Skin textures and Graphics Cards

N-RArts

Just a quick one. Does having a better graphics card, make textures (especially skin) look any better? 

No matter what I do with a model's skin, it always comes out pink - Not full pink, but the tint is "overpowering" (maybe not overpowering, but it isn't subtle either). 

I'm using an AMD CPU (And before anyone says anything, Iray works on CPU. I've been using it, since it was added to Daz Studio). I wondered if a Nvidia GPU would make a difference.

 

margrave

No.

Render engines like Iray are deterministic. The light rays will always bounce around the scene the same way, since it's determined by the underlying algorithms.

Having a better graphics card will allow you to render faster, though.

The Blurst of Times

No. A graphics card can make it render faster with the rendering engine, but they don't change what the engine does itself.

I spend time digging through my skin surfaces to figure out what I like and don't like. Sometimes, I render just to see what the skin does with different light. I hand-converted from 3DL to Iray during the Iray beta, and I've been hand-converting from Iray to the new PBR shader.

It may help to know what skin you're using, and then someone might be able to diagnose the question... but all artists use different settings, so it's not easy to know.

 

outrider42

A decent GPU could render it way, way faster, but the result should not look too different. The only difference I have seen is maybe the visible noise in a render made with CPU vs GPU. Otherwise they should be similar.

I have an idea though. Is your character at world center? I have seen characters turn strange colors if they are located far away from the center of the scene (0,0,0). If your character is not in the center of the scene, you can go to the advanced Iray settings and changing 'instancing mode' to either speed or memory. You tend to see the worst results on the default setting of auto.

If that does not help, then move your character to the center of the scene.

Other issues may be your lights, or what skin textures and skin settings you are using. You can turn the translucency strength down. There are a ton of different things that can impact what you see.

Hylas

Your GPU-rendered skin might look better - as in more fully rendered - because you can turn up the quality and max samples if you have a graphics card. But it will not make it less pink.

Try switching the skins translucency setting to "scatter & transmit" if it isn't already, which will activate "SSS Reflectance Tint". Dial in a pale green or blue there to counteract the pink tint of your skin.

N-RArts

@margrave said:

No.

Render engines like Iray are deterministic. The light rays will always bounce around the scene the same way, since it's determined by the underlying algorithms.

Having a better graphics card will allow you to render faster, though.

@The Blurst of Times said:

No. A graphics card can make it render faster with the rendering engine, but they don't change what the engine does itself.

I spend time digging through my skin surfaces to figure out what I like and don't like. Sometimes, I render just to see what the skin does with different light. I hand-converted from 3DL to Iray during the Iray beta, and I've been hand-converting from Iray to the new PBR shader.

It may help to know what skin you're using, and then someone might be able to diagnose the question... but all artists use different settings, so it's not easy to know

 

@outrider42 said:

A decent GPU could render it way, way faster, but the result should not look too different. The only difference I have seen is maybe the visible noise in a render made with CPU vs GPU. Otherwise they should be similar.

I have an idea though. Is your character at world center? I have seen characters turn strange colors if they are located far away from the center of the scene (0,0,0). If your character is not in the center of the scene, you can go to the advanced Iray settings and changing 'instancing mode' to either speed or memory. You tend to see the worst results on the default setting of auto.

If that does not help, then move your character to the center of the scene.

Other issues may be your lights, or what skin textures and skin settings you are using. You can turn the translucency strength down. There are a ton of different things that can impact what you see.

Hylas said:

Your GPU-rendered skin might look better - as in more fully rendered - because you can turn up the quality and max samples if you have a graphics card. But it will not make it less pink.

Try switching the skins translucency setting to "scatter & transmit" if it isn't already, which will activate "SSS Reflectance Tint". Dial in a pale green or blue there to counteract the pink tint of your skin

 

Thanks for the replies. 

I knew that a GPU could improve rendering times, I just though that it may have improved the graphics too.

It's probably a coincidence, but I haven't produced a decent Iray render since the new SSD was installed. There's always fireflies (even if its only one light source, or a HDRI). Then there's pink skin thing. 

@TheBlurstofTimes

One character uses a skin that I created in Skin Builder 8.  And the other character is InTheFlesh's Vergil DMC5: https://intheflesh.gumroad.com/?recommended_by=search&sort=page_layout

@outrider42

Default render settings have served me well since Iray was integrated into Daz Studio

I've moved it to world centre, but it's made no difference. 

@Hylas

That's done it!
I always thought that scatter & transmit was automatically added, when a character is added/loaded to/into a scene.

I've read about the SSS Reflectance Tint before, but I could'nt remember what the colours were.

Thank you

Hylas

Glad it worked out!