DSON importer plugin for Blender

TheMysteryIsThePoint

As both UbiSoft and Epic both made serious and public pledges to assist in Blender's development, their stated reasons for doing so really make me think:

Why doesn't Daz?

It would be soooo nice if Daz just supported Blender with addons to import assets so that others didn't have to make Rube Goldberg type machinations to get their content into Blender. The whole Daz environment is already extremely lopsided: Absolutely awesome character models and assets at the right price, but a limited animation environment (to be generous). I really wish Daz would give up on it and punt that responsibility to Blender, and make it easier to do so.

Blender is clearly at the same point on the same trajectory that Linux was in the early 90s, whose endpoint was singlehandedly ressurrecting Red Hat and IBM, the entire top 100 Supercomputer list, and being in half of everyone's pockets right now. Also like Linux, Blender has progressed beyond the "Dismiss it" point, beyond the "Deride it" point, to the "Embrace it" point. I really wish Daz would consider what a symbiotic relationship could exist (no, does exist) and make use of Blender's open source nature to free Daz up to concentrate on innovation in their core. I cringe everytime Daz trumpets some advancement in its animation capabilities because I think of what cool features they neglected that aren't already done, and much better, in Blender.

Daz's strength seems to be it's models, artists, and marketplace; I know that's why the get my money, in particular. Everything else makes me want to punch a puppy. The faster I can get things into Blender, the faster I'm done, and the sooner I go back to my wishlist of over 200 future purchases to by the next assets in line that stoked my creativity. I can't be the only one, can I?

Please, Daz, really, please. You guys know how: Write a DSON importer plugin for Blender. Done. Blender achieves World Domination, and Daz goes along.

andya_b341b7c5f5

TL;DR - I don't think Daz will venture into building plugins for other software for reasons outlined below.  Putting in a feature request by way of a help ticket is probably your best way to raise the possibility.  If they got enough such requests they may look into it.

This idea has come up on the forums before, and as then I'm curious what it is you would want this importer plugin to do that is not done by the currently available tools - OBJ/FBX transfer, mcjTeleBlender (pending update for Blender 2.80), Thomas Larsson's 'Import Daz' plugin (2.80 compatible already).  Certainly, none of these is perfect, I find in particular the material conversion to either Cycles or EEVEE is weak and requires signficant additional work.  But then whatever Daz might do would not - could not - suit the needs of everyone.  Is it simply a matter of wanting maximum convenience - one-click in Daz Studio and - boom! - your scene appears in Blender, ready to render/animate?  Corporate support over one person efforts?  Something else?

As to why Daz haven't done it so far, the only answer can be economics.  They'll do it when they think it will pay, by increasing sales of Daz assets to Blender users to a sufficient degree.  The release of 2.80 will surely increase Blender user numbers, but even so It would really surprise me if there are enough potential Daz asset buyers who are holding off simply because the transfer to Blender is too much of a hurdle for them.  If you want to render stills using Daz assets, then you either prefer Cycles over Iray strongly enough, or want EEVEE enough, to surmout the hurdle, or you use Iray in DS.  If you want to animate in Blender, then you need a good IK-enabled rig, which Daz models lack (at least for now).  (Thomas Larsson's plugin has an option to convert the Daz rig to Rigify, but I've not tried it so don't know how well that works.)

Daz could probably more readily make and market Blender-ready versions of their original figures, with an IK rig and materials modified for Cycles and/or EEVEE.

I think it's also significant that Daz haven't made plugins to help transfer to other software like 3DS Max, Maya etc. where their assets might be used.  Only ZBrush, a while back, and nothing else since.  Daz don't seem interested in this kind of thing now.  I guess the floor is open to a third party to fill the vacuum if they think it worthwhile.

And then there's possible licencing issues, Blender being GPL and all.  Daz does not seem like an open source kind of company really.

WendyLuvsCatz

https://www.daz3d.com/daz-to-maya

http://diffeomorphic.blogspot.com/p/daz-importer.html

unused account - glossedsfm

 

SadKitty_Carrara said:

https://www.daz3d.com/daz-to-maya

http://diffeomorphic.blogspot.com/p/daz-importer.html

 

The blender plugin needs quite a bit of tweaking on the models to get them right. 

 

TheMysteryIsThePoint

andya_b341b7c5f5 said:

TL;DR - I don't think Daz will venture into building plugins for other software for reasons outlined below.  Putting in a feature request by way of a help ticket is probably your best way to raise the possibility.  If they got enough such requests they may look into it.

This idea has come up on the forums before, and as then I'm curious what it is you would want this importer plugin to do that is not done by the currently available tools - OBJ/FBX transfer, mcjTeleBlender (pending update for Blender 2.80), Thomas Larsson's 'Import Daz' plugin (2.80 compatible already).  Certainly, none of these is perfect, I find in particular the material conversion to either Cycles or EEVEE is weak and requires signficant additional work.  But then whatever Daz might do would not - could not - suit the needs of everyone.  Is it simply a matter of wanting maximum convenience - one-click in Daz Studio and - boom! - your scene appears in Blender, ready to render/animate?  Corporate support over one person efforts?  Something else?

As to why Daz haven't done it so far, the only answer can be economics.  They'll do it when they think it will pay, by increasing sales of Daz assets to Blender users to a sufficient degree.  The release of 2.80 will surely increase Blender user numbers, but even so It would really surprise me if there are enough potential Daz asset buyers who are holding off simply because the transfer to Blender is too much of a hurdle for them.  If you want to render stills using Daz assets, then you either prefer Cycles over Iray strongly enough, or want EEVEE enough, to surmout the hurdle, or you use Iray in DS.  If you want to animate in Blender, then you need a good IK-enabled rig, which Daz models lack (at least for now).  (Thomas Larsson's plugin has an option to convert the Daz rig to Rigify, but I've not tried it so don't know how well that works.)

Daz could probably more readily make and market Blender-ready versions of their original figures, with an IK rig and materials modified for Cycles and/or EEVEE.

I think it's also significant that Daz haven't made plugins to help transfer to other software like 3DS Max, Maya etc. where their assets might be used.  Only ZBrush, a while back, and nothing else since.  Daz don't seem interested in this kind of thing now.  I guess the floor is open to a third party to fill the vacuum if they think it worthwhile.

And then there's possible licencing issues, Blender being GPL and all.  Daz does not seem like an open source kind of company really.

I can't argue with any of the points of your thoughtful argument. It is mainly an issue of robustness and convenience. The only problem that I have with any of the methods you described is that they are all "hacks" to some degree, and I would have to commit Sepuku if I came to depend on a script that later, due to bugs or deliberate action, stops working. An officially supported tool where Daz has a fiduciary responsibility to maintain it is what I'm after.

And really, if I can come in off the street and after less than two weeks of an hour or so a day after work, have a plugin that can export the vertex, normal, uv, face, and materials, how hard would this have been for a Daz dev? Paradoxically, I'm finding integrating with Blender, the Open Source app, more difficult to figure out.

But as I said, all your points are well taken... maybe I'm a bit too wonky. I just want my two favorite apps to be well integrated.

TheMysteryIsThePoint

SadKitty_Carrara said:

https://www.daz3d.com/daz-to-maya

http://diffeomorphic.blogspot.com/p/daz-importer.html

I've used Larsson's script to good effect; I just don't want to become dependent on it just for him to at a later date, lose interest or otherwise stop developing it, or Daz does something to break it.