Daz Bridges Update!!!

Padone

butaixianran said:

Blender's fbx exporter will drop all textures unless it is directly linked to Principled shader node.

That's a huge limit for game materials. Thank you for explaining this.

edit. So, may be a better way for game export would be to bake the textures to a single map. This way the diffuse and specular channels can be baked with colors and everything. And a single principled node will be used. But this requires manual baking of the maps.

Acudia4151

Was Woundering if by chance we could get GOZ to work with ZBrush Core?

jeronimocollares

gaveitatry said:

DAZ_Peter said:

It’s been a minute and wanted to jump on an give everyone a quick bridge update. 

Unfortunately, Sam is no longer working with us at Daz. We were very sad to see him go, but excited for his next chapter at EA.  Lucky for us, Sam is still very much invested in this project so you will see him around from time to time as he works on updates on his own. Even though he doesn’t work for us anymore, but he will definitely be a huge help in the community. 

All that being said, we’ve been a bit short staffed on the bridge team. We are working to remedy that through hiring and contractors. One of our contractors and Unity bridge extrodinar, Daniel Bui, has been working on a major update that will help us make and push out updates faster. Here is what he’s working on:

“We are working on a project to update the Daz Bridge projects so that they share a common source-code base. This will allow us to add features to the Bridges more quickly by making changes to the common base rather than modifying each Bridge individually. We’ll also be making this common base fully scriptable, so that developers and power-users can make custom export pipelines, or even add Daz Bridge support to other software.  Since this update involves major changes to the source-code of all the Daz Bridges, we’re also implementing a large Quality Assurance test system for the Bridges. This test system will help us deliver the best quality that we can for all future updates to the Daz Bridges. We are currently working on implementing the first stages of this project, and we hope to share our progress with you in the coming months.” 

Big things on the horizon! We will keep everyone updated on the progress and release date. We are also working to bring new people on to help us develop the bridges. If you or anyone you know is interested in working with us full time, feel free to reach out to us or leave a comment. 

Thank you to everyone for their continued involvement and passion for this project. Excited for what’s to come. Thanks, everyone! 

 

What is the purpose of the DazToUnreal intermediary folder, why does it keep extra copies of everything, is there a benefit to not deleting those extra copies, and is there a way to have those extra copies auto delete after the bridge export into the open Unreal project has been completed?

When using the DazToUnity bridge, it exports directly into the Unity project's Assets folder.  You are actually not allowed to export it in any other location on your hard drives.  It has to be the project's Assets folder.  And it is a bit inconvenient because you always have to select the right path manually.  And anytime you start a new project with a different name, that path has to be changed once again.

When using the DaztoUnreal bridge, it is more convenient.  The export goes directly to a DazToUnreal intermediate folder, or whatever you want to name that folder.  And you never have to change this path.  Once it goes to that intermediate folder it automatically goes into whatever project you have open in Unreal.  So it doesn't matter what project you are working on or what that project name is, the export will go directly into that project without you having to adjust or change anything.  However there is one weird thing about it all.  Once it is in your project folder, the bridge leaves behind a copy of the export in the intermediate folder.  I know that I can safely delete that copy because when I do, the project still has the export even after an Unreal editor restart.  What is the purpose of the extra copies in the intermediate folder?  I feel like if I make hundreds of exports, the extra copies will start taking up disk space.  Is there a benefit to having extra copies left behind in the intermediate folder?  Or should I just go ahead and delete them on a regular basis?  Also, is there a way to have them auto delete after they have already been imported into the Unreal projects?

At Unity, just use the FBX - dont use prefabs, scripts, shaders, etc... you can delete it. Just need rework the materials (bofore, dont forget to extract it from FBX file) and dont forget set your model to a humanoid. In this way you can put it in any folder (your model, textures*, Materials). Find the folder from textures at Daz Surfaces (its on runtime, textures) and copy the same folder into project. Anyway, you can export your model from Daz like a single FBX, but without subdivisions (if you need this subdivisions, use that alternative bridge DTU).

 

Tip: in skin material, from your model humanoid, in Surface option, surface type, choice 'subsuface Scattering' (its important) and on botton, same panel, choice in difuse profile the option 'skin'.

butaixianran

Ok, fixed all high heel issues of Official Blender Bridge. In both Daz Script and Blender addon.

Now, high heel also works when importing a pose, which Diffeomorphic's daz importer won't handle well.

This is what you get with Diff daz importer:

Following is what you get from the Official Daz to Blender Bridge I updated:

 

Also it comes with a high heel check box. If you don't wanna imported pose mess with your feet pose, check it before importing a pose or a character, you'll get a pretty good feet pose.

Check it:

https://github.com/butaixianran/DazToBlender

 

Now it is perfect for using Blender as a Daz Exporter for any 3d tool. 

 

butaixianran

Well, this will be the last new feature for Official Daz to Blender Bridge:

Now it can import Animations from .duf file!!

Imported animation will be a clip on a new NLA track, so you can move or delete it very easily, it won't mess up your timeline. 

 

Check it:

https://github.com/butaixianran/DazToBlender

 

Now it is perfect for most cases. So no more new features. I'm satisfied with it now.

 

 

 

 

Padone

As for diffeomorphic, you're probably exporting a dbz with the figure wearing the heels, this way the rest pose is changed that's why it doesn't work. To fix this you have to export the figure with the standard rest pose, that's edit > figure > zero > pose, then you apply the animation or the heel pose the same as daz does. You also have other options with the "copy pose" tool but to zero the pose is easier.

https://diffeomorphic.blogspot.com/p/corrections-section-version-16.html

As for animation you can use the "import action" tool that will create a new NLA action.

nonesuch00

butaixianran said:

Well, this will be the last new feature for Official Daz to Blender Bridge:

Now it can import Animations from .duf file!!

Even better than Diffeomorphic's daz importer is, imported animation will be a clip on a new NLA track, so you can move or delete it very easily, it won't mess up your timelin. This is not easy to achieve, but I get it done.

 

Check it:

https://github.com/butaixianran/DazToBlender

 

Now it is perfect for most cases. So no more new features. I'm satisfied with it now.

 

 

 

awesome, thanks

butaixianran

By the way, It also can convert Bump map into Normal map when importing. Which is very useful when exporting to game engine.

You need the latest version to make this work well, I just updated this part to make it much faster and can save Normal into JPEG format with small file size.

 

Check it:

https://github.com/butaixianran/DazToBlender

 

 

butaixianran

Padone said:

As for diffeomorphic, you're probably exporting a dbz with the figure wearing the heels, this way the rest pose is changed that's why it doesn't work. To fix this you have to export the figure with the standard rest pose, that's edit > figure > zero > pose, then you apply the animation or the heel pose the same as daz does. You also have other options with the "copy pose" tool but to zero the pose is easier.

Of course you can do a lot of things then make it work.

But my point is, This new official blender bridge handles all that for you. You don't need to do this manually.

And if you export Character with high heel but with Zero Pose. Then, in blender, what gonna happen if you import a pose file with flat feet? Your character's pose will be like no high heel, right?

 

That's not a way of handling high heel. That is just ignoring it, not handling it.

Diff's daz importer should fix this too. High heel is important.

 

 

nonesuch00

butaixianran said:

By the way, It also can convert Bump map into Normal map when importing. Which is very useful when exporting to game engine.

You need the latest version to make this work well, I just updated this part to make it much faster and can save Normal into JPEG format with small file size.

 

Check it:

https://github.com/butaixianran/DazToBlender

 

Thanks. I will get to do some testing by the end of next month. Although I'm not sure if the models I'm wanting to export have bump maps yet. Some of the models are very old when DAZ began, & some within the last 2 years.

Padone

butaixianran said:

And if you export Character with high heel but with Zero Pose. Then, in blender, what gonna happen if you import a pose file with flat feet? Your character's pose will be like no high heel, right?

It is handled the same as daz studio. Usually you have a "heel pose" for the feet, provided with the outfit, that you can apply or not. Then the heel pose will be overwritten or not depending on the other pose you load. Then you can apply the heel pose again if needed.

Or in blender you can select all the bones apart the feet then load the pose, so it will not apply to the feet. Same for any other part of the rig. Same for animations.

butaixianran

Padone said:

It is handled the same as daz studio. Usually you have a "heel pose" for the feet, provided with the outfit, that you can apply or not. Then the heel pose will be overwritten or not depending on the other pose you load. Then you can apply the heel pose again if needed.

Or in blender you can select all the bones apart the feet then load the pose, so it will not apply to the feet. Same for any other part of the rig. Same for animations.

That's what we call do something manually....

butaixianran

Ok, I tested to export gltf from blender to Unity and Unreal. 

WIth Unity, it works ok, you only need to set tile's number and alpha for Cornea. Everything else is converted. 

 

WIth Unreal, I tried it with Unreal 5.0 Preview. Not so good. Unreal convert simple material into a very complex node tree, which could be a problem for performance. So, you have to clean up every material by yourself.

Also, any material with alpha will not set roughness and specular. That's a default behavior in Unreal for performance. So, you have to set it manually. 

So, Unreal just does not work well with gltf.

 

Another problem is occlusion texture. I checked, blender can not bake with UDIM UV for now. It has to be done manually.

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

Update:

I solved the occlusion map issue. Check this:

For game engine, AO map is still important. But Daz Character is using UDIM UV, it is a tiled UV, which blender can not bake AO for that. So, I baked it for you with complex python script. You can get it from "AO" folder of this project.

This AO map can be used on all Genesis 8 character, no matter how they looks.

 

KW001

butaixianran said:

By the way, It also can convert Bump map into Normal map when importing. Which is very useful when exporting to game engine.

You need the latest version to make this work well, I just updated this part to make it much faster and can save Normal into JPEG format with small file size.

 

Check it:

https://github.com/butaixianran/DazToBlender

Thanks for picking up this addon to keep it going.

I was able to zip it into the DTB folder and get Blender to load the addon with what looks like correct info.

But when I try to enable it, there's this error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<blenderpath>\scripts\modules\addon_utils.py", line 387, in enable
    mod.register()
  File "C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\3.1\scripts\addons\DTB\__init__.py", line 321, in register
    bpy.utils.register_class(cls)
ValueError: register_class(...): already registered as a subclass 'CustomPathProperties'

EDIT:  If anyone is having similar issues, make sure to *close* Blender after removing the old version of the plugin, then try adding the new one.  Ahem.

Scythar

Daz to Cinema 4D doesn't work with me..

In Studio i have impression nothing happens

And in Cinema 4D (R26) the Daz to Cinema 4D doesn't show in the 'Extensions' Tab. Somehow in the previous version of the plugin i have (don't know how anymore) i could find the plugin and by clicking on it, it became a new menu item 'DAZ 3D' somehow In Cinema 4D.

'Auto-IK' never worked though.

danielbui78

Scythar said:

Daz to Cinema 4D doesn't work with me..

In Studio i have impression nothing happens

And in Cinema 4D (R26) the Daz to Cinema 4D doesn't show in the 'Extensions' Tab. Somehow in the previous version of the plugin i have (don't know how anymore) i could find the plugin and by clicking on it, it became a new menu item 'DAZ 3D' somehow In Cinema 4D.

'Auto-IK' never worked though.

Please read my reply to your previous post on this issue: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/469571/daz-to-cinema-4d-update-1-1#latest

I have posted a how-to video and step-by-step written instructions in that reply.

prixat

I'm getting text in the toolbar instead of icons. They look like menu items, and the Blender Bridge submenu is empty.

...and I thought they were not meant to show up in the Beta anyway!

danielbui78

prixat said:

I'm getting text in the toolbar instead of icons.

I think this may be an edge case in the Beta, when script-based plugin menu options are uninstalled by Daz Central or DIM.  I was easily able to fix my layout by switching layout from the "Window -> Workspace -> Select Layout" menu option.

They look like menu items, and the Blender Bridge submenu is empty.

I think you are seeing a "ghost" of the old Script-based Bridge menus.  They should be empty, because they are uninstalled.  The NEW Daz To Blender Bridge menu option is in File -> Send To -> Daz To Blender.  For more information, please refer to the video tutorials found here: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/572806/daztoblender-bridge-2022-what-s-new-and-how-to-use-it#latest

 

...and I thought they were not meant to show up in the Beta anyway!

No, the Bridges will install and are usable in both release and beta .

Scythar

THX !!

michelangelopalumbo.mp

guys can anyone help me? I have octane blender but every time I try to install the new bridge it doesn't work, what can I do?

cobusp

Hi, it does not seem like the Daz2Cinema plugin works in my older version of Cinema R19. It does look like the extension *.pyp hasn't changed, though. Can somebody help please?

Gordig

cobusp said:

Hi, it does not seem like the Daz2Cinema plugin works in my older version of Cinema R19. It does look like the extension *.pyp hasn't changed, though. Can somebody help please?

I'd say you're more likely to get a response in the C4D forum, but that's been a ghost town lately. The best I can suggest is that you go to github and see if you can download an older version of the bridge.