Thanks a lot :) I noticed some times when you type the value with iRay preview it doesn't notice there was a change and so doesn't update the preview, I think that's what happened in your case.
Thank you. But the images were pre-rendered. The point is that some values don't make a visible change because the relation between the subdiv and the map doesn't change enough in certain iterations.
@@ErikMKeller I see :) I recently used Displacement to avoid outlines of a clothing being too smooth/regular especially for wool, I tested several SubD Displacement Level values and I think 4 is the minimum we can use (but I suppose it depends also on the geometry) :)
@@kervala Yes, absolutely. The underlying geometry restricts the number of subdivs. There is no way to do adaptive subdivisions in DAZ, as far as I know. So there is no real formula for the SubD levels; it all depends on what you want to achieve. I recorded this video primarily because there are tutorials floating around the net telling you to crank the SubD up to max. More often than not, the result is the same as with a lower SubD setting, but the render time is much higher.
Thanks, nice guide/walkthrough. Super easy to do...I was expecting it to be a hassle like so many things in Daz Studio. Great accent by the way...if you'd said 'hasta la vista, baby!' at the end I'd have lost my mind!! 😜
I downloaded some MDL materials inside a sbs files on Substance Share, so I can test them on DAZ. But I believe I did something wrong while exporting the material as a "MDL Module". When I exported it, some warnings appeared, but I don't know what they mean. So, when I set it up in the right folder and tried to drag the mdl file to the Shader Mixer space, this warning appeared: "An error occurred while refreshing the shader. See log for details". And I have no idea of what log it is talking about. Since you know about Substance Designer too, do you know how to export an MDL material correctly from there? Do you know what causes these errors?
mdl::state::texture_tangent_u(int)_37258709 appears to be invalid whereas it was expected to a be a mdl::call mdl::state::normal()_42118210 appears to be invalid whereas it was expected to a be a mdl::call These are the kind of errors that appear when I try to export the MDL Material Module from Substance Designer
Using MDLs created with Substance is a bit more complicated than what I showed in the video. First, the generated files refer to MDL functions available only when SD is installed or that are available to the version of Iray installed with the Substance products. Second, the log file in question is the DAZ log file, which contains (sometimes rather cryptic) descriptions what went wrong. (I assume we are talking about DAZ here.) The "refreshing the shader" message just states that something went wrong, but not the reason. My gut-feeling tells me, that the MDL generated by SD refers to a directory which isn't listed in DAZ's MDL search path. Unfortunately, I'm not using Substance at the moment, so I can't check what's going on. Regarding DAZ's log file and MDL: DAZ is very "noisy" in regard to the log messages, so when you drag the MDL into Shader Mixer, then the errors are at the end of the file. This means you want to open the log right after the error message to check what Iray is complaining about. The important thing here is, that most errors are "cascading". Meaning the error description is spread over a couple of lines describing which function called what and the chain of commands leading to the error. One last thing: SD seems to create MDL for the Iray version in SD, which isn't necessarily the version that comes with DAZ. You can find the version the MDL is based on in the beginning of the MDL file, it looks like "mdl 1.4;" for example. Let me know whether this helped.
@@ErikMKeller thank you for you quick and complete response! So, to access the error log as soon as it appears in the shader mixer, I need to open on Notepad the MDL file that caused this error, and the error log will appear at the end of this file? Or are you talking about some other file? I didn't think about the "MDL Version" difference on Substance Designer and DAZ... So does that mean that it's not possible to build our own MDL materials on Substance Designer to use them in DAZ? 😞 That's sad, that could become quite an useful tool
@@ErikMKeller But the second error log with the "mdl::state::texture" etc that I quoted above was while "Exporting MDL Module" on Substance Designer. These errors appeared, but it saved the file anyway. On DAZ Shade Mixer, while importing this same file, that very simple error showed up, the first one that I quoted, just asking me to look at the logs, without details like the one on Substance Designer
@@Pitusha Sorry, access to the log file in DAZ is a bit hidden. On my Mac it's in the Help menu under "Troubleshooting" > "View Log File…". Just to make sure, the directory your MDL file is stored in is part of the MDL search path as shown in the video? Regarding the error messages during export from SD, it seems they are referencing to the mdl::state package which should be loaded when opening the shader (I checked one of my MDL experiments using SD and the necessary functions in the package are imported automatically). I just tried to import an MDL file I created in SD and couldn't make it work. It seems, that the problem, based on the log entries, lies with SD. I found this thread in the Substance forum, it should explain what you need to do: forum.substance3d.com/index.php/topic,36642.new.html?PHPSESSID=c0a4860c74c31a3cb6ee90a13c9b2bf6#msg136614 Unfortunately, I don't have the time to try these steps at the moment, but please let me know whether it worked. Cheers, Erik
Mantaflow sound simulation ;-) Just kidding, I fiddled with my library of foleys until I found something that kind of worked and manipulated (as in retimed) the sound until it felt right. Thanks for noticing, means a lot to me.
They do basically the same, simulate fluids using particles. FLIP has been in Blender for quite a while, APIC was added this year as far as I remember. APIC seems to be more "stable," as in "less chaotic," but your milage may vary. There is a great presentation from Siggraph 2016 showing the differences ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jPG5H5ZoL5Y.html In a nutshell: if you need dramatic, then give FLIP a try. OTOH, I did some APIC sims which were extremely dramatic because I messed up the initial values. ;-)
Do you think Iray renders faster if you leave it transparent, as opposed to adding a color or a background image? Might be worth the time to edit in photoshop if it saves on the render.
Interesting question, thank you. My gut feeling is that there is no difference between rendering transparency or a (solid) color in Iray. But, I'm going to test this as soon as I find the time.
I just checked with a simple scene, plane and sphere using MDL shaders, and there was almost no difference in the number of iterations. Using a background instead of transparency (as shown in the video) resulted in a faster sucession of the initial iterations but the end result was pretty much the same. Maybe I'll try with a more complex scene in the not to distant future.
I'll look into it. Are we talking about a shader changing in an animation or "just" a shader looking like flames? The former could be interesting, but the MDL documentation is rather sketchy on how to get a shader to sync to animation. The latter would be a job for Substance Designer or Quixel Mixer. If I come up with something, I'll post a video.
