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hahah Definitely rest your eyes - you've made a lot of different settings recipes and great renders here! Thank you, my friend! :D
Oh odd! I've not come across this issue (I don't have this character so I can't check it out) but it looks like in your "before"/default image that there are visible seams on this character. It's subtle with the default settings but you can see it on the upper thigh. So that's definitely an issue with the character and not Altern8. You might check the DIM to see if there has been update for her. If not maybe contact the PA who made her and see if he can update the product. She's an adorable character and is on my wish list. Their other character Minami is one of my very favorite characters, she's wonderful! So I'm sure if the PA is made aware of the issue with this character that they'd fix it. :)
Edit - I just checked Minami and she has the same issue - It's SUPER subtle, but it's noticeable under certain lighting and render settings.
Spencer for G3F
Here's another dark skinned character (from Deva3D, available at Rendo) that can be a bit challenging to light. Her skin is incredible, but the light bounces right off of it and it's hard to get good definition. I wanted to see what Altern8 could do with it. She looks good with a number of the character presets, but best (imo) with Monique's preset. Her skin requires spectral rendering when used out of the box. I left it on for the Altern8 render as well to see how it would look. I have a third render going right now without spectral rendering and it looks fine. I'll post that in the morning.
As always, no postwork, same lights and settings, click and zoom in for a lot more detail. Lighting is Energy Flow by Fabiana with a pink front spotlight and two pale gold rim lights. The best way to see the difference betwen the two is to open them up in separate tabs and flip between them.
Defaults with Required Spectral Rendering
Altern8 Monique No Maps + Tweaks, Spectral Rendering (Not Required)
Recipe:
Altern8 Monique 8 Presets + Tweaks, No Spectral Rendering
I don't see any difference with or without the spectral rendering but the point is you don't need to use it once you apply the Altern8 shaders. It's only required with Spencer's default settings. So far she's the only character I've seen that's needed it.
Nas-t Boyz on G8M first pic no alter8, second with alternate
How cool! I love how it turned out! I think she looked a bit too smooth and waxy before. The settings look good on her - nicely done!
I'm not usually into horror images but I have to admit that looks pretty cool. Maybe try the included Eye Socket setting. :) Scary guy - I like how it rendered!
The more I use it, the more I like it - great shaders.
Below is Aarna for G8F by Essentials rendered with BOSS Pro lights,
before ...
... and after applying Altern 8 with V8 no maps preset.
Thanks! I like the added definition to the skin. The reflections on it were obscuring her features a bit. I'm also happy that I was able to get very close to the original skin tone with the new SSS tint presets. She looked good with quite a few of them, so it's really according to taste. I knew someone in basic training with skin like this. She was gorgeous, but hard to photograph with that beautifully dark, reflective skin.
I waited nearly a week before buying Altern8 despited being pretty excited about it. Unfortunately I have spent hours trying to make it work without success. I understand the characters it is used for and the process according to the help icons, however, it doesn't apply. I can apply a map or mapless preset to the skin and it works fine, but if I try to apply it to the gens, it does not do anything. I have pressed every button and yes, yes, yes, I have the anatomy selected in the scene and I even selected it in the surfaces tab. It still does nothing. How do I know it does NOTHING. Because if I undo one step it undoes the previous action that I did. If I copied the torso map in the surfaces tab and pasted them to the anatomy surface it works using the alternate UV map, but I know that's not how it is supposed to be done and that is far too much work. As a note I applied one of the mapless presets to a G3 figure and it worked as I expected, then I tried to apply the monique mapless preset and it changed but did not become very dark so I know it was not the correct settings. I'm wondering if you cannot put one map over another. Regardless, the fact that the maps wont apply to gens for G3 or G8 even Aiko 8 which I tried initially. I hope there is a simple explaination even if I am embarrased to see it.
You need to use the Gen Shaders on the genitals, the Character Presets are for the base skin. Take a look beneath the main folder, there's a huge subfolder of them that match the character presets and all the adjustments:
Thank you, but I already did that. I tried it from within the content library and also under the shader presets for the surfaces. The gen shader doesn't do anything. As I said even the undo doesn't recognize that an action had taken place.
Did the lighting change as well? Second image is blown out on parts of the left side of the image. Hard to believe that Dive Shaders change lighting as well.
I can verify that they do indeed work because I'm testing the new presets on the characters and gens right now. I have used the current ones (in the release) multiple times and watched the settings change as I applied them. I just did it again and they worked fine. Perhaps there's an issue with your installation?
Two suggestions:
ETA: Gen shader test on Awan HD for Michael 7 is on my Deviant Art page (NSFW)
also I just noticed that your version must be different because there is no Karyssa 8 gen shader in what I have, as far as I knew she did not even have a gen map. Maybe I have a different version with a glitch. Too be clear NONE of the gen shaders work on ANY character
Have you tried the suggestions? Can't hurt. Also- what version of DAZ are you using? Shouldn't matter, but good idea to check anyhow.
I have the purchased version and the test version. I will load the purchased version to another computer where it isn't installed and test to be sure.
I mean, have you tried restarting DAZ? Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling Altern8?
I'm working on loading the purchased version up to my older computer to see if I can replicate the issue you're having. Bear with me- I have to update DIM on that one and download a fresh copy of Altern8 over metered satellite internet (yay.)
sorry about the confusion, your comment did not refresh or I just missed it. As you suggested I restarted and reinstalled the product but its still the same. I'm sorry you are going through so much trouble to see if that is the issue.
No problem, better safe than sorry. I've been in IT for years and am used to doing tech support, LOL. Let's see if we can figure out the problem. Something somewhere isn't happy, we just have to figure out where.
I did check out your deviant page with Awan and he looks great. As I mentioned before I'm wondering if your verision os different as mine has no karyssa 8 gen shader. The website does not say one is included either so I'm wondering if it is a country difference. I'm in the USA, not sure where you are from. If it is a different file you may not be able to duplicate my issue.
Thanks! And I'm in the US too. Yes, I have the test versions on this computer (my super DAZ computer!), but also have the commercial version installed too. I'll try it on the older computer, (which used to be my DAZ computer until a few months ago.) It doesn't have any of them installed.
Ok, I'm upstairs on my older computer. I have downloaded and installed a new purchased copy of Altern8 through DIM (I don't use Connect.) My DAZ version on this computer is 4.10.0.107.
I loaded V8 and her gens, then loaded the Altern8 V8 shaders along with the matching Altern8 gen shaders. They both loaded fine. I'm attaching a screenshot of some of the settings, before and after. You can see that the settings do change, and I can hit the "undo" button and unload them. I did a basic render and it looks fine. I've put that on the DA page.
Gen textures before applying Altern8 shaders:
Gen textures after applying Altern8 shaders:
DAZ version and what is showing in my viewport:
My guess is something is preventing the preset from loading the changes- sounds like scripting. Either your DAZ installation or the Altern8 installation just isn't quite right. Do you have this issue with any other products? If so, you might want to update or reinstall DAZ. If not, try uinstalling Altern8, deleting it from DIM and downloading a new copy.
I can use a preset on the anatomy or cut and paste maps, or copy settings to using map manager, and of course loading standard gen maps. This says the figure and daz must be ok, just the presets. I will try and download it again on the chance that it was corrupted somehow. I just wonder if it has to do with my library location. There could be a situation where this program won't find it under certain conditons. I think that is not the case though as it does locate the character maps fine. As a note I was playing around with the maps no maps and I realize the point of all that and now it makes me just a bit annoyed that they dropped the karyssa gen mat as I like to use her skin on other characters.
Library location might have something to do with it. On both of my computers, I have DAZ installed on C with "My Library" located on E since my runtimes are so big.
I'll ask about the Karyssa one. I had it in one of the test versions.
OMG I swear I have done what I just did before but I got it to work. I'm not sure if yoiu have to do this but it would not work unless I had the surfaces open with genetalia selected showing the settings to the right. I had reinstalled a couple times and redownloaded verifying that the files matched. Wait a minute, this time I manually installed with the zip files, that may be the difference. Still it would not do it unless the surfaces were open but at least I don't feel foolish because I'm sure I tried it before. Anyway, thank you for your help, during the frustration it's good to know you have someone who would support you. :)
So sorry you had such a time of it but glad it's working for you now.
Wow! It looks like I missed a lot while I was away!
For the gens - make sure you have the gens selected in both the Scene Tab and the Surfaces Tab with the gens maps loaded. Then you should be able to apply any of the gens shaders.
I was about to post what I thought was your problem, but you've found it on your own. The Gens "shaders" are actual shaders, and all shaders require you have the object selected in the Scene and the material zone(s) selected in the Surfaces->Editor to apply. Because they are shaders, they will work on any material zone, which is why they are also useful for applying settings on non-G8/G3 objects. The other icons are Material Presets, and require the specific material zones to apply.
I'm truly sorry I didn't read this thread sooner. I totally relate to the sense of frustration when nothing you try works as expected. That's happened to me more times than I can count!
I'm glad you finally got it figured out, though.
