How to convert a plane into an emissive light?
PA_ThePhilosopher
Posts: 1,039
Hey guys,
So I am trying to follow this tutorial;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QURC4WYQ2SE
But when I create my plane, then go to surfaces > presets > shaders, the iRay shaders do not show up in the list. I've attached an image of what I am referring to.
Any ideas what the issue may be?
Thanks,
Davide
Untitled2.jpg
1920 x 1080 - 297K
Comments
EDIT: Sorry, I didn't realize that the image you posted was from the video, rather than your own system. My post is obsolete. :-)
Did you install 'Default Lights and Shaders for DAZ Studio 4.8+' from your Product Library?
They are a separate install, and you can find them in DIM or in your Product Library. These are only for DS4.8 or course, not earlier versions.
Yes, when I check my DIM, it says the Default lights and shaders are installed.
Here is a screenshot of my screen, so you can see that the iRay shaders are not listed.
In my DIM, if I right click on the Default Lights and Shaders, it lists a whole load of them some shown below:
You may need to uninstall that version of the Shaders, and download and install the latest one for DS4.8.
The shaders were recently added to this bundle I believe, so make sure that you get the latest one.
Can you show a screenshot of Help > About DAZ Studio...
You may need to uninstall that version of the Shaders, and download and install the latest one for DS4.8.
The shaders were recently added to this bundle I believe, so make sure that you get the latest one.
Mine also lists the same contents. I will try re-installing the package and see if that helps...
Here is a screenshot of the about;
Strange. Now I lost everything. I uninstalled the "default lights and shaders" in DIM, then clicked to install it again. And now all the shader presets are gone (see image below). Plus all my content is gone now too.
Any ideas what the issue may be?
Ok, nevermind. I had to click to "enable CMS" on the tiny button in the bottom left corner of the screen. And now the iRay shaders are listed.
Wow, the smallest thing can become the biggest headache. lol.
Did you happen to have Studio open when you uninstalled/reinstalled the lights?
Out of curiosity, does anyone know if it is possible to hide the planes once they are set as emissive lights?
If I try setting the "cutout opacity" to 0, the plane disappears, but so too does the light.
There's a setting "show emitter" I think that I'd think does that (not at the right computer to check on that)
no you cannot hide mesh lights whilst emitting light in Iray.
Default lights and shaders - I checked my DIM and Product Library. I do not have these. I checked the store here and they are not listed. Have they been renamed to something else?
Cheers
Ken
Now part of "Default Resources for DAZ Studio 4.9+"
Thank you ever so much. I did not have this installed so downloaded & installed via DIM. Merry Christ and many thanks...
try setting the cutout opacity to a really low value. almost zero, but not quite. something like .0000012.
that's a guess, and may be a little high or a little low. if you have one of kindredarts ghost light kits, you can load up a ghost light prop and check the values there.
j
I donno if this help you or not, So I made couple of untextured floor and wall panes in carrara and made the wall emissive and took a screen shot of the settings . So I donno if this is what you are looking for. but this is how i make emissive panes and I can hide the panes visablility under the display tab setting under perimeters tab . But still keep the "visible in render" clicked on.. then the emissive of the light source/pane will still show through in the render if your using darks scenes or for back lighting. that is how i do it anyway
This is to help show how I make my light panes visible $ invisible
pane display turned on
Th pane Display turned off, but keeping the light, IMO I think it makes it appear to be a light source more than backgound lighting
I think you can, actually, but I’m not sure how—KindredArts Iray ghost light is an invisible emitter.
yeah that was before someone figured out that setting Cutout (Iray Opacity) to 0.000001 or something like that worked. :)
Is this a new feature? I always thought making the pane invisible that way turned its light off - I'm gonna have to try this as it's easier than mucking about with opacity (which is what I usually do).
Edit: Definitely not working for me - are you using a normal plane or is it from a product? Which version of DS?
Don't ask me the hard questions..lol I learned how t do this at HDRi lab.com forum and as I showed you above step by step that is how i have always worked with emissive panes & made my back lights since daz 4.9 I do this a lot with my fantasy renders like this one where i need back light
what I am using? Daz Version 4.10
Flat Panes I am using? I made the flat panes in Carrara Pro so I can add any type texture i want. I work with flat panes a lot for rendering animations it helps speed up my render times using flat panes with the rendered scenes images instead of actual using all the content to create the scene. other wise it be impossiable for me anyway to render animation in iray. plus i can add things like animated textures etc.
I converted the pane I made to iray using Uber Iray shader setting that come with the daz essentials ,then changed the diffused color to black under the surface tab and then change or use a back ground image in the emissive tab setting & change the emissive color from black to white. Adjust lumens setting where your happy with the lighting.. then when I shut off the visibility as i showed in my screen shot to the pane it acts or becomes like a emissive light source like a tube or liner point of emssive iray light would. I don't understand the logistics or the technology of why it works . its the way I have been working with panes for the last couple year or so creating animation. I also use panes to create fog and atmosphere effects as well . they are very handy
Ok - thats' weird - I do exactly the same (except the shortcut - Daz comes with an 'Emissive' option under its uber-shader folder - that sets it to white emission and black diffuse (though you still need to adjust the temperature to default from whatever low number it comes out as and make the lumens much higher)) and I use a DS plane primitive (which also takes textures just fine) and yet my plane-lights turn off when I make it visible-off.
I'm gonna have to mess with it a bit more.
Thanks for the explanation :)
Hi SW , when i was checking through how i set it up. I forgot one thing.
you want to add a black texture to the cut out this will fix the issue . Sorry I forgot to mention that
Give me a few days to get the holidays by us & I'll package up these panes i have, so you can download them. I'l make them a freebies y'all can play with & see how i have it set up
Awesome - thanks.
When using Daz primitives for this, you can set the plane to 2 divisions (minimum) so it has minimal impact on resources.
Also, you have to actually select it in the Editor tab of the Surfaces pane, even if the item is already selected in the scene window, or the scene pane. I have no idea why the surface is not auto-selected when manually clicked in the preview window or the scene pane, but it's really annoying.
If you use the Surface Selection Tool in the viewport, the surface will be automatically selected in the Surfaces tab pane.
As promised here are my pane props you can download them on sharecg.com for free. enjoy
Ivy's Magic Pane prop Download lick: https://sharecg.com/v/92902/view/21/DAZ-Studio/Ivys-Magic-Pane-prop
Thank you @Ivy!
Trish
Thank you, I'm glad I seen this, I didn't know that. I'm just now learning Iray lighting and this thread is full of neat tips.