Converting "Other" File Formats to Work in DAZ Studio

Fauvist

I'm not about to pay thousands of dollars for high-end sudio grade 3D software, but sometimes there is a 3D model I see somewhere that I would like to use in DAZ Studio that is in one of those file formats.  Is there software, or a site, or a method, of converting other file formats into file formats that are usable in DAZ Studio.  I realize that especially "shaders" are sometimes almost impossible to convert from their original format because they depend on the software they were made for to render them.  But even to be able to convert something into .obj with material zones that I can open in DAZ Studio would be fine.

Thanks!

jjmainor

I've used anyconv.com in the past.  Not every conversion works for me and there are file size limits, but I have been able to convert some stuff.

Artini

I use mostly Blender for conversion of many different file formats to .obj with material zones.

Recently I have used it on .GLB and it works quite well.

 

crosswind

The commonly-used formats for being imported into DS is OBJ / FBX. If using Blender, OBJ format with default settings can work well... only you have to assign texture maps + tweaking material settings on surfaces in DS ~~

If you're regular Blender users, I strongly recommend a pretty good add-on : (Link removed by mod "Blender to Daz Studio")

The latest version can convert and export geometry, weight, texture maps + Principle BSDF material setting for Iray Uber shader, animation, lights / cameras directly to DS.

3Diva

crosswind said:

The commonly-used formats for being imported into DS is OBJ / FBX. If using Blender, OBJ format with default settings can work well... only you have to assign texture maps + tweaking material settings on surfaces in DS ~~

If you're regular Blender users, I strongly recommend a pretty good add-on : (Link removed by mod "Blender to Daz Studio")

The latest version can convert and export geometry, weight, texture maps + Principle BSDF material setting for Iray Uber shader, animation, lights / cameras directly to DS.

Oh I wish they sold that, or something like it, in the Daz3D store! :D

crosswind

3Diva said:

crosswind said:

The commonly-used formats for being imported into DS is OBJ / FBX. If using Blender, OBJ format with default settings can work well... only you have to assign texture maps + tweaking material settings on surfaces in DS ~~

If you're regular Blender users, I strongly recommend a pretty good add-on : (Link removed by mod "Blender to Daz Studio")

The latest version can convert and export geometry, weight, texture maps + Principle BSDF material setting for Iray Uber shader, animation, lights / cameras directly to DS.

Oh I wish they sold that, or something like it, in the Daz3D store! :D

Right ! 

xyer0

Depending on which site you're using, you can get an attempt at a .duf conversion. TurboSquid has done this for me several times, as has CGTrader. Otherwise, I use fbx through Poser 11 Pro, save a PZ3, and import into DS; Uber Iray the surfaces, scale to Genesis, and test render to see what if any materials have to be replaced with shaders. With some large environments, I'll often have to group, name, and position the parts, which can take a day or two; however, it does give me a deep appreciation for how easy our vendors make life. Kitbash3D FBX files come in grouped and named; all they need is scaling, Iray Uber, and emission settings.

Silent Winter

crosswind said:

The commonly-used formats for being imported into DS is OBJ / FBX. If using Blender, OBJ format with default settings can work well... only you have to assign texture maps + tweaking material settings on surfaces in DS ~~

If you're regular Blender users, I strongly recommend a pretty good add-on : (Link removed by mod "Blender to Daz Studio")

The latest version can convert and export geometry, weight, texture maps + Principle BSDF material setting for Iray Uber shader, animation, lights / cameras directly to DS.

How does this compare with the Daz to Blender Bridge? Is it mostly useful for figure transfers (with the weightmaps) or for all kinds of things? I like the transfer of materials as it looks straightforward and powerful, but I'm not sure if it's worth $50. 

crosswind

Silent Winter said:

crosswind said:

The commonly-used formats for being imported into DS is OBJ / FBX. If using Blender, OBJ format with default settings can work well... only you have to assign texture maps + tweaking material settings on surfaces in DS ~~

If you're regular Blender users, I strongly recommend a pretty good add-on : (Link removed by mod "Blender to Daz Studio")

The latest version can convert and export geometry, weight, texture maps + Principle BSDF material setting for Iray Uber shader, animation, lights / cameras directly to DS.

How does this compare with the Daz to Blender Bridge? Is it mostly useful for figure transfers (with the weightmaps) or for all kinds of things? I like the transfer of materials as it looks straightforward and powerful, but I'm not sure if it's worth $50. 

DTB is a bridge for one-way sending Daz assets from DS to Blender. On the contrary, the above add-on can just send assets from Blender to DS, on the fly. They're not really comparable.

Actually this add-on was meant to be mainly developed for the Blender users who create contents for Daz ~~ As for pricing, I used to wish it to be around $35. Personally I don't think it's really worth the price for occasional Blender users.

Silent Winter

crosswind said:

Silent Winter said:

crosswind said:

The commonly-used formats for being imported into DS is OBJ / FBX. If using Blender, OBJ format with default settings can work well... only you have to assign texture maps + tweaking material settings on surfaces in DS ~~

If you're regular Blender users, I strongly recommend a pretty good add-on : (Link removed by mod "Blender to Daz Studio")

The latest version can convert and export geometry, weight, texture maps + Principle BSDF material setting for Iray Uber shader, animation, lights / cameras directly to DS.

How does this compare with the Daz to Blender Bridge? Is it mostly useful for figure transfers (with the weightmaps) or for all kinds of things? I like the transfer of materials as it looks straightforward and powerful, but I'm not sure if it's worth $50. 

DTB is a bridge for one-way sending Daz assets from DS to Blender. On the contrary, the above add-on can just send assets from Blender to DS, on the fly. They're not really comparable.

Actually this add-on was meant to be mainly developed for the Blender users who create contents for Daz ~~ As for pricing, I used to wish it to be around $35. Personally I don't think it's really worth the price for occasional Blender users.

Thanks. I haven't used the Daz2Blender bridge much but for some reason I thought 'bridge' would go both ways. Rereading about it, I guess it's just a one-way export.

That Blender addon does look good, but what would actually be useful to me is a back-and-forth bridge so changes I make in one program could be sent back to the other and vice-versa.

Still, I'll wishlist that addon in case it goes on sale.

Cheers :) 

Elor

crosswind said:

If you're regular Blender users, I strongly recommend a pretty good add-on : (Link removed by mod "Blender to Daz Studio")

The latest version can convert and export geometry, weight, texture maps + Principle BSDF material setting for Iray Uber shader, animation, lights / cameras directly to DS.

$50 is a steep price, but it could be worth it just to import assets from Blender in the long run.

Does it fix some problems related to Geometry ? I think I now know how to care about materials and simple riggings (more complex ones one day too), but geometry is just a bigger beast, one I have yet to tame…

As a recent example, I tried to import the Wooden Dovetail Box from Blendswap into Daz Studio, thinking it would be easy because it was a simple shape (I tried to import objects with round hole in them, like a car phone holder and it was a mess around the hole…) but the end result is disappointing (and I have no idea what's going wrong and don't know the key words to use to find a solution: a search about transfering object from Blender to Daz usually ends with results about Daz to Blender discussions instead…)

In Blender:

In Daz Studio, they are triangles everywhere (even after using a Tris to Quads converter in Blender, who found nothing):

 

crosswind

Elor said:

crosswind said:

If you're regular Blender users, I strongly recommend a pretty good add-on : (Link removed by mod "Blender to Daz Studio")

The latest version can convert and export geometry, weight, texture maps + Principle BSDF material setting for Iray Uber shader, animation, lights / cameras directly to DS.

$50 is a steep price, but it could be worth it just to import assets from Blender in the long run.

Does it fix some problems related to Geometry ? I think I now know how to care about materials and simple riggings (more complex ones one day too), but geometry is just a bigger beast, one I have yet to tame…

As a recent example, I tried to import the Wooden Dovetail Box from Blendswap into Daz Studio, thinking it would be easy because it was a simple shape (I tried to import objects with round hole in them, like a car phone holder and it was a mess around the hole…) but the end result is disappointing (and I have no idea what's going wrong and don't know the key words to use to find a solution: a search about transfering object from Blender to Daz usually ends with results about Daz to Blender discussions instead…)

In Blender:

In Daz Studio, they are triangles everywhere (even after using a Tris to Quads converter in Blender, who found nothing):

 

Ah, right ~ I shouldn't have posted a commercial link there. Anyway...

The add-on doesn't fix anything on the geometry... but with FBX format, it can assure a precise export in terms of geometry. It may be case by case... though I don't think it's an issue comes from tris per se. Check your export settings if you selected Normals / Trianglated Mesh.

In below example (from a blend file on Polyhaven...), no geometry issue was found after exporting with OBJ or the add-on but the add-on gave the correct material settings + precisely assigned maps. (the one on the right...)

Mattymanx

Elor said:

I tried to import objects with round hole in them, like a car phone holder and it was a mess around the hole.

Daz Studio can only handle triangles and quads.  When you import a model into DS and you have polygons with 5 sides or more, refered to as Ngons, you will see weirdness in the mesh, as though polygons are over running their own boundries.  This is because the larger modeling apps can handle things differently than DS can and dont have to follow the same rules.

When converting a blender model, you would need to check if modifiers are active and if so, have them backed in, in the order they appear in the modifiers list.  You may also want to apply a triangulate modifier and have it triangulate any polygon with 5 sides or more.

Timbales

You can use the Geometry Editor to reassign surfaces of an OBJ you've imported into Daz Studio

Richard Haseltine

Mattymanx said:

Elor said:

I tried to import objects with round hole in them, like a car phone holder and it was a mess around the hole.

Daz Studio can only handle triangles and quads.  When you import a model into DS and you have polygons with 5 sides or more, refered to as Ngons, you will see weirdness in the mesh, as though polygons are over running their own boundries.  This is because the larger modeling apps can handle things differently than DS can and dont have to follow the same rules.

When converting a blender model, you would need to check if modifiers are active and if so, have them backed in, in the order they appear in the modifiers list.  You may also want to apply a triangulate modifier and have it triangulate any polygon with 5 sides or more.

n-gons are triangulated on import, but data is kept so that they can be rebuilt on export. The problem is that there are different ways to triangulate, and if the ngon is concave (or for rendering, even if a quad is concave) the trianles created may cover the concavity producing the running over boundaries effect.

crosswind

@Elor

I'm sorry that I missed the link of that wooden box you posted above. So I downloaded the package and checked them: 1) there's no ngons on main body surface but on the hinges only; 2) there're a couple of  bevel modifiers; 3) after bevel modifiers were applied when exporting to OBJ with default settings, more ngons appeared due to more vertices generated from bevel edges (ss1); 4) I think the problem comes from the defaut OBJ export function...even exported with Triangulated option, it didn't work.

So I just used Better FBX Exporter, but still chose OBJ format (ss2), then the result was 100% correct, Tris only (ss3). Then imported OBJ into DS, everything was fine after some color tweaking on its Surfaces (ss4) .

(Edited..)

Mattymanx

Richard Haseltine said:

n-gons are triangulated on import, but data is kept so that they can be rebuilt on export. The problem is that there are different ways to triangulate, and if the ngon is concave (or for rendering, even if a quad is concave) the trianles created may cover the concavity producing the running over boundaries effect.

Thanks, I did not know that 

richardandtracy

If the ngons are triangulated on import, then the wierdness may be coming from excessively pointy triangles being created in that triangulation phase. DS doesn't seem to handle triangles with an aspect ratio exceeding 10 at all well. Between 5 & 10 it gets progressively worse. I often have to re-mesh parts of models I translate to obj format from SolidWorks STL because the triangles are too pointy.

Regards,

Richard

crosswind

richardandtracy said:

If the ngons are triangulated on import, then the wierdness may be coming from excessively pointy triangles being created in that triangulation phase. DS doesn't seem to handle triangles with an aspect ratio exceeding 10 at all well. Between 5 & 10 it gets progressively worse. I often have to re-mesh parts of models I translate to obj format from SolidWorks STL because the triangles are too pointy.

Regards,

Richard

Probably~~ I'm not aware of how exactly DS OBJ Importer handles ngons but I know it cannot even work well on a simple cylinder with ngons when importing OBJ file. Then you'll see wrong rendering result with artifacts ~~

So better not leave ngons to DS importer, fix them in the source modeling software...

Richard Haseltine

The presence of various methods with TriFan in the name is probably a hint http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/referenceguide/scripting/api_reference/object_index/facet_dz - it looks as if one vertex is picked (setTriFanRoot ( Number rootIdx )) and then one of the vertices that shares an edge is picked, then the other vertex that shares an edge with that and a new edge is added between the centre vertex and that (if one doesn't already exist) - repeat from that new edge until done.

crosswind

Anyway, if OBJ Importer can be enhanced, that'll be certainly great !

lilweep

Fauvist said:

I'm not about to pay thousands of dollars for high-end sudio grade 3D software, but sometimes there is a 3D model I see somewhere that I would like to use in DAZ Studio that is in one of those file formats.  Is there software, or a site, or a method, of converting other file formats into file formats that are usable in DAZ Studio.  I realize that especially "shaders" are sometimes almost impossible to convert from their original format because they depend on the software they were made for to render them.  But even to be able to convert something into .obj with material zones that I can open in DAZ Studio would be fine.

Thanks!

example? 

WendyLuvsCatz

I bought an older Poser legacy model pp2 recently from elsewhere that wasn't cheap, even 50% off

and it was full of ngons  and some flipped normals

regret

it's actually OK with iray but had other issues I had to fix in other programs like no UV mapping on some plain surfaces including the windows, iray really doesn't like that for glass, geometry editor can flip the normals on any faces that are wrong fortunately 

it is somewhat of a disaster in Unreal Engine and Twinmotion though because of the ngons

crosswind

WendyLuvsCatz said:

I bought an older Poser legacy model pp2 recently from elsewhere that wasn't cheap, even 50% off

and it was full of ngons  and some flipped normals

regret

it's actually OK with iray but had other issues I had to fix in other programs like no UV mapping on some plain surfaces including the windows, iray really doesn't like that for glass, geometry editor can flip the normals on any faces that are wrong fortunately 

it is somewhat of a disaster in Unreal Engine and Twinmotion though because of the ngons

Haha ~~ but sometimes ngons / tris are not really dreadful... poorly meshed quads are.

Richard Haseltine

WendyLuvsCatz said:

I bought an older Poser legacy model pp2 recently from elsewhere that wasn't cheap, even 50% off

and it was full of ngons  and some flipped normals

regret

it's actually OK with iray but had other issues I had to fix in other programs like no UV mapping on some plain surfaces including the windows, iray really doesn't like that for glass, geometry editor can flip the normals on any faces that are wrong fortunately 

It is my understanding that OBJ doesn't actually support partial UV mapping anyway - though obviously some importers can cope with that, as they can with other breaches of the definition (e.g. spaces in names).

it is somewhat of a disaster in Unreal Engine and Twinmotion though because of the ngons

Softimage_Graphic_Artist

I would recomend two softwares Maxon ZBrush and Adobe Photoshop and all of your problems will go away !

crosswind

Softimage_Graphic_Artist said:

I would recomend two softwares Maxon ZBrush and Adobe Photoshop and all of your problems will go away !

I don't think the above subject matters should have anything to do with Adobe Photoshop. BTW, what ZB can do in terms of a dedicated workflow... with resolving the above-mentioned problems, to be exactly ?

Softimage_Graphic_Artist

 

I Built this model in Maxon ZBrush; textures worked in Adobe Photodhop. You can send reight into your DAZ (GUI)

ZBrush and Photoshop are 2 good software programs that could take care of any model issueI use the all the time.

Substance Painter also is a good texture software program to use. All of which can be imported into DAZ Studio .

Elor

Mattymanx said:

Daz Studio can only handle triangles and quads.  When you import a model into DS and you have polygons with 5 sides or more, refered to as Ngons, you will see weirdness in the mesh, as though polygons are over running their own boundries.  This is because the larger modeling apps can handle things differently than DS can and dont have to follow the same rules.

When converting a blender model, you would need to check if modifiers are active and if so, have them backed in, in the order they appear in the modifiers list.  You may also want to apply a triangulate modifier and have it triangulate any polygon with 5 sides or more.

I tried to apply them, from top to bottom (I suppose it's the correct order) but the end result is the same.

I was able to get a better result on the front panel after removing the bevel modifier but doing the same on the side panel didn't change the outcome

Timbales said:

You can use the Geometry Editor to reassign surfaces of an OBJ you've imported into Daz Studio

If it's an answer to my question, I know how to use it but I don't see how it'll solve a problem related to geometry.

crosswind said:

@Elor

I'm sorry that I missed the link of that wooden box you posted above. So I downloaded the package and checked them: 1) there's no ngons on main body surface but on the hinges only; 2) there're a couple of  bevel modifiers; 3) after bevel modifiers were applied when exporting to OBJ with default settings, more ngons appeared due to more vertices generated from bevel edges (ss1); 4) I think the problem comes from the defaut OBJ export function...even exported with Triangulated option, it didn't work.

So I just used Better FBX Exporter, but still chose OBJ format (ss2), then the result was 100% correct, Tris only (ss3). Then imported OBJ into DS, everything was fine after some color tweaking on its Surfaces (ss4) .

(Edited..)

Oh, it did solve the problem on your screenshot.

After looking at the price of the plugin

richardandtracy

Richard Haseltine said:

...

It is my understanding that OBJ doesn't actually support partial UV mapping anyway - though obviously some importers can cope with that, as they can with other breaches of the definition (e.g. spaces in names).

...

There is nothing in the obj format to prevent partial mapping. The facet must have vertices specified at the corners, but texture vertices and vertex normal directions may be defined optionally at the facet vertices. If they are defined for the first vertex of a facet, they must be defined for all vertices for the facet as far as I can see, It appears the following lines are all permitted in the same file:

f 1/1/4 2/2/5 3/3/6 4/4/7

f 2 1 5 6

f 2//4 3//5 4//6 5//7

f 3/4 4/5 5/6 6/7

The following is not permitted:

f 1//4 2//5 3/3/6 4/4/7

f 3 4 5/6 6/7

Regards

Richard

 

Artini

I have imported many FBX files directly to the latest Daz Studio Public (Beta)

and besides applying manually maps to the slots of the shader in Daz Studio

all works as expected.

You need to have a high quality assets in FBX format of course,

otherwise is as "garbage in, garbage out".