the way, Dogz's Superdress is in Fast Grab today.
This is a common problem I see with Smart Content (Daz 4.8, I'm not on 4.9) for poses, props, materials, shaders, wardrobes, and more. Products that cover two generations (e.g., G2F and G3F) will have identical named icons and you have to guess which applies. I usually overcome by clicking over to Content Library and seeing what folder it is in, but it destroys some of the value of Smart Content. I don't know if it's Daz not enforcing standards, not having standards, wrong metadata, or metadata not being read correctly by DS.
The Connect installs and metadata issue is a problem, I am about ready to give it up and just use DIM until it is fixed properly. I used connect to load Helena's tomb last nite to follow the tutorial for Reality but got lots of errors saying Reality couldn't find the textures for it and the render was just gray and fuzzy, when I uninstalled the Connect version and installed both DS and StudioCF files with DIM it worked perfect. The whole Smart content/Connect Feature was released before it was ready in my opinion, but once all the bugs are worked out I think it will be great.
That is a great review on that outfit barbult, the way the pleats work along with the pose is fantastic. If the issues get fixed I may consider it, not as a uniform persay, but as a play dress for children as I think it would work for that purpose.
I didn't know SuperDress was in Fast Grab. I have it, so it didn't show for me. It is a good product, too.
Yes, lack of icon differentiation is a real annoyance for me, too. In one bug report response, customer service told me to click on the icon and look in the Info tab to see if it was Iray or 3Delight. I responded that expecting a customer to randomly select one of the icons and look in a whole different pane to parse a file pathname to see if the word "Iray" appeared in the pathname, was a poor user interface. I haven't heard back. I don't know where the failing is either. Some products differentiate with icon text or symbol overlays and/or different filenames. Some do neither. I wonder, like you do, if there is no standard or no enforcement. Either way, Daz is underming their Smart Content (which is a WONDERFUL concept and works GREAT when metadata is correct) by releasing products with bad metadata and confusing icons. It irks me to see new products still coming out with these issues. I just don't see how they can pass QA testing that way.
Uniform Dress is a very versitile dress. If you know the problems, you can work around most of them. That is why I posted the details of the problems in the forum as well as writing a bug report.
The release of DS 4.9 did seem premature. I know that not all the bugs I reported during the Beta phase were fixed before release. Perhaps the release date was marketing driven. Perhaps the pool of Beta testers giving feedback was not large enough for Daz to realize the extent of the problems until there were thousands of irate customers complaining loudly. Daz has released several more Betas since the ill fated 4.9 release, and each one has been better than the previous. I believe they will get most problems straightened out eventually and I really believe they are trying hard to do so. It is sad that so much goodwill was lost because of the 4.9 release problems.
Please write bug reports about the problems you find, like the product that didn't work when installed with Daz Connect. We all need to work together to make Daz aware of these issues. I write several bug reports per week, but I only own a tiny fraction of the store catalog.
A render using one of Horo's free HDRIs, Fork, given away at Christmas.
Thanks, Novica. Glad to share. That was wonderful that you tried again to find the children who lost their bunnies. It is (and will be) a comfort to people when others care enough to connect in some way when there is such a tragedy.
Barbult, I love your review. I love Dogz's clothes too. Hopefully the bugs will get fixed in time.
Does anyone have this: http://www.daz3d.com/iray-smart-converter-and-advanced-skin-managers-for-genesis-2 or has a review been done of this previously?
fairly easy to use, or steep learning curve? Makes Genesis 2 look great in iray?
The PA made a video about how to use it. You can find that and a couple of my renders using it in her commercial thread. I was blown away by what I could achieve in a few clicks. It is pretty straight forward. It is fast to use, if you have the horsepower to preview the Iray render in the viewport or Aux viewport. You need that to see feedback of what the settings are doing, so you can try various settings and see which you prefer. Skin textures vary dramatically, so a setting that works for one may not be the best for another. This product gives you options.
At Christmas time a different PA gave away some Iray settings for most of the Genesis 2 Daz Original characters. I didn't like those settings at all. I much prefer the results from the V3Digitimes product.
Thanks Barbult!
I had a quick skim through the vid - gotta wait till hubby stops downloading the update for the new xbox game he got today to watch it properly :)
Two quick questions tho - do you have to select all G2's surfaces in teh surface tab also? Or just select the figure in the Scene tab like normal?
Also, what is this "aux viewport"?? I noticed in the video that it was rendering every time she made a change....
If found this comment curious, considering that this body shape is based on an actual shorter body builder reference rather than the heroic shapes of the genesis 3 pool, which are taller and have no glute development whatsoever, so basically they are working out and ignoring their leg/thigh development if this was a real shape. (this area supports your upper body so you have to work it out) So it does pay to actually get anatomy references to see the differences in body shapes for different bodyshapes. Also genesis 3 makes the different shapes possible as i don't have to follow muscle flow of the base figure as there are none in genesis 3 where in genesis 2 going outside that warped the clothing. As a result different shapes can be added and mixed to the gene pool. Also if you don't like the degree of the shapes, once again: use the dials to add in, reduce and mix with other genesis shapes... that's what they are there for.
Edit: also I get more compliments on the glutes that what is currently offered in the genesis men ;)
You don't have to select the surfaces. The Aux Viewport is a separate pane. It is a second viewport throught which you can view the scene with a different camera and a different rendering style. If you set Aux Viewport or the main Viewport to the Iray render type, it will render and rerender each time you make a change. This is how you see in real time what your changes are doing.
Thank you! I have my viewport on the second monitor, and I finally found the "iray render" draw style type thingy (found it mentioned in another thread). It works surprisingly well adn doesn't bog down my system (although I only had one figure in the scene, so that may be it). However I cannot figure out how to stop it or save it. It doesn't render to a new window like my normal rendering does.....
Yep, I totally agree we need different bodyshapes, and adding to the gene pool is a good thing! That's why I said I like versatility.
Fishtales- love the floating head- eerily and nicely done! And yes, I noticed the person in the background looking toward the door- nice touch!
Barbult- awesome review and I like the visuals which reinforces the detailed explanations.
And yes, I mentioned the Iray skin converters and you'll see where I mention I used the V3Digitimes Iray skin. I normally used the Surface section because if the eyes looked good, I didn't want to mess with them, so I'd do everything then save the scene, THEN do the eyes.
BTW, back to the bunny neighborhood this afternoon (trying different times of the day) and the home really has been deserted for now, there were no contractors there working. Went around the corner and saw the house split exactly in two, with one half decimated and blown out, the other half not touched on the inside- where the woman was huddled, completely without harm, during the tornado. Miracles happen!
If you get a chance, would you please vote for the entries in the Because I Said So! Contest. Voting is confidential, your contact information is not stored/used (I used SurveyMonkey for years when I owned my own business and queried the customers on what promotions/sales/products they'd like.) TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO VOTE.
And this month, we're doing something different. Artist render a FUNNY image, and we all supply the captions! So if you'd like to do that, keep an eye on that thread. There is a link on that page which will send you to the thread to suggest your caption (do NOT put it in the Entries thread where the images are located.)
Trying out some rando free HDRIs which I have accumulated over time. I think most from the sIBL site.
Harbour2 this is called.
HDR 110 Tunnel
Next two.
River Road 2
City Night Lights
They all have the same distant light set in the direction of the sun.
Ah, that explains it. Thanks.
Fishtales, can't remember if you were on the thread where someone posted several of the HDRI sites, but in case anyone was interested, the person posting said they were reasonably priced, and gave quite decent results. (I haven't tried them, and be sure to read if they are for commercial and/or non-commercial use)
Noemotion, Aversis (may be only non-commercial), Open Footage, HDRI Haven, 3dOcean. Anyone have experience with these, or any others, feel free to discuss! (Fishtales, are any of yours from those sites?)
The harbour one I got from here.
http://www.dutch360hdr.com/shop/?product_cat=free-360-hdri
I think the rest are from here.
http://www.hdrlabs.com/sibl/archive.html
I also have some from other sites which are probably on the free list that was posted previously. I know I recognised some of the addresses as I glanced through it.
Aversis is good. (I have only free ones and they are all non-commercial only.)
HDRI Haven is good. I have free ones and one purchased one. Very high resolution images are available. The ones I have produce very defined and crisp shadows. Purchased HDRIs, like the one I used in the Uniform Dress review, are royalty free and have no attribution requirement.
NoEmotion is mixed. I have only free ones. I have good luck with Park C and Park D. The lighting is subtle without hard shadows. Commercial use (with attribution) is permitted for the ones I use.
A couple points to remember:
1) Attribution and license link is generally required for free HDRI images. That means when you post an image in the forum or gallery that uses one of the HDRI images, you must follow their requirements to link to the vendor and Creative Commons license that is applicable. People are generally not doing that. I'd hate to see sites stop making them available, because people violate the terms. If you purchase an HDRI, it often comes with rights to use it without attribution, because you have paid for that right. Check the EULA!
2) Entering a contest in which you could win a prize, is considered "commercial use", according to what I've read. So, if entering the contests here in the forum, be sure to use only HDRIs which allow commercial use.
Edited to add: Even PAs make mistakes in HDRI usage rights. I reported to DAZ when I saw a product's promo images (commercial use for sure) using HDRIs licensed for non-commercial use only. The promos were subsequently changed.
And if you see me making this kind of mistake in my forum posts, tell me!
A few more.
The first three have the distant light turned off. I turned it on in the last one as it looked as if the car was floating so it needed some shadow below it to ground it.