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IMHO you should give up, because It cannot be done with lights in the BOSS pro, neither with many other scene lights only. (I took time to think about it). You're making no mistake, but this is logical. Let's take a single BOSS light, it will lit only a small amount of space in the scene, (the part in its emission cone), and will be rather close to its target. On the hdr, it will be replaced by a rectangle area (for instance) of bright spots, because it is just as the hdr is taking a photo of your light. But in this case the "white area" on this hdr will light "the whole scene" and not specifically the figure you are supposed to lit, plus, it will be much more far from its target than the spot is in the scene (this is driven by dome radius). So you understand, I hope, why you cannot replace this single light by the hdr
If not, let's take an extreme example. Imagine a spot light with a spread angle of 5 degree at 1m of the noose of a figure and lighting only the tip of the nose of your figure. Make a hdr of this light. It will be all black except a small white area on this hdr. But this small white area now is not focused with a small 5 degrees spread angle but will "launch" its light all around the scene, plus it will be much further away than the original light (because it's not on a dome). So there is no way that you lit only the tip of the nose of your figure and nothing else. You end up with something much more uniform, even if the prefered direction of the emission of the dome will be the one of the spot... Is it more clear now?
edit : the creator is not made to replace scene lights, and will never have the same potential as scene lights have in term of spread angle and clear orientation. It is basically made to replace a 3D enviromnent made of props, and was made compatible with scene lights so that the light of these scene lights whenlighting your props have a proper light level on them when you render your hdr (this is what the safe mode is for).
I think I understand. Thanks for the detailed explanation.
I have tried 1500 luminance with this creator and it does not make any difference on the resulting HDRI.
That is why I have started using 0.2 luminance and it removes fireflies in most cases,
leaving sometimes a small number of bigger white spots, which can be removed with the healing brush
in graphics editing program, like Gimp or Photoshop.
That's normal it males no difference at 1500 and I explained just after this post why Fishtales is right and 1500 is ok for general renders, but 0.2 is better for hdr creator. Actually if everything was linear, the real value should be 0.09. (but I don't know if everything is linear with nominal luminance).
Ok, thanks.
The next challenge for me is to find a solution for the interiors.
A test with 0.1 for luminance for HDRI made from https://www.daz3d.com/the-private-garden
Dimensions for HDRI are 12000 pixels wide, 6000 pixels high
Rendering Time of HDRI: 1 hour 24 minutes 13.87 seconds
Below is a render of the scene made with such HDRI.
Rendering time: 6 minutes 22 seconds (on CPU only)
That looks good. I have that set.
Thanks so much for sharing Artini. So 0.1 as the nominal Luminance could be a good idea. I will add in the interface something like a checkbox "Use recommended Nominal Luminance", maybe followed by a list of values to choose from (0.1, 0.2...), this option being checked by default. Was the render time of the "final" image with the characters as short as usually?
Thanks so much, @barbult and @V3Digitimes
Yes, the render of the scene using this HDRI was short, as usual.
Actually, I have tried first, Stonemasons render settings for the camera 05,
changed mode to Dome and Scene and point to the created HDRI.
The render time went over 20 minutes, so I have interrupted the rendering.
Then I have switched to some other HDRI light settigs from my content library
and rendering time dropped to 6 minutes 22 seconds, but in the log
was shown that only CPU was rendering.
The next question is:
what rendering settings are you using with the HDRI created with V3D HDR Master Bundle?
Another Daz Studio rendering test with the previously created HDRI.
Rendering Time: 55 seconds
And... thanks againf for sharing...Lol you seem to have a nice collection of robots and animals! 55 seconds is pretty fair for your render :) Concerning your question about what render settings to use with the environment Dome you created... Well I guess it depends on what you expect as a result, what is in your scene, and how your dome looks like.... But it is probably not really different from any general dome based render... Anyway you can easily see in NVIDIA Iray preview if there are some modifications to make or not....
Thanks. That is what I am doing - I preview HDRI empty scene, before rendering,
to find out settings, mostly Dome Rotation.
Another test. HDRI made from https://www.daz3d.com/the-private-library
Rendering Time of HDRI: 33 minutes 46 seconds
The scene below could not fit on Nvidia VRAM (8 GB), so
Rendering Time: 37 minutes 2.85 seconds (CPU only)
Without the cat Rendering Time was: 4 minutes 1 second
Apologies if this question has been answered already. I find Daz Forum Search unhelpful for searching through a particular forum.
I am trying to create an HDRI of a night time indoor scene which comprises mainly scene lights but also has moonlight coming in through windows. I have tried many combinations of settings for both the V3DHDRC 04 exr Creator script and the V3DHDRC 05 png xEV Creator script and can't achieve satisfactory results with either no matter what value(s) I set in the Exposure (Exp. Value or Exposure Values List) or Luminance Corrective Factor.
Please see the attached files using Red Crow Inn Night scene and camera 22 for reference...
When using the 3DHDRC 04 exr Creator script I get a bloom effect around the candles no matter how low I set Exp. Value. Value too low produce a washed out HDRI which is imposible to compensate for. Enabling Safe Mode prevents the bloom effect but at the same time produces a very grainy HDRI no matter what resolution I set and compensation I apply. - Safe Mode is what is recommended in the documentation for this type of scene but the results are unsatisfactory. - See file Default Settings+SafeMode.exr
When using he V3DHDRC 05 png xEV Creator script on the same scene I can play the values in the Exposure Values List and can achieve a good overall result, however some images are subject to lighting bloom which I am unable to control. - See file Temp HDR MExp EV 12.png
Please can you advise how I might be able to rectify this situation so I can achieve a good HDRI result with the Red Crow Inn Night scene?
Thanks in advance
Hi, interior scenes are more complicated than exteriror scenes, and night scenes are the most complicated thing you can do, so I understand why it is difficult to set up. Here are yet a few things you can try to improve your render. I'm sorry I only seen one image attached so far, so it's difficult for me to "see" what is wrong.
- For all suggestions (1 to 6), make sure FIRST that the bloom is OFF in the Render Settings Tab of Daz Studio.
- For all suggestions (1 to 6), since it is a test stage, it is recommended to use small size (2k or 4k) in order to converge faster to the right set of parameters for you.
SUGGESTIONS 1 to 6 are essentially here to find a correct level of exposure but may also influence the grain in a positive way. For the grain itself, I give some tips at the end of this post.
- suggestion 1 : use the png xEV creator and make sure before you launch it that that in your Render Settings the bloom is off (maybe it was already the case but this was not detailed in your explanation, and in this case you can skip suggestion 1).
- suggestion 2 : Try to change the exposure in photoshop using the method described in the documentation (add a layer/add an exposure adjustment to this layer, merge all layers, save as exr)
- suggestion 3: in the Render Settings, use a Nominal Luminance at a value between 0.05 and 0.1, increase a bit the exposure value of the scene, and use the EXR creator. (You'll have to reset your nominal luminance at 0 or any other previous value you had before, otherwise it would be really weird when you come back to your scene (I mean change back after the render is over and you close the creator.
- suggestion 4 : Same as suggestion 3 PLUS this time, in the second tab of the interface, change the luminance corrective factor to something like 9 or 12. (it will add more light to the scene).
- suggestion 5 : keep Nominal Luminance at 0 (you'll be able to refine this later if you have fireflies) in the Render Settings, and then when you launch the exr creator, in the second tab, change the corrective luminance factor to 50 000. The rendered image will be totally overexposed, maybe full white. Then two choices: change the exposure of this image in photoshop and resave the image, or load this image directly as the enviromnent map in Daz Studio, but adjust the Environment Intensity to something between 0.00002 and 0.0001... This can solve the "grainy" issue with strong convergence settings such as -in render settings - render quality 100%.
- suggestion 6 : if the problem of your render is not the light amount but the grainy aspect, increase your render duration. It is grainy because Daz Studio considers the render is over whereas it is not. In this case either increase the Min Samples as explained in the documentation, or use the following settings : Render Settings/Progressive Rendering : Max TIME = 0, Rendering Quality Enable = OFF, and set up the max samples you want, but make it much bigger than the number of iterations you saw in the exr creator. Try 1000 for instance. PLEASE NOTE : suggestion 6 CAN BE USED IN ADDITION TO ANY other suggestion in order to remove the grain which would be due to too short render durations.
Removing the grain of the renders generally take :
- longer render duration (as in suggestion 6 and probably 5) if it came from the lack of samples during rendering, and is basically visible on the image when you look at it in photoshop without zooming.
- higher hdr resolution (size) : if the grain came from the fact that Daz Studio "zoom on the hdr" if you use a camera focusing a small part of the hdr on a large enough rendered image (in this case the image will be not grainy when you look at it in photoshop without zooming)
- A too high texture compression can give a grainy aspect on the render backgrounds. I lack of elements on this right now, but it seems that clearly increasing the Texture compression tresholds allows to get rid of seom grainy backgrounds in the hdrs, as a complement to the two others tools described just above.
Let me know if any of these suggestions helped, and if yes, which one(s). If not I'll try to find new ideas! And of course let me know if there is something I did not understand in your question... Feel free to specify your question, the more specific it will be the more I should be able to help.
No problem for the missing file, it happens from times to times, it can depend on the size of what you updload too. I'm available to share with you on your progress on this :)
Sorry it has taken so long to get back with my findings. I have tried the suggestions you made above and here are my findings.
- For all suggestions (1 to 6), make sure FIRST that the bloom is OFF in the Render Settings Tab of Daz Studio.
I found this does prevent the bloom effect from occuring in the HDRI render. Note I have only tried on a dark indoor scene.
- For all suggestions (1 to 6), since it is a test stage, it is recommended to use small size (2k or 4k) in order to converge faster to the right set of parameters for you.
Good tip. Definitely worth reducing the resolution until the lighting intensity is what you want and then increase it for the actual HDRI render
- suggestion 1 : use the png xEV creator and make sure before you launch it that that in your Render Settings the bloom is off (maybe it was already the case but this was not detailed in your explanation, and in this case you can skip suggestion 1).
This works and is worth doing even when using the EXR creator.
- suggestion 2 : Try to change the exposure in photoshop using the method described in the documentation (add a layer/add an exposure adjustment to this layer, merge all layers, save as exr)
I didn't try this as yet, as I did yet find a need to go this route
- suggestion 3: in the Render Settings, use a Nominal Luminance at a value between 0.05 and 0.1, increase a bit the exposure value of the scene, and use the EXR creator. (You'll have to reset your nominal luminance at 0 or any other previous value you had before, otherwise it would be really weird when you come back to your scene (I mean change back after the render is over and you close the creator.
This did not improve the grain in my case. Infact I found changing the Nominal Luminance had no effect at all.
- suggestion 4 : Same as suggestion 3 PLUS this time, in the second tab of the interface, change the luminance corrective factor to something like 9 or 12. (it will add more light to the scene).
This did not improve the grain in my case. Infact I found changing the luminance corrective facto had no effect at all.
- suggestion 5 : keep Nominal Luminance at 0 (you'll be able to refine this later if you have fireflies) in the Render Settings, and then when you launch the exr creator, in the second tab, change the corrective luminance factor to 50 000. The rendered image will be totally overexposed, maybe full white. Then two choices: change the exposure of this image in photoshop and resave the image, or load this image directly as the enviromnent map in Daz Studio, but adjust the Environment Intensity to something between 0.00002 and 0.0001... This can solve the "grainy" issue with strong convergence settings such as -in render settings - render quality 100%.
This suggestion reduced the grain significantly, but the image was very bright (as you indicated it would be). The image was also a little blurry compared to other runs at ( all done at 4K resolution). On the plus side the HDRI render was comparitively fast.
- suggestion 6 : if the problem of your render is not the light amount but the grainy aspect, increase your render duration. It is grainy because Daz Studio considers the render is over whereas it is not. In this case either increase the Min Samples as explained in the documentation, or use the following settings : Render Settings/Progressive Rendering : Max TIME = 0, Rendering Quality Enable = OFF, and set up the max samples you want, but make it much bigger than the number of iterations you saw in the exr creator. Try 1000 for instance. PLEASE NOTE : suggestion 6 CAN BE USED IN ADDITION TO ANY other suggestion in order to remove the grain which would be due to too short render durations.
I found this suggestion (combined with disabling bloom in my case) gave the best quality result for my low light indoor scene. However the resulting image had low light at default EV and the renders take quite some time (hours). Note: Changing the luminance correction factor had no noticable effect. Perhaps a higher EV will help. - I am still experimenting
Thanks again for your suggestions
I made HDRIs from Stonemason's The Streets of Paris and The Streets of Medieval. Here are two renders I made to test out the HDRIs.
Wow that amazing Barbult! Thank you so much for taking the time to share them here! I just realize that I lacked of time to make the update as I'm struggling with my next project. It's still in the todo list, I hope it will soon raise at the top of it... By curiosity, did you use a finite or infinite dome to render those?
I used infinite dome.
Hi there!
I am trying to create a hdr file using V3D EXR Creator 1.1, but constantly get a error message.
I follow the documentation, nothing special to mention about the settings. When in the second pane I click on "RENDER HDR NOW WITH CURRENT OPTION" the script tries to locate the images first, but eventually ends up with the following message:
"The exr file was not found in the destination folder with the expected name. You can find more information in the log file..." etc.
It does create one png file in destination folder, but no exr. Tried it with NVIDIA and Filament modus - the same effect.
What I am doing wrong?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Did you select a file folder in the section "Location and options for the HDR Files" near the top of the second tab? I don't know what you mean by "tries to locate the files" - what files is it trying ot locate? The error message says you can find more information in the log file. So, what does the log file say?
@mariopirlo96 You are the first one to report this, so I have good hope this can be solved. As Barbult said, make sure you select a proper folder to save your renders. One important thing is that you should avoid special characters in the file name and in the folder path. To make sure, use only letters at least in the filename.
Can you search in the log file a line with : "WARNING V3D does not manage to find the file :..." at the end you will have the filename and it will help me to find out what the issue comes from. But first make sure that you selected a destination folder (choice list tab 2) and that no special character is used in the name of the image (line edit tab 2). If you still have the issue, don't worry and come back to ask with the log file information. In general I'm here and available to help your from around 8 oclock to around 22 oclock or later Paris hour.
Edit: I read the thread history and the issue happened once initially to Grinch2901 who had special characters in its hard drive path (I guess folder). So try to have a simple folder path and a simple file name to see if this solves things.
Hi there and thanks for the prompt reponse!
To answer your questions:
- yes, i entered the file path of course ;) And no, no special characters there. It is just "C:/tmp/"
- the name of the file is "Steampunk Gatehouse", i also tried "SG" with the same effect
- message in the log file reads: "WARNING V3D does not manage to find the file : C:/tmp/Steampunk Gatehouse_canvases/Steampunk Gatehouse-V3D Canvas-Beauty.exr"
- i also tried options of saving directly in this folder or adding a sub-path. no difference
And about this: "tries to locate the files" - what files is it trying ot locate?
Wat i mean is - after clicking on "***RENDER NOW..." button i get a warning "Waiting for file to be written and found" with message "The script is presently searching for the render file, since 5 seconds. It is possible that the file takes time to be written, the script will keep on searching for 10 more seconds"
After i click on "OK" the final warning pops-up that i posted in the first comment:
"No exr file found, Please contact V3Digitimes"
with that message "The exr file was not found..." etc.
Does this info help?
Hi, thanks for the inputs.
I'm gonna try to reproduce this or understand with these elements what is happening, and if I cannot I'll PM you so that I can send you by email a version of the exr creator which will give me more debugging information on why it fails specifically for you whereas it worked for everybody who contacted me (concerning other subjects on the creator) so far.
I wonder if "tmp" could be an issue in the name of the path (it's a variable I often use in my script).
for your question : - what files is it trying ot locate? When you ask for your exr to be saved in a folder with a given name, Daz Studio will render it in another folder, with another name. The script moves and rename the exr file so that it corresponds to what you expect, and delete any residual empty folder. I'm back in several minutes.
OK, I tried and with a C:/tmp/ it works fine for me whatever the name I use for the file (SG, Steampunk Gatehouse).
Don't worry we'll find a solution What I explained in my previous post is that the exr file is written - by Daz Studio - somewhere else using another name, and the location and name is decided by Daz Studio (with given rules, not randomly of course). I apply these rules - this is a precise recipe - to find the exr file, and copy it, with the right name, to the right location.
There is no real reason to fail, the only three reasons should be : (1) (if the file was not written yet (this is why the scripts says that it is waiting, but I think this could happen only on super old computers), (2) or that you have special characters in the folder path or the file name (but this is not your case), (3) That the version of Daz Studio you are using is too old and the recipe I use does not exist or is different for your version of Daz Studio.
So here is how we can go further (as I prepare my special MarioPirlo debugging script)
1. Can you tell me what version of Daz Studio you are using?
2. Can you open in your explorer your C:/tmp/ folder, and then launch the exr render and launch a 8000x4000 exr (so that the copy takes time). During the render, near the end of it (you have to wait) still look at your C:/tmp a normally a new sib folder should be *temporarily*created. You'll have to tell me the name of this new folder (please note it might already be here or might have been deleted by the script depending when the process failed--- edit : I forced a fail on my side and yes, the new folder remains and the exr is in this new folder, can you see some on your side?). Then, if you have enough time (but you have to go fast, go and have a look in this new folder). You will have to tell me the name of the new exr created. From that I'll be able to know why the file is not found, and, if the issue is the recipe, give you a new script with the new recipe. Don't worry if you don't have time, I have another way (easy way) to find your specific recipe.
3. In order to make sure that the exr is calculated, before you launch the exr script, go in "Render Settings", "Advanced". Then click on the Canvases tab. During the exr rendering you should see a "V3D Canvas : Beauty" canvas with its checkbox checked. Let me know if it is not the case.
I really hope you are going to tell me that you are using a old Daz Studio version, because then a simple recipe change would solve this problem in the blink of an eye. Otherwise we'll have to dig deeper.
Let's try this and see if it works.