Daz Guide for the absolute best and tip of the top Daz3D settings/models/environments etc.

[Xavier123]

Hello fellow Forum dwellers,

i will soon get a very strong PC with a RTX 3090 and i wanted to utilize it by making the highest quality Iray renders possible. (I have also thought about HoneySelect 2 but i am more versed in Daz3D and the environments seem bad)

Does anyone know how to find a guide or can advice me on some stuff? All i find is tutorials and guides for people with worse PCs and not really High End Help.
Also, can i use Unity/UE environments or any other environment from a 3rd party Programm in Daz? I think the environments look more crisp and clean then the ones i have seen used for Daz.

Hope you have a great day/night,
Xavier

 

[Synx]

A better PC just means you render much faster, not that you automatically can create better renders. Unless a tutorial is specific about reducing stress on your machine, I wouldn't see a reason why you cannot use them.

Just look up tutorials about lightning, posing, skin textures, and importing if you don't like the DAZ environments. In the end getting good renders has nothing to do with your PC, but with how you set-up a scene and what models/textures you are using.

 

[Xavier123]

A better PC just means you render much faster, not that you automatically can create better renders. Unless a tutorial is specific about reducing stress on your machine, I wouldn't see a reason why you cannot use them.

Just look up tutorials about lightning, posing, skin textures, and importing if you don't like the DAZ environments. In the end getting good renders has nothing to do with your PC, but with how you set-up a scene and what models/textures you are using.

I see, do you know how i can make sure that the models/textures i get is high quality? Or is it basically just going by pictures.

 

[Synx]

Sort off. Some DAZ models have HD versions which have a lot more detail than normal models. I don't know if it's possible to add those HD details to other models then the ones they are designed for.

For textures there are some packages that can add extra details. They are like overlays so should work with all skins. For the base skins there's massive difference between one model and the other. Fortunately skins are inter changeable, so look for models with high quality skin textures in the promo pictures.

But if your aim is photorealism then you kinda need to make your own models and textures. Like export a DAZ model into a modelling program, morph it into more realistic shape (which isn't easy and very time consuming). For skin textures nothing beats scans from real persons (from texturing.xyz). They got some tutorials on how to use the textures, but they aren't cheap and cost a lot of time to get them to fit a daz model.

The last part isn't worth it for 99,9999999% of people. Maybe if you got unlimited time and a money is no issue you could look into it, but otherwise its more for what is possible than actually something you should do.

 

[rayminator]

highest quality Iray renders possible

there is only one powerful system that can do highest quality Iray renders possible that is a iray server with the proper 8 nvida video cards they are either Quadro RTX/Quadro P4000/Quadro P5000/Quadro P6000 even with the proper cards you still might not get the greatest renders

RTX 20 or 30 or even the 40 series are not the proper cards to use we use them because they the cheaper
but for the RTX 20 or 30 or even the 40 series we can mimic the image with lights and post-work and so on and also a lot of practice

watch he's video they might help you out

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this is done with a 2060 not the greatest but good enough with some post-work

 

[Synx]

there is only one powerful system that can do highest quality Iray renders possible that is a iray server with the proper 8 nvida video cards they are either Quadro RTX/Quadro P4000/Quadro P5000/Quadro P6000 even with the proper cards you still might not get the greatest renders

This is not how rendering works lol. Just adding more graphic cards doesn't make a render better, it makes it faster.

You could take a 10 year old graphic card and get the most gorgeous render possible. It might just take a week to render.

 

[mickydoo]

Having an 3090 just means you can do a lot of bad renders really quickly, if you need to ask -

Does anyone know how to find a guide or can advice me on some stuff?

You would be better off putting your hard earned somewhere else.

 

[Xavier123]

Having an 3090 just means you can do a lot of bad renders really quickly, if you need to ask -

You would be better off putting your hard earned somewhere else.

I hope you die

 

[mickydoo]

I hope you die

We are all going to die.

 

[MissFortune]

Some DAZ models have HD versions which have a lot more detail than normal models.

8.1 models use PBR skins (or most of them, at least.), which is why there's so much more detail in 8.1 than there is in 8. I mean, granted, they aren't going to give you results you see in an industry-leader like Maya, but they look damn good for hobbyists making adult VNs or one-off renders.

For skin textures nothing beats scans from real persons (from texturing.xyz).

The Skin Detail Resources (1-3, I think? Could be a 4th.) packs on the Daz store work under the same principle with Detail Normal Maps, iirc. I think Texturing.xyz also partnered with a year or two ago, which brought some more Daz-friendly files.

This is not how rendering works lol. Just adding more graphic cards doesn't make a render better, it makes it faster.

Definitely, but in that same essence, if you're pumping out an 8K render in 30 seconds with multiple 3090s, then your work is going to be inherently better. Especially when it comes to downscaling.

 

[jamdan]

Making the highest quality renders in anything isn't just a plug-and-render thing. You have to learn lighting (most important), framing, general composition and have good textures/surfaces. And if you want to add that extra 5%, do some postwork.

On the surfaces/textures, you don't have to make your own stuff. No need to reinvent the wheel, there are plenty of high quality assets available. A lot of the 8.1 models have very good skins, and you can customize them to an extent with the addons and resource packs available. Or do some stuff in photoshop/gimp. For other textures, there are plenty of sites like

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that have tons of assets.

And if you want, you can find a Daz model you like and export it to Blender or Zbrush to sculpt it to your liking. Again, no need to reinvent the wheel and make anything from scratch. You can also get a custom model just using daz morph packs. Just tinker with it until you like the result.

And you can import a lot of stuff into daz, like environments and props. There are tutorials on this type of thing on youtube and elsewhere. The tutorials apply whether or not you have a high-end PC or not, it's just easier to do with a higher-end PC as you can do more stuff or do it quicker. The fundamentals are the same.

 

[mickydoo]

8.1 models use PBR skins (or most of them, at least.)

None of them do, you need Victoria 8.1. You can manually add a PBR shader (its a shader not a skin) but its a massive mission as none of surfaces it needs are on by default. A few bought models maybe do but the creator has added them.

Then you still need to obtain a detailed normal map, which is not impossible without Victoria 8.1 but its not in DAZ by default. (I think IT Roy shows you how)

 

[MissFortune]

None of them do, you need Victoria 8.1. You can manually add a PBR shader (its a shader not a skin) but its a massive mission as none of surfaces it needs are on by default. A few bought models maybe do but the creator has added them.

Ah, I was misled by the name, then. As I've mostly only seen it used in a "PBR Skin"-esque context. Google basically echoes what you're saying, though. My bad.

Most, if not all, of the newer 8.1 models/textures by the higher-end PAs feature PBR and Uber options. Mousso, Raiya, bluejaunte, HID3D, P3D, and I want to say VYK, but not sure on that one. Along with the aforementioned Victoria 8.1 and Michael 8.1 (not sure who actually makes them beyond 'Daz Originals', though.). Which is more than enough, imo.

 

[mickydoo]

Ah, I was misled by the name, then. As I've mostly only seen it used in a "PBR Skin"-esque context. Google basically echoes what you're saying, though. My bad.

Most, if not all, of the newer 8.1 models/textures by the higher-end PAs feature PBR and Uber options. Mousso, Raiya, bluejaunte, HID3D, P3D, and I want to say VYK, but not sure on that one. Along with the aforementioned Victoria 8.1 and Michael 8.1 (not sure who actually makes them beyond 'Daz Originals', though.). Which is more than enough, imo.

I dont have many bought 8.1 models, but the one I just looked has no detailed normal map. I load a Gen8 and copy Victoria8.1 surfaces and go from there, its the only reason I know it should be there.

See if figures have that.

Also too I have had 8.1 characters spit this when I use the PBR Skin manager

I have had some 8.1's that give me the same error with the iray manger. its like some of its PBR and some of its not.

I have only downloaded 8.1's to have a look at the shaders in them to try and reverse engineer them so to speak so I sort of know there short comings more that their potentials.

PBR does make fucking nice renders though. (more forgiving)

Ps ignore the pony tail fail

 

[Xavier123]

We are all going to die.

True man, have a good life bro.

 

[Deleted member 1121028]

Sort off. Some DAZ models have HD versions which have a lot more detail than normal models. I don't know if it's possible to add those HD details to other models then the ones they are designed for.

For textures there are some packages that can add extra details. They are like overlays so should work with all skins. For the base skins there's massive difference between one model and the other. Fortunately skins are inter changeable, so look for models with high quality skin textures in the promo pictures.

But if your aim is photorealism then you kinda need to make your own models and textures. Like export a DAZ model into a modelling program, morph it into more realistic shape (which isn't easy and very time consuming). For skin textures nothing beats scans from real persons (from texturing.xyz). They got some tutorials on how to use the textures, but they aren't cheap and cost a lot of time to get them to fit a daz model.

The last part isn't worth it for 99,9999999% of people. Maybe if you got unlimited time and a money is no issue you could look into it, but otherwise its more for what is possible than actually something you should do.

HD morphs should work on any models of that same framework (8/8.1HD morph>8/8.1 mesh). In context of making a VN (so an awful amount of renders), I'm not sure it's always desirable (outside creating weird outcome). 95% of the heavy lifting for a kinda "realistic" or "credible" Daz skin is carried by the shader & maps alone. Most HD morphs are baked at 4 subD levels, so around 4M polys for the whole body (which is still quite low generally speaking) but will cripple your workflow for sure. The only good use I ever had with subD level is to smooth facial expression, which allow to be more subtle. Other than that, quality of maps is almost everything (imho).

High quality baked Normals/Bump/Roughness(/Spec) should be primary quest, would even say that details from color maps (diffuse, SSS) are not *that* important as weird as it sounds. Well it is, but not as important as a disposable set of quality maps where you can build your shader around them in no time.

People shouldn't hesitate to swap, let's say a crappy baked roughness map for a better one you saw on another skin. If you don't make any "Frankenstein skin", you're using Daz library wrong. Needed black skin for a dumb prototype, found what I have in mind in term of color tone but shader & other maps were a mess. A nice specular/roughness map from there, a cool bump map from here, better shading, done deal:

Spoiler

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Also an awful lot of promo shot are strongly photoshopped. First thing before using any Daz skin for a VN project should be to inspect maps directly in whatever image editor and look in detail. Shader part can be redone, a mediocre map stay mediocre.

Photo-realsim is complex matter. It is somewhat achievable in Daz to an extent, I would not brush it off.
cwsmlk works speak for itself, I mean going there within Daz/Ubershader limits is nothing but remarkable:

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Quality materials (in Daz context), several shading surface tweak, a clean & sharp postwork. But outside technical consideration, photo-realism is like building an illusion brick by brick imho. One detail off putting and everything fall apart. You could have the best 16k displacement ever but if eyes, or say a simple pose looks unatural, you will never trick the brain. I'm not sure that amount of constant attention to detail is suitable for making a VN. Possible? yeah maybe, but the amount of work gonna hit really hard, Daz material or better.

 

[Deleted member 1121028]

I can't even render with that heat, but I have some beers and don't know what to do lmao.

So, how to not render crap with PinUpSimulator?

Took some

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, I've seen it used many time.
Promo shot looks nice, what could go wrong, right?



Let's look into it, I separated Uber layer so it's more readable:



First thing you should raise eyebrows, it's there is not 1 nor 2 nor 3 but 4 layers of specularity.
Specularity is the shiny part of the skin when light hit it, to put it extremely succint.
It's pure madness.

So first we got Dual lobe... At 0.1 weight, so nearly invisible.
Note there is no maps (spec/rough) slotted and apply equally to the whole surface (!).

Second we got glossy one. Rather strong at 0.6. The specular map is wrongly slotted.
And it should not be a specular map but a roughness one, and slotted in the roughness part.
Just invert color (Inverted color of specular map = roughness map).
And nobody want to use glossy layer when you can use Dual lobe, it's 100% subpar.

Third one is metallic flakes. Look I'm guilty of trying lot of things with metallic flakes but shut it down.
Not only you will tank your render, but it will look like crap. Keep it for cars.

Fourth one, is Top Coat and it's the most interesting. It's almost right, or at least the idea is there. Again map is wrongly slotted and should use a roughness map. Note he uses a noise tile (a blank black texture with white noise) instead of his bump map. Should have use fresnel too, but it's gonna work more or less.

A bump map with more than 1 in value, is a tell something went wrong with the baking.

Then comes SSS and UberShader weirdness. You never want, ever (despite 'trust me bro' source), something lesser .75 in the translucency layer. That's how UberShader work and it's a pain in the ass to explain, but .40 is full nope. The color is wrong too. Whole SSS is broke, transmitted color is way too close and scattering too far (I think he mixed both values).

And even after that, why even choose a roughness workflow... To slot specular map. I don't get it. Like at all.

So that's for promo shot look nice.

 

[GamesMtP]

Took some

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, I've seen it used many time.
Promo shot looks nice, what could go wrong, right?

Posts like this make me feel inadequate. I'm just trying to make some porn pictures over here.

 

[Domiek]

Daz character textures are already high quality if they come from Daz official characters. Victoria 8.1 for example is confirmed to have texturingxyz textures plus micro detail normals.

If you want to add your own cosmetic details like freckles or w.e, you would use a third party 3D texture program like substance painter. Blender is a free option but the paint tools are kind of meh ATM although there is a rework currently in development.

If you want to go the route of completely making your own textures from high quality scans like texturingxyz, I would strongly advise against it. This is a very complicated multi-software process.

I spent weeks making texture from scratch using texturingxyz, Zbrush and Mari and the results were mediocre compared to using existing Daz maps. The process itself was very beneficial to understand all the steps required for learning purposes though.

The biggest immediate boost to render quality is learning lighting. You don't need to follow Daz tutorials for that as the principles of 3D lighting apply similarly to all software.

Just to be clear, your 3090 has no direct impact on visual quality. It will just allow you to render more quickly as well as offer a faster viewport preview so you can see what you're doing.

 

[Deleted member 1121028]

Daz character textures are already high quality if they come from Daz official characters. Victoria 8.1 for example is confirmed to have texturingxyz textures plus micro detail normals.

If you want to add your own cosmetic details like freckles or w.e, you would use a third party 3D texture program like substance painter. Blender is a free option but the paint tools are kind of meh ATM although there is a rework currently in development.

If you want to go the route of completely making your own textures from high quality scans like texturingxyz, I would strongly advise against it. This is a very complicated multi-software process.

I spent weeks making texture from scratch using texturingxyz, Zbrush and Mari and the results were mediocre compared to using existing Daz maps. The process itself was very beneficial to understand all the steps required for learning purposes though.

The biggest immediate boost to render quality is learning lighting. You don't need to follow Daz tutorials for that as the principles of 3D lighting apply similarly to all software.

Just to be clear, your 3090 has no direct impact on visual quality. It will just allow you to render more quickly as well as offer a faster viewport preview so you can see what you're doing.

Ain't you the guy that will show the world how it's done?
It's been almost 3 years lol.