mcjTeleBlender:Daz Studio scenes/animations w/Blender's Cycles Engine

Eric dgl fractal art · April 2013

I just decided to try blender today. I have downloaded and installed all the latest versions, but nothing comes over to blender textured. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Eric

3dOutlaw · April 2013

Are you using GPU or CPU in Blender? If GPU, you may be hitting a memory limitation.

Also, do you have collect textures (or materials) checked? If so, there should be a maps folders in the same place as the generated batch file. Check to see they are all in there.

Eric dgl fractal art · April 2013

3doutlaw said:
Are you using GPU or CPU in Blender? If GPU, you may be hitting a memory limitation.
Also, do you have collect textures (or materials) checked? If so, there should be a maps folders in the same place as the generated batch file. Check to see they are all in there.

I am using the GPU and have the maps folder, but nothing is pulling them in to blender.
Thanks,
Eric

mCasual · April 2013

Eric dgl fractal art said:
I just decided to try blender today. I have downloaded and installed all the latest versions, but nothing comes over to blender textured. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Eric

********************************************************************************
* UPDATE * * UPDATE * * UPDATE * * UPDATE * * UPDATE * * UPDATE *
******************************************************************************** this morning i added a new version of mcjBlendBot that needs to be used
for the latest beta versions of blender 2.66.3 and above the file is named mcjBlendBotForBlender2663AndUp.zip instead of mcjBlendBot https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts/mcjteleblender-for-ds1-2-3-4 people using Blender 2.61 ... 2.66a can continue using mcjBlendBot.zip

-------

the official Blender version currently distributed by http://www.blender.org/download is still version 2.66a

--------

mcjBlendBot is the kit of python scripts used by Blender immediately after the obj import

it takes care of transforming the imported materials into node trees

--------

the problem is that the new Blender completely changed the names of the material nodes
so when the mcjBlendBot scripts tell Blender "hey you make me a BSDF_DIFFUSE node"
Blender says "wah?" because they are now called ShaderNodeBsdfDiffuse

--------

so far i only tested this on Blender 2.66.5 -- i'll conduct more tests -- and may post another update this week

********************************************************************************
* UPDATE * * UPDATE * * UPDATE * * UPDATE * * UPDATE * * UPDATE *
********************************************************************************

mCasual · April 2013

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
presently testing the new mcjBlendBot which worked for
Blender 2.66.5 but is initially not working with 2.66.3

stay tuned
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

as i was saying before my post went *poof*

captain zlog 201304080118

Blender 2.66.3 like 2.66.5 does use new shader node names
so the new mcjBlendBot kit will be required
there's no error on Blender's console
but the note trees ( some say they're called noodles )
are not being built -- luckily the texture images are loaded
so i was able to render image 1

-----------------------------
captain zlog 201304080156

i ran a little script and found the culprit!

see image 2

-----------------------------
captain zlog 201304080203

so the analysis is this

when creating nodes in 2.66.3 and 2.66.5 we must call them names like "ShaderNodeBsdfDiffuse" and "ShaderNodeOutputMaterial""
but when asking "what type of node is it that i'm holding here?" 2.66.5 answers "ShaderNodeOutputMaterial" while Blender 2.66.3 answers "OUTPUT_MATERIAL"

----------------------------
captain zlog 201304080226

here's is the way the upcoming mcjBlendBot will handle the issue

image 3 shows the result


...
    if( nodes[0].type in ["OUTPUT_MATERIAL","ShaderNodeOutputMaterial"] ):
         outNode = nodes[0]
         bsdfNode = nodes[1]
         if( bsdfNode.type not in ["BSDF_DIFFUSE","ShaderNodeBsdfDiffuse"] ):
             print("bsdfNode.type not in ['BSDF_DIFFUSE','ShaderNodeBsdfDiffuse'] ")
             return
    else:
        outNode = nodes[1]
        if( outNode.type not in ["OUTPUT_MATERIAL","ShaderNodeOutputMaterial"] ):
            print("outNode.type not in ['OUTPUT_MATERIAL','ShaderNodeOutputMaterial']")
            return
        bsdfNode = nodes[0]
        if( bsdfNode.type not in ["BSDF_DIFFUSE","ShaderNodeBsdfDiffuse"] ):
            print( "bsdfNode not in ['BSDF_DIFFUSE','ShaderNodeBsdfDiffuse']" )
            return
    print( "we passed the test!" )
    print( "bsdfNode.type " + bsdfNode.type )
    print( "noutNode.type " + outNode.type )
 
test()

----------------------------
captain zlog 201304080248

yep that's what was needed, i can now transfer textured scenes to 2.66.3 and maintain compatibility with 2.66.5

i just have to fix the same issue with the World Environment maps

image 4 is the first 2.66.3 render

——————————————
captain zlog 201304080317

i think i'll make the code universal, meaning it will adapt to the version you run

( so i wont have two versions of mcjBlendBot floating on the net )

image 5 shows a bump map ( changed the strength to 0,1 )

this test made me find out the ShaderNodeMath nodes were not fixed

mCasual · April 2013

note to the 2 or 3 persons who downloaded mcjBlendBotForBlender2663AndUp.zip
it has been replaced by a new "universal" version of mcjBlendBot

mCasual · April 2013

***************************************************************************
* UPDATE * * UPDATE * * UPDATE * * UPDATE * * UPDATE * * UPDATE * * UPDATE *
***************************************************************************
April 7th 2013 8:15 am

this morning i added a new version of mcjBlendBot that needs to be used

for the latest beta versions of Blender 2.66.3 and above

this new version has a bonus, the world environment maps have a texture

coordinate node which lets you spin the world around your scene

****************************************************************************
* UPDATE * * UPDATE * * UPDATE * * UPDATE * * UPDATE * * UPDATE * * UPDATE *
***************************************************************************

daveleitz · April 2013

Over the weekend I reworked my SSS skin shader nodes for DAZ textures in Blender. I think I'm getting closer now, thanks especially to the experiments of people on the Blender Artists website.

One person who calls himself eugenio,jr posted an amazing image of a hand that looked so real. In the discussion that followed, he gave some details about his implementation. He suggested not using a diffuse node at all. Unbelievable, I thought! What happens if I plug in my diffuse texture to the color input of the subsurface node and set the scale to 0.0? It acts almost exactly like a regular diffuse node without any visible scattering. So, I started upping the scale by small amounts: 0.001, 0.002, 0.003... Then I played with the Radius settings. Unbelievable! No need to fuss with mixing diffuse and SSS nodes, and no need for a diffuse shader at all! Also, no special subsurface texture is required. All you need are high quality specular, diffuse, and bump maps.

There was also some relevant discussion over proper handling of specular and bump/displacement. It was suggested that dual glossy nodes could give better realism. But how to implement? I did some tests and looked at some of the more realistic diffuse color textures from my DAZ characters. What I saw is that the top of the skin bump is more glossy than the pits and creases. I would use my bump map to control a mix node between two glossy shaders. The darker areas, representing the pits and creases would favor the glossy shader with a higher roughness. The light parts of the bump map would favor the glossy shader with low roughness. The specular map would still control the overall mix of color and reflection, but it would no longer have a smooth, plasticky sheen.

The problem wih using a simple diffuse shader up until now is that surface bump displacement looks really bad. One can use a tiny amount by multiplying the texture input by 0.003-0.005. That's really too low to give skin proper relief. Unfortunately, it doesn't take much more than that to make your character look like the walking dead! The pits and creases in skin just look too dark when the material nodes calculate displacement on top of a simple diffuse/glossy surface. This was still a problem with my previous attempts to mix diffuse and subsurface scattering nodes. However, basing the skin material on just subsurface scattering eliminates this problem. The pits and creases in the skin are no longer dark. The scattered light helps smooth the colors just enough to permit higher levels of bump mapping. Now it's possible to use the bump texture full strength on the material output. Add in the dual glossy node mix and you have skin that looks like it has real depth.

There was also some discussion at Blender Artists over possible quality differences with progressive and non-progressive rendering. Progressive rendering means that the whole area in the camera or viewport is being rendered at the same time. This can be useful for testing in the viewport, of course. Non-progressive mode renders in rectangles of a set pixel size one section at a time until the specified samples per pixel has been reached. Some people say that non-progressive gives a better look to subsurface scattering. Since SSS is a new feature, perhaps this difference, if it exists, will be worked out in time.

Here are a couple of test renders. In each there is a single sun lamp, no environment light, no AO. They are rendered at 300 spp, non-progressive, no compositing, no post processing (except cropping the screenshot in GIMP). Skin bump textures were used at full strength (passed through an RGB to BW converter node). On the subsurface scattering node, scale was set to 0.004 and radius to 5.0, 1.0, and 0.9. The same settings were used on the eyes and mouth materials. I haven't had a look at the inside of the mouth to see the results, though. I think my node setup is pretty easy to understand, at least compared to some ubershaders made by others. If there's any questions, just ask. :)

mCasual · April 2013

daveleitz68 said:
...

for such a close close-up we're starting to see the need to add peach-fuzz to the skin :)

on the topic of bump maps, when using factors like .001 on 8-bit grey scale images
i'd worry about loss of precision ... maybe it's not the case at all though

but it reminds me, once i was able to greatly improve the quality of displacement maps in Daz Studio
by converting the maps to 16bit

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/3269/

---
you made a great render

--
hope you saw that Blender 2.66.3+ users need the new version of mcjBlendBot

daveleitz · April 2013

Casual said:
daveleitz68 said:
...

for such a close close-up we're starting to see the need to add peach-fuzz to the skin :)

on the topic of bump maps, when using factors like .001 on 8-bit grey scale images
i'd worry about loss of precision ... maybe it's not the case at all though

but it reminds me, once i was able to greatly improve the quality of displacement maps in Daz Studio
by converting the maps to 16bit

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/3269/

---
you made a great render

--
hope you saw that Blender 2.66.3+ users need the new version of mcjBlendBot

Thanks!! Of course, there's really no longer any need to worry about multiplying the bump maps and losing precision anymore, at least with the node setup I posted above. I just used the DS bump textures straight with the optional conversion from RGB to grey scale. (Blender probably does this conversion automatically anyway if you plug an RGB texture 'yellow' socket into a 'grey' displacement socket. I just like to do that in case there's a change in the way things are handled in the node editor in the future.)

Your 16 bit per pixel method is a great idea for adding displacement to props and environments, so I will have a closer look at it.

Eric dgl fractal art · April 2013

Casual said:
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
presently testing the new mcjBlendBot which worked for
Blender 2.66.5 but is initially not working with 2.66.3 stay tuned
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
as i was saying before my post went *poof*
captain zlog 201304080118
Blender 2.66.3 like 2.66.5 does use new shader node names
so the new mcjBlendBot kit will be required
there's no error on Blender's console
but the note trees ( some say they're called noodles )
are not being built -- luckily the texture images are loaded
so i was able to render image 1
-----------------------------
captain zlog 201304080156
i ran a little script and found the culprit!
see image 2
-----------------------------
captain zlog 201304080203
so the analysis is this
when creating nodes in 2.66.3 and 2.66.5 we must call them names like "ShaderNodeBsdfDiffuse" and "ShaderNodeOutputMaterial""
but when asking "what type of node is it that i'm holding here?" 2.66.5 answers "ShaderNodeOutputMaterial" while Blender 2.66.3 answers "OUTPUT_MATERIAL"
----------------------------
captain zlog 201304080226
here's is the way the upcoming mcjBlendBot will handle the issue
image 3 shows the result
...
    if( nodes[0].type in ["OUTPUT_MATERIAL","ShaderNodeOutputMaterial"] ):
         outNode = nodes[0]
         bsdfNode = nodes[1]
         if( bsdfNode.type not in ["BSDF_DIFFUSE","ShaderNodeBsdfDiffuse"] ):
             print("bsdfNode.type not in ['BSDF_DIFFUSE','ShaderNodeBsdfDiffuse'] ")
             return
    else:
        outNode = nodes[1]
        if( outNode.type not in ["OUTPUT_MATERIAL","ShaderNodeOutputMaterial"] ):
            print("outNode.type not in ['OUTPUT_MATERIAL','ShaderNodeOutputMaterial']")
            return
        bsdfNode = nodes[0]
        if( bsdfNode.type not in ["BSDF_DIFFUSE","ShaderNodeBsdfDiffuse"] ):
            print( "bsdfNode not in ['BSDF_DIFFUSE','ShaderNodeBsdfDiffuse']" )
            return
    print( "we passed the test!" )
    print( "bsdfNode.type " + bsdfNode.type )
    print( "noutNode.type " + outNode.type )
 
test()
----------------------------
captain zlog 201304080248
yep that's what was needed, i can now transfer textured scenes to 2.66.3 and maintain compatibility with 2.66.5
i just have to fix the same issue with the World Environment maps
image 4 is the first 2.66.3 render
——————————————
captain zlog 201304080317
i think i'll make the code universal, meaning it will adapt to the version you run
( so i wont have two versions of mcjBlendBot floating on the net )
image 5 shows a bump map ( changed the strength to 0,1 )
this test made me find out the ShaderNodeMath nodes were not fixed

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! This fixed everything.
Casual you are the greatest :)

Thanks,
Eric

daveleitz · April 2013

Today's test image is a work in progress converting Stonemason's Enchanted Forest 2. Unfortunately, this environment does not transfer well with the mcjTB script. I had to manually add in the displacement textures (blue-cyan images) with displacement modifiers. You must use these with subdivision surface to get real vertex displacement. This is far better than simple bump mapping done in the material node editor. You can see the results of displacement in the leaves of the plants, which are really basic low poly meshes. There are two sets of stairs in this environment. The stairs in this render have no displacement texture, but the other stairs do. I left a render of the other stairs running at home and hope to post it later.

Casual, I followed your suggestion about AO. I rendered with a separate AO pass and used GIMP to 'multiply' the render with the AO pass. Then I adjusted with curves and touched up a few spots where tiling textures on the stairs were distracting.

mCasual · April 2013

Note of Caution about Blender 2.66.3

what i observed :

immediately after mcjTeleblender Starts Blender 2.66.3

if i open a Node Editor panel, Blender freezes and is very dead

BUT all hope is not lost

if i start a blender-cycles render, and stop it immediately

then i can open a Node Editor without killing Blender

-

i suspect that Cycles tidies up the node trees upon rendering

and i suspect mcjTeleblender leaves unconnected nodes scattered in node-space and it confuses Blender

i hope to fix this issue before 2.66.3 is widely distributed

-

... it seems to happen when we first bring the Compositing node tree in view
if the node-view panel is visible in the startup scene and it displays the material trees, all is well
if i switch node-view to the compositing ode-trees, it kills blender

...

later that night ...

i used to do

bpy.context.scene.use_nodes = True

to make sure Blender was using nodes
but apparently, in version 2.66.3 that causes problems
and it has to do with the compositing nodes

expecting a solution soon !!

------

mCasual · April 2013

-- Update and New Feature --Tiling ! -- Update and New Feature -- Tiling ! -- Update and New Feature --

this avant-midi (before-noon) i'll post a new version of mcjBlendBot ( the kit of scripts that are used on Blender's side of things )

it fixes an issue that occurred only using Blender (beta) version 2.66.3

and I'll post a new version of mcjTeleblender that transfers texture tiling from Daz Studio to Blender ! ( see image below )

but but this first installment of Tiling will not always work,
it relies on the names of the nodes and materials being preserved
during the import/export process, which doesn't always occur

for the enquiring mind, it looks like this


def setTiling( nodeName, matName, horizontalTiles, horizontalOffset, verticalTiles, verticalOffset ):
    obj = bpy.data.objects[nodeName]
    if( obj ):
        mtrlslt = obj.material_slots[matName]
        if( mtrlslt ):
            mat = mtrlslt.material;
            tree = mat.node_tree
            if( not tree ):
                return
            nodes = tree.nodes
            for coord in nodes :
                if( coord.type in ['ShaderNodeMapping', 'MAPPING'] ):
                    print( coord )
                    coord.scale.x = horizontalTiles
                    coord.translation.x = horizontalOffset
                    coord.scale.y = verticalTiles
                    coord.translation.y = verticalOffset
            
setTiling( "dathing_0", "WallTop", 3, 0, 12, 0 )

later on .... oops not a good idea to do

mtrlslt = obj.material_slots[matName]

better do something like

if matName in obj.material_slots :
    mtrlslt = obj.material_slots[matName]

mCasual · April 2013

tested Blender 2.66.3 and the current official release 2.66a

i'm being careful not to break mcjTeleblender

the release will probably be in the afternoon instead of before noon

mCasual · April 2013

well this will have to wait some more ... tonight ot tomorrow i should post the new version of mcjTeleBlender/mcjBlendBot

but here's a test render ( the wall's bricks and the chair's weaved cane panels had their tiling set in Daz Studio, and the upcoming mcjTeleBlender/mcjBlendBot successfully transferred the tiling to Blender 2.66a

mCasual · April 2013

mcjTeleblender was designed to support non-cycles renderers
( there's cartoony renderers for Blender did you know that? )
so i'll take time to make sure that feature was not lost in today's version

--------
first image

first Blender internal renderer render in a long time
most of it still seems to work! there's only the transparencies
i have to check ( maybe they were not supported? )
but .... Aiko's corneas are correctly transparent

i'll add tiling settings import to the Blender-internal renders too

----------------------

second image shows that

1 - mirror effect is still working but one needs to remember to make the diffuse color of the mirror surface white in Daz Studio

2 - the next version of mcjBlendBot will correctly tint the surfaces with both a diffuse color and a diffuse color map (image)

as you can see Aiko's skin looks better , her clothes and shoes have both a wrinkled-looking gray texture image plus a dark-pink tint - the TV screen got a pink tint because i set the diffuse color to pink -- the TV screen is emitting light (similar to ambient )
--------------

third image ( a few hours later )

1 - repaired transparency

2 - added texture tiling settings ( offsets too )

this was rendered immediately after mcjTeleblender/mcjBlendBot teleported the scene from Daz Studio 3 to Blender 2.66a
no fixing, no manual tweaks ... which means it could be used for animation purposes

i still have to test if it works with Blender 2.61, 2.66.3, 2.66.5, maybe test it too with what's the name ... a cartoony renderer at graphicall.org ...

--------------

4th image, repairing bump maps / vs Blender's Internal render engine

-----

5th image, while we're at it i'll add bump map strength control for the Blender-internal-engine and probably cycles too
Blender's obj importer rejects the Km ( bump strength ) factor found in mtl files, but now, i'm exporting Tiling parameters
through python, so why not do it for bump map strength

the brick floor has a bump (normal) strength of 0.4 here, but bump maps for character skins would look quite scary at that strength

mCasual · April 2013

i briefly thought I'd post a beta version of the new mcjBlendBot / mcjTeleblender kit

but it's better if i make all the tests required to ensure i didn't introduce changes that
are incompatible with Blender 2.61, 2.66a, 2.66.3, 2.66.5
and Daz Studio 1.8, Studio 2.3, Studio 3 and Studio 4.5

so the new new expected release date is this week end or this weekend :)

--------

( it already works well with DS 3.1 & 2.66a ... texture tiling, bump maps strengths are now transferred from DS to Blender Internal renderer and Cycles renderer )

--------

figure 1
the changes to Blender-Internal-Renderer features
did not negatively impact the Blender-Cycles-Renderer features

---------

figure 2
-- matAnim was used in Daz Studio 3 to animate the "vertical offset" of 16 materials
the upcoming mcjTeleblender version can now render this effect

----------

figure 3
... in Blender Internal renders too ... but .... oops ... not clock-wise ... oh, no worries ... i inverted it in the gif animator

---------

figure 4

( thinking out loud )

in DS 3 (and DS 4?) we still have this issue: when two identical props or two identical figures are in the same scene, DS's built in obj exporter ( which is used by mcjTeleblender ) will export the 2 figures with the same "group name", making them harder to work with.
Since the new method used to transfer Tiling and Bump Strengths is base on the node names and the material names
in the Daz Studio scene, the welded figure/props don't get their Tiling/Bump settings or, just 1 of the two gets it.

solution will be .... updating the python scripts so that it looks harder for the materials

though ( i forget when ) i once posted a script to rename nodes in a scene to differentiate them

another factor is that mcjTeleblender uses the figure-welding option of the obj exporter, otherwise they arrive in Blender all cracked and their materials are scattered all over the place

daveleitz · April 2013

This is Stonemason's Enchanted Forest 2, same as in my previous render on this thread but with extensive reworking of materials in Blender. This time I added displacement modifiers using the textures like the ones I circled in the screen shot. I also added mist using the technique outlined in a tutorial on Blender Cookie.com. I had to limit the levels of subdivision surface, and therefore the level of detail possible with vertex displacement due to the limits of my computer. (Next computer will have at least 16 GB!)

I wonder, is it possible for a future version of the script to add the displacement modifiers automatically?

mCasual · April 2013

daveleitz68 said:
......
I wonder, is it possible for a future version of the script to add the displacement modifiers automatically?

it could be done, upon detecting a texture image on a displacement channel in DS,
the new mcjBlendBot (this weekend) will have the ability to find a specific node/material,
for now it's used to transfer Bump map strength and UV-Tiling settings
( which could not be transfered easily through .obj import/export
also i know how to apply modifiers since there's already a smooth
and an edge-split modifier applied to each object in the scene

note that long long ago i posted a script to create a morph which is the equivalent of
a displacement map to any surface, in Daz Studio. Being a script it works well for sub 100K objects
but can get slow over that :: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dP8faP3KMo

the terrain shown here was a 10K faces ( i think ) primitive-plane
with a displacement-morph added to it using mcjElevate
the 4 wrinkles in Aiko2's dress were also added that way

and there's terrains like this in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKGKv_E8Lo8&NR=1

mCasual · April 2013

great news for people ( meaning mainly me ) who still use and abuse Daz Studio 3 ( and Advanced )

the new mcjTeleblender/mcjBlendbot kit will have texture tiling and bump map strength control

even when using mcjGeoSender plugin which greatly accelerates obj export ( sometimes 10X faster )

---

figure 1, AlienAikos making illuminatimagery

mCasual · April 2013

we are nearing the release of a new version of mcjTeleblender/mcjBlendBot

for details read the preceding posts on this forum

---

news : when mcjTeleblender was using Daz Studio's internal exporter, identical figures in a scene ( example, two Aiko3s )
would get welded together, this wont happen in the new version, there will be an "auto-rename" option to take
care of renaming nodes to ensure distinctiveness.

----

figure 1: mcjTeleblender running on Daz Studio 3 , using the internal obj exporter , exported this scene to Blender, and rendered it using the Cycles render engine

----

figure 2: since DS3 is more stable on my PC, new coding was developped on DS3, but this is a first render test on DS4.5 .. using the new Tiling feature. the inverted texture is normal, that mistake is part of that dress ( which, some will know is the "bodycon dress for Aiko3 and will be completed this spring, no really it will )

--------

mCasual · April 2013

today ... pretty sure it will be today ! the release of the new mcjTeleblender / mcjBlendBot versions !

────────────────────────────────────────────

Figure 1

here you can see a scene set up in Daz Studio 1.8

exported to Blender using mcjTeleblender / mcjBlendBot

and rendered with the Cycles renderer

( didnt check tiling and bump maps , that's next )

────────────────────────────────────────────

Figure 2

it's hard to tell but there's a bump map for the skin
and the bump strength was correctly transferred from Daz Studio 1.8 to Blender 2.66a and rendered with Cycles
what's new is that uf to today the bump map strength trick was just for Blender Internal Render

hey Vickie lookin good !

the bump map with a strength of 1 is clearly visible on the tunic, a strength of 0.1 is probably better

────────────────────────────────────────────

figure 3 -- Daz Studio 2.3 export

note that for Tiling to work you'd need a Shader with Tiling channel names exactly like those in Daz Studio 3 and 4

unfortunately my mcj Glossy shader doesn't https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts2/mcjglossy

────────────────────────────────────────────

figure 4 - DS 4.5 - Blender 2.66a - Blender Internal Renderer

────────────────────────────────────────────

figure 5 ( up next) : DS 4.5 with blender-2.66-r55767-win64 CPU/Cycles --- aka 2.66.5 subsurface scattering test version

note to self and others .... remember to install mcjBlendBot kit for each version of Blender you install

( else ... crash .. as i saw 2 minutes ago :) )

other note : blender-2.66-r55767-win64 really really wants
the cycles renderer to be in CPU/Experimental mode else, crash

i suggest Blender 2.66.5 users save Blender's startup file and Blender's user settings with CPU/Experimental selected

mCasual · April 2013

DS 4.5 --- Blender 2.66.3 - Cycles

this almost concludes the series of tests !!

-----------

Fig 2

DS4.5 --- Blender 2.66.3 - Blender Internal Renderer ( very fast )

mCasual · April 2013

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

McjTeleblender 2 has arrived and will have its own web page

the old mcjTeleblender will remain where it is

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts3/mcjteleblender2

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

What's new

This new version of mcjTeleblender and mcjBlendBot includes these additional features

- compatible with Blender 2.66.3 and up ( was also tested on 2.66a and 2.66.5

- the Tiling settings of the Daz Studio materials are conveyed to Blender

- the Bump map strengths of Daz Studio's materials are carried over to Blender ( Blender Bump Strength = ( DS Max - DS Min ) * DS Strength )

- If two identical figures or two identical props are in the Daz Studio Scene, and mcjTeleBlender's
"Rename Nodes" option is enabled, the two figures wont be mistakenly welded together in Blender

- There's now a button to set all those mcjTeleblender settings to a default state

- There's an extremely secret backdoor mode, available for the nerdy crew

kimi.kimi.chi_fe07b9e9d3 · April 2013

Woohoo, thanks so much for all the hard work on this script. :)

daveleitz · April 2013

Here's a tip to save memory and improve the quality of renders. Let's say you have a large environment like the one in the screenshot below. It takes up a lot of memory. What if all you want is a render of a small area of this environment. As you can see, the geometry in the camera view is pretty low poly. A render at this stage will have you wondering why you spent all this time learning DS and Blender if your results look like a video game from ten years ago.

The whole point of using Cycles in the first place is to get that much closer to realism (or like me you're too lazy to learn 3Delight and Luxrender...) So you might decide to improve the textures and increase the subdivision surface. Now you've got the detail you want, but your computer, if it's like my poor laptop, is bogging down. Your scene, if Blender doesn't crash first, will take a long, long time to build when you hit that render button.

So, what do you do? First of all, move all items that aren't in the camera view to another layer that won't be used in the final render. Then, for large mesh objects that extend well beyond the camera borders, use edit mode and select all the vertices that are outside the camera view for each object in turn and press 'p' to create new objects by selection. Move the new objects to another layer. Now you are free to set higher subdivision levels and higher resolution textures without overloading your system memory.

Yogino · April 2013

Casual, many thanks for this update. I'm looking forward to exporting Daz tiling settings into Blender. Keep up the good work!

mCasual · April 2013

rendering tip

when i use a sharp well defined image like Figure 1 ( Ditch-River_2k.hdr)

as an environment map in Blender/Cycles

( it's 2048x1024 in the distribution package )

the renders take a lot of time/samples before they lose grainy-ness

but when i use the small blurred version named Ditch-River_Env.hdr

the renders lose grainy-ness much faster

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these images ( my favorites ) are free at http://www.hdrlabs.com

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i forget exactly how but we can
- render our scene using the blurred image as lighting/environment
use a transparent film
save this as an RGBA image (PNG)
- render the sharp high resolution background
- composite the two

then add the sharp-high resolution image later using compositing inside or outside Blender