Missing IRAY Light Shaders (and UI bug?) *SOLVED*

denonsjunk

Greetings. I'm new to DS and it seems that I run into “issues” daily while attempting to learn this fantastic software. I know from experience that any powerful software is complex and takes a lot of dedication and effort to learn. I guess that's just my brief intro and knowledge level disclaimer.

 

This is my first post asking the community for help or seeking some guidance and it's a multiple question posting. I realize that it is sometimes frowned upon to ask too many questions in one thread, but I'm guessing that these are relatively simple things that shouldn't be too complicated! I know I shouldn't assume!

 

Questions:

 

The behavior of the (my) DS interface seems to have changed. I can't quite put my finger on it so hopefully the image below helps identify the issue. It used to be that when I wanted to load a figure (say Victoria 7) into a new scene I would simply click on Figures in the Smart Content tab and then double-click on Victoria 7. Now when I double-click on Victoria 7, the UI “expands” in a way I haven't seen before and then I have to locate and double-click on the Victoria 7 Actor icon. I also noticed the green “back” arrow indicated in the image below that I definitely didn't notice before! I wasn't tinkering in any of the menus and I certainly wasn't attempting to modify the way the interface works! It's an extra step and not a big deal, but I'm just curious what changed?

 

 

I found a nice video tutorial on YouTube on how to use a primitive plane to light a scene. Unfortunately I can't seem to locate the shaders, specifically the Emissive shader, that the video author is using. It's pretty frustrating because I can follow along with what he's demonstrating, but I can't recreate the results! I'd really like some help figuring out where these IRAY shaders are hiding!

This is what I see when I select the primitive plane, then the Surfaces Tab and then Presets. I don't even have an IRAY folder in the list.

Here is a link to the YouTube video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QURC4WYQ2SE

 

Why when applying a pose to Victoria 7 from the “Victoria 7 Attitude” collection do I receive the “Preset Exceeds Limits” message? If these poses were created for and bundled into a Victoria 7 Collection, shouldn't the limits all be set correctly?

 

Well I think that about covers it. I appreciate any help you can provide!

 

Sincerely,

David

 

DAZ Studio 4.8 Pro

Windows 7 64-bit

GeForce GTX 970

Intel i5-3570@3.40GHz (4 CPUs)

8192 RAM

 

Richard Haseltine

On the Smart Content pane - you are in product view, so when you double-click Victoria 7 it shows the individual files in the product rather than loading the actor. You can switch between product and File view using the tabs at the top.

On Shaders - it looks as if you may not have isntalled the Default Lights and Shaders since the iray shaders were added, or for some reason the Content Management System isn't seeing them.

barbult

In regards to the Interface issue: Perhaps you were using the Files view before, and now you are using the Products view. Try clicking on Files and see if that looks more familiar to you.

 

barbult

In regards to the posing limits warning, I believe this is normal. Daz has certain limits set by default on posing motions so you don't do "stupid" things like twist your arm around 360 degrees. It is intended to keep the range of motion within human limits to help you get natural poses. However, sometimes the limits are too conservative, and for the vendor to create a certain pose, they need to exceed the default limits built into the Daz Studio program. The warning is just to let you know that the pose is doing that. You can choose to allow it to exceed those limits or respect the limits. Sometimes vendors will describe that in the product readme and tell you to allow it to exceed limits to achieve the intended pose. Most times, the vendor doesn't bother with that level of information and leaves it for you to try to figure out.

denonsjunk

Richard Haseltine said:

On the Smart Content pane - you are in product view, so when you double-click Victoria 7 it shows the individual files in the product rather than loading the actor. You can switch between product and File view using the tabs at the top.

On Shaders - it looks as if you may not have isntalled the Default Lights and Shaders since the iray shaders were added, or for some reason the Content Management System isn't seeing them.

Thanks everyone for the quick responses. In hindsight, I feel quite silly for not noticing that I had the Products view selected. Can't see the forest through the trees sometimes! :)

 

As for the Shaders, I'd still appreciate additional insights into that issue. The DAZ Install Manager shows that I have the "Default Lights and Shaders for DAZ Studio 4.8+" installed.  Is this one of those situations where uninstalling and re-installing the default lights package may help?

 

Thanks again.

 

David

denonsjunk

barbult said:

In regards to the posing limits warning, I believe this is normal. Daz has certain limits set by default on posing motions so you don't do "stupid" things like twist your arm around 360 degrees. It is intended to keep the range of motion within human limits to help you get natural poses. However, sometimes the limits are too conservative, and for the vendor to create a certain pose, they need to exceed the default limits built into the Daz Studio program. The warning is just to let you know that the pose is doing that. You can choose to allow it to exceed those limits or respect the limits. Sometimes vendors will describe that in the product readme and tell you to allow it to exceed limits to achieve the intended pose. Most times, the vendor doesn't bother with that level of information and leaves it for you to try to figure out.

Thanks barbult, that's a helpful explanation. I normally click the "Turn Limits Off" button, but now I'll see how things look with the limits on first!

David

evilded777

Sometimes finding Shader Presets via Smart Content is impossible, because they have not been correctly categorized to be available for any surface.

 

You may have to resort to the old fashioned way of looking in your Content Library for those presets instead of applying via Smart Content (I may be wrong in this assumption, but based on past experience I think its a safe bet; shader presets have the worst meta data of anything).

denonsjunk

evilded777 said:

Sometimes finding Shader Presets via Smart Content is impossible, because they have not been correctly categorized to be available for any surface.

 

You may have to resort to the old fashioned way of looking in your Content Library for those presets instead of applying via Smart Content (I may be wrong in this assumption, but based on past experience I think its a safe bet; shader presets have the worst meta data of anything).

evilded777, thanks for the suggestion. I should have mentioned previously that I did look in the Content Library for the shaders. I wasn't sure where to look so I searched for "car paint" and "emissive" and got zero results. I guess I'll try to uninstall and reinstall the lighting package.

barbult

The Default Lights and Shaders are installed in "file:///D:/DAZ 3D/Studio/My DIM Library/Shader Presets/Iray/DAZ Uber/Emissive.duf" for me. That is because I set the name of my content library to "My DIM Library" and installed my content library on Drive D. I made these choices in the Daz Install Manager. I see you are using the Daz Install Manager to install. You can also use it to tell you where it installed the files. (I attached a helpful image.) Then you can navigate there in your Content Library. You can also go to the Products section of the Content Library, click on D, go down the list to "Default Lights and Shaders" and see all the files included in that product.

denonsjunk

barbult, I can't thank you enough for sticking with me and pointing me in the right direction. I greatly appreciate that. I followed your instructions and confirmed in DAZ Install Manager that the files were on my C: drive. However, they did not show up in the Content Library under "D." I was a little reluctant to just start uninstalling and reinstalling, but in the end that is what did the trick! The shaders now show up in the Surfaces and Content Library tabs as expected!

 

Thanks everyone for helping me out. My first request for assistance was a success and a nice experience!

Until next time!

David

barbult

I'm glad you got it worked out. People here are generally friendly and helpful.

barbult

Oh, by the way, you can now go back and edit the title of your thread to add SOLVED at the end. That way other people seeing the thread title know you don't need help with it anymore, and other people with similar issues can see that there may be a solution for them inside.