Garibaldi Express: Hair and Fur Plugin Beta [Commercial]

Sedor

mjc1016 said:

Now here is something odd that's recently started...I don't recall it ever happening before beta 12, but it did sometimes. It only affects the viewport image, so I thought it may be a driver issue. But I rolled back a couple of versions, in addition to using both the latest 'certified' and beta versions of the Nvidia driver.

But, and here's the kicker...it doesn't affect the render.

Also it takes creating a new scene, without a hair node or a restart to fix.

When it is what I think, then this is something related to DAZ Studio itself. If this happens (again) go to "Preferences" -> "Interface" and then switch the "Display Optimization" to the next lower settings (I guess it's at "Best" currently, just turn it to "Better"). Finish your scene and turn it back to "Best" if you want, when it is set to "Better" the viewport is a little bit slower.

mjc1016

Sedor...nope.

Only does it with hair present...and it's already 'off'.

Swawa3D

I don't know if the new releases or if it's just the disk cache setting but my system has been handling the hair so much better! My wacom is still super laggy/unusable for styling hair but I can use it to paint density. Here is my latest render.

scorpio

wancow said:

does this software still need an nVidia card to use?

I don't have a Nvidia and I can use it

SpyroRue

New character, new hairstyle.

Playing with coloured hair, haven't done so until now. I'm happy with the results. :) the scull cap was very much required with this one, as it's strongly clumped (Top hair node). Also toyed with opacity and shadow opacity.

This uses 4 nodes:
Scull cap - 100% Opacity 100% S Opacity
Sides/back - 75% Opacity 100% S Opacity
Top 75% - Opacity 100% S Opacity
Eyebrows - 75% Opacity 75% S Opacity

Swawa3D

I noticed that if you save the hair as a figure/prop asset, changes made to the hair style are no longer saved when you save the scene. You have to save it as a prop/asset separately. Is this a bug or is it working as expected? I lost many hours of work because of this. If it's possible I think it would be a lot more intuitive if changes could be saved in the scene file. That's how it seems to work when I work with other prop/assets like clothes. If this can't be changed is there a way to revert the hair back to a scene asset?

EDIT: I just found in my notes that there was a bug with DS 4.5.1.6 with writing correctly on wearable(s). And that we should use the current beta. I guess this relates to the above issue? I am using DS 4.5.1.56. Does anyone know if the current beta version of DS saves properly? Thanks.

Gone

Swawa said:

I noticed that if you save the hair as a figure/prop asset, changes made to the hair style are no longer saved when you save the scene. You have to save it as a prop/asset separately. Is this a bug or is it working as expected? I lost many hours of work because of this. If it's possible I think it would be a lot more intuitive if changes could be saved in the scene file. That's how it seems to work when I work with other prop/assets like clothes. If this can't be changed is there a way to revert the hair back to a scene asset?

EDIT: I just found in my notes that there was a bug with DS 4.5.1.6 with writing correctly on wearable(s). And that we should use the current beta. I guess this relates to the above issue? I am using DS 4.5.1.56. Does anyone know if the current beta version of DS saves properly? Thanks.

So, here's my experience.

If you save the hair as a prop asset, any changes you make in a subsequent scene will not be saved. The prop will always load with the original saved data.

If you have a hair style that is made of more than one node, you cannot save it as a single prop asset. Each node would have to be saved seperately and the same problem as above still applies.

However, you can save the hair directly as a wearable prop without having to create a prop asset first. This hair can be loaded back to any compatible character (Genesis created hair on Genesis character for example) and any modifications will be saved with the scene file. This method will also let you save multinode hair as a single wearable prop.

Swawa3D

Thanks Gone, that seems to work.

SpyroRue

I'm really liking re-sample curves as a new slider. It's much more accurate since you can see exactly what it's doing, and go as far as you need to. I have had trouble resetting all curves though... it's no longer in the edit menu, and the reset button under the re-sample slider seems to only reset some curves not all. Not sure why. (I think I altered the distribution map and then tried to reset curves)

futurebiscuit

Gone said:

Since we are on ponytails, I thought I would try my hand at it.

Here Is a update of the ponytail I did (quite a while ago now). Is a bit of a work in progress, haven't done any lighting/lookdev work for a long time...
Quite a few tweaks from the old website render, also got side-tracked into writing my own skin shader (didn't like the subsurface options on the default one).

High res renders here:
http://www.garibaldiexpress.com/randomStuff/ponyTexturedSideFull.jpg
http://www.garibaldiexpress.com/randomStuff/ponyTexturedBackFull.jpg

SpyroRue

That looks terrific Future biscuit ! You really know your stuff :)

May I ask what hair width you used for the roots and tips? Your hair seems to blend really well with the character's surface. Also, what hair count did you use? - Short hairstyles I generally use 300-350, but long hair I've used about 200.

bigh

futurebiscuit said:

Gone said:

Since we are on ponytails, I thought I would try my hand at it.

Here Is a update of the ponytail I did (quite a while ago now). Is a bit of a work in progress, haven't done any lighting/lookdev work for a long time...
Quite a few tweaks from the old website render, also got side-tracked into writing my own skin shader (didn't like the subsurface options on the default one).

High res renders here:
http://www.garibaldiexpress.com/randomStuff/ponyTexturedSideFull.jpg
http://www.garibaldiexpress.com/randomStuff/ponyTexturedBackFull.jpg

great looking hair

Design Anvil - Razor42

Everything seems to be running fairly smooth for me with this beta. :)

SpyroRue

I cant get a crash log... But I'm getting lots of freezing when creating and using curve selections. It's done so six times in a row, each time I've had to restart daz :(

-----------------

Nice work Razor! That's an awesome wolf!

DarthD

How does this compare with Look At My Hair?

Joe Cotter

futurebiscuit said:

[
Here Is a update of the ponytail I did (quite a while ago now). Is a bit of a work in progress, haven't done any lighting/lookdev work for a long time..

Very nice, very realistic :)

fairyfantastic

wow cool renders xxx

foleypro

Spyro said:

I cant get a crash log... But I'm getting lots of freezing when creating and using curve selections. It's done so six times in a row, each time I've had to restart daz :(

-----------------

Nice work Razor! That's an awesome wolf!

In your DAZ folder is a Crash log...Menu/help....

foleypro

DarthD said:

How does this compare with Look At My Hair?

There is no comparison because both do the same thing in different ways...
I can say this tho...Both are in a dead heat because I use both...I am satisfied in the way that both get hair into the scene and both have obj export...

Its going to come down to ease of use for the everyday DAZ user and their preference...ease of use is the key...
If a noob can buy and instantly use then its a nooo brainer...I can say I am more comfortable in GH ...I love the ease of use....

StevieC

Hey everyone, awesome renders and styles! My ancient laptop is getting more and more compatible with each new version of Garibaldi, (yeah!), but I'm having trouble achieving the textures that Futrebiscuit and Spyro get in their renders. What am I missing? Even when I use one of Futurebiscuit's presets, as soon as I change the style and modify in the clump and tweak sections, in the render, the hair looks painted on. Sadly, I don't have Uber Surface Hair shaders, but, if there's anything else I can use, I'd mucho appreciate the input.....

futurebiscuit

Spyro said:

May I ask what hair width you used for the roots and tips? Your hair seems to blend really well with the character's surface. Also, what hair count did you use?
Main Hair layer = 240, Base Width = 0.007, Tip Width = 0.002, Opacity = 0.65, Shadow Opacity = 0.65
Fiuff Hair layer 1 = 10, Base Width = 0.007, Tip Width = 0.007, Opacity = 0.65, Shadow Opacity = 0.65
Fiuff Hair layer 2 = 15, Base Width = 0.007, Tip Width = 0.002, Opacity = 0.65, Shadow Opacity = 0.65
At the back of head (under the covered area) the hair density is mostly masked out black.
Lighting is nothing but a few simple spot lights with deep shadows.

Spyro said:

... the reset button under the re-sample slider seems to only reset some curves not all. Not sure why. (I think I altered the distribution map and then tried to reset curves)
So the reset button should only affect the selected curves (or every curve if nothing is selected)?

Spyro said:

I cant get a crash log... But I'm getting lots of freezing when creating and using curve selections. It's done so six times in a row, each time I've had to restart daz :(

Is this the same selection issue you were having before (selecting curves without 'Mask Hidden by Surface' turned on)?

does this software still need an nVidia card to use?

No, should works fine on any nvidia/AMD/ATI card (well not very old ones, say 7+ years), have for a long time, the newer Intel HD graphics also work fine. I'm currently working on supporting the Intel GMA 4500 for the next beta release, any older Intel graphics chipsets will not be supported.
After buying a motherboard with a Intel GMA 4500 I'm even less than underwhelmed, I can see why even Intel have abandoned them for Windows 8.
The high minimum requirements on the Garibaldi Express website have mostly been to scare away people with older machines when things were not as polished as currently.

Now here is something odd that's recently started...I don't recall it ever happening before beta 12, but it did sometimes.
If possible can you email me a simple scene which is having this issue, I want to see if I can replicate it. Thanks.

futurebiscuit

StevieC said:

Hey everyone, awesome renders and styles! My ancient laptop is getting more and more compatible with each new version of Garibaldi, (yeah!), but I'm having trouble achieving the textures that Futrebiscuit and Spyro get in their renders. What am I missing? Even when I use one of Futurebiscuit's presets, as soon as I change the style and modify in the clump and tweak sections, in the render, the hair looks painted on. Sadly, I don't have Uber Surface Hair shaders, but, if there's anything else I can use, I'd mucho appreciate the input.....

So the Garibaldi Hair shader is specially designed to simulate the light scattering in individual hair fibres (see earlier posts in this thread for more explanation and setting info), I wouldn't recommend you use shaders designed for traditional surfaces on Garibaldi Hair.
If you need help on particular settings then click the more info link in a settings tool-tip popup, many of the settings have rendered images showing there affect.
I'm not sure what you mean by a 'painted on' but if your having trouble with keeping things looking coherent, try to keep your styling curves simple but add the fine detail with the clump and tweak settings.

StevieC

Thank you very much for your prompt reply....will go over the postings at the beginning of this forum to find settings.....

foleypro

Did I miss something...?
We have our own Hair shader...?

mjc1016

futurebiscuit said:

mjc1016 said:

Now here is something odd that's recently started...I don't recall it ever happening before beta 12, but it did sometimes.

If possible can you email me a simple scene which is having this issue, I want to see if I can replicate it. Thanks.

I'm beginning to think it's a driver issue...or more specifically the WINE passthrough...it only started doing it after the last round of updates...to Wine/Nvidia and GH beta12. Also it isn't any specific scene. It can do it in any scene, old or new...and I can't get it to occur at will, it's totally random. I can go for hours, creating, editing and rendering...then the next mouse movement causes the explosion. Or I can load a scene in a freshly started DS and it will happen as soon as the scene is loaded.

I rolled back the Nvidia driver and had only one occurrence since, that was this afternoon, but this time it actually crashed and the crash was the Nvidia driver, but looking around, it may have been the WINE passthrough to the Nvidia driver instead. I don't have time to check more deeply tonight, maybe over the weekend.

There's also a chance that it may be very system specific...I recently found I had a glibc problem...the version on my machine was built against the wrong kernel headers (haven't quite figured out HOW that happened), so some things may have been incorrectly built.,,,everything was mostly working 'right' so I never suspected a problem.

mjc1016

foleypro said:

Did I miss something...?
We have our own Hair shader...?

Yes, GH comes with its own Hair shader...an implementation of production level hair shaders. It's similar to the shader used in Stuart Little...

futurebiscuit

mjc1016 said:

foleypro said:

Did I miss something...?
We have our own Hair shader...?

Yes, GH comes with its own Hair shader...an implementation of production level hair shaders. It's similar to the shader used in Stuart Little...

So the Garibaldi Hair shader is NOT at all based on the old Stuart Little hair shader that is floating around the net, this shader is fine for fur but it's reflectance model is not good for longer hair.

The Garibaldi hair shader is based on a modified version of the Marschner hair shading model. This shading model has been popular for quite a while now in various plain and modified forms, a good place for a technical explanation is the original paper:
http://graphics.stanford.edu/papers/hair/hair-sg03final.pdf
A laymens explanation of the Garibaldi hair shader settings and how they affect the hair look are explained previously in this thread.

foleypro

See I did miss something...DOH..!

mjc1016

futurebiscuit said:

mjc1016 said:

foleypro said:

Did I miss something...?
We have our own Hair shader...?

Yes, GH comes with its own Hair shader...an implementation of production level hair shaders. It's similar to the shader used in Stuart Little...

So the Garibaldi Hair shader is NOT at all based on the old Stuart Little hair shader that is floating around the net, this shader is fine for fur but it's reflectance model is not good for longer hair.

The Garibaldi hair shader is based on a modified version of the Marschner hair shading model. This shading model has been popular for quite a while now in various plain and modified forms, a good place for a technical explanation is the original paper:
http://graphics.stanford.edu/papers/hair/hair-sg03final.pdf
A laymens explanation of the Garibaldi hair shader settings and how they affect the hair look are explained previously in this thread.

I said similar...because it was the only one I could think of that may have some recognition...it is a Marschner based one, too...highly modified. I actually got it running in DS3 (haven't recompiled it yet...but I want to, so I can try it on some of the furry critters). It's more of tweaking/refining to make it 'fur' specific than a new shader.

Really this one is closer to the 'original' than the SL one is. I've got several others that I've ported to DS...and played with. Just need to recompile most of them and redo the controls...I can barely remember what each setting controls without cracking it open and reading the annotations inside (as long as I couldn't really use them for something, I wasn't too concerned about controls). And as it stands, I'm not sure any of the ones I've got are really better/different than this one...well the SL one is...

But. anyway, Marschner shaders are used in many of the productions using Renderman renderers. If I recall, the King Kong shader is the only real 'advancement' in quite a while.

foleypro

Ya got to love Tech talk....