Octane plugin

marble

Kevin Sanderson said:

HOW to use 3Delight Stand Alone Render Engine (tutorial) by wancow (it's a couple years old so there could be changes)

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/17016/

Learning UberEnvironment 2 Return To Topic by adamr001 (important if you want to do more realistic style renders - it's older but I think should still be fine for UE2)

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/5320/

Render Profiles for DAZ Studio 4.5 by adamr001

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/16085/ (some render setting tips - again some may have changed, but still mostly the same)

Snow's Tips #1 - DAZ Studio Render Settings

http://snowsultan.deviantart.com/art/Snow-s-Tips-1-DAZ-Studio-Render-Settings-425479044 (only a year old tute)

Thank you for these links. :)

Seems I have some reading ahead of me.

marble

As my questions have little to do with Octane, I've started a new thread :

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/51023/

nr_miller

I've done some searching and can't seem to find an answer. But I've got two images here, one from Reality/Lux and one from Octane through the plugin. The Reality image has the correct skin material but the Octane version creates a weird grey skin akin to the preview material in the daz viewport. When I take the object to the standalone Octane has a beautiful version of the skin, but in the plugin it seems flat and crappy. Is there some reason or setting I'm missing that downgrades everything in the plugin version?

linvanchene

nr_miller said:

When I take the object to the standalone Octane has a beautiful version of the skin, but in the plugin it seems flat and crappy. Is there some reason or setting I'm missing that downgrades everything in the plugin version?

Some 3Delight shaders use color settings in combination with texture maps.

Autoconversion of such 3Delight shaders may result in unflattering skin tones in the OctaneRender for DAZ Studio plugin.

In the OcDS Parameters tab “Texture Settings” remove the checkmarks “use RGB” color.

After the checkmark is removed the "Power" settings of diffuse maps will default to a white/gray setting instead of the 3Delight specific RGB setting whenever you autoconvert any materials.

Compare screenshot.

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Alternative manual workflow:

If you do not want to toggle off the import of RGB "Power" values by default you can also manually adjust the "Power" settings of each material you imported.

If Skin colors show unwanted tints adjust the "Power" color settings of your diffuse map to a default white or grey color.

Compare screenshot.

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Update/Edit:

As others allready mentioned no matter which render engine is used sooner or later it may be beneficial to have a closer look at how shaders work.

Since currently most products in the DAZ store are created with 3Delight versions of the materials it is very important to check the settings of each and every material after autoconversion when you are using alternative render engines.

For the OcDs plugin first steps to a more manual workflow with more control over the result may be:

- Change "diffuse" materials to a "glossy" material or even a "specular" version with some subsurface scattering.

- Start experimenting with "Power" settings and "Roughness" values.

- Try some template materials from the huge library of free OctaneRender shaders.
Just apply a "live db" material to any surface to get a better understanding how OctaneRender shaders are set up.

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For more information compare the 2.0 OctaneRender standalone manual section about materials:

http://render.otoy.com/manuals/Standalone_2_0/?page_id=292

In the online manual you can access the different subtopics about material options by clicking on the links on the left side.

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nr_miller

Oh perfect. I knew it had to be something simple if it worked in the standalone.

Thanks!