PBR to Original Uber converter? But discovered you can use PBR in 4.14 beta!
Wonderland
Posts: 7,038
DS 4.15 is just unusable for me with my 1080ti, Windows 10. The previous version crashed every 10 minutes and with this new version the second I put iRay preview on it crashes. But now I have G8.1 characters with PBR textures (that I hate the look of anyway.) Is there some way to convert the new textures back to the original Uber shaders so I can use the G8.1 characters I bought in DS 4.14? I would definitely pay for a converter like this! I wasted too much money on unusable G8.1 characters now.
EDITED TO ADD: You can use PBR in 4.14 beta without crashing!
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Comments
You can use G8 textures on G8.1 without any converter. G8.1 has the UVs of G8 built in. Now getting the G8.1 figure to work outside of 4.15 might be the bigger issue.
But if I want to use Victoria 8.1’s textures with the Uber shader, how do I do that? You mean G8.1 won’t work at all in 4.14?
You can use Vicky 8.1's textures with the Uber Shader -
It took me quite a bit of tweaking with the shaders to get it looking right (and to me, she actually looks better with the uber shader). The dual-lobe settings required the most tweaking, and I had to invert one of the maps to get it working right. I've tried with other 8.1 skins and have had varying degrees of luck. There is no one master formula to convert them...it just takes experimentation.
I just opened V8.1 in 4.14 beta and it looks to me exactly like the 4.15 version. If I can continue without crashing, this will be great,
When I tried using 8.1 characters in older versions, I wasn't able to see all the sliders I should see. Like the character itself would load, but the 8.1 expressions weren't there and if I wanted to dial-spin, none of the other 8.1 character sliders would show.
The expressions are a whole other issue that can be fixed. There are other threads about it.
Everything looked good in 4.14 beta. I had V8.1 and Dformed hair and hit render... Then the whole computer froze. Now I think I need to do a hard shut down, Ugh.
I waited a bit then the screen came back on with the notice ‘Daz studio has encountered a fatal error and must close.” Ugh!
Yeah, in 4.15 I have both G8 and G8.1 expressions to use on my G8.1 characters. However, when I load a G8.1 character in any version older than 4.15, those G8.1 expressions don't show up...and neither do any other G8.1-specific sliders. I can only load the base characters themselves and that's it.
Really? Even in the beta? Everything loads fine for me in 4.14 beta. I have both G8 and G8,1 expressions in 4.14 beta but for some reason Zilpha still loads with every character in all betas but not in full releases.
So you CAN render G8.1 in DS 4.14 BETA. It was the dforce hair that crashed the first render but it rendered V8.1 fine this time.A bit shiny though in spots.
Have you tried running around Robin Hood's barn and converting the PBR shaders to 3DL. And then converting them back to Iray?
So far it's not that bad in DS 4.14 beta. There are a few shiny spots which I can probably adjust but I actually like it better than the dry look in 4.15. Somebody said it renders white in 4.14 but that's not true, at least in the beta. This is Jaqueline 8.1
The Uber shader and the PBRSkin shader are both PBR shaders and they both use PBR textures. Claiming one of them is PBR and one isn't just causes unnecessary confusion.
You can apply the Uber shader to Victoria 8.1 all you want. You just need to swap the texture maps. The PBRSkin shader uses a roughness map instead of a specular map, and it has a different kind of bump mapping. But the roughness map is just grayscale information, so you can plug it into the specular and bump slots and just tweak the values and contrast until it looks right. Just have a G8 figure with skin you like handy and copy over all of the relevant settings.
Isn't it just the "PBR shader" that requires 4.15, not the actual figures themselves?
Everything works fine in 4.14 BETA. I haven’t tried the regular release. There are a few shiny spots that can probably be removed with tweaking dual lobe a bit, but it’s not white and it’s not awful!
Another of Jaqueline 8.1 in 4.14.Beta. Still some shiny spots that might be improved by tweaking dual lobe or I can just fix in post. But honestly, I'm pretty happy that I can render without crashing (except dforce hair) and PBR WORKS IN 4.14 Beta! Why didn't anybody know this? (I hate her eyebrows though lol.)
Based on the Daz promos I had no interest in PBR because skin looked dry and like plaster. But somehow in the 4.14 beta, it looks great IMHO! This is Brooke 8.1 skin on a character morph based on Brooke. (I do not like the Brooke morph but it makes some interesting mixes.) I can't tell if it's the 4.14 renderer that makes it look less dry or it's lighting or what. But I'm much more impressed with the PBR skin I'm rendering in 4.14 beta than the promos that were surely done in 4.15...I'm so glad I discovered this trick! Click the attachment to see full size.And not one crash except when I tried a dforce strand based hair. Second one has quick mild postwork.
Same lighting Victoria 8.1 skin out of the box. I don't know if I'm crazy but to me the 4.14 beta renders look better than the 4.15 renders that all look too dry and like plaster! The eyelashes and eyebrows look awful, but that's another story... Anyway so glad I found I can render PBR skin in 4.14 beta, crash free and I think looking better than 4.15.Second one has quick mild postwork.
Not sure what you mean, but the Uber Shader uses full color subsurface maps (when working with chromatic sss). In fact, you have more option there with being able to set the scatter and transmit color...something that is decidedly lacking with the new shader.
It's not that Iray Uber couldn't do this.
It's that the Iray skins (especially during the earlier days of Daz Iray) did not.
Even/especially the Daz base figures. They take a not-insignificant amount of work to bring up to more modern Iray standards (either for Uber or the other PBR shader).
I was just showing appreciation for the design approaches in the 8.1 skins (while recognizing that the PBR setup isn't to everyone's tastes).
Can anyone do a test of a DO 8.1 character rendered, same scene, same lighting in 4.14 beta vs 4.15? I really want to know if it’s my imagination that 4.14 beta looks better. DS 4.15 crashes immediately on iRay preview for me.
Also is the 4.14 beta that different from regular 4.14? Can people really only get white skin in 4.14 non beta? I’d check myself but it takes 20 to 30 minutes just to load a character. Even G3 takes a long time now. I guess I have way too much content but I need everything available so I keep everything installed.