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Are you using the latest version of the lights? I know the last update fixed an issue with the lights sometimes using primitive hitmode instead of shader even when shader hitmode was set, which seems to be what you're getting.
Maybe try re-downloading and installing to make sure?
From memory, the workaround was to load a plain white square image (1px x 1px worked fine) into the image map loader on the opacity strength slider, which would force shader hitmode for that surface (in this case, the face). So if you are using an old version of the lights, the difference between skins might just be caused by whether the skin has a map there or not.
I may also be completely wrong, but it seems to fit?
OMG, thank you for the tip temporal.ranger ! Actually I've got my Daz runtime slightly messed (I installed most things in 'content', and some other normally, when I had freshly installed Daz few months ago), so I think I've the 2 versions of the AoA lights installed, but it's most likely possible that the one I use are actually the old ones !
Didn't check it yet, but I'll try it asap, because that might be the explanation of these problems.
Great render and light ambiance btw :)
... And one render made with the AoA lights, had no problem with skullcap shadows here as this hair doesn't use any.
...I never really had good results with skin maps that used HSS even in Daz 3.1 Advanced. Often the skin looked too "shiny". In 4.5 and later, applying the built in HSS shader to a non HSS map usually resulted with the entire character turning white.
...OK there was a post, I believe by Totte, in which he mentioned about an anti-aliasing issue with some highly reflective metal. Well running into the same issue myself with a piano lid hinge where the centre part of the hinge has a very bad case of the "jaggies" after rendering. Cannot seem find the post (thought it was on this thread - really miss being able to filter by author like the old forum search allowed) so not sure what the solution was.
Using one AAL at 50% one ASL at 85% and one UberArea Light as a mesh light at 250% for a wall sconce with falloff of 200CM/500CM (begin/end).
The reflection strength on the metal is preset at 26% colour set to 181,166, 66, glossiness 75%, Shader Model: Glossy - Metallic.
Szark?
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/27675/P1256
...that's it thanks. Wonder how I didn't see it.when I backstepped through the thread.
I remembered it was a spider because I bought the spider based on Szark's renders, so I searched for "spider". :)
...didn't know that would work.
Anyway tried the suggestion of changing the filter to "Gaussian" and reducing the Pixel filter size. Also flagged the metal to not be illuminated by the ASL which removed any chance of a high contrast effect. Both of these in combination seem to have worked while preserving the reflectivity and detail of the hinge and wood.
The piano used is the one from the old Ballroom set.
I am new to DAZ3D, so I think I am to post in Advanced Ambient, Spot & Distant Lights [Commercial] if I have an issue or question with that product.
I have Victoria 6 model with Felicity HD 6.
I have the Advanced DAZ Studio Light Bundle.
I have the Advanced Light Presets for AoA's Lights from DimensionTheory.
When I do a portrait render and every once in a while she turns all white and says an error about a brickyard.
Everything else in the scene renders.
Fixing it seems to be removing the "skin" and putting it back on while keeping everything else the same.
There are so many settings and sub settings, what is the best way to "Reset the Skin" so I know all the setting are at zero or default so I can debug it.
What are "AoA SSS Mats" and "EHSS Mats"? When I load Victoria and apply Felicity, do I need to apply"Victoria Normal Maps"?
How do I switch between them so I can do different tests? How do I check to see which material is currently applied?
Just a quick update, to tell my problem with shadows on skullcaps is finally GONE ! :lol:
I was still using the version 1.1 of Ambient lights, didn't notice there was a 1.2 version... everything works fine with 1.2 for me. (I wasn't using Daz yet at the time I bought the lights last year, that was probably the reason why I didn't check this thread about this).
Thank you everyone for the help, and special thanks to temporal.ranger for the reminder about that version update, that did it :)
Well, I don't even know what HSS means actually :) , all I noticed is that the G2F chars i've got so far do have either sss or hss mats, and often, V4 characters with both Poser and Daz mats are coming as HSS, for daz versions.
But sure I've been saving a few V4 textures as .duf, for use on Gen2, and a lot of them are looking very "shiny".
Well, I don't even know what HSS means actually :) , all I noticed is that the G2F chars i've got so far do have either sss or hss mats, and often, V4 characters with both Poser and Daz mats are coming as HSS, for daz versions.
But sure I've been saving a few V4 textures as .duf, for use on Gen2, and a lot of them are looking very "shiny".
Human Surface Shader. The Base Shader is under Shader Presets/omnifreaker/
Thank you for the tip :)
Thanks for posting the great render Kerya.
When everything turns bright white it is probably a known issue with the SSS shader. There is a bug where, if you hit undo immediately after applying a preset which uses the AoA Subsurface shader, DAZ studio looses track of the code which makes the shader work.
the easiest fix is to either reapply one of the SSS skin presets. The next easiest solution is to create a primitive, it can be anything like a plane or cube, select its material zone then apply the "!Subsurface Base Shader" preset to it. You should be able to delete the primitive afterwords. This just forces DS to reload the code for the shader and put it into memory.
Understand that you can use undo as normal for everything else, including adjustments you made to the shader dials, just not undo immediately after applying the AoA SSS shader or a preset which uses the AoA SSS shader.
"AoA SSS Mats" stand for "Age of Armour Subsurface Scattering (shader) Materials" and "EHSSS Mats" stands for "Elite Human Subsurface Scattering (shader) Materials."
I was still using the version 1.1 of Ambient lights, didn’t notice there was a 1.2 version… everything works fine with 1.2 for me. (I wasn’t using Daz yet at the time I bought the lights last year, that was probably the reason why I didn’t check this thread about this).
Thank you everyone for the help, and special thanks to temporal.ranger for the reminder about that version update, that did it smile
Great to hear you got it all working Navibass. Thanks for finding the fix temporal.ranger. The update hadn't crossed my mind.
Great renders too, Navibass and temporal.ranger. I love the depth of field and glare effects you two used.
Thank you Age of Armour, and just sayin' one more time : Your lights are really amazing ! :)
Thank you :)
Also, I noticed while compiling the credit list for my entry in the look-a-like contest that the description for the Advanced Light Bundle doesn't mention that it includes the Distant Light. It's mentioned in the 'what's included' but might be worth adding it to the blurb as well. :]
Yes, I have a few product pages which need some updating.
And speaking of updates, there should be some on the way for the spot and ambient lights. The update allows shadow catchers to recognize the shadows from these lights.
The spotlights "Set Light strength with Surface Ambient Strength" option has been renamed to capitalize the S on strength so that it is the same as the other lights. It was bugging me that I saw two of these parameters when selecting the spotlight and one of the other advanced lights.
There are also minor internal code changes to allow both of the lights to read flagging parameters from Shader Mixer made surfaces as long as they contain a special rendertime macro (included with the lights). I'll try to put together a tutorial and some shader examples soon for those who are interested.
The advanced Distant Light already includes these features.
I have an update problem with the Ambient lights, using DIM.
I get an installation error asking for the path to DAZ4, even though the path is defined in the settings, and the Spotlight update installed without a problem.
There is a tagging problem here. Normally this would be tagged both DS 4 and DS 4.5+. Your list doesn't show DS 4, just DS 4.5+.
Can you please file a ticket for this?
Thanks for the quick answer. I have filed a report. :-)
I just noticed the updates for Advanced Spotlight and Advanced Ambient Light.
AAL fails to download in DIM, but AS downloaded fine.
Yup, having the same issues here.
We are having the same. We are inquiring about it
Working now.
Good to hear! I just tested again myself and it does look like everything is working now.
If anyone is still having download or install issues please post here and/or send a bug report.
I noticed the updates for these 2 products as well, but what issues were resolved with the update? I looked at the product info and there was no information there concerning the update. There have been some products that get updated and for some reason fail to install and of course it overrides the files with previous installations so unless an the product info specifies what the update is about I am usually very hesitant to download/install the new file.
EDITED: ahhhh...I guess I spoke too soon. The issues resolved are there now. Earlier though when I first checked (about 5 hours earlier) there wasn't any information.
The scrollbar is an amazing thing. Scrolling through the last page of the thread would have given you this post by AoA talking about the upcoming update. ;)
The update makes the lights work properly with shadow catchers, corrects a spelling error in one of the parameter labels and enables flagging with surfaces made in Shader Mixer (that have an added macro).
That last part is something I need to make a short tutorial about for those who create shaders with Shader Mixer. It's simple to add the macro but it still needs a little bit of explanation. It's not something you need to do for using the lights or shaders; It's benefit is really just for those creating shaders.
Some shaders that Dimension Theory and I are about to release use the macro for flagging. I wanted to be sure the lights were updated before the shader release.
Oh boy! New shaders coming!
Thanks for the cheer :) The shaders have passed quality assurance and should be released in about a week and a half.