Chevybabe's Dforce SBH Hair Thread
chevybabe25
Posts: 1,272
https://www.daz3d.com/dforce-double-dutch-braids-for-genesis-8-and-genesis-3-females,
YAY for Strand Based Hair!!!
I'd like to include some general information and helpful tips for you to use my new sets in the store :)
What is the difference between strand based hair and fibermesh?
Strand Based Hair is generated inside Daz Studio. Fibermesh is actual mesh generated within Zbrush. Fibermesh can bring even the nicest computers to a painful crawl once it is imported into Daz Studio. Strand Based Hair is so much lighter!! There are a lot less hairs in your viewport, and the rest are generated during the render. I don't know all the magic behind that part, but its really awesome.
SBH ( Strand Based Hair ) is DYNAMIC! - Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!. As an artist that has been working with Daz Studio and Poser for almost 20 years, this is what I always dreamed of!!!!!! Well I have also dreamed of being a millionaire too, but I'll settle for this 
.
But what if I don't want to run a simulation? With the ones currently in the store, you do not need to run a simulation unless you want to. There are morphs that will move the hairs around like a traditional hair model too! The coolest part is that you can use the morphs before a simulation, without a simulation, and/ or after a simulation.
How do I use it? Select your figure and load the model like you normally would. Make sure that you do not have the geometry editor tool or the awesome Mesh Grabber Tool selected, pose your figure and render.
How do I use the morphs? These SBH hair models are currently in pieces to add more versatility. Selecting it in the scene tab will make the morphs appear in the parameters tab ( They are parented to the head) . Keep in mid that because these hairs are separate pieces they are grouped. So you will have to expand the options in the scene tab to find the individual pieces. Then just play with the sliders to your liking!
How do I simulate the hair? Welll there are several ways to do this, but the easiest way is to click on the simulate tab and click simulate. No extra settings needed. You can also use a timeline animation, or use the settings provided to use just gravity.
There will be so much versatility!! I have added a ton of separate surfaces so you will be able to easily kitbash these. Shut off certain surfaces to combine them with other SBH hairs orrrr maybe even combine them with some of the regular 3d hair models in the store and make a hybrid!
Technical Stuff:
Line Start With & Line End Width - This is how thick your hair is and how it tapers. I kept mine slightly thicker @ .09. and .03 to keep the amount of generated hairs to a minimum. If you want the hair to be thinner or taper more, you can turn this amount down, but oviously you will have to add more hairs.
Root Radius - This is the mode I have chosen to favor. It doesn't require painted maps or interpolation algorithms ( where hairs can go off in crazy directions for almost no good reason) and it is much more predictable for me when I import my hair from outside programs. With that said, there are no options for the cool stuff like frizz. Sorry guys :(
PS Points (per hair) - for those of you that model this is similar to CVS in a curve. It can control how smooth the hair will look. If you do a simulation and the hair just turns to a straight mess, try turning this down. The lower the setting, the more stiff the hair itself will behave and keep it's shape. Too low and you may end up with some jaggy edges. I feel like 20 to 30 is a good start for these stiffer styles.
PS Hairs (Per guide)- This is fairly self explanatory. If you want a fuller look, you can try adding more hairs. More hairs will probably require more computing power. But feel free to play with the setting.
PS Hair Tip Separation - This is a clumping option. Positive direction moves the hair away from the tip. Negative direction forms a clump at the tip.
Bias and Gain - This also has to do with clumping.
Bias is where along the hair shaft the clumping/non clumping starts. The lower the number the higher up the hair shaft the tip separation starts and vice versa.
Gain is how the bias transitions along the hair shaft.
I don't bother messing with these too much, but feel free to play with them.
PS Hairs and PR Hairs - PS hairs are supposed to be more accurate when simming than PR hairs. Also, I have found that PS hairs have a more delicate, natural look to them. PR hairs are great for adding a little extra bulk or frizz depending on how you use it. To get hair more dense looking, you can add PR hairs one or two at a time. I like to think of PR hairs as a multiplier, so you don't need to add a whole lot. If you want to make the hair appear a little more frizzy, you can play with the distribution radius and the tip separation for the PR hairs.
More Technical Questions * This will be added to as questions come up so all info can be placed in one convenient place
I like to use the NVIDIA Iray Preview. The hair is not showing up in it. How can I preview the hair in that window?
You can view the hairs by going into the parameters tab: viewport line tesselation sides. You can change this setting from 0 to 2 or higher.
I want a certain section of my hair to drape more. Is there a way to do that? Yes! There are a few options you can use to adjust the draping so it suits your particular scene better. You can adjust the PS Points on the surface you select to something higher. The double dutch braids in particular are kept fairly low around 20. This keeps the whole hairstyle fairly stiff. I would start fairly high at maybe 60 and see what results you get and what you are exactly looking for. If it drapes better but its lost too much of your shape you can adjust other options as well.
You can also adjust the Local Shape Constraint Stiffness. Turning this down lower will also make the hair drape more while keeping the shape of the hair more in tact.
You can also adjust the tips of the hair with Local Shape Constraint Tip Stiffness. This will loosen up how the tips drape more. A lower number will spread those tips out more during a simulation.
All of this is a process of trial and error and what exactly you are looking for in an end result.
I want to simulate hair on a figure that is on a floor. When I sim the hair it makes an explosive mess. Help! This wasn't a question posed here yet but I know it's on the way :) You have a few options to handle this situation. If you are on an older computer that doesn't do so well with simulations, try keeping the model's head height as the same level the default figure loads in. I hope that makes sense. When a simulation is going it is essentially pulling those hairs to the end pose. Further away from default equals more pulling.
If you have a decent computer and you don't have an issue with simulations then you can simply change the simulation settings - Pose Transition Time to something higher than 1. The promos I did with Victoria on the floor all had a pose transition time of 3 - but I believe 2 probably would have done just fine.
Some general dhair issues were discussed in a different dforce hair thread and I want to share them here along with solutions.
"Needs greater stability when dealing with hair not pretty much falling straight down, but with head/neck at 'strange' angles.
Hair falls with gravity. If you bend the head to the right, then the hair should essentially fall to the right. However, depending on the style of the hair; you may need to use a pose, a morph, or a simulation setting to nudge the hair in that direction. If it is a stiffer style, you will more than likely need to adjust the points or the stiffness.
I have had on several occassions tried to get a hair to flow a certain way. Case in point : https://www.daz3d.com/dforce-soft-curls-for-genesis-8-and-genesis-3-females the promo with victoria on the ground. I tried several animations to get her hair to fall like that. Using morphs i was able to nudge the hair the way i wanted but it still didn't fall the way i had hoped. Simply changing the simulation controls "Start Bones from Memorized Pose" to off used gravity instead of an animation. It's a lot of trial and error. Understanding your options, settings, and little tricks along the way can give some wonderful results. The key is really to be patient. Learning takes time.
"Needs to be affected by wind nodes in a consistent fashion"
I am not quite sure I understand what the author meant by this, so for the time being.. Im going to guess.
Hair that is lodged into a figure will not move. No matter how hard the wind blows.
" Needs to be able to cope with morphs that could produce poke-thru (such as elf ears) without crashing"
If you have poke through, you will get a mess. Plain and simple. The bigger the mess the more likely chance you will have a crash.
I understand you will want these products to do everything and then some that you can throw at it, but please understand we can't forsee all of your creative visions :)
I will look into seeing if morphing within daz studio can potentially be done by a customer. If it can, I will share some info here.
"Needs to handle motion in animations without leaving a 'trail' of hair floating in the air behind the figure."
I'm guessing that this is referring to producing a still render with a simulated hair animation.
Easy fix. Change the pose transition time to something greater than 1. If you still have trails, adjust to 2. You can also increase the stabilization times to something greater than1.
You can also try and move the figure closer to world center so there is less "pulling" on the hair during the animation.
Now go have some fun and be creative already!I will be here checking this thread as often as I can to help, should you get stuck, have questions, or just wanna show off pretty pictures :)
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2025 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
oooh thanks for the tips, bookmarking this :) I love that your hair has morphs so i can use it without simulating /draping on my old machine! and all the details in your hair :) Please keep making more hair!!
Love the look of this hair; I'm a strand-based fan - so much so, I don't buy non-strand hair anymore.
It's sat in my cart whilst I decide what else to get (if anything).
... And thank you for the tips on what various parts do; I think I'd figured it out, but confirmation is definitely good.
Thanks guys :)
There wil be more dhair in the near future !
I figure there are a lot of new users or users new to dhair that it would be in everyone's best interest to start a helpful thread. There are so many surfaces and so many options it can be a little overwhelming at first.
Bought it but too tired now. Hoping to see some renders when I check back.
Bumping this as the https://www.daz3d.com/dforce-side-swept-updo-hair-for-genesis-3-and-8-females was also released :)
I just wanted to say that you are doing amazing work with the tools at hand; I would not have thought the braided hair possible to pull off with Daz strand-based hair. And of course, your grasp of the texturing/shading aspects of hair is always great!
I wondered why the file size was so much smaller compared to other hairs, I guess that explains it. Looking forward to trying the Dutch Braids later!
@chevybabe25
The first post in this thread is a big help and will hopefully head off a bunch of questions. Thanks.
Thanks!!! Strand hair is amazing.. I'm a fan girl!! Braids, soft curls and super complex styles are able to be created with it. The braided one was a challenge though as the braids are built into the style - they are not not just sitting on top of the base of hair.
With the morphs, simulation, the ability to change the size/density of the hair, and the ability to clump or unclump areas makes the SBH just so amazing. I'm hoping to get good enough at this that I can eventually convince some nay sayers ;)
You are very welcome!! Hopefully this will keep other questions about sims gone wrong/ how to fix them in one place too :)
I LOVE these hairs.
Also, someone asked a while ago with my fur... 'why do this with dForce Hair if you don't drape it?'
The thing is, with fibermesh, it's geometry. As it morphs or moves around, a narrow ribbon can distort into weird hair shrapnel. dForce Hair doesn't DO that. Now it might still look weird, but it stays strand-like.
Here's the double dutch braids.
The hair portion is not appearing in my renders. Only the cap. I am obviously doing something wrong, I just...don't know what that is.
Edit: Aux viewport is apparently the wrong thing, lol
@Hanabi Yes. It will appear only in your actual renders. The nvidia viewport will not render the hair. Also make sure you do not have the geometry editor selected or the mesh grabber on either.
And more.
Note that this close up, the hair looked a little segmented to me, particularly at the part. So I doubled the 'points' (this essentially increases how many segments each hair has; higher values increase the fidelity of a curve, but it takes more work to render)
But looks great, Will.
Not sure how this happened, but all I did was load it.
The hair is inside the head.
Looks great Will :)
I should also add that this was the first hair and I had a limited understanding of the points and how it affected the dynamics. So if you don't plan on doing a simulation and it looks a little jaggy in spots, you can increase the ps points as high up as you want/can. If you plan on doing a sim I would increase the pr points instead. It seems to not affect the way the hair sims while adding the extra smoothness when it renders.
Woah Nic.. make sure that G8 or G3 is selected when you load the hair set as it has to be parented to the head.
It is (and was); i invised the character as I was wondering where the hair was.
Weird... is it g8 or g3?
G8F
Nic can you do me a favor and just start a new scene, click on the g8 head first, then load the hair and see if it still does that? I can't seem to recreate it.
I love both hairs, but I also had an issue with them not properly sticking to CJs head - when i turned it, the hair stayed in place, so I had to un- and then reparent it.
Good to know.. I'll ask a few people about what may be causing this. See if we can get to the bottom of it.
Like so (Double Dutch, properly parented)
<added>
Though the more I think about it there seems to be something wrong in general at the moment. Since wednesday - when I got CJ, but also downloaded an update - my PC seems to be slowing to a crawl from time to time.
<added>
The rendering window says rend progr: CPU - does that mean that it bypasses my RTX2070?
Ahh Arne.. I don't believe that the hair itself is properly parented as the skullcap is where it should be. I am curious as to how you got to this example? Did you reparent something? Or did you load the hair, move the head and thats what happened?
Yeah - loaded the figure, had it selected, loaded the hair, looked great, changed the pose, this. Scene tab says its properly fitted and parented.
I'll look for a new NVidia driver to sort out the other stuff.
Ok thank you!! This will help us figure this out.. Kind of stumped at the moment.
One more question. What version of studio are you using?
4.12.1.55
thanks!!