Convert Iray to 3Delight
druc
Posts: 422
How do I convert textures/material from Iray to 3Delight. I am tired of purchasing item that don't state they are Iray only, for example https://www.daz3d.com/old-crone-s-home there is nothing on the product page that states it is Iray only. Please don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with Iray, I just can't render using that engine. My PC is too old. I did, with intention purchase some products in Iray only. Tried to render and after 3 days and 3 minutes (I kid you not) the render finished only to be too dark and useless. I don't intend to tie up my PC for another three days to get another useless render. I tried to do a spot render, again so many hours later only to get such a small section rendered. If I try to cancel a render, my PC crashes.
So I humbly ask, if there a way to convert Iray materials to 3Delight?
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
Yup! First step: Chose the right 3DL/RSL shader for the job, and apply it. Second step: Tweak the settings to your liking and re-import missing maps like opacity maps that won't carry over, possibly also normal maps. Step 3: Testrender and when done, save as a materials preset for future use. Step4: Do the final render.
To apply a shader to a surface: Select the object/figure AND its surface(s) and double click the shader icon.
The three mainly used 3DL shaders ship free with DS, they are all in your content library/ Shader Presets. The most robust and fastest rendering is the default shader (Shader Presets/DS defaults/dzDefault). The most commonly used for hair is the UberSurface (Shader Presets/Omnifreaker/UberSurface). And lastly the AoA SS shader (AgeofArmour/Subsurface) whcih may (or not) give the best results but also renders very slowly.
Converting large sets is tedious and time-consuming, but not necessarily very difficult. The basic stuff is straight forward: Base Color maps go into Diffuse Color, bump and displacement share the same slots although strength needs adjusting. Same goes for specular maps. Tranparency (Opacity) maps go from cutout opacity to opacity strength. You can find a use for the other maps with a bit of creativity. Roughness maps can be used as glossiness maps but need to be inverted. Metallicity can often be used in reflection strength, emissive maps in ambient strength and so on. Also note that you can apply emissive shaders to make surfaces emit light. One shader that you already own is in Light Presets/Omnifreaker/UberArealight.
Product listing for Old Crone's Home states specifically:
It looks like the features list formatting has gotten messed up, so I'll see if I can get it fixed. But be aware that many vendors now only support Iray, which is required for true PBR textures.
Thanks The Alchemist. And also thanks Sven Dullah. I did try AoA on the Old Crones Home. I wanted to see if it would work. I expanded all the parts in the scene view and selected them all, then when to surfaces tab and selected all surfaces applies AoA. Did a render, and The Alchemist I like your work. It looked magnificent. maybe because I had all surfaces selected it wouldn't allow me to save as a material or shader preset, but I will try more. I did a save as a scene subset, but my program crashed trying to load it (dinosaur PC).
Here's a test picture I did with AoA shader on the Old Crones home and default Iray shader on the extension.
Not entirely true! The built into 3DL pathtracer is fully capable of handling a metal/roughness workflow using PBR textures, I use it all the time for stillrenders. The major difference is of course that 3DL, being a biased renderer, also can handle a whole bunch of things that IRay cannot. And, as you said, 3DL is not supported here anymore so everything needs to be converted. But since the standard DS 3DL shaders are not working with the pathtracer anyway it makes no difference to me if I convert from IRayUber or OmUberSurface;)
I have been playing around. I need to sort this out because I like a lot of what is being offered but can't render it so I don't buy. I have used AoA as above. Here is my latest 3DL render. I had to manually add the trans files as these didn't convert. My only concern at this point is why the shingles in the front are so dark. I have compared the shader/material settings with the bricks in the same prop and they are the same. I have played around and I don't think that is the issue.
Sorry, I don't know where the image went, it keeps on saying "no data file found for your post"
Please refer to original picture for black/dark shingles.
It could be due to rendersettings and/or lighting (lack of global illumination/ambient light). To get the best out of 3Delight you should use a linear workflow, meaning in short: In rendersettings editor turn gamma correction ON and set gamma to 2.20. Some more tips here! To rule out a possible issue with geometry and normals try removing the diffuse- and normal maps and see if it renders white. If still black there are some issues. The AoA SS shader also can flip the normals direction, try to see if it makes a difference. Does the black area react to lighting? Try inserting the UberEnvironment light (content library/light presets/Omnifreaker/UberEnvironment), set the lighting mode to ambient in parameters/light and set light color to pure white and intensity to 100%. Still black? The whole render should look totally washed out.
If there are no issues with normals (which is most likely) you can also adjust gamma settings for the diffuse map in the image editor. I mentioned that in my post I linked to, try setting gamma to something around 1.8. Does it make a difference?
I first tried adding light/s no difference. I then deleted the difuse map and it still rendered black. What are the "issues" you mentioned and do you have a fix?
Here's a screen print
Hm..slowly running out of options here. I'm afraid it looks like a classic case of "bad" normals/topology. I'm not a modeller so maybe someone with modelling experience could chime in? I see only 3 options: Try adjusting the surface smoothing angle, make it smaller or turn off smoothing completely. If that has an effect you should see it in the viewport. Contact the creator per PM and ask for advice. Return the product if less than 30 days since purchase.
If the model survives converting to SubD without exploding you could try that, it may minimize the artefacts. (Edit/Figure/Geometry/Convert to SubD)
Thank you very much for your help with this. I think it is a case of try something different. The first renders with very dark to black shingles were converted using AoA. Today I tried dzDefault to convert the material and SL_Outdoor_10 to light the scene. Attached is the result. I am a very happy chappy
Ah... good to hear!! So it was a surface setting then?
I don't know about surface setting I am not that technically savvy with Daz. For example I still can't get standard G8M eyes to render correctly using 3DL materials that come with the figure. You mentioned earlier in this post about 3 different shader presets for 3DL, so I thought I would try a different one. So all the credit goes to you. THANK YOU.