Archive for July, 2018

Daz Studio 4.10 Iray Viewports

{ July 14, 2018 @ 12:04 am } · { 3D Tutorials }
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Note: A lot of this information is taken right out of Daz 3D’s Getting Started in Iray tutorial video on YouTube. If you learn better from videos, you might find that helpful.

The Problem

I’ve seen repeated questions about improving performance of the Iray drawing style in Daz Studio 4.10 viewports. Imagine my surprise when I was watching the Getting Started in Iray tutorial video and found a wealth of information already available on the topic!

Photo realistic rendering in the Daz Studio viewports can slow down even some of the fastest computers out there because Studio is trying to interactively create a “final” image and has to recalculate light paths, material interactions, shadows, and such each time you move your view or relocate content. This can cause people to feel like the program is really sluggish and/or that it causes everything else on the computer to grind to a halt every few seconds.

Interactive to the rescue!

Technically, NVIDIA Iray has two modes that it can render in. The one that is the default and we’re most familiar with is Photoreal. With only a few exceptions, this will be the mode you want to use for final image rendering.

There’s another mode called “Interactive” which has many of the same features as Photoreal. However, because it lacks support for computationally expensive features like subsurface scattering and caustics, it will generally render much faster.

Rendering Devices

On the Advanced tab of your Render Settings, you have the option to select which devices (CPU or graphics cards) can be used to perform Iray renders. There are separate selections for Photoreal verses Interactive. Personally, I don’t mind if Studio has to fail over to my CPU for a large final render, but for Interactive mode that we’re using on viewports, it’s probably better to uncheck the CPU. This will also stop the Iray engine from grabbing the CPU for rendering purposes and slowing everything else down on your computer.

Render Device Settings

NVIDIA Iray Rendering Devices in Daz Studio 4.10

Render Settings

While we’re on the Render Settings, go back to the Editor tab, Render Mode and change this to Interactive. Technically you might think this would ONLY affect if you’re doing a final render. However the Daz Tutorial indicates that Rendering Style and Draw Style are linked in some way; so it’s best to set this setting to Interactive as well.

Iray Rendering Mode

Choosing between Photoreal and Interactive modes

Just don’t forget to switch it BACK before you do your final rendering!

Draw Settings

Next is setting the drawing style for your viewports. There’s a good chance you don’t have the Draw Setting tab open in Studio. Go to your Window menu -> Tabs and select Draw Settings. You can dock it wherever it feels most natural to you.

Also, you will need to repeat the steps below for each viewport that you’re using Iray in. Most of the time, I will set my Auxillary (Aux) Viewport to Iray so I always have a rendered looking image to refer to even if I’m using Texture Shaded on my main viewport. Draw Settings changes focus for each active viewport that you click on; so make this changes in any viewport using Iray.

Draw Mode

Go to your Draw Settings tab, Drawing section and change the Draw Mode from Photoreal to Interactive.

Draw Mode Settings

Setting the drawing style on the current viewport

Response Threshold

When you’re using Interactive Draw Mode, Studio will pixelate your image when you start moving your view around and then will resolve it back to a rendered image when you stop. Response Threshold tells Studio how sensitive to be to view changes before it changes to the pixelated view. The lower the number, the more quickly it decides to pixelate the image. Higher numbers make the Interactive rendering engine work a little harder, but if your graphics card can handle it, it’s probably less annoying for you. You may need to play with that value to find a number that works for you.

Manipulation Mode (optional)

If you find the pixelated image still feels too sluggish when you’re navigating around your scene, you can choose how the content display changes when the Response Threshold is exceeded. As I mentioned, by default it pixelates the image, but from the Draw Mode tab, General, Manipulation section, you can choose to use either wireframe or solid bounding boxes instead. This is another option for those who are using slower computers or if you have a very large scene with a lot of detailed content.

Manipulation Drawing Style

Choosing how Daz Studio draws content while moving the view

Conclusion

I hope this information is helpful to someone. The Tutorial video covers a few other pointers on using Iray as part of the scene setup process. I highly recommend it to anyone getting started in using this tool.

DS Content Management (Characters)

{ July 9, 2018 @ 2:31 pm } · { 3D Tutorials, Content Management }
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I’ve seen some posts lately in the Daz 3D – New Users forum about people wondering about how to organize their content. While things like Smart Content and Content Categories have made this a lot easier than it used to be, I still find myself typically browsing the content folders.

So, to make things easier on myself, there are some standard things that I do to make content easier to find. In this entry, I’ll talk about how I move / copy / rename folders for my main characters.

Caveats

  1. The method I’m about to talk about does have a drawback. When there is an update to something that was moved, you will need to go and repeat the move / copy of files and folders. I’ll cover that more at the end, but if you don’t want to have to remember to update your folders and files after a product is updated, this may not be the method for you.
  2. This represents how MY mind thinks about content and what’s important. while it might work for you too, I’m sure there are other ways to accomplish similar goals

My Problem

I have three issues when I’m looking for a character to use. First is that when I’m looking for characters, the names of the folders aren’t always sufficient. 6 months after I bought it, remembering that Giada is a young teen looking girl based on Aiko 8 is almost impossible for me.

Second, even if I do remember the character’s name I’m looking for, the number of clicks to get there is annoying. I’d rather have my base characters available at a higher level in the structure.

Finally, I find it annoying to have all those folders with the default folder icon. Wouldn’t it be better to have the character’s headshot instead of a folder?

DAZ Default Character Folders

By default, DAZ wants to organize your character folders like this:

DAZ Studio Character Organization

The default organization of how folders and files are saved for character content in DAZ Studio

So, to load Aiko 8, I’d have to click on People, Genesis 8 Female, Characters, Aiko 8, and then I find the Actor file to load her. Also, unless I magically remember that Giada and Yuka are two Aiko 8 variants, I might have to click on each one, see their icon and then my memory is jogged.

My Character Folders

I will describe the actions I take on my character folders below, but here’s a diagram of the changes I make.

My Character Organization

How I copy and rename character folders and files

My Approach

Several key steps here in what I’m doing with this organization.

  1. All of the main characters start with an exclamation point (!). Since Daz Studio sorts things alphabetically for you in the content folder view, this will force all of the main characters to the top of the list.
  2. I copy of all the actor files (and their thumbnail png files) to the Characters folder. This does two things for me.
    1. First, it means I can see all of my Genesis 8 Female characters in a single folder
    2. Second, since the Actor file and the folder name are the same, it changes the icon on the content browser from the default folder to the character’s Actor thumbnail.
  3. If the character is another layer down (say for example with Giada, the folder path might have been People> GF8 > Characters > FWSA > Giada), then I move the whole folder up one level. While I appreciate the effort that Fred Winkler and Sabby put into their character, the “FWSA” folder is just an unnecessary click to get to what I really want.
  4. For characters that are derived from one of the base character shapes, I add a prefix to the folder, actor, and thumbnail filename. For example, since Giada’s Product Page says that she requires Aiko 8, I add “A8” to the folder and file names. This helps me group my characters into basic families of similar body shapes. Also, in order for the thumbnail trick to work, both the actor thumbnail file and the folder have to be exactly the same. Other prefixes I’ve used include:
    • Genesis 8 Female = G8F
    • Victoria 8 = V8
    • Olympia 8 = O8
    • Charlotte 8= C8
    • The Girl 8 = TG8
    • … you get the idea.

More to Come

As I said, this is a method that works for me. If it at least gives you some ideas on how to help you get your hands around the 3D Content that you own, then I’m glad I helped. Feel free to post questions here or, if you’re on the Daz 3D forums, drop me a PM at JonnyRay.

I will keep adding other categories of content to this series. Check my Content Management category for other similar posts.