Loading...
> >

Was anyone able to successfully import and render third party VDBs?

XanathonXanathon Posts: 88
in Daz Studio Discussion

I am trying to import VDBs generated by third party software, e.g. EmberGen or others, or content packages form PixelLab or elsewhere.

The VDBs import but all fiddling with scattering and other shader settings do not create the intended loook. Also even if there are definitely channel informations available in the VBD file, none of that is showing up in the channel dialog.

In other DCCs I can work with those VDB files just fine.

Is there any official documentation by DAZ about the VDB import somewhere or is this an undocumented new feature, as usual?

Comments

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 100,833

    All VDBs are third-party, as far as I am aware. What issues are you having?

  • GordigGordig Posts: 10,053

    I've done several renders with VDBs that I made in X-Particles for C4D. 

  • SpaciousSpacious Posts: 481

    It seems that some of the parameters normally associated with VDB are not present in DAZ's implimentation at this time.  Illumination specifically seems to not be included.  Hopefully it was just an oversite, and will show up in a new version of the VDB shader.

  • wolf359wolf359 Posts: 3,828
    Daz studio has free bridge to the free Blender which imports VDB FILES from the free Houdini apprentice.
  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 100,833

    Spacious said:

    It seems that some of the parameters normally associated with VDB are not present in DAZ's implimentation at this time.  Illumination specifically seems to not be included.  Hopefully it was just an oversite, and will show up in a new version of the VDB shader.

    While emission may normally be part of VDBs it isn't (yet) supported in Iray https://raytracing-docs.nvidia.com/iray/manual/index.html#volumes#restrictions

  • SpaciousSpacious Posts: 481

    Richard Haseltine I sure hope we get VDB emmission in Iray, and then also DAZ, because there are a lot of great fire VDB files out there that look incredibly realistic in other software.  Especially the animated ones, which as far as I can tell would need to be rendered serarately frame by frame in DAZ with the VDB itself being changed for each frame as well.  Still worth the trouble I think.

  • GordigGordig Posts: 10,053

    The implementation of volumetrics is frustratingly limited at this point, but I'm hopeful that it will improve in the future. I don't know how much ability Daz has to give us more control, or if they just have to wait for Nvidia to care enough to update it.

  • SpaciousSpacious Posts: 481

    Gordig said:

    The implementation of volumetrics is frustratingly limited at this point, but I'm hopeful that it will improve in the future. I don't know how much ability Daz has to give us more control, or if they just have to wait for Nvidia to care enough to update it.

    After following the link Richard gave above, and reading what is there, I'm confident that DAZ is giving us everything they can with regard to VDB right now, and also that NVIDIA will give us the rest as soon as they are able.

  • PadonePadone Posts: 3,688
    edited March 2022

    Other than not supporting emission, you can't animate VDBs atm. So it' just a nice static prop.

    The best solution for animation and effects is as suggested by @wolf359. And it's free.

    Post edited by Padone on
  • SpaciousSpacious Posts: 481

    I would not say that's necessarily "the best solution" for everyone.  One can make an animated scene and render frames one at a time while changing the VDB between each frame.  I'll bet someone will write a script to automate this.  Anyone try using one of the scripts that already exist for animating surfaces?  Since the VDB chooser is part of an object's surface settings it may already work or be a fairly simple script modification.

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,206
    edited March 2022

    Spacious said:

    I would not say that's necessarily "the best solution" for everyone.  One can make an animated scene and render frames one at a time while changing the VDB between each frame.  I'll bet someone will write a script to automate this.  Anyone try using one of the scripts that already exist for animating surfaces?  Since the VDB chooser is part of an object's surface settings it may already work or be a fairly simple script modification.

     

    I did see this on YouTube

    Post edited by WendyLuvsCatz on
  • SpaciousSpacious Posts: 481

    WendyLuvsCatz Well, it's a start, but that process doesn't look significantly simpler than manually changing the VDB and rendering one frame at a time.  I bet we'll have a script that works easily by the end of the month.

  • medievalpiratemedievalpirate Posts: 45
    edited March 2022

    I've managed to get the Embergreen VDB's to work, by using the Volumetric Box, in Iray Storm 2, it's sooo much quicker than 'create this, do that, & then this, plus a bit of this, & then mispell it too...& start again'.....On the emissions side of things, there are 2 boxes within the the main box, found this out when playing around with the Jupiter 5 Launch Blasts.

     

    Post edited by medievalpirate on
  • RobotHeadArtRobotHeadArt Posts: 917

    Spacious said:

    WendyLuvsCatz Well, it's a start, but that process doesn't look significantly simpler than manually changing the VDB and rendering one frame at a time.  I bet we'll have a script that works easily by the end of the month.

    I was able to modify this script so it will render animated VDBs https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/554116/texanim-2022-animate-anyone-of-the-texture-maps-of-your-surfaces

  • GordigGordig Posts: 10,053

    Spacious said:

    WendyLuvsCatz Well, it's a start, but that process doesn't look significantly simpler than manually changing the VDB and rendering one frame at a time.  I bet we'll have a script that works easily by the end of the month.

    How not? You use a utility to key frame the first and last frames of the animation, then you render the entire animation. How is that not significantly simpler than changing the VDB for every frame by hand?

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,206
    edited March 2022

    RobotHeadArt said:

    Spacious said:

    WendyLuvsCatz Well, it's a start, but that process doesn't look significantly simpler than manually changing the VDB and rendering one frame at a time.  I bet we'll have a script that works easily by the end of the month.

    I was able to modify this script so it will render animated VDBs https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/554116/texanim-2022-animate-anyone-of-the-texture-maps-of-your-surfaces

    I tried Texanim but it does nothing at all, if I use image files with the correct extension in the job file it works but not with VDB files

    I use batch rename in irfanview to give them simpler names and number sequences too in case that was the issue, while not images the batch convert still works

    Post edited by WendyLuvsCatz on
  • RobotHeadArtRobotHeadArt Posts: 917
    edited March 2022
    WendyLuvsCatz said:

    RobotHeadArt said:

    Spacious said:

    WendyLuvsCatz Well, it's a start, but that process doesn't look significantly simpler than manually changing the VDB and rendering one frame at a time.  I bet we'll have a script that works easily by the end of the month.

    I was able to modify this script so it will render animated VDBs https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/554116/texanim-2022-animate-anyone-of-the-texture-maps-of-your-surfaces

    I tried Texanim but it does nothing at all, if I use image files with the correct extension in the job file it works but not with VDB files

    I use batch rename in irfanview to give them simpler names and number sequences too in case that was the issue, while not images the batch convert still works

    You have to edit the script per my post in that thread for it to work. That is because the VDB file name in the Iray volume Shader is not an image property.
    Post edited by RobotHeadArt on
  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,206

    ah thanks heart

  • jag11jag11 Posts: 885
    edited March 2022

    Spacious said:

    WendyLuvsCatz Well, it's a start, but that process doesn't look significantly simpler than manually changing the VDB and rendering one frame at a time.  I bet we'll have a script that works easily by the end of the month.

    I already created one, very rudimentary, it still has no UI, but automatically detects VDB volumes, I just need a way to tell the script when to trigger volume animations, like for example a series of explosions, or rocket launch  stages, they do not happen at the same time.

    Not the best quality, I wanted fast result testing.

    https://youtu.be/WSJz0n-_lvE

    Post edited by jag11 on
  • IvyIvy Posts: 7,165
    edited March 2022

    I am able to use some of the blender VDB files I got at from open VDB.org https://www.openvdb.org/download/ . But my system is to old and under powered to actually use VDB volumetric for animations.

    If anyone is interested DimensionTheory https://www.daz3d.com/dimensiontheory  has added some VDB duf files to their cloud products which work pretty well. I got the update for the files in my DIMM the other day

    But unfortunately. I only have a couple of 1080ti and volumetric has been pretty tough for me to learn how to render efficiently

    Post edited by Ivy on
Sign In or Register to comment.