Others Daz Daz3D Hair - Exporting : Selections/Layers Laziness?.

n00bi

Member
Nov 24, 2022
459
548
Howdy.
I really like many of the hair styles you find for Daz3D characters.
But i think how hair is done in Daz3D has issues. it might be an artist issue, idk. "to many strips? many + alpha + light + shadow = slow render"

So.. in C4d i didn't bother to think about this at first, as the hair i was messing with was not that slow to render.
My 1st goal was to simulate hair movement/dynamics.
So i started cooking together something using the cloth system as i think that is the closest things to the hair simulation.
I Added a vertex map to control the bendyness and tweaked different settings like stiffness etc.
But it wasn't good, "me no happy".
So back to the drawing board. I was thinking, what if i can separate out the layers in the hair and add a cloth simulation to each layer.
Maybe in fact i can get each hair strand.. and so clickity clack for many hours on the k-board and i had a working script.
Now i was happy.. Each hair strand/segment had its own cloth simulation.
Time to test it and so i did.. I press play on simulation and "... A Billion years later..."

Frame 1.

Gosh. ofc.. What should have i expected.. nearly 100 cloth simulation doing dynamics just on the hair + Same "slow" hair rendering method, lol..
So at this time i did load up some other hairs to just try and decompose them into sub object, but not run the simulation :D
It was then i saw the selections added to them is just a Cluster-fuck.
Cant run the script on them, it just gets confused and takes a dump.

Why would you not name the selections/layers and do them properly?
Is this just laziness or a because of other things,?
I don't know what tools are used to create hair in general but it looks like this is just good old laziness not naming the selections/layers.

Lauren is an example of a rats-nest of mesh strips, almost everything, scalp etc is in one selection..
Example1.png

Some Hairs are done properly where you have selection like scalp, etc and not a big mess.
Example2.png

So if this is just laziness of the artist not naming the selections/layers.. Do better, must better.

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Anyway So my lesson learned here is that i will be switching to the native hair system in c4d for faster hair rendering..
My New idea is to use Daz3D Hair as a reference, and i can already use most of the script i wrote, hopefully.
On the Daz3D Hairs that do have proper selections/layers i will create splines from each mesh strips my script creates. once i have these splines i can use them as hair guides.
Guess its clickity clack for many more hours on the k-board.

But hey, while my initial idea to sim hair was with cloth was stupid,, no reason to be lazy.
Or correct me if i am wrong and it's the Daz3D exporter, c4d importer or because of Gx model things or old models.
 

Dreamy3DX

Newbie
May 14, 2019
52
1,907
In Blender, you can parent multiple hair cards to a cage, add physics and simulate it. This way you don't have to sim every single card.
The missing vertex groups were likely lost when exporting from one software to another.
 

n00bi

Member
Nov 24, 2022
459
548
Hmm, this is no terminology i am used to.
No idea what a cage is. not sure why you call them hair cards.. they are more like mesh strips.
We have 3 main tags in C4D for types selections (vertex groups?). polygon, point and edge.
The selections you see in the screenshots are polygon selections.
Guess things are a bit different in Blender.

The hair(s) is just one object/mesh. with "polygon selection tags added", and i tried to do sim on it as a hole object.. but it wasn't good.
And it will never be any good.

When i run my script. it decomposes the hair into multiple object and sub objects as you can see in my screenshot spoiler.
I have not tried to sim each "layer", as in the top, bangs ... i went beyond and did each "hair" strand in these groups., my stupid idea.

But i have given up on this idea to use any sim on the daz hairs.
I have been clickity clackity on my k-board now expanding on the script i already had.
And will be using the c4d hair system instead. just need to learn it properly as i kind of suck at making hair.

But i now have the center line "edges" for each hair strand.
1735370136932.png
All i need to do now is convert the points into a spline,
so i can use them has a hair guides for C4D's native hair system.


As for the mess. with the "Vertex groups" in some hairs.
i dont think anything is lost during export.
i think its just a, I dont give a f.. by the ones who made them. but i could be wrong.
But ofc you might be right. could be a issue with the exporting. or old tools etc. who knows.
 

Dreamy3DX

Newbie
May 14, 2019
52
1,907
Hmm, this is no terminology i am used to.
No idea what a cage is.
An object used as a "deformation cage". I'm not familiar with c4d, but should be it
not sure why you call them hair cards
They are generally referred to as "hair cards", some other names are hair strips / poly strips, you can call them whatever you like.
i dont think anything is lost during export.
It is, if whoever made the asset used the wrong settings or inconsistent exporters like the ones for .obj

What I was trying to explain is that you can save a lot of performance by simulating a low-poly deformation cage instead of every hair strip.
 
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n00bi

Member
Nov 24, 2022
459
548
An object used as a "deformation cage". I'm not familiar with c4d, but should be it
Ahh, I see its the mesh deformer.

As i said, i am switching to the native Hair system in C4D and just using the Daz3D Hairs as reference instead.
C4D has a good hair system i just need to take some time and learn it properly.


you can call them whatever you like.
Mesh strips it is then :)

What I was trying to explain is that you can save a lot of performance by simulating a low-poly deformation cage instead of every hair strip.
Yes... as i said my idea was stupid. :)
Therfor i am doing the most sane thing and will be usign C4D's own hair system.
its realy good.

Besides i think there are other issues with Daz3D Hairs besides trying to simulate dynamics on them.
All these mesh strips with alpha channel is really bad for the render time.
Layers upon layers of mesh strips with alpha channel the light needs to pass though and calculate shadows etc.


It is, if whoever made the asset used the wrong settings or inconsistent exporters like the ones for .obj
Alright. i am not going to argue about why some are a mess.
heh Obj.. haven't used that format for ages, its only a format i use as a fallback.

Its just very annoying that the selections are a mess on some of the hairs.
But it is not the worlds end.. i just have to go in and manually sort out the scalp.
A inconveniance.. who likes that :p