Lighting issue

feldarzt

Hello, community! I know there're topics like this already, but it feels like my issue is kinda different from the ones in the previous topics. Apologies if I'm wrong.

 

So, DAZ Studio 4.12 on a PC with some kind of i7 CPU, 32 gigs of RAM, GeForce 1050Ti for rendering and Radeon 7970 for everything else (obviously, only the GeForce is used in DAZ Studio). If I'm right, a single spotlight in the scene should work as a single and the only light source. However, it doesn't :( Even after I reset the Studio to the factory settings :(

 

Here's some screenshots:

 

1. After I reset the Studio, I create a new scene with only a G8F and a spotlight in it. The only non-default setting here is the HDRI image on the Environment tab. Here's how it looks:

So, the rendered figure should be lit just like this: with the legs lit and the face in shadows, correct?

 

2. Well, this is what I'm getting in the render :(

It's like DAZ Studio is saying "Huh? A spotlight? Sorry, dude, don't know whatcha talking about!"

 

So, dear community, any opinions and hints? Thanks in advance!

ondergetekende

The HDRI functions as a light source. If you set it as scene only, then it should work, I believe.

Eggwhite

Hi. I'm pretty new so if i have it wrong don't be shy to correct me (1 day veteran on the iray) I barely have it working. But in the render settings you can change the intensity of the hdr map with the "enviroment map" settings. and when you select the spotlight and go to the parameter tab/light/Photometrics you can change the "luminous flux" (lumen)   you can go pretty high with that setting. have one sitting around 30.000 and is just bright enough.

Fishtales

Set it to Scene Only. Even Dome and Scene with Draw Dome set to off the HDRI will still be used for lighting.

fastbike1

@Fishtales has the answer. Set to Scene Only.

feldarzt

Setting it to Scene Only worked! Thank you, guys!

Didn't expect it to work this way...

SpottedKitty

Also, check the light settings on the spotlight. These can be set for a wide or narrow beam, and the Viewport usually doesn't show this accurately.

feldarzt

SpottedKitty said:

Also, check the light settings on the spotlight. These can be set for a wide or narrow beam, and the Viewport usually doesn't show this accurately.

True, it (almost?) never does :(

 

 

Okay, new question:
I have a scene where lighting comes from the scene itself, i.e. not from a HDRI pic (Scene Only on) and not from added lights (no lights added). The scene, of course, has its own lightning color and all that. Is there a way to save the scene's lighting AND make most objects there invisible? Like, there're walls and mirrors and items, and I assume that they create that "indoorish" light color; now I want to hide the walls and mirrors while keeping some of the object lit by the same light as with walls present.
Hoping this question isn't too muddled. So, can it be done?

Fishtales

I haven't tried this. If you mean you are using the walls/ceiling as the light source, by making them Emissive, and you want to make then invisible then try setting the Opacity for them to 0.0001, instead of making them invisible, which, I think, should turn them into a Ghost light.....maybe  If it works it should make them invisible but still produce light.

feldarzt

Fishtales said:

I haven't tried this. If you mean you are using the walls/ceiling as the light source, by making them Emissive, and you want to make then invisible then try setting the Opacity for them to 0.0001, instead of making them invisible, which, I think, should turn them into a Ghost light.....maybe  If it works it should make them invisible but still produce light.

Actually, I think the scene has its own lights (which are not lights per se?). I'm quite new to DAZ, so I might mix up terminology and such. Let me show some screenshots to avoid unnecessary confusion:
 

This is what I'm seeing in the viewport via the only camera that I have in the scene (the camera's headlamp is off):

As you can see, it's like there's no lights at all (which is true, I haven't added a single one). The environment is set to Scene Only, the Headlamp is off. So it's lit with the... well, I'm not sure, but it looks like it's lit by the scene's own set of lights (and not by the default light that comes from "everywhere" because the scene has four walls and a ceiling, i.e. no "sun" light here).

 

And this is what I'm getting when rendering it (I didn't finish rendering it 'cause it takes a few hours to finish, but I'm sure you're getting the idea):

Lit and looks nice enough. Surely it's nowhere near perfect, but I'd call it acceptable.

What I want to do is to render the human characters like they're in this scene (i.e. lit by the same light source(s)) but without the walls/ceiling and other heavy elements. In essence, the idea is to render the background once and the characters in however many poses I need, but without the background itself. This should decrease overall rendering time significantly.

 

For instance, @Fishtales, where can I set the Opacity for the walls? I tried the Parameters tab, but found only the usual Transform/Rotate/Visibility etc. items but no Opacity.
UPD: Found the Opacity setting.

scorpio

The lights are most likely emisive lights/meshlights - a surface has the iray uber shader applied and then the emissive properties are set in the surface tab to produce light.

To set something invisible select the surface and set the cutout opacity to 0.

If you render the figures separately to the scenery the shadows won't match and the lighting will not look the same.

feldarzt

scorpio said:

 

If you render the figures separately to the scenery the shadows won't match and the lighting will not look the same.

I'm okay with losing shadows (especially since I'm not planning to have a lot of character-scenery interactions) as long as I can keep the lighting. So the question stands: how to keep the lighting? :)

feldarzt

Okay, to half-answer my own question and maybe to help others who would want to do the same (can't believe I'm the only one):

It is possible to reduce the walls and ceiling and objects opacity to 0.001 while keeping them emissive, although
a. The lighting becomes slightly dim-er than before, so some play with the emission values is necessary;
b. It still takes 3.5 hours to render the scene... which is an improvement over previous value of 5.5 to 6 hours, but still not good enough.

So, I'm going to look further into it and find a better way to do it. Or maybe some DAZ magician will come to this thread and bring the answer :)

scorpio

feldarzt said:

Okay, to half-answer my own question and maybe to help others who would want to do the same (can't believe I'm the only one):

It is possible to reduce the walls and ceiling and objects opacity to 0.001 while keeping them emissive, although
a. The lighting becomes slightly dim-er than before, so some play with the emission values is necessary;
b. It still takes 3.5 hours to render the scene... which is an improvement over previous value of 5.5 to 6 hours, but still not good enough.

So, I'm going to look further into it and find a better way to do it. Or maybe some DAZ magician will come to this thread and bring the answer :)

The walls are very probably high poly at least higher than is neccassary for mesh lights, this makes for long render times instead of the walls  use primitive planes with few divisions.