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Alembic Exporter and HD Morphs

SadRobotSadRobot Posts: 116
in Technical Help (nuts n bolts)

I've been playing around with the alembic exporter, but I've noticed there isn't a very high level of detail on exported models, even as I raise the subdivision level (I'm importing them to C4D R19). I also noticed that I can't import crease/corner data, which I think would be helpful in getting more detail. Does anyone know how I can get more detail out of alembic exports?

Comments

  • wolf359wolf359 Posts: 3,837

    Hi Alemebic & MDD ( which I use for C4D  )
    will only export the SubD level you were using in Daz studio
    The DAZ "HD" morphs are proprietary and only function within Daz studio.
    However  I am getting great  Details with Genesis figures in C4D using  the Daz supplied normal maps.

  • SadRobotSadRobot Posts: 116

    Interpreting. When I export as an MDD, I get the subD level of my render view, down to the HD morphs. MDD is just a clunky and annoying format relative to alembic. When I export as alembic, though, I don’t think I’m getting the same level of detail, but I’ll play around with it a bit more. 

  • wolf359wolf359 Posts: 3,837
    SadRobot said:

     MDD is just a clunky and annoying format relative to alembic. 

    Respectfully  disagree
    if your receiving program has a proper MDD handler
    ( I am using the Riptide pro plugin for C4D)
    MDD is every bit as useful as Alembic, at least for pre-animated Daz meshes,

    I have 58 minutes of a feature length animated marvel fan film All with MDD Driven Daz figures in Maxon C4D.

    FYI a user here "Robotheadart" has reported many problems with the Daz Alembic exporter so that may be a factor.

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,599

    the HD morphs  seemed to export in detail to Octane render standalone when I used Alembic

    just the PITA of needing to export an obj to copy over shaders and the 200 frame limit

  • wolf359wolf359 Posts: 3,837
    th3Digit said:
     
    th3Digit said:

    the HD morphs  seemed to export in detail to Octane render standalone when I used Alembic

    just the PITA of needing to export an obj to copy over shaders and the 200 frame limit

     

     

    Daz should collect the textures for you in a "maps" folder.

    My MDD importer For C4D asks for the location path of the textures referenced in the .mtl file and loads& applies them automatically upon import of my genesis.obj files.


    What is this 200 frame limit...
    is that an Octane limitation??surprise

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,599
    edited August 2018
    wolf359 said:
    th3Digit said:
     
    th3Digit said:

    the HD morphs  seemed to export in detail to Octane render standalone when I used Alembic

    just the PITA of needing to export an obj to copy over shaders and the 200 frame limit

     

     

    Daz should collect the textures for you in a "maps" folder.

    My MDD importer For C4D asks for the location path of the textures referenced in the .mtl file and loads& applies them automatically upon import of my genesis.obj files.


    What is this 200 frame limit...
    is that an Octane limitation??surprise

    not sure but DS did get an error if I exceed it a few years ago and it was mentioned in threads when it first came out and I bought it, doubt very much it has been further updated and actually not tested recently either as I mostly use the Octane plugin for DS itself

    this is Alembic abc format not mdd BTW

    Post edited by WendyLuvsCatz on
  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,599

    http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/referenceguide/plugins/alembic/start

    some useful information here

  • SadRobotSadRobot Posts: 116
    th3Digit said:

    http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/referenceguide/plugins/alembic/start

    some useful information here

    This is perfect! If I turn off the SubD checkbox, I get my mesh exported at the viewport resolution. Don't know why I missed this before. This is great because I can export a low res subD for running sims on and a high res for render.

    wolf359 said:
    SadRobot said:

     MDD is just a clunky and annoying format relative to alembic. 

    Respectfully  disagree
    if your receiving program has a proper MDD handler
    ( I am using the Riptide pro plugin for C4D)
    MDD is every bit as useful as Alembic, at least for pre-animated Daz meshes,

    I have 58 minutes of a feature length animated marvel fan film All with MDD Driven Daz figures in Maxon C4D.

    FYI a user here "Robotheadart" has reported many problems with the Daz Alembic exporter so that may be a factor.

    That's all fair, and I certainly don't mean to insult people who use it. I simply meant that I find having to export an OBJ and an MDD a little annoying. I've also frequently gotten errors of hte meshes not being an identical polycount if I forget to have all my boxes checked just right. It's not a big deal, but I've found Alembic to be more versatile and quick in my particular workflow.

    Thanks for the help, everyone!

  • RobotHeadArtRobotHeadArt Posts: 917
    SadRobot said:
    th3Digit said:

    http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/referenceguide/plugins/alembic/start

    some useful information here

    This is perfect! If I turn off the SubD checkbox, I get my mesh exported at the viewport resolution. Don't know why I missed this before. This is great because I can export a low res subD for running sims on and a high res for render.

    wolf359 said:
    SadRobot said:

     MDD is just a clunky and annoying format relative to alembic. 

    Respectfully  disagree
    if your receiving program has a proper MDD handler
    ( I am using the Riptide pro plugin for C4D)
    MDD is every bit as useful as Alembic, at least for pre-animated Daz meshes,

    I have 58 minutes of a feature length animated marvel fan film All with MDD Driven Daz figures in Maxon C4D.

    FYI a user here "Robotheadart" has reported many problems with the Daz Alembic exporter so that may be a factor.

    That's all fair, and I certainly don't mean to insult people who use it. I simply meant that I find having to export an OBJ and an MDD a little annoying. I've also frequently gotten errors of hte meshes not being an identical polycount if I forget to have all my boxes checked just right. It's not a big deal, but I've found Alembic to be more versatile and quick in my particular workflow.

    Thanks for the help, everyone!

    There was a bug in the Alembic exporter where it would flip the normals that appears to have been fixed in the DAZ Studio public beta 4.11.  I noticed this bug when I was getting crazy weird SSS and simulation properties when importing a DAZ Studio .abc into Houdini and realized the objects were being treated as being inside out.

  • SadRobotSadRobot Posts: 116

    Ooh, yeah. I just noticed that trying to grow hairs out of an object. I was able to flip them in Cinema, but it’s good to know it’ll be fixed in a future release.

  • pdr0pdr0 Posts: 204
    SadRobot said:
     This is great because I can export a low res subD for running sims on and a high res for render.

     

    FBX proxy (base mesh) is another option for some sims . It's a better option in several ways:  Filesize much lower for animation, much less memory consumption,  sims run faster. Also you retain your rigging - it enables you to attach things , parent things, invisible colliders etc...much more easily.  For example , you can use it to attach C4D deformers to affect higher resolution meshes  . Also , if you needed to, you can adjust the animation and go back . So it's definitely more flexible. But some morph exports in FBX can mess up in C4D import (if you 're using exported morphs), the are sometimes duplicated in the pose morph tag (just delete the duplicates) , but a few cause other problems - sometimes you need to adjust the DS FBX export settings depending on what your scene/simulation/animation is

     

  • wolf359wolf359 Posts: 3,837
    pdr0 said:
    SadRobot said:
     This is great because I can export a low res subD for running sims on and a high res for render.

     

    FBX proxy (base mesh) is another option for some sims . It's a better option in several ways:  Filesize much lower for animation, much less memory consumption,  sims run faster. Also you retain your rigging - it enables you to attach things , parent things, invisible colliders etc...much more easily.  For example , you can use it to attach C4D deformers to affect higher resolution meshes  . Also , if you needed to, you can adjust the animation and go back . So it's definitely more flexible. But some morph exports in FBX can mess up in C4D import (if you 're using exported morphs), the are sometimes duplicated in the pose morph tag (just delete the duplicates) , but a few cause other problems - sometimes you need to adjust the DS FBX export settings depending on what your scene/simulation/animation is

     

     

    I would also highly recommend the "Decimator" plugin from Daz.

    A bit pricey, however  if you always render your finals in another program like C4D or Lightwave, the decimator is a great way to create super low res figuresfor proxy collission actors with my Realflow fliud simulations etc ,or for distant background characters.

    No matter your if your workflow flow uses FBX,Alembic or .obj/MDD

    All of the "blue suited" background figures in this video clip
    are Empty MDD Pre-animated animated shells reduced down to about 5000 faces in Daz studio before export.

    In C4D,  I placed them under a nondestructive hypernurbs object to subdivide them at render time
    The same can be done with with subpatch modifier in Lightwave3D.  

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