importing into DAZ Studio
stang_08
Posts: 7
Hello, 1st time post for a beginner for both Bryce and DAZ Studio.
I tried to import some nice looking terrain from Bryce into Studio, but the textures don't look as good in DAZ studio as in Bryce.
Is this because the different way the textures are applied in each program?
Is there a way to overcome this?
Thanks!
Comments
Hi and welcome Stang_08.
OK good news and bad news. Good news, it can be done. Bad news, it is not easy.
The DAZstudio bridge is not right clever with the way it deals with materials between DS and Bryce - and the other way around too.
So you need to do some work. Now while I don't know much about DS I can offer some guides how to export things like terrains and lattices from Bryce. So that sort of solves half the problem. When I get to know DS a bit better - I am learning, slowly, reluctantly and with a lot of hair pulling - I will make some tutorials to suit. However for the time being, all I can offer you is an export to Octane. Which materially, works similarly to DS - but the interface in Octane is far leaner.
Bryce to Octane - Island scene conversion - part 1 - by David Brinnen
Bryce to Octane - Island scene conversion - part 2 - by David Brinnen
Bryce to Octane - Island scene conversion - part 3 - by David Brinnen
Bryce to Octane - Island scene conversion - part 4 - by David Brinnen
Bryce to Octane - Island scene conversion - part 5 - by David Brinnen
Bryce to Octane - Another Islands (two) scene conversion - by David Brinnen
@stang_08 - welcome to these forums and Bryce. Why would you want to bring Bryce content into Studio? Bryce has fantastic render engines so we do it the other way around, from Studio to Bryce.
David,
I am honored that a Master of Bryce answered my question.
I have seen your work, used:-) a lot of your PRO materials in Bryce, and watched a few of your tutorials. You do AMAZING work, sir!
Since this issue would take a bit of work and require me to learn yet another program, I will probably not pursue doing much with it for now.
I will however watch your videos on this to see what is involved with doing this.
I am still trying to learn (on my own) both Bryce and DAZ Studio, and have very little hair left to learn something other than these two programs.
Since DAZ owns both programs, I wish they would fix the bridge between the two programs, or not offer one at all.
Thanks again and look forward to learn what I can from a Master!
@ Horo,
Wow! 2 Masters of Bryce replied to me, I am honored!
I have tried it the other way, as well. Which works good.
But I find it hard to work in wireframe, I get too lost in the positioning of objects, and moving around as well.
Still trying to learn the basics. I have limited background in 3D. I've been a 2D AutoCAD draftsman for about 20 years,
I first got into 3d at my job with a building contractor using SketchUp to draw 3d models of our buildings. (About 3 years now).
I liked it, but saw the limitations of SketchUp and wanted to get into the better programs out there and try my hand at it.
Thanks for the advice, I will probably stick to importing into Bryce when I get better at it.
Thanks again!
I can't help with materials. Note that DS can't use the procedural material logic that is built into Bryce and not into DAZ Studio, so it generates sort of a fake material to export, and you won't be able to manipulate it in the same way in DS that you can in Bryce. I have never seen it look even vaguely similar after export, so gave up trying a long time ago. David, I will have to have a look at your Octane/Bryce exporting videos someday to see if I'm missing something that can be applied to DS.
However, for an untextured terrain (or if for some reason you are happy with the material), here are some things you want to do: Don't use the bridge. It lowers the resolution to an unuseable level. Instead, Select your terrain. File > "Export Object". Change the "Save as type" dropdown to "Wavefront OBJ files (*.obj) (Mesh Export)". In the "Export Terrain" window, drag the slider farther to the right; the default setting is too low and will degrade your mesh. I don't know how far, if you go too far you might have other problems, you'll have to experiment. There are a variety of other options in this window too to play with.
In DAZ Studio, from the menu bar select File > Import and browse to the file you selected.
(In the past I had issues with objects that had spaces in the filenames loosing materials, but that didn't happen in a quick test just now, so maybe i'm crazy. However if you do have it happen, just try picking a filename with no space instead of the default filename.)
Correction to my previous comment: If your terrain is the only thing in the scene, you can get the polygon count of your scene (and thus that object) near the lower left corner in Texture Shaded Mode. Looks like the default for a randomly-generated terrain is 524288 polygons. And in the export window, there is a polygon count being displayed that changes as you adjust the slider. Turns out if you crank the slider all the way to the right, you'll get the closest match (although it's still not exactly the same.) I don't remember anymore what problems I (thought) I was having with it maxed out, but I guess I'm going to change my answer above and suggest that you at least try setting the slider to the maximum value after all; sorry about that.
@ Sean,
Thanks for the advice!
I'll try cranking up the polygon count!
Do you know anything about Hexagon? Would Hexagon be a good way to paint a terrain? Just wondering,
I haven't tried it myself, and am considering it to paint some other models I made in SketchUp, but wasn't sure if it would to terrains.
Thanks
I have never tried to use Hexagon to create textures, sorry.
Note that when you export the terrain from Bryce, it creates an image material in the folder you specified. You could always use that as a starting point and modify it with photoshop or something, or you could use or create DAZ Studio materials instead.
@stang_08 - if you want to paint a terrain in Bryce, you can do this directly in the TE (terrain editor) or use a graphics application capable of exporting the drawing as 16-bit TIFF. White is high, black is low.
@stang_08: When in Bryce, look towards the bottom right, at the icons on the right side of the screen. Near the bottom is a spider web like icon that will allow you to change the look of the wire frame on the screen. Put a sphere, cube, or something on the screen and experiment with the choices to see which you like best.