Dimension Theory's Reflection Map Resources - Outdoor Packs One and Two ---- I'm Totally Lost

Glycenide

First forgive me if this is not the right area to post.

I just purchased DT's Reflection Map Resources - Outdoor Packs One and Two and I'm a little lost on how to apply.
There are no instructions so I'm assuming they would fall into the shader category correct? I'm pretty much an expert in applying shaders so I would think these would some how be applied to an existing shader that I manually apply. Problem is I'm not seeing where or how to apply. Attached is a quick render I did of the GTR Race Car with a Grape High Gloss Metallic Shader just to the body only. (HDR Yosemite for background and lighting.)

Anyone who has used the Reflection maps please point me in the right direction as I'm at the brick wall (again).

Thanks.

DimensionTheory

Sorry for any trouble, Glycenide!

Here is the info page for pack two (pack one is the same basically):

http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/read_me/index/17466/start

The product is essentially half shader and half props but I will mostly try and explain the shader part since it appears that's what you're trying to use right now. This is in the additional details in the link above...

Shader presets only modify the Reflection Color and Environment Map values in DAZ Default and Uber Surface respectively, they will not affect Reflection Strength or turn reflection on if the surface does not already have these values used. This is done to make it easy to swap Reflection Maps on existing content without affecting other parts of the surface.

So the shader presets included with the product won't have any effect if your surface isn't already using environment mapped reflections, they're not reflection shaders rather they are presets for environment mapping which rely on other values in the shader to work. If you're using the environment map presets check to make sure the surface you apply it to is using the reflection strength value, if that surface is using UberSurface also make sure that reflections are turned on with the switch it has and that environment map is the mode it's using

From your renders the bottom picture appears to be using raytraced reflections which is what the second half of the product is designed for. These are reflection domes located in the scenes folder, which envelope the scene in a sphere using the environment maps in a way similar to the Yosemite set you're using (only the sphere just affects reflections without showing up in your scene and doesn't contain lighting). They still require your shader to be setup for reflections though (which the purple seems to be), if you're using UberSurface reflections need to be turned on and the mode needs to be raytrace.

Hope that helps you!

Glycenide

Thank you very much DT for the quick reply and no trouble at all. As usual I'm not taking the time to read the instructions (RTFD)

Still a little lost so would I apply these to my color shaders I chose for the car and would they still work with glass (windshield)?

DimensionTheory

Yeah, you would select the body (with the material picker) and apply the presets like you would any other shader they just need to have reflection strength in order to work. Applying them to the windshield should work perfectly fine too but they will need reflection strength as well, and if they're using UberSurface it's best with "Multiply Reflections Through Transparency" turned off so the reflections don't become transparent.

I have all of the stuff that you're using in those renders so I thought I'd test it out and see exactly where your troubles are coming from. The default surface on the car does have reflection strength already and they're using the DAZ Default shader, so I think that you are loading the UberSurface reflection map presets which applies UberSurface with mostly default values which means reflections are turned off. If you return the car to it's original materials and apply the reflection map presets not marked with UberSurface it should look something like the first two renders I have here, which I applied two different presets to in order to show how the reflections are independent of the background.

DimensionTheory

I've got two more renders here using the reflection domes with no maps used on the car's surface to show how those work as well. These reflections are using raytracing but the reflection domes are slightly smaller than the Yosemite background dome (so that they're being reflected instead of the Yosemite background), and they only affect reflections so the domes themselves don't show up in the render.

I put them in a new post because I didn't know how the image order would fall and didn't want the renders to get mixed up when referencing.

Glycenide

I got it! FANTASTIC!!!!
Attached are two test renders of a regular red shader with Outdoor pack one Ref map C and D applied. I'll tweak around some more now that I understand how to apply.

Thank so much for your help on this. :lol:

DimensionTheory

I'm glad you got it sorted out! Hopefully it wasn't too confusing, I tried to make these simple and easy to use but with them being universal and intended to work with existing products some of that relies on what they're being applied to. In general things with DAZ Studio MAT presets will work better than those coming from Poser (Poser MATs will never use UberSurface and differences between DS-Poser means things like reflections can come in incorrectly), but the biggest thing to look for is whether or not the surfaces have reflections to begin with :)