How to get IRAY materials to replace the 3Dlite materials.

JD_Mortal

I have a bunch of items, which have 3Dlite materials, obviously...

When I try to match them to resemble IRAY, there is just no possible way to do it, at all. The settings all have odd-ball names and no corasponding "similar values"... Even when they are similar.

So... How do I make the model have IRAY settings, so I can just match it up. I try COPY and PASTE, but it essentially just fails, as there is no values to PASTE into, and instead of it just doing like you would imagine... and PASTING those attributes to the model material, it just fails, or changes the three or four things that have the same names. Which makes it worse, as without the other settings, it now becomes impossible to adjust to match.

I suppose another ten-step process is due here, and not one with permanant results. (Eg, having to do this every time, or have to duplicate the original items, or some other oddity like that. Instead of just pushing a button that flips from IRAY settings to 3Dlite settings, or just a smart code that simply shows both, and whatever you are rendering in, becomes the default, unless there are no settings there for that item.)

So... How do I do it?

I have a box, by default, it gets 3Dlite materials, when I import it, when it doesn't have any actual specific "materials"... though I never use 3Dlite, and don't have that selected as the rendering engine.. it still burdens me with those old materials. What do I have to click, or switch, or set, or change, to get the materials to be IRAY... Like I said, COPY and PASTE or even selecting the IRAY materials doesn't work. It is still 3DLite, when I do that.

Oso3D

My recommendation is to duplicate the item, then take the first copy and click Iray Uber Base. It should automatically convert over texture maps and do a pretty good job at translating terms.

The second copy can help you compare stuff to keep track of anything that didn't translate right. Sometimes things like Normals don't copy over, and Displacement scales are often messed up.

Opacity -> Cutout

Glossiness is about the same, but while in 3DL you could get away with Glossiness 100, you almost never want the result in Iray. You're better off, for most regular materials, Glossy Weight .1-.2, white glossy color, and a glossy roughness of, oh, .5 (highlights, but not extreme -- very low roughness makes things look reflective, high roughness makes it look more matte).

If there's Displacement, you want to go in and set the Displacement SubD to at least 3. Iray calculates displacement very differently than 3DL -- it deforms a mesh, rather than the pixels of a surface, and subdivision is necessary to divide up the mesh enough to displace reasonably. I've found for 'fuzzy' effects SubD should be at 4 or 5, but you don't want to go overboard or your machine will lock up.

 

Bryson Jack

comment removed...if only I knew how to delete my post....

Ruphuss

3Delight

JD_Mortal

timmins.william said:

My recommendation is to duplicate the item, then take the first copy and click Iray Uber Base....

Thank-you, I am poking around, but not seeing this stuff.

Where do I find "Iray Uber Base"...

How do I duplicate an item? There is no "Copy and Paste"... There is Copy and Paste but it doesn't do objects. The only thing I would ever use it for...

"Duplicate", only does nodes...

Still trying how to turn things into emitters too. For lights. I have them in some scenes, but again, where you would expect to find "material types", as some kind of drop-down type, there is none, in the materials section.

Yes, I have to do a lot of manual adjustments to everything, to make it functional in any kind of render, for Iray or DLite. Mostly removing the unnatural wet-look of gloss, specular and other various things. The bump thing is new to me. Sounds like it should be doing auto-tessellation or pixel-shifting. Not just shade-mapping. Might be why bumps look so bad in DLite to me.

JD_Mortal

Ruphuss said:

3Delight

Noted... but no desire to edit. not-iray, is what I am going to start calling it. :P

JD_Mortal

Wow, I just figured-out that Daz3D is using the term "Node" as "object". lol...

Node = Not Defined Point (XYZ) NOt DEfined. (Every XYZ is a node. Once you tell it what it is, it is no longer a node, it is something... Inappropriately called a Root-Node, a Sun-Node, and Emitter-Node.)

Okay, odd place to put a copy/paste without also having the same thing in Copy and Paste.

However, when I select the material, I only have options for upgrade uber surface 2, which just adds two layers of crap into the material. Still not seeing anything about uber materials, other than that, anywhere in Daz3D. Nor anything about emitters. Guess I just have to manually add this junk in the text-files, and hope it doesn't mess-up the objects.

Funny, because the help file says there are other materials, or may be other materials, but doesn't say how to change them, add them, create them... just select them, if they exist.

 

"take the first copy and click Iray Uber Base"

Selected the first item (there is only one copy, the other is the original, I assume you are saying the original) Is this just so that I have a reference model for comparison?

Have no clue where "Iray Uber Base" is located. Looked in the materials panel, the presets tab, the editor tab, the shader-base tab which is just 3Delight crap... Nothing iray anywhere, other than the option to upgrade uber base 2, which adds "layer 1" and "layer 2", into the existing 3Delight material junk.

Also adding, when I select an actual material, then go to the "Preset" tab in the "Surfaces" window... I have over 22,000 materials. Apparently, "smart content", doesn't work there, and just throws every material of every object, and all scripts, as a possible material. Some have such odd results that just baffle my brain. None seem to work as intended or expected.

JD_Mortal

Got it... Thank-you...

I found everything, once I fixed the database thing. The missing "!" in the name was not the issue, but mine has that, from the one I found online.

"!Iray Uber Surface" had to be downloaded from online. I guess, it didn't install correctly, or something. I'll have to check to see if it maybe installed in the default folder, which I don't use, but daz keeps adding things there, against me telling it NOT to install stuff there.

Thank-you, again.

1: Duplicate the object, using one as a "guide" for settings and conversion output comparison.

2: Select a material in the "Surfaces Window". (Have not tried just selecting the whole object for a mass-production change yet)...

3: Go to the "Presets" tab, in the "Surfaces Window", while a material is selected.

4: Locate "!Iray Uber Surface", or another surface. ("Emissive" was the other one I was looking for, to make surfaces become lights and glow.) Click it, to apply it to the selected surface.

5: Use the original object materials to compare and "fix" any settings that are not adequate to the final rendering. (Use of IRAY as the Viewport render-preview setting, is suggested for that.)

Not sure how to save that new converted object as the default one that loads, so I am just saving everything I manually edit as a new "Scene", since that captures everything except some of the render settings and "perspective view", within the files.

jestmart

Node is a standard word used in many fields, in simplest terms it is a junction point.

fastbike1

Save as a Scene Subset. You can select exactly what items are saved. A Scene Subset is expected to be merged into a scene. A scene is, by default, expected to replace the current scene.

Gator

I'm also new to Iray and I've been spending time tweaking the shaders for better results (some products purchased with really poor Iray ones, grr).

Say you have a material with some very smooth parts and also rough parts (like cracked leather - most of the surface is smooth while the cracks are rough).  Plugging in an image map for these properties, I assume black is roughest while white is most smooth?  Also, is there a property I can control the specularity?  For example the smooth part of the leather would also reflect more light than the rough cracks.

 

I'm a little confused as to the function of both a Diffuse Roughness and Glossy Roughness.  It seems a bit redundant.  From: http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/referenceguide/interface/panes/surfaces/shaders/iray_uber_shader/shader_general_concepts/start#glossy_layered_weight

Diffuse Roughness - This property is based on the Oren-Nayar model of diffusing reflection off rough surfaces. If used, it will give the surface a more clay-like and darker surface such as sandstone, concrete and clay.

Glossy Roughness - The property controls the roughness of the surface. The higher the value, the less shine the surface will have. It can also be mapped with an image map to drive its strength.

JD_Mortal

Scott, think of all the little mods a "micro-surfaces"...

Glossy + Rough... Think of a scretched glass marble, or sanded chrome...

White = 255 = Full effect

Black = 0 = No effect

Specular can use a solid color, or a specular-map, colorized or greyscale. (Colorized is more reactive to the associated underlying colors, I think... Could be just colorized output, based on the shade {greyscale value of that color}) Not 100% sure, because I don't use that micro-surface.

Reply to the scene subset... I'll have to use that from now-on, for this stuff. I am just use to selecting "Merge scene" to merge whole scenes.