Planet Explorer for G2 texture failure and render issues (DAZ not interested)(solved)
I bought the planet explorer suit for an animation story I am creating in Carrara. I have however discovered that conforming the suit to a character screws up the texture lke the geograft issue with G1 and increases render times for no apparent reason, so I raised a help ticket.
The response from DAZ was clear they are only interested in the products they sell workig in DAZ studio.
During the conform the suit auto hides the respective character parts and I suspect this is what might be causing the issue. So I made a request to Daz if they would be willing to contact the vendor and apprise them of the probem to see if they would be willing to provide a version of the suit that does not auto hide the conformed too figure parts to test this theory . So far no reply on this...........
If anyone know how to fix this great.
Here's the content of the help desk conversation
######################
Jared Nielson, Aug 18, 16:19 MDT:
Hi John,
Thanks for sending that info. Unfortunately there isn't anything I can tell you to get the suit to work in Carrara. We test our content in DAZ Studio and can guarantee it will work in that. We don't guarantee that it will work in Carrara though. Usually it will, but there is the odd exception. My guess is that there is something with that UV set that Carrara doesn't like.
At this point I can offer two suggestions. The first would be to ask in the Carrara forums if anyone else has experienced an issue similar to this and if/how they fixed it. The second would be that if you purchased the product for use in Carrara that you can return the product for a refund if you are within the 30 day return window or for store credit if you are not.
I wish I had more information for you,
Jared
John Sharman, Aug 18, 02:21 MDT:
This should answer some of your questions
Regards John
Also see the attached videos
Originally I created a scene in Studio because I needed to use the auto-conform on the suit to conform it to a G2 female. then imported the DUF into carrara. However when
the issue with the texture arose, I opened an empty medium default scene in Carrara then pulled the basic G2 male and the suit into the scene from the Browser. the texures
in both cases where applied automaticly. this is the file you have.....
I have tried removing the textures but this still causes the render times issue, When rendering in Carrara a default medium scene holding a character fitted with conformed
clothing that has been animated renders quite quickly the first frame takes a second or two but all following frames start immediatey after, This holds true for the
planet suit as long as it's not conformed. However once the suit is conformed there is a significent delay before each frame begins to render then the frame takes longer to complete .
I have run some tests on a one second animation to lower arms to side, each scene uses the default settings and only contains the assets in shot.
here are the results
video 1 Planet suit only :- Render time 60 seconds
Video 2 Planet suit and G2 male suit unconformed :-Render time 99.5 seconds
Video 3 Planet suit and G2 male suit conformed :- Render time 136.6 seconds
Video 4 Cowboy pants, shirt and vest conformed to G2 male :- Render time 72.25 seconds
Video 5 G2 male only :- Render time 44.9seconds
Conclusions
Video 5 scene renders 52% faster yet contains 4 figures with a poly count of 40106 over Video 3 with 2 figures with a poly count of 35298.
This shows that the Planet suit when conformed causes both UV issues in regard to the texture and computational issues for rendering. The texture issue during conformation presents itself in a similar way the the geograft issue with G1 character.
Conforming the suit makes the respective G2 body parts invisible not sure how this is done in Carrara as it doesnt use the visibility check box under the general tab. this might be the cause of the longer render times as Carrara tries to resolve rendering polygons that should be visible but arnt
The longer rendering issue is present with or without textures while the suit is conformed. It's not a texture issue.
Attachment(s)
Test Videos.rar
Jared Nielson, Aug 16, 13:37 MDT:
Hi John,
How did you apply the material you are using in the scene? The reason I ask is that I'm unable to apply that particular material preset in Carrara. I'm wondering if the issue might be in how you set the surface up.
Jared
John Sharman, Aug 14, 09:04 MDT:
Seems the file is to big to upload without it timing out
Heres the file in a 6 part Archive
Regards
John
On Thu, 11 Aug 2016 18:14:00 +0100, Jared Nielson (DAZ3D Help Center)
<support@helpdaz.zendesk.com> wrote:
> S
Attachment(s)
planet explorer suit.part1.rar
planet explorer suit.part2.rar
planet explorer suit.part3.rar
planet explorer suit.part4.rar
planet explorer suit.part5.rar
planet explorer suit.part6.rar
John Sharman, Aug 14, 08:47 MDT:
Both the image and car files were attached to the file I sent. My sent box shows the email with both files still attached and successfully delivered
I've tried uploadig it directly to here but it keeps saying "
the upload took to long connection was lost" seems it's to big a file
So i've zipped it into a 6 part archive
Regards
John Sharman, Aug 14, 08:47 MDT:
Both the image and car files were attached to the file I sent. My sent box shows the email with both files still attached and successfully delivered
I've tried uploadig it directly to here but it keeps saying "
the upload took to long connection was lost" seems it's to big a file
So i've zipped it into a 6 part archive
Regards
Attachment(s)
planet explorer suit.part1.rar
planet explorer suit.part2.rar
planet explorer suit.part3.rar
planet explorer suit.part4.rar
planet explorer suit.part5.rar
planet explorer suit.part6.rar
John Sharman, Aug 14, 08:47 MDT:
Both the image and car files were attached to the file I sent. My sent box shows the email with both files still attached and successfully delivered
I've tried uploadig it directly to here but it keeps saying "
the upload took to long connection was lost" seems it's to big a file
So i've zipped it into a 6 part archive
Regards
Jared Nielson, Aug 11, 11:13 MDT:
Hi John,
It appears you've only uploaded a render of the scene. I need the actual scene file itself. It should have a .car file extension.
Thanks,
Jared
John Sharman, Aug 11, 04:22 MDT:
Sorry for the delay I've been away from my PC
Here is the file you requested along with an image of the conformed suit
using the Carrar file attached
Regards
John Sharman
Attachment(s)
Planet explorer conformed.bmp
Jared Nielson, Aug 8, 14:57 MDT:
Hi John,
This isn't something I'm able to reproduce in Carrara. Could you send me the .car scene file?
Jared
Cristina Galloway, Aug 8, 09:01 MDT:
Thank you for contacting Daz 3D Sales/Tech Support.
We strive to answer all e-mail support requests as soon as possible. In the meantime, please feel free to take a look at the commonly asked questions and links below. If you should find the solution, please make sure to let us know and solve your ticket.
We will get back to you shortly!
Thank you
DAZ3D Team
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https://helpdaz.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/207531733
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John Sharman, Aug 6, 10:39 MDT:
Another issue is once you waited 30 seconds for the render to be done if you rotate te camera and re-render it renders in about 3 seconds. However if you move the character in the scene, your back up to a 30 second render time. This does not happen without the planet explorer suit in the scene
John Sharman, Aug 6, 06:08 MDT:
Planet Explorer for Genesis 2 Male(s)
loading this into Carrara scene as an unconformed item it renders OK
However if it's conformed to a figure the suit texture map is screwed up and can increase the render times by a factor of 10.
Removing the texure does not fix the long render times either
Image "Planet explorer suit 2" which contains G2M and 2 suits both uncomformed rendered in 3 seconds
Image "Planet explorer suit" which contains G2M and 2 suit with one conformed to G2M rendered in 11 seconds with or without the texture applied to the conformed suit
Importing a duf from studio causes the problem
The problem also exists with the boots and gloves from this product
This makes this product useless in Carrara
If products dont work in Carrara this should be stated in the product description
Attachment(s)
Planet explorer suit.bmp
Planet explorer suit2.bmp
Comments
Okay... let's try this:
Don't use the version that you've saved after the Auto-conform.
Open your G2 figure in Carrara
I usually also perform Edit > Remove Unused Masters > Consolidate Duplicate Shaders immediately after loading each item into Carrara, just to keep my resources (RAM) clean and efficient. If I find that I need another shader for something, I just duplicate one and build it from there.
From the browser, Load into the scene the suit - straight from the library - drag it onto Scene at the top of the instances tray in Carrara. In other words, don't load it onto the G2 figure causing an Auto-Conform.
Now select the suit and Fit To: select your G2 figure and let it conform.
==============================================================
Not sure if that will help, but if Auto-Conform in DS causes a script to fire that doesn't work properly in Carrara, that's the first thing I'd try to avoid. So this brings up another option which would save an artist whom doesn't have/use Carrara to try and make a compatible file:
So, if the above doesn't work, try this:
Find the product's Data folder in the installation hierarchy (example: Users > My DAZ 3D Library > data > (usually the artist's store name) > (product name) and load the OBJ file of the product into Daz Studio. Optional method: Export the suit as an OBJ from Carrara without any morph dials changed from default.
Now use Morph Loader Pro to turn this OBJ into a conforming clothing item onto the base G2 figure.
When that's done, save it with a unique name as a support asset into the Daz Studio Library
==================================================================
Those special auto-conform option were a special piece of extra work by the author to make things easier on the average DS user. What we need to do is to bypass that and remove visiblity of those G2 body parts right inside Carrara.
I don't have this item, but I'm happy to help you through all of this, if I can ;)
P.S. It took a l o n g time for me to type this, since I would type some... get called away. Type some more... away again... it's maddening!!! LOL
Cool suit, by the way! ;)
Dartanbeck
Your first option is a good idea but I have tried several variations of that process already. I even stripped the textures out in DAZ studio saved it as a new item then to loaded the modified suit in Carrara.
To me there are two problems here the texture screw up and the long render times once the suit is conformed. I suspect both are linked to the way the suit auto hides the G2 character parts hence my request to DAZ (still no reply on that yet) Your second option is likely to yeild the fix, I started to do this in poser using the obj file and attaching the G2 bone structure using the setup room function but the DUF importer crashes if you use it in the setup room, "Humm wonder why that is ! " . So I'll take a look a "Morph loader"
Thanks
This Is a work around
If you have DAZ studio 4.x pro the tools are included, if not you will need to buy the Content Creator Toolkit (CCT) at $6.95 or $4.87 if you are platinum
Open Studio drag in the suit and export a OBJ. Then open a new scene
drag in the character you want the suit to fit on, then import the OBJ file
Drag and drop the OBJ onto the character to parent the OBJ in the scene pane
Select the OBJ then go
edit/ object/ rigging/ convert prop to figure
Make sure the "inherit Skeleton of parent" is ticked and accept
wait for it to do its stuff
Save the scene DUF or export the CR2 file
I imported the the saved DUF file into Carrara and it works fine
You may have to uncheck the visible box for some parts of the character to prevent poke through.
Now why couldnt DAZ tell me this
Oh
Dont forget to autofit the new figure before saving te DUF or exporting the CR2
Right. That's like a slightly longer way around my second method, but I was hurried, so it came out sounding kinda funky ;)
Well, they really don't work with Carrara the way we do. When it comes to Genesis and new DS content, they play with that in their baby... Daz Studio. It's still good that you've filed a ticket. Anyone (if anyone is...?) working on Carrara may find that report helpful.
Oh... and I'm really glad that you've got this solved! Even if it took some effort... that IS a really nice outfit!
You do not need to buy pro BTW DS4.9 pro is free, check the serial you are using if any