M4, V4, Hiro 4 and Aiko 4 base figures, currently on the DAZ Store for $6 in the Black Friday sale. They’re in the “Anime Manga Starter Bundle”. Also, the ++ morphs packs are over in the Victoria 4.2 Starter Bundle and Michael 4 Starter Bundle, both $5 each. Also down at $5 is the M4/V4 Creature Creator Bundle.
Renderosity has just launched their 50% store-wide sale for Black Friday, so there’s a chance to get items that didn’t feature in the rolling 70% selected-vendor sales over the last month.
A few items are omitted, such as PhilC’s $30 Python for Poser manual. A pity, as I’d have gone for that at $15. I guess it was counted as “software” and thus not included.
Still, they managed to ding me for another final $15…
Even the Poser software itself is down in price, by a small amount. Poser Pro 11 is now $164 (was $199). Upgrades from $82.
The marketing text on the page is a bit weird. The software is prominently classified under “La Femme Pro – Female Poser Figure”, and the page text opens “Please go to PoserSoftware.com/store to download this free update for Poser 11 owners!”. That double-confusion is likely enough to make newbies back off, wondering if the page is actually selling the software itself or not. But the price shows it to be Poser Pro 11.
Over at the DAZ Store they have 20% off Gift Cards, for one day only. My Wish List there is also still showing plenty of 50%-70% discounts, though nothing compelling at the low end. The Look at My Hair plugin and RSSY 3Delight to Iray Converter are both 50% off.
My blog’s last monthly survey of new DAZ/Poser content was 27th October. I’m conscious that Black Friday is coming soon, and I don’t want to collide too closely with that. So… here’s a slightly earlier-than-usual survey-pick of November 2019’s newly released store items and freebies. As usual freebies are only covered if they’re commercial use.
Science fiction:
Astromaster. Nice, with a Star Trek vibe but not fan-art.
The FuryX future-car for DAZ Studio.
My Place for Poser and Daz Studio, an unusual sci-fi window scene. The dystopian distant scene could be easily replaced by something more likely at that level of technology.
Need more pipes for My Place? The new Flex Pipes set.
A cool sci-fi assets kit for a mere $10 from Jean-Francois Liesenborghs. Sadly only for 3DS Max, though.
Crew of Solaris 2019 bundle. One of a growing series of pose bundles targetted at popular DAZ Store sci-fi ships and vehicles.
Note that Predatron also has four of his own Solaris pose sets on the DAZ Store, though only for Genesis 8 Male.
Vanguard IV for Poser, a Thunderbirds-style car which kind-of recalls the old Gerry Anderson supercars. But, so far as I can tell, it isn’t fan-art.
A Planet of the Apes style Underground War Room with doomsday warhead. Again, not close enough to be fan-art.
Steampunk:
Steampunk Classic for Genesis 8 Male.
At The Helm poses, a free set for G8 and a recent airship model.
Merchant Airship for Daz Studio by 1971s. 1971s is getting his large Poser range converted for iRay materials, and has some others already converted.
Victorian Microscopy set.
The Raypunk Santa for Poser, being Santa in a steampunk spacesuit. From Meshbox, and now also on Renderosity.
Free Bus Poses for G3 & G8 for the Maxis Bus.
Dieselpunk:
A free Wedell Williams Model 44 Air racer for DAZ Studio. A nice classic late-1930s racing plane for your dieselpunk scenes.
And a free Vintage Style Hanger for DAZ Studio to go with the plane. There’s even a free pilot pose.
A 1920s/30s SW LadySmith revolver.
Mafia Environment Bundle for DAZ Studio and a Vintage Slot Machine from the same era.
Halloween:
A few late Halloween items which I didn’t catch on my last survey.
The Obelisk for DAZ Studio with iRay. An adaptable eldritch marker, for free.
Highly detailed Vampire coffin suited to close-ups.
Fleshy Demon Wings for Genesis 3 and Genesis 8. 45 morphs, and judging by the previews they can be somewhat folded up at the back.
Satyr with dForce Hair for Genesis 8 Male. Not thick enough on the thighs for a classical faun, but that’s likely fixed with a few tweaks.
Storybook:
Father Christmas for Poser. The Meshbox character, now on Renderosity. For an alternative staff, there’s also a Young Santa for Poser from Meshbox.
A free set of Colourful Lollipops for Poser.
Genesis 8 Young Child Pose – Baseball (a free G8 bat is here), and Grazed Knee pose. Both free for G8. BBarbs also has a new line in free toddler poses, which may be useful if your storybook is for very young children, or requires the star to have baby siblings.
Free Realistic Curtains, for DAZ Studio. Has wind morphs, but no ‘draw-up the stage-curtain’ morphs. But you could simply raise the curtain behind a hidden facade, to make it a dark-red front curtain for a puppet-theatre stage etc.
Landscapes and scenes:
A simple Picket Fence for Poser, with nice micro-detailing and HD textures for close-ups.
Flinks Snow Crystals for Poser and DAZ.
The Orangery. A classic British orangery, a large warm glasshouse for growing citrus fruit in the winter. Of course it could also be filled with Dr. Barmpot’s Barmy Bananas, for a more steampunkish setting.
Heavy haulage:
Need some heavy haulage across your landscapes? Have a look at these new items…
Peterbilt 281 1955. While there are trucks a-plenty elsewhere, often for free, this mid 1950s classic is nicely grunged up with plenty of highway mileage.
A finely detailed GWR Coral A Wagon, a heavy-load rail wagon from DryJack. Apparently intended for shipping plate-glass, but possibly also useful if you need to transport your special alien-destroying whizzbang to the launchpad.
Carrier for Poser, a heavy-load carrier for your desert planet scenes, by Beckhausen. A bit bare on the legs, but Poser’s Hair Room could shaggify the lower legs fairly easily.
Animals:
Underwater Wonders for Poser. A variety of creatures and plants plus a scene-builder. Could be used to help populate the new v176 Iray Coral Reef.
CWRW Silver Stag for Poser and DAZ. Nice but it has a large list of dependencies, requiring HiveWire Horse, HiveWire Mule Deer Buck, and HiveWire Antler Pack.
History and prehistory:
The Colosseum. A complete Roman Arena.
The new Wild Journey Poses Part 1 and Part 2. Human G8 poses for battling wild animals hand-to-tooth, perhaps also useful for gladiator scenes in the Colosseum.
Pirates, All Aboard! Bundle for DAZ Studio. Looks like this has just about everything you’d need to make a pirate epic. Also available in a half dozen or so packs. You may also be wanting the new Photo Props: Wooden Barrels set.
Cave. A nice free stylised pirate-y cave in Bryce and .OBJ format.
A traditional South Sea Islands style dForce Tropical Leaf Outfit for Genesis 8 Male.
People and Animations:
Real Facial Animation for Genesis 8 Males and Females. Expensive but excellent. So far as I know, unique in being quality motion-capture for faces.
Free Fibermesh eyebrows for G8M, and beard stubble.
Utilities and tutorials:
Character Converter from Genesis 8 Male to Genesis 3 Male and Hair Converter from Genesis 8 Male to Genesis 3 Male.
DAZ to Blender 8 at Gumroad. Looks like the best current option, if all you want to do do is take G8 to Blender for sculpting.
FlowScape Tutorial with the maker of this great new $10 landscape software.
That’s it, more pick next month!
Some may remember F-clone (aka fClone) from about three years ago. It’s “expression capture” software that outputs to the DAZ/Poser .PZ2 file format. When last seen F-clone was in an over-priced $199 version 1.0, and the results were apparently a little basic.
Now it’s in 1.12, has a free trial, and is currently on sale for $33 for personal use. It’s nothing to do with iClone, despite the name.
I got it working with an 2008 HD (1280px) Microsoft zoom-able webcam I picked up in a sale way back. I was pleased to find there are now Windows 8 drivers for the cam at last, yay! So it was worth keeping it in a drawer all these years. Seems to work best when the highest res in the webcam is selected, and the initial calibration is good.
Even in poor lighting conditions F-clone gave me results. However, once the facial data was captured the “Video processing…” then took so long, even on a mere 20 second clip, that I gave up on it for a few hours. Possibly it doesn’t like also capturing audio as well as video, though it appears to have this capability.
But returning to it after a PC reboot solved these problems instantly, and another 17 second capture resulted in a near-instant saving out of the finished .PZ2 animation to the desktop.
I then dragged and dropped the animation into DAZ Studio and onto a Genesis 2 base figure. I left “Limits on” for the figure and got a nice subtle idle animation. I then tried a G3F and turned “Limits off” on import of the animation, and got a much more expressive animation. G8F also took the animation, and the movement was quite nice. But the best was the G3F. Apparently G3 was the first Genesis to have facial bones, and the F-clone software is obviously targeted on those. The clue here is in the name of its file output: F_Clone_Daz_Genesis3_0.pz2
In Poser there was very little success, obviously because the animation process was targeting Genesis 3 which is a DAZ figure. Though Star and Doctor Pitterbill took head and eye movements quite well, but not the mouth movements. But for some that may actually be a feature, since it would allow you to lay in another “track” of mouth animation (e.g. from the Talk Designer in Poser) and another for blinks. That was about the limit of the success in Poser, with limited testing on A3, V4 and M4, and La Femme. Note that for Poser you have to add enough frames first (i.e. 3000) otherwise the .PZ2 will only animate the default ‘first 30 frames’ and you will likely get a ‘nodding dog’.
So… I was idly expecting F-clone to only target the older DAZ/Poser characters, but I found the reverse. It works on Genesis 3 to 8. The Star 2.0 toon figure (G3) also works very well.
Add eye-blinks to G3 with the free EyeBlink Plugin which writes a timeline for them.
For $33 and with very easy .PZ2 output, it may be worth trying the free trial if you need to make long facial animations for your G3-G8. It also has sliders for smoothing and boosting, and for targeting of “toony faced” characters. With better light, in a proper mini-studio, and with calibration, you may find it has value for more expressive / subtle animations too. Perhaps even lipsync, though there are likely better tools for that if you’re serious about story-and-dialogue movie-making.
The .PZ2 files are human-readable text, so a little converter utility seems possible.
Incidentally, it seems there’s no cheap/free software that can input any still picture or short video clip of an expressive face, and then pop out a .BVH which can be dropped onto a 3D character so that they take the same expression(s). Perhaps there should be? Unless perhaps it’s actually in F-clone and I just haven’t found that feature yet?
Update: Tested on Windows 7 with the same webcam using older Lifecam 3.22 drivers (possibly geared to Win 7?). Seems to work much better even in low light. Note also that F-clone will only launch from the C: drive, so if you have problems launching that may be it.
Update: If anyone was thinking of making a converter script, here are the actor labels that are in the .PZ2 file. Here we see why mouth is not affected when applied to a Poser figure. All the action is going on in the lips and jaw.
actor head
actor lowerJaw
actor lowerFaceRig
actor lNasolabialLower
actor rNasolabialLower
actor lNasolabialMouthCorner
actor rNasolabialMouthCorner
actor lLipCorner
actor lLipLowerOuter
actor lLipLowerInner
actor LipLowerMiddle
actor rLipLowerInner
actor rLipLowerOuter
actor rLipCorner
actor LipBelow
actor Chin
actor lCheekLower
actor rCheekLower
actor BelowJaw
actor lJawClench
actor rJawClench
actor upperFaceRig
actor rBrowInner
actor rBrowMid
actor rBrowOuter
actor lBrowInner
actor lBrowMid
actor lBrowOuter
actor CenterBrow
actor MidNoseBridge
actor lEyelidInner
actor lEyelidUpperInner
actor lEyelidUpper
actor lEyelidUpperOuter
actor lEyelidOuter
actor lEyelidLowerOuter
actor lEyelidLower
actor lEyelidLowerInner
actor rEyelidInner
actor rEyelidUpperInner
actor rEyelidUpper
actor rEyelidUpperOuter
actor rEyelidOuter
actor rEyelidLowerOuter
actor rEyelidLower
actor rEyelidLowerInner
actor lSquintInner
actor lSquintOuter
actor rSquintInner
actor rSquintOuter
actor lCheekUpper
actor rCheekUpper
actor Nose
actor lNostril
actor rNostril
actor lLipBelowNose
actor rLipBelowNose
actor lLipUpperOuter
actor lLipUpperInner
actor LipUpperMiddle
actor rLipUpperInner
actor rLipUpperOuter
actor lLipNasolabialCrease
actor rLipNasolabialCrease
actor lNasolabialUpper
actor rNasolabialUpper
actor lNasolabialMiddle
actor rNasolabialMiddle
actor lEye
actor rEye
However, f-Clone can live-broadcast the following data via a websocket…
Head rotation X
Head rotation Y
Head rotation Z
Brow Left UP
Brow Left Down
Brow Right UP
Brow Right Down
Brow Centering
Brow outer left down
Brow outer right down
Eye Close Left
Eye Close Right
Mouse Open [he means mouth]
Mouse Left Smile
Mouse Right Smile
Mouse Left Spread
Mouse Right Spread
Mouse Left Frawn [he means frown]
Mouse Right Frawn
Mouse Left Centering
Mouse Right Centering
Cheek Left UP
Cheek Right UP
Left Eye Rotation X
Left Eye Rotation Y
Left Eye Rotation Z
Right Eye Rotation X
Right Eye Rotation Y
Right Eye Rotation Z
The .CSV output also has the same labels, though the .FBX appears to have the Genesis 3 labels. Thus it may be possible to make a .CSV to Poser .PZ2 converter. There is a csv_to_bvh.py for Blender which looks a promising converter template, though it fails in Poser 11 and VSC – it appears it can only run from Blender due to its need for the import BYP module. There is also a csv.to.bvh converter script, which seems to be in the R language?
But since there are now Websocket clients for Python the F-clone software could be a way of driving a Poser face in real-time in the viewport. f-Clone can output a real-time mo-cap stream via a websocket.
Posted in Companion software, DAZ Studio, Freebies, Real-time animation, Spotted in the News
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DAZ Studio to Blender 2.8 is a somewhat interesting possibility, re: getting “free real-time rendering” of a static scene in open source software. Without the $1,000 cost of an RTX graphics card + new PSU for real-time ray-tracing (now supported in the latest DAZ Studio). Or the faffing around and cost of converting figures for real-time in iClone.
Another reason you might want to do this it to get the real-time NPR comics-making possibilities of Blender’s Eevee. Although Eevee-with-toon-shaders is still very much a work-in-progress, and seems likely to remain so for a few years yet. I suspect that “really real-time” options like U-Render may yet overtake Eevee, using OpenGL real-time rendering that’s i) not shackled to a game-engine; and ii) is graphics-card agnostic. While advanced OpenGL may never give iRay-quality results on DAZ characters, even with a good texture conversion-script, one imagines that the NPR tooning capabilities should be comparable to those of a mature Eevee.
DAZ to Blender:
Anyway, the best three DAZ to Blender bridge options I can find at the end of 2019 appear to be:
* The Japanese DAZtoBlender8 is $15 on GumRoad and also on Booth priced in Japanese Yen. Dated August 2019. Is specifically designed to take Genesis 8 figures into Blender 2.8 and higher. Seems to be made by a very dedicated Japanese guy, looks like it works well, and can handle animations and geografts. Has some basic English translation on the videos and there’s a PDF manual in English with screenshots.
* The free Diffeomorphic: Daz Importer version 1.4. Import static .DUF scene/character files into Blender, though some texture tweaking is to be expected after import. The 1.4 version is dated August 2019, and is said to work with Blender 2.8.
* The free mcjTeleBlenderFBX, dated 6th October 2019. But it’s not ideal. Note that the maker admits that… “By default the FBX import/export process messes the animation and the materials are poor”.
One could also do a simple OBJ export of a posed character. Then spend lots of time wrangling materials in Blender.
Posted in DAZ Studio, Poser, Special Offers and Discounts, Spotted in the News
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A DAZ Store mega $5 sale is on now. Mountains of stuff is very heavily discounted to $5, mostly for older characters and Genesis. Including the M3 base and his Brom Morphs. I went through 80 pages of $5 items, 80% of them newly discounted.
My haul…
Michael 3 Millennium Beard.
M3 Creatures Combo.
3 Piece Suit for M3.
Daedalus Sky Mercenary for M3 (airship/steampunk outfit).
Steam Voyager airship. (DAZ with G8 poses, but includes .OBJs)
Max Muscles for M4 (character).
Country Courtier for David (can be converted via CrossDresser).
The 2012 CMU Ecstasy Motion BVH release v1.0: CMU_EcstasyMotion_BVH-Poser-friendly-2012.zip (138Mb .ZIP, expands to 383Mb).
In summer 2012 Chris Calef of BrokeAssGames used his Ecstasy Motion software to correct and clean the full set of CMU’s 2,600 motion-capture files, targeting for Poser, DAZ Studio and others. These motion files had been freely released into the public-domain by Carnegie Mellon University. Chris worked with a 2010 DAZ Studio friendly, “hip-corrected” set of these CMU files, which had already been produced. Chris’s release further cleaned and rectified the files: re-sampling at 30 fps instead of the original 120 fps; removing data for fingers, eyes, buttocks if the animation didn’t use them; and trimming back the over-specified joint rotation data. This work reduced the file set from a huge 5.12 Gb down to just 380 Mb.
So far as I’m aware, this is the latest Poser/DAZ-friendly set of these useful BVH motions. The .ZIP has a text list of the motions, which are grouped as folders by type of motion. So far as I know there there is not yet a handy visual-preview PDF catalog of the CMU library that looks like this…
Thus, some trial and error is required. Finding ‘swordfight’ is easy, but seeking a ‘walk’ gives you a huge range of choices and no visual previews. In which case, it’s a case of “try it and see”.
Update: Shriinivas has an animated directory at Github.
Import of a BVH into Poser is fairly simple:
1. Load your character to a starting T-pose, or use a preset to restore the default T-pose if they load with some fancier pose. Ensure the character’s BODY remains selected, and that you haven’t then accidentally grabbed a light or a bit of clothing.
2. Top Menu | File | Import BHV. Zoom the camera out. (Sadly there is no drag-and-drop of a BVH… maybe in Poser 12?)
3. Top Window | Window menu | Animation Palette.
4. Scrub along the opened Animation timeline. Usually the starting and ending segments are just the performer getting started or coming to a halt.
5. When you have found a pose you like, zoom in and view it from various angles. For more toony characters you want want to make the foot angle and head-tilt a little more believable, if needed.
6. Frame the character up for the Library thumbnail picture. Switch to the character’s existing poses folder in Library | Poses. Save the pose as a single frame animation. Poser will include a thumbnail preview picture for the pose.
I had success with Nursoda characters, as well as stock V4, M4 etc.
Especially useful for comics, as you can quickly scrub through the equivalent of 100 poses, and just choose the best. Rather than laboriously trying one pose after the other picked from store pose-sets.
I’m fairly sure it’s just as easy for DAZ Studio. Note, however, that in 2010 it was said of the DAZ conversion that… “The new conversion is for the DAZ 3rd-generation and 4th-generation characters such as Aiko 3, Aiko 4, Victoria 3, Victoria 4, Michael 3, Michael 4”. A quick search shows someone trying a dance on Genesis 2, way back, and failing — so the BVHs may not suit the later Genesis line of figures. That said, Genesis 1 apparently had a lot of the V4 rigging left in her and so the first Genesis may work better.
It’s that time of the month again, and here’s my survey of the new DAZ and Poser content which caught my eye during October 2019.
Science-fiction:
The Matrix-style outfit, dForce Tepes Outfit for Genesis 8 Male.
Free Superfly MC6 materials for AppleJack’s Futuristic Base 2. Futuristic Base 2 shipped for free with the Poser 11.2 official megabundle.
Also the free Funky Sofa for Poser, for those needing additional futuristic sci-fi furniture for their Futuristic Base 2.
The unusual Voxelized for G8M and G8F.
Need a sci-fi desert creature, as an alternative to a camel? The new Camezard HD for DAZ Studio.
Where’s your Camezard going to take you? Why, to 1971s’s lost city of the Technomages of course…
And beyond the door… perhaps the Spacequalle…
Or the cool $10 Skull, pitched as sci-fi but also easily adapted for steampunk-ery…
Steampunk and dieselpunk:
The Count Outfit for Genesis 8 Male. I like the dForce folds on the trousers. There’s also a short ‘Musketeer’ type cape.
My Edwardian Hair for Genesis 8 Female. Fancy up-do styles suitable for steampunk.
Long gloves with wrinkles/folds for G3F and G8F. That’s something you don’t see every day. Comes with three fold presets.
Nor do you see a dForce Fur Coat everyday. For G8F, using strand-based hair. Just the thing to keep you warm on your airship or in your flying car.
Coflek-gnorg’s retro Flying Car for Poser and DAZ.
Fantasy:
Prae-Bramble Crown For V4, M4 and La Femme, with nice shaping and detail on the tips. Also has a G3 and G8 version.
The free Grizzlymen Morph Package for Genesis 3 and 8 Males. 98 presets for designing stylised fantasy male heads.
Storybook:
Scamp The Fox – Plushies 2.0, plus poses and action-movie hero poses.
BBarbs continues her series of believable young child poses for G8F, with new kiss a horse/dragon and whirling around poses, suited for storybook tales.
5 Toadstool Lane, a makeover for 3 Raven Court and its Expansion Pack. Trees and ravens not included.
The low-poly Country Cottage could provide the bemused neighbours for 5 Toadstool Lane, in distant pictures of the street.
Halloween Pie for G8F and Expression presets. An unusual prop that would lend itself to a Hansel & Gretel type fairy-story.
Grimalkin for the HiveWire House Cat. Grimalkin was an old British folk-name for a big old ‘king among the cats’.
Haunted House Pro for Poser and newly updated for DAZ. As classic Haunted Houses go, this is one of the best I’ve seen in 3D.
Web your haunted house with the free Mystics Spiderwebs (Dforce) for DAZ Studio.
Historical:
dForce Gunslinger for Genesis 8 Male and additional textures. Possibly also useful for Doctor Who (the classic ‘Tennant years’) or Sherlock Holmes type fan-art. For a more Matrix-style trenchcoat, see the top of this post.
Photo Props: Stick Collection. Lots of uses here, from Old Master paintings where an old peasant is carrying a basket of sticks through an icy wood, to a big stack of brushwood around the feet of a witch, to clutter for your prehistoric village.
A free Ancient Minoan vase.
Landscapes and plants:
Howie Farkes has developed a UltraTrees – Realistic Tree System for DAZ Studio. The pack has 24 tree models and instancing is used to “place 1000s of branchlets on the tree model, giving lifelike foliage density without the overhead of needing millions of polygons”. They certainly look good.
Wild Flowers – Water Plants Vol 2. Duckweed and other surface plants, as transmapped geometry rather than flat textures. Likely to be useful for small scenes of frogs, dragonflies, dancing water-nymphs and the like. Possibly also doomed pre-Raphaelite maidens.
Rocky terrain for Vue. A huge Vue-sized landscape of big mounded rock-domes and scrubby desert between them.
Somewhat similar for DAZ Studio is the smaller Desert Depression, with a more of an Australian or Southern Africa feel to it.
Autumn Decor Bundle 2. It’s not often you see a vase of Chinese Lanterns modelled, but here they are, albeit at $15.
Scripts, shaders and utilities:
UHD Fur Builder for DAZ Studio. Interesting new shaders, promising fur-look materials without a hefty render-time. A Merchant resource. It would be interesting to see how good these can look on some cats.
MDBridge for Poser Beta. Interfaces Poser with Marvelous Designer 7 (digital-clothing design-and-cut software).
Bring Us Together for DAZ Studio. There’s an over-complicated description and video, but as far as I can figure it out… this could be a very useful mover-script set. You’ve loaded in three or four items, they’ve loaded way off-stage, you have no idea where they are… and you just want them all moved to be right in front of the camera. That seems to be what it’s about.
There’s also a free version of this, which apparently is “automatic”. One to test soon.
La Femme CrossDresser License for “La Femme Pro – 1.1 Pro Base Figure for Poser 11”. Quickly convert clothes for La Femme, from hundreds of other figures. The CrossDresser 4.0 software, that does the conversion, is free.
Tutorials:
3D Printing : Best Practices and Approaches using DAZ Studio and ZBrush.
That’s it! More picks next month.
I recently finally got around to installing the latest DAZ Studio version 4.12.0.8x beta.
iRay is definitely significantly faster. I use the Scene Optimizer plugin + the CPU, for iRay renders to screen-size (1200px tall). Contrary to popular belief, you don’t actually need a Nvidia graphics card to run iRay. The latest DAZ Studio makes this approach significantly easier, integrating iRay RTX 2019.1.3 — which the Nvidia developers have stated on their dev-blog runs fine on non-RTX cards and should also give a 2x speedup of CPU-only rendering of iRay. In my tests, it’s definitely faster.
The very-very latest 4.12.1.16 (15th October) even integrates “iRay RTX 2019.1.4”. No speed-improvements there though, just bug-fixes, according to the iRay 1.4 release notes.
Also interesting, in the most recent releases of DAZ Studio, is the Strand-Based Hair. This seems to be production-ready now, judging by this Store product preview of the just-released Plushies 2.0: Scamp The Fox from Lady Littlefox…
It’ll be interesting to see what sort of render-time hit this fur type makes, if any, and if render-time increases with strand-length / curliness or not. Also how it compares on render-time with a Look At My Hair preset, and with Poser’s Hair Room fur.
Not happy with the new launch “splash” screen, in the latest DAZ Studio 4.12.x?
Top menu | Edit | Preferences | Interface will change it.
The Reality plugin for Poser and DAZ has kindly been made open source by its developer Paolo Ciccone, who has worked on it so long and diligently…
“…I decided to release Reality as an Open Source Software (OSS) covered by the very permissible BSD License. I hope that this will inspire other developers to pick up the project and update it.”
Does this mean the current plugin is now free? No, the existing retail packages and their licencing serials / ping-server stay in place for now. But Paolo continues…
“I hope that over time new versions of Reality will be made and that the first thing that the developers will do is the removal of the DRM [digital rights management, i.e.: serial numbers] code. Once that is done and everybody will have a chance to download the DRM-free version, then I will shut down this website.”
So free versions are coming, if someone with super-skillz is willing to spend a long weekend making, compiling and testing them. Hopefully this will mean a working Reality plugin for Poser 11.2 (it broke with 11.2, though I hear there was a third-party Windows fix) and the forthcoming Poser 12. In fact, Renderosity might consider bringing Reality into Poser 12 as a standard-issue render plugin, now that it’s fully open. It shouldn’t be that much work to fix it for 11.2, even if they don’t want to hook it up to the latest version of the free LUX renderer.
Update: free Poser 11.2.x fix available to run Reality.
There’s a new free billboard import script for DAZ Studio users, Load Image as Plane. This automatically imports your image and places it on a correctly sized 2D billboard. (Doing it the old way was a bit complicated and fiddly).
I couldn’t quickly find a good picture to illustrate them in DAZ, but here’s an indicative visual from SketchUp. They look much the same in DAZ…
As you can see here, you need to ensure a clean cut-out, and that you don’t have a colour fringe lingering around the edges of your cutout.
I see that the DAZ Store also has the Billboard Plugin currently on sale at $10. This has your billboards “always align to the user. Works automatically with all cameras”. In other words, your billboards will always face the camera.
Since billboards are flat 2D and are ready-rendered, they can speed up scenes. They’re also known as “2D cutouts”, “alpha planes”, “faceme elements”, “camera-facing planes”, and as “fog planes” when their picture is of semi-transparent fog. Commonly used for render-time hogs such as trees or waves, to have big crowds in the back of your scene, for fog and mist, or FX such as lightning bolts.
They tend not to play nicely with Preview (OpenGL) mode, as I seem to recall that the box around the element is usually shown. But Poser Comic-book Preview users might experiment there, re: pre-tooned hair as a 2D plane.
A Poser or DAZ Studio user may find they want to un-zip multiple .ZIP files. Such as, for instance, a mix of store-downloads and freebie .ZIPs accumulated over a period of several weeks. The default behaviour of most ZIP utilities is to extract each .ZIP into its own folder. You may thus end up with 50 new folders. This is fine, if you want to carefully cut-paste from each folder to assemble a unified runtime, checking things as you go, and then merge that with your main runtime. That’s the best way to do it if your new content is from a wide range of sources, and you need to visually check each one for packaging problems.
But… let’s say you have all the Poser 11.2 free content .ZIP files downloaded. In this case you know that their folder structures are all going to be viable and all be the same. So you don’t need to manually check and re-sort. In that case you may want the popular WinRAR utility, because it can do what 7-Zip can’t — extract multiple .ZIPs into a single unified folder. Here’s the setting to tell it to do that…
(For multiple 3D Warehouse Collada .ZIPs you also need to tick “Rename” when the ‘overwrite?’ prompt appears, as many use the same model.dae file-name).
Then, once you have the unified mega-runtime containing your new content, you simply copy the ../runtime (or in some cases the ../content folder containing the ..runtime below it) and paste it into your existing main ../runtime or ../content folder as required. My main ../runtime folder is under My Documents, which means that Windows is happy to merge stuff into it.
Sadly it’s impossible to have a single .zip extract just its multiple runtime folders, combine them into one, while also retaining its own sub-folder structure. For instance…
|
fluffybunny/runtime/
|
/textures/
/libraries
/geometries
|
fluffysquirrel/runtime/
|
/textures/
/libraries
/geometries
|
fluffybear/runtime/
/textures/
/libraries
/geometries
|
To a unified single combined /runtime/ folder, thus:
/runtime/
|
/textures/
/libraries
/geometries
I’ve spent hours trawling through Z-zip, WinRAR, Powershell, and others. Nothing on earth will do it.
New Poser and DAZ users should know that it’s possible to tell your software to use multiple runtimes. You’re not restricted to just the default ones for your content (which may be in a place that Windows refuses to cut-paste into, or which causes over-write problems on a Mac). It may be more practical to have two different runtimes for i) your core shipped-with-the-software content and ii) your store-bought/freebies content.
Also, you can have the DAZ Studio runtime show up in Poser, though not all the content you see there can be imported to Poser’s stage via the DSON plugin. Likewise, DAZ Studio users can point the software to the Poser runtime, though they may not always be able to successfully load a bit of content from it (mostly due to Poser-only texture formats, I recall).
It’s time for another pick of the month’s new 3D content releases, with a focus on DAZ Studio, Poser and Vue content. As usual I’m not featuring freebies that don’t offer commercial use. The CG Trader store timed out on me yet again, so they don’t feature here. No great loss, as they seem to be loosing the race with the new ArtStation store.
Science-fiction:
Urban Future 7 by Stonemason. A big quality scene with a great many camera opportunities, as usual from Stonemason. Shown here without textures, so you can see the mesh detailing.
Reptiloid Deepspace Hunter as an .OBJ only.
Rule them all with the Hover Throne for Poser. There’s also a new 17th century Royal Throne canopy that might be adapted to make it a futuristic match. Gotta keep the rain off your billion-dollar Hover Throne!
Steampunk:
Blunderbuss flintlocks for Poser and DAZ with high detail.
Vintage Weather Predictors (fluid barometers) for Poser and DAZ Studio.
Cape and skirt in Marvelous Designer, a merchant resource source-file for just $2. The same seller also has trousers in a similar style. I’m assuming this is not too close to being fan-art from some Japanese anime.
A free lamp, with a valvepunk look. Would also suit a stylish mad-scientist lab.
Clothing and wardrobes:
Le Vestiaire a complete Art Deco style wardrobe and dressing room, with Egyptomania theatre-style dressing table. For DAZ Studio, and it requires the Modular Dressing Room.
Related, and possibly an annexe room for the Vestiaire, is the new Mirror Rooms.
A free morphing Hat prop for La Femme, the flagship Poser female character.
Free Autumn/Fall Long Boots for La Femme.
dForce Halter Mini Dress for Genesis 8 Female has a top part that could be matched with suitable dark trousers (pants) for a more business-office look, with the high neck of the top offsetting the mundane ‘office look’.
Characters and poses:
New at CGBytes, the unusual Moody, Sulky and Depressed for G3 and G8, in DAZ Studio.
See also the new Z Utility Simply Bored Poses and Expressions for Genesis 3 and 8.
Liven up your spoiled and sulky kids with the free Rotting Zombie for Poser, based on a combo of legacy free-bundle characters such as Jessi.
Storybook:
Hog and Barrel Pub Exterior, which of course resembles a hobbit house. Unfortunately it’s too smart and would take quite a bit of work on the door to get it looking like a more rustic hobbit-hole, but you’ve got the basics here. Maybe someone will make a less ‘glam’ makeover for it, with the door surround gone, a finer and rougher wattle-and-daub crack texture on the outer wall, and a less square chimney. Perhaps also hedges instead of dry-stone walls.
BBarbs continues her free series of realistic free child poses for G8F. Including useful storybook poses such as “I found a tiny beetle” and “I’m flying”…
dForce CB Fantasy Suit for Genesis 8 Female, for DAZ Studio, which with a longer skirt might suit your ‘Good Fairy’ needs in a fairytale storybook.
Ali Baba dForce Clothing and Hair for Genesis 8 Male. The character showing it seems to be the new Jeremy for Genesis 8 Male?
Historical:
Classic Cowboy Poses For Genesis 8 Male. Including gunfight and hand-to-hat poses for the dForce Caballero Outfit. See also the new ZK Country Boots.
51 Panel Van for DAZ Studio. With junk/repair-yard poses for it.
A free set of Joe’s Old Vases for Poser, in a prehistoric style. Also Bowl Primitives and a simple Joe’s Cave.
A big set of free Explosion Effects for Poser, originally from Vanishing Point. Might be a bit old and blurry nowadays, but it would be something for digital overpainters to work with in big battle scenes.
A free Medieval River Quarry. In .OBJ and .FBX, with textures.
Bareback Barbarian Action poses, for charging prehistoric and ancient cavalry. Not something you see everyday, though I expect some older American Indian and horse sets will have similar poses.
Bacia shaving bowl helmet is a curious multi-use medieval freebie for your castle besieging soldiery.
Landscape:
A fine new Medieval Small Village Tower by Dante78 for Poser. Also in .OBJ format.
Christian Hecker (‘Tigaer’) is now on the thriving ArtStation store and has a new 8k Heightfield Terrain & Materials – The Ghost, “best used with Vue or Terragen”.
Storm Shelter with a detailed cellar below. Could be paired with the new FG Dusty Basement with Poses for Genesis 8 Female.
Halloween Lantern from 1971s, for Poser. The background Swamp Tree is not included.
High Mountain Portal with a slightly low-poly look and slightly stylised textures, that may make it especially useful for over-painters of 3D renders.
Animals:
dForce Hair for the Woolly Mammoth by AM.
Also dForce Hair for Brown Bear by AM.
CWRW Lion Family LAMH Presets. Requiring quite a chain of dependencies, the Hivewire Big Cat, the Lion Family, then the LAMH plugin. Renderosity also has a CWRW White Lion for it.
For a rather more humble kitty, free Poses for the original Poser Cat, which can be found in the legacy freebies .ZIPs for Poser 11.2. Many will already have this venerable old moggie, which has been around for many years now. Still, tooned or as a base for some Hair Room fur experiments this kitty can still work for some creative purposes.
A Sloth for $30. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a sloth in Poser or DAZ Studio. This is for 3DS Max, but you might be able to get it over to DAZ or Poser as a pose-able .FBX file? Not sure if the hair would port over with it, though.
Songbird Remix’s Peafowl of the World, and Songbird Remix Peafowl Variants pack.
3D Underwater Fauna: Flowing Jellyfish, with light emission.
Plugins, scripts and utilities:
Face Transfer Unlimited. “Create an authentic 3D version of yourself or others with accurate skin tone and shading, by simply uploading a photograph in DAZ Studio”. “The free version of Face Transfer is included” in the very latest DAZ Studio 4.12 for Windows, and this is the paid download version. I’ve no idea if it also adapts the character’s bone-structure to the photo automatically, or handles the fitting of the eyes well, but I assume so.
The free Eyes Dilate for Genesis 8 Female and a G8F EyeBlink Plugin for DAZ Studio. The latter writes a repeating natural ‘blink’ motion to DAZ Studio’s animation timeline.
Free Superfly hair shaders for any dynamic hair made or grown with Poser’s Hair Room. Can also be used on animal / creature fur grown via the Hair Room.
Hide My Parts in Poser. A simple free script which pops up a panel to hide or show multiple body-parts.
P3DO opening fix for the Poser 11.2 update. P3dO is a third-party Poser library manager alternative.
Tutorials:
Character Development for Visual Stories made with 3D.
That’s it. More picks next month!
Jack Tomalin has a new iRay Render Server remote ‘farm’ service.
Pay as you go – $0.40 a minute
or
$50 a month for an ‘unlimited’ plan.
Uploads can be done from within DAZ Studio. It’s a new service and the page says that trial accounts are being accepted.