Blender Cycle vs Daz iRay

pezo

New Member
Mar 23, 2020
10
1
Hi, i just found daz 3d , i used a bit , and I wanted to make a comparison to blender.

I have few years of experience in blender.

Made kitchen environment quickly. Took 10 minutes.In Blender.

I exported to daz, some materials gone, And rendered. It took infinite time,

So i decreased sampling to 300, and render took 55 minutes.

55 Mınutes, just a simple scene that has no detail.

kit_1.png

then i rendered it in blender.Cycles .

kitchan_cycles.png
Cpu --> 3 minutes.
Apu --> 1min50 sec. i have ryzen 3 mobile.

But blender requires more effort with lights.


So here is the thing, Iray is great, but only for who has got nvidia cards.
I have no nvidia, even a gpu. I have only apu. And blender is great.
 
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KiaAzad

Member
Feb 27, 2019
276
205
All ray tracing renderers take a long time to render an image to an acceptable level, even though the render time is drastically different, it's the time we can spend doing something else.
The big advantage to using iray is all of the ready to render assets you get on daz. it speeds up your creating time and lets you start rendering way sooner than if you want to make or convert the same assets in blender.
Then again, blender gives you better editing tools.
But daz gives you faster posing tools...
Well, it's all about pros and cons. It wouldn't be fair to compare only the render time. I love blender, specially the new eevee engine, but my production pipeline forces me to use daz for faster result even though the render is slower.
 
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Deleted member 1121028

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Dec 28, 2018
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So here is the thing, Iray is great, but only for who has got nvidia cards.
I have no nvidia, even a gpu. I have only apu. And blender is great.
Iray is made by Nvidia and build for CUDA cores. If you plan to use your CPU and Daz studio for rendering, you should convert to 3DL instead (terribly underrated imo).

if you want to make or convert the same assets in blender.
Problem with importing MDL materials or generally Iray skins to Cycles or Eevee is, it's almost just done on 'surface' level (a diffuse map, a bit of gloss and a not really great scattering job) whether by hand or by script. You could achieve basically same rendering time as Cycles just by switching from Iray Uber shader to Daz default one and call it a day.

If you had to convert 1:1 every Iray layers (SSS/translucency volume, dual lobes layer, gloss layers, top coat layers, metallic flakes, height(bump), normal, displacement...), it would more or less defeat the purpose of using Blender for most users, as rendering time gonna tank almost as hard as Iray for a subpar result. With technical difficulties as thing like SSS doesn't use the same light predictive model and so on.

Can't help but feel sometime Blender is mostly a placebo for a lot of people when it comes to MDL/Iray materials.
 
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KiaAzad

Member
Feb 27, 2019
276
205
Can't help but feel sometime Blender is mostly a placebo for a lot of people when it comes to MDL/Iray materials.
the problem usually comes from the different way the engines handle the materials, shaders are one thing that we can't import into different software to get the same look. I was hoping that PBR material would unite the engines, but every company had to go and write their own version of it and destroy my hopes.
And you're right, cycles needs lots of fiddling and node set up to yield the same result as iray.
 

pezo

New Member
Mar 23, 2020
10
1
yeah,I looked the daz shop, and you're right, there is a huge archive.
And it is easy to make scene in like 15 minutes. in blender,more than hours...

But nothing is cheap, So I go back to blender bc have to model my own props.


Or you guys is using piracy? is there any legal problems(I looked the daz3d eula, I use 2d Renders)?
 

Saki_Sliz

Well-Known Member
May 3, 2018
1,403
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If you had to convert 1:1 every Iray layers (SSS/translucency volume, dual lobes layer, gloss layers, top coat layers, metallic flakes, height(bump), normal, displacement...), it would more or less defeat the purpose of using Blender for most users, as rendering time gonna tank almost as hard as Iray for a subpar result. With technical difficulties as thing like SSS doesn't use the same light predictive model and so on.
not necessarily true. the default rendering node in blender is the principle shader, which has all these features built-in and optimized. It is ment to be an all in one, a one stop shop, type of shader similar to daz. But even with the diffeomorphic importer or the fbx importer, the shader is never fully set up correctly, so it always takes a bit more work to get things working with blender.

for most people I would say explore other renders that work with daz, because of the technicalities involved with blender. But if you aren't afraid of trying to learn and problem solve, blender is great. If you are willing to deal with blender's technicality, I strongly recommend this video
I would also suggest looking into using eevee render and light probes, I know one artist on this site who makes games has their own eevee skin shader that looks pretty good, but they are keeping it private. I have my own, but I have never cleaned it up to make it easy to share, and it is not fast.
 
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Saki_Sliz

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May 3, 2018
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When I wrote that, I asked myself if I should write it so I don't offend you, but then I said naw, I don't need to say much, they won't be offended. I just thought it was a simple matter since literally the default node you use for rendering has all the same maps you just listed out, but I guess any opposition or correction is offensive
 
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polywog

Forum Fanatic
May 19, 2017
4,063
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All ray tracing renderers take a long time to render an image to an acceptable level, even though the render time is drastically different, it's the time we can spend doing something else.
The big advantage to using iray is all of the ready to render assets you get on daz. it speeds up your creating time and lets you start rendering way sooner than if you want to make or convert the same assets in blender.
Then again, blender gives you better editing tools.
But daz gives you faster posing tools...
Well, it's all about pros and cons. It wouldn't be fair to compare only the render time. I love blender, specially the new eevee engine, but my production pipeline forces me to use daz for faster result even though the render is slower.
1) Iray is NOT a ray tracer.
2) Daz assets render faster in Blender.
 
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Saki_Sliz

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May 3, 2018
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Iray is NOT a ray tracer.
It's not? I know nvidia has been pushing iray to try and get it into everything so everyone will be dependant on Nvidia hardware, substance painter for example I believe uses iray, but I know just about every other ray trace engine I know of does better than iray in terms of quality and speed, and I always wondered why.
 

KiaAzad

Member
Feb 27, 2019
276
205
Or you guys is using piracy? is there any legal problems(I looked the daz3d eula, I use 2d Renders)?
I use characters I've bought from daz and design my own locations, props and sometimes clothing in blender. I only buy characters, hair and shoes since they're time consuming to make.
I like to pay for things I use whenever they sell to me and the price is right, but the main reason I'm paying for them is convenience, they magically appear in my library.
There's also tons of free assets I can download from internet but after spending a week downloading and trying to make them work, I reached the conclusion that they're not worth my time.
 

polywog

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May 19, 2017
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It's not? I know nvidia has been pushing iray to try and get it into everything so everyone will be dependant on Nvidia hardware, substance painter for example I believe uses iray, but I know just about every other ray trace engine I know of does better than iray in terms of quality and speed, and I always wondered why.
 

KiaAzad

Member
Feb 27, 2019
276
205
1) Iray is NOT a ray tracer.
well Nvidia says it is:
Like many rendering engines Iray, which is available for several 3D modelling packages such as 3DS Max, makes use of a technique known as ray-tracing to generate it's stunning visuals. Ray-tracing is only one of various methods of rendering 3D scenes.
Edit: maybe it's a common term everybody uses and not that many bother to correct people. I didn't know there's a different name for it. Thank you for the information ^^

2) Daz assets render faster in Blender.
I know, it just needs lots of extra effort to convert and set up for render in blender, and I could never get the skeleton to import right, it would be a pain to constantly go back and forth between the two software for minor pose tweaks.
 
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polywog

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May 19, 2017
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well Nvidia says it is:



I know, it just needs lots of extra effort to convert and set up for render in blender, and I could never get the skeleton to import right, it would be a pain to constantly go back and forth between the two software for minor pose tweaks.
The version of Iray in Daz Studio is not fully functional. It does not include all the goodies that you read about, when you look at nVidia's website. No real-time ray tracing, no AI, just a stripped down iray path tracer, that randomizes fake rays.
 

recreation

pure evil!
Respected User
Game Developer
Jun 10, 2018
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Thanks, I still hate everything I make, but thanks XD
also, what am I looking at!?
That's an iray render lol
Now try to achieve this in eeve or cycles in a reasonable time, or even just something like this which should be a bit easier:
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