Diffeomorphic DAZ Importer Version 1.5.1
There has been lots of progress since version 1.5.0 of the DAZ Importer was released half a year ago, and it is time for a new stable release. Among the highlights of the new release we mention:
- Hair improvements, both for fibermesh hair, strand-based hair, and old-fashioned mesh hair.
- Geometry shell improvements.
- Faster transfer of morphs between meshes.
- Improvements to the MHX rig.
- Improvements to the Rigify interface.
- Support for FACS introduced in DAZ Studio 4.15.
- Many bug fixes.
Stable version 1.5.1b can be downloaded from https://www.dropbox.com/s/d087603vz5hmau0/import_daz-v1.5.1b-20210302.zip.
As before, the development version can be downloaded from: https://bitbucket.org/Diffeomorphic/import_daz/downloads/
This is the last version that is compatible with Blender 2.79. Future versions of the DAZ Importer, from version 1.6.0 and forward, will only work with Blender 2.80 and later. Maintaining compatibility with Blender 2.79 has become a major nuisance, and since I suspect that very few people use it these days anyway, this means a lot of work for very little gain. Critical bugfixes can still be done in the version_1_5_1 branch, which can be downloaded from https://bitbucket.org/Diffeomorphic/import_daz/downloads/?tab=branches.
Acknowledgements:
Although the code has been written by myself, this add-on has benefitted greatly from bug reports and suggestions by many people. In particular, I want to thank
Alessandro Padovani, for his expertise in materials. The translation from Iray to Cycles and Eevee is essentially Alessandro's achievement.
engetudouiti, for his suggestions in many areas, especially rigging.
Xin, for his lucid explanations on coding and the Blender API.
Original post:
The Daz Importer has evolved a lot in the last few months, and the old stable version 1.4.2 is obsolete. The new stable version 1.5.0 is now available.
Daz Importer v 1.5.0: https://www.dropbox.com/s/scoe4umsrnh8z5x/import_daz-v1.5.0-20200918.zip
This version supports Blender 2.90.0, Blender 2.83.3 LTS and Blender 2.79b.
The add-on has mostly been tested on Windows 7. It has previously also been tested on Windows 10 and Linux, but not the most recent changes.
I had hoped that the documentation would be complete before the release, but unfortunately it is somewhat outdated due to the additions of new features and UI changes recently. Writing documentation takes a lot of time and effort and I don't want to postpone the release any longer.
Comments
Thank your Thomas.
Please consider either a Patreon page, or at least a Paypal donate button.
+1
+1
Thanks dude, will see if I can find the time to play with it tomorrow.
Why won't he let us pay him? Is he a secret billionaire!?
Its not everyone, but there are a disturbing number of people who assume that, because they have in some way contributed to your wages, they own you. Not only do you have to help them with whatever, but you also are expected to be properly obsequious.
Provided hes not on the breadline, I can see the appeal on not tying himself to any assumed obligations.
Sounds like you have dabbled in freelance art a bit :P
more the day job in the service industry
whoever came up with the phrase "the customer is always right" was definitely someone who never had to deal with having a customer.
I'm having a blast trying to learn Blender. I've seen so many good material conversions, but for some reason my character is ending up very gray / pale,and I don't know how to fix her because, well, I'm still new.
I'd appreciate any help!
This is the Olympia 7 skin, by the way.
Here she is in Iray:
I strongly recommend to experiment/play with blender lights and cameras and render settings. I'm using photographer and light pack one from chafouin (https://gumroad.com/chafouin).
https://blenderartists.org/t/photographer-camera-exposure-white-balance-autofocus-and-physical-lights/1101721
@emoryahlberg That's probably eevee and/or principled. For a good skin conversion you have to use cycles and bsdf. The bsdf option is intended for cycles, it gets the best iray materials but doesn't work fine with eevee. The principled option is intended for eevee, it approximates the iray materials to meet the eevee limitations. Of course cycles is good as well with principled since cycles can do everything eevee does and better.
Also plase be sure to use the latest development version since old versions may be not up to date with material conversion.
BSDF: best for cycles, full iray materials
PRINCIPLED: best for eevee, limited iray materials
Thanks, Padone. Yes, that was Principled... But for some reason BDSF didn't work great for this character either:
You have to use bsdf AND render with cycles. Then the cycles quality depends on the settings. To get the best quality go for "full global illumination". There may be a slight difference with iray anyway since the conversion is not always perfect but much better than eevee.
Again be sure to use the latest development version.
Hi Padone,
Those are my settings and I have version 1.15. Unfortunately, not working for this character. I'm just wondering if anyone knows what might be the fix?
EDIT: Hold on... I think that did work, but for some weird reason I had to switch to the shader tab for the new settings to take effect. Thanks!
Sadly, some feel that once they've contributed, there is an obligation to them to continue
... I'm not one of em; I'd like to donate to show my appreciation for what has been done.
Below is how it goes for me with Olympia 7. Seems quite good. First iray then cycles with the same hdri. Tone mapping also affects the image colors of course. The default filmic with mid contrast works quite fine to mimic the default iray tone mapping. Then if you change the iray tone mapping you get different results.
Your Olympia 7 skin tone seems a little red I don't get it with iray here. Are you sure you use the same lights in iray and cycles ?
Olympia 7 iray, default tone mapping and hdri
Olympia 7 cycles, default tone mapping (color management) and same hdri
Thank you, Padone. That certainly helped! Her textures still seem a little washed out, and her lips are too glossy, her hair needs work, and I think something weird is happening with her lower lashes.
But this is still astoundingly good for an auto-conversion. Now it's time to tweak!
One thing I have noticed about skins..... The newer ones, that use dual lobe seem to convert a lot better than the ones released before dual lobe was added. There is probably a way to fix that in the material nodes, but I lack the knowledge on the shader system lol.
That's something I didn't think about but I can completely understand if that's the case. I'm in the same boat as @nicstt , I just want to show some appreciation and support for everything done so far, its helped me beyond any other plugin for any other software I curently use and that's saying something, I don't need any further features than it had about 2 or 3 builds ago so anything more added is just an awesome bonus!
Just tested the new 1.5 and I keep having issues with morphs not being loaded. Using the "load custom morphs" feature I could manage to load some of them, but all in the Custom Morphs section.
I appreciate all the effort done by Thomas, but he needs to read these bug reports we post here and in his page. Otherwise all his effort is useless, and we'll have another "Manuel Bastioni Lab" here, a promising add-on but not functional.
it's a really great addon.
My major issue so far is regarding the eyelashes from Toon Generation 2.
Even when I change to alpha blend, they are still black on my renders both Cycles or Eevee.
Not sure what I'm doing wrong
Dunno what you are on about, there have been times several bugs were squashed in a weeks time. He reads both them both.
Yes, I noted the same thing yesterday. There was still some code around that had not been updated for the new morph system introduced in the summer, and this was one of them. Should work now.
This is a sufficiently serious to warrant a new RC.
Re: money. It is not that I am not interested in the stuff in general, only that I don't think that this plugin will generate enough of it to merit the hassle. And as J Cade noted above, if I accept money I will have paying customers to take care of. Maybe I will change my mind some day though.
New release candidate, fixing a serious bug when loading morphs.
Daz Importer v 1.5.0 RC2: https://www.dropbox.com/s/scoe4umsrnh8z5x/import_daz-v1.5.0-20200918.zip
If you won't take out money, you at least deserve a flood of thanks.
So... THANK YOU for all the hard effort you're pouring into this project.
That was quick.
Hm.
Tried importing a scene and nothing is where it's supposed to be (it's all floating) except the character. Is this what happens when you use Daz Groups?
Pity DAZ didn't pay you for your version of the DAZ to Blender export/importer. Seems to me that most of those who want to use DAZ Studio scenes in Blender have opted for your add-on anyway. I haven't even downloaded the "official" version.