Tutorial [ILLUSION] HS2 Studio Neo|Chara Maker - (Help & guides Thread)

[Sepheyer]

Does anyone have some basic tips on render settings and/or post work to make renders pop a bit more? When taking screenshots I can't help but feel my renders just look pretty basic.

Example:

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I would add the scene for reference but it's 150mb.

There are a few things that have to be addressed:

- Light. In this scene the brightest parts are the yacht rather than the charas. It is clearly a sunny day but the charas are way underlit. You can bring in the lights that work only on charas and brighten the charas up while brightening the environment and the boat down. There are a few scenes in the scene thread that deal with beach, might give you an idea:

https://f95zone.to/threads/illusion...o-neo-scene-sharing-thread.85125/post-9746819

- Depth of field. The screenshot above is sharp all the way to the horizon, you might want to re-think this approach, and lower aperture to add blur.

- Screenshot quality. The HS2 screenshots pop really well when rendered in large resolution and then scaled down.

There is an HS2 screenshot thread here. You can probably point to a screenshot and ask how to reproduce a particular look. Then along the way you'll acquire all the respective tips and tricks:

https://f95zone.to/threads/illusion-ai-girl-and-honey-select-2-screenshot-sharing-thread.117531/

 

[Tyrfing]

Will take a bit more time i fear, since the 15 separate parts to download here in the game thread are not working and now i gotta work out how to do the whole thing with the Torrent

 

[Velcrofly]

Will take a bit more time i fear, since the 15 separate parts to download here in the game thread are not working and now i gotta work out how to do the whole thing with the Torrent

I now always use Torrent and full download each time. I found through experience that avoiding joining issues and upgrade issues saved time in the long run.
The Torrent download takes a long time so I recommend leaving it to run overnight. In my experience although it takes ages you save time and a lot of hassle in the long run.
Best of luck

 

[ninetofive]

There are a few things that have to be addressed:

- Light. In this scene the brightest parts are the yacht rather than the charas. It is clearly a sunny day but the charas are way underlit. You can bring in the lights that work only on charas and brighten the charas up while brightening the environment and the boat down. There are a few scenes in the scene thread that deal with beach, might give you an idea:

https://f95zone.to/threads/illusion...o-neo-scene-sharing-thread.85125/post-9746819

- Depth of field. The screenshot above is sharp all the way to the horizon, you might want to re-think this approach, and lower aperture to add blur.

- Screenshot quality. The HS2 screenshots pop really well when rendered in large resolution and then scaled down.

There is an HS2 screenshot thread here. You can probably point to a screenshot and ask how to reproduce a particular look. Then along the way you'll acquire all the respective tips and tricks:

https://f95zone.to/threads/illusion-ai-girl-and-honey-select-2-screenshot-sharing-thread.117531/

Thank you. So I figured out depth of field and lighting thanks to your earlier lighting for beginners tutorial. It's improving so that's good.

One thing I noticed in your recent Lara screenshots is that your characters look very smooth around the edges and the hair also. Mine don't seem to be as smooth and the hair especially appears jagged on the outline and the layers. The only thing I've found that helps a little is to drop the downscale factor in SSS down to 1, which gets rid of the blur and sharpens the edges but doesn't appear to have the same smoothness. I've tried messing with a bunch of the AA/post processing settings to no avail.

Also I'm wondering what your process is for creating the lighting/graphics settings for a scene. Do you start with the same graphics preset always and then adjust lighting and some other settings to fit the scene? Or do you switch between multiple graphics presets to see what works best and tinker from there? I saw your earlier post about cubemaps and presets but I didn't find a good place to actually download any presets, would you be able to share some?

I've attached another screenshot, things are improving but still not there yet IMO. Rendered at 1440p and downscaled to 1080p.

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[Sepheyer]

Thank you. So I figured out depth of field and lighting thanks to your earlier lighting for beginners tutorial. It's improving so that's good.

One thing I noticed in your recent Lara screenshots is that your characters look very smooth around the edges and the hair also. Mine don't seem to be as smooth and the hair especially appears jagged on the outline and the layers. The only thing I've found that helps a little is to drop the downscale factor in SSS down to 1, which gets rid of the blur and sharpens the edges but doesn't appear to have the same smoothness. I've tried messing with a bunch of the AA/post processing settings to no avail.

Also I'm wondering what your process is for creating the lighting/graphics settings for a scene. Do you start with the same graphics preset always and then adjust lighting and some other settings to fit the scene? Or do you switch between multiple graphics presets to see what works best and tinker from there? I saw your earlier post about cubemaps and presets but I didn't find a good place to actually download any presets, would you be able to share some?

I've attached another screenshot, things are improving but still not there yet IMO. Rendered at 1440p and downscaled to 1080p.

Spoiler

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Can you check if your screenshot is natively upsampled? Press F1, find screenshot manager and change upsample ratio to "2". Then, try a screenshot. If it still works, try "3" and see if it still works.

Now, the rest of the settings should be:

Disable AO: Never
Shadow cascade override: Off
Shadow resolution override:0

At some point you'll probably experiment with these more, for the time being these settings alter the screenshot the least. See if this improves things to start.

 

[Sepheyer]

Thank you. So I figured out depth of field and lighting thanks to your earlier lighting for beginners tutorial. It's improving so that's good.

One thing I noticed in your recent Lara screenshots is that your characters look very smooth around the edges and the hair also. Mine don't seem to be as smooth and the hair especially appears jagged on the outline and the layers. The only thing I've found that helps a little is to drop the downscale factor in SSS down to 1, which gets rid of the blur and sharpens the edges but doesn't appear to have the same smoothness. I've tried messing with a bunch of the AA/post processing settings to no avail.

Also I'm wondering what your process is for creating the lighting/graphics settings for a scene. Do you start with the same graphics preset always and then adjust lighting and some other settings to fit the scene? Or do you switch between multiple graphics presets to see what works best and tinker from there? I saw your earlier post about cubemaps and presets but I didn't find a good place to actually download any presets, would you be able to share some?

I've attached another screenshot, things are improving but still not there yet IMO. Rendered at 1440p and downscaled to 1080p.

Spoiler

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Bunch of presets attached, some are mine, mostly aren't. My "go to" preset is "PRTS_01". Credit to whomever put it together.

See what they do for your scene.

Cubemaps, but do save these for later, right now these will be a distraction:

https://f95zone.to/threads/illusion-hs2-studio-neo-chara-maker-help-guides-thread.66252/post-8663378

 

[Tyrfing]

Yeah, the new version fixed the problem, now the tight bra's work as intended, thx for your kind assistance.

Funny thing is i made some characters (in the old version i used) based on the "Shannon" cards (there was another one with that option named "Victoria") from the card sharing thread, there was a nice option for setting the veins (breasts and body) opacity in the Material Editor (body) segment, these do not show properly any longer. No problem with that, i'll start creating new ones, but is there a way to alter the veins opacity without a masters degree in Illusionism?

 

[Velcrofly]

Under Body select Body Shape, Material Editor (Body). Then change Shader to Hanmen/Next-Gen Body
Then you can set Veins Colour and Veins Opacity - see screemshot

 

[StarlightInteractive]

Also I'm wondering what your process is for creating the lighting/graphics settings for a scene. Do you start with the same graphics preset always and then adjust lighting and some other settings to fit the scene? Or do you switch between multiple graphics presets to see what works best and tinker from there? I saw your earlier post about cubemaps and presets but I didn't find a good place to actually download any presets, would you be able to share some?

In my experience if you are creating scenes for a prolonged narrative, e.g. a game, you want a consistent Graphics preset (more or less, though you should change Depth of Field depending on the scene). However, it is very important that your lighting is specific for the scene (or map) you are working with. Lighting is vital, it's something like 75% of what it takes to make a render look good, and it will have to be scene specific. Once you have set up good lighting in a scene (try it out with a character placed in different positions/seen from various angles), it will be fairly easy to find nice shots and create good renders in that scene. Aim for realistic lighting.

 

[ninetofive]

Bunch of presets attached, some are mine, mostly aren't. My "go to" preset is "PRTS_01". Credit to whomever put it together.

See what they do for your scene.

Cubemaps, but do save these for later, right now these will be a distraction:

https://f95zone.to/threads/illusion-hs2-studio-neo-chara-maker-help-guides-thread.66252/post-8663378

Thanks this preset definitely made the renders look cleaner. I've been using cubemaps a bit anyway firstly because some maps have awful lighting and need a skybox to actually see the map and also because several maps kinda need one to act as a background for the scene. Is this the best way to add background/sky/horizon etc?

Also one thing I've noticed a lot of VN's do is to tilt the camera on the Z axis for some renders. Is there a narrative purpose for this or is it just to add some more visual variety?

 

[Sepheyer]

Thanks this preset definitely made the renders look cleaner. I've been using cubemaps a bit anyway firstly because some maps have awful lighting and need a skybox to actually see the map and also because several maps kinda need one to act as a background for the scene. Is this the best way to add background/sky/horizon etc? ...

I started off with cubemaps and then eventually progressed towards building an actual set. And I realized these two things are like hammer and screwdriver - they do not fully replace each other and each has their slot.

Turns out, once you start looking, you can find forest and city maps that produce good backgrounds.

Spoiler: Cubemap vs a Set

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[Sepheyer]

Also one thing I've noticed a lot of VN's do is to tilt the camera on the Z axis for some renders. Is there a narrative purpose for this or is it just to add some more visual variety?

I know what you mean. Z-axis is difficult. When it works, it works. Otherwise people should stay away.

Here an example that works very well for me:
https://f95zone.to/threads/illusion...screenshot-sharing-thread.117531/post-8206022

And sometimes I am not at all on board (even tho I still like what the frames present):
https://f95zone.to/threads/illusion...screenshot-sharing-thread.117531/post-8185488
https://f95zone.to/threads/illusion...screenshot-sharing-thread.117531/post-8167478

 

[Herbmetaru]

Lara has shorter legs than normal - check out if these settings work for you.

Better move here for now

You see, I want to make characters, that work not only in scenes, they should also be ready to use ingame.
These have around the same height and leg-body-ratio:


These poses are, where the length of the legs start to not work, if they are scaled below ~90, or if the character is moved up or down plus a few other things ...
The legs have to be long enough to let them bend a bit. Ofc, in studio, you'll fix that easy, but ingame, you need to move stuff for every animation/pose.

 

[ninetofive]

Does anyone know how to fix this issue with hooh scripted dick? In certain animations, for example missionary, the dick is rotating away from the body and it completely messes it up. I have it set up exactly as described in the guide in this thread. dan_101 parent, scripted dick child, use current on all options and then link.

Spoiler

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[thisisweak]

I'm uncertain if anyone is interisted, but I'm happy to announce that a weeks worth of work is complete. I converted all the .dat pose files into .png files using the PoseLoader addon. We can now know what a pose will look like before loading it and even browse the individual png files. Also included are Viable and Freelancer604 pose files.

One can also load a pose by dragging the pose.png file directly onto the character using file explorer.
I converted over 2,000 pose files. There were a few errors I encountered, including arms that go through torsos and even knotted up characters.

Not sure if the original data is corrupted or if it's my character.
Some of the pose files were very confusing because the orientation was occasionally ignored by authors and/or the names were generic (A22 for example) and I didn't have any idea what was going on or how to position them.

The pose before this one was perfectly set, yet the next pose (from the same author) used a completely different orientation.

I occasionally grew frustrated and would load dicks or other random objects to help make the pose make sense. (Is this character jumping over four dicks??? (note: the dicks and other items won't appear when you load the pose)).

Towards the end, I gave up orientating every single pose and just took the snapshots. At least the full pose is visible.
Just download and extract the 200Mb \pose\ folder to \HS2\UserData\Studio\ Nothing should be overwritten because all the 4kb .dat files were converted to 80-110kb .png files instead (the backup dat files are also included in "\pose\!_AutoBackup). It wouldn't hurt to backup the folder just in case.
These png files are tiny and will not win any awards. My model is in different states of undress (which helped me slog through this ).

You must be registered to see the links

 

[hkproduction]

I'm uncertain if anyone is interisted, but I'm happy to announce that a weeks worth of work is complete. I converted all the .dat pose files into .png files using the PoseLoader addon. We can now know what a pose will look like before loading it and even browse the individual png files. Also included are Viable and Freelancer604 pose files.
View attachment 2299750
One can also load a pose by dragging the pose.png file directly onto the character using file explorer.
I converted over 2,000 pose files. There were a few errors I encountered, including arms that go through torsos and even knotted up characters.
View attachment 2299724
Not sure if the original data is corrupted or if it's my character.
Some of the pose files were very confusing because the orientation was occasionally ignored by authors and/or the names were generic (A22 for example) and I didn't have any idea what was going on or how to position them.
View attachment 2299735
The pose before this one was perfectly set, yet the next pose (from the same author) used a completely different orientation.

I occasionally grew frustrated and would load dicks or other random objects to help make the pose make sense. (Is this character jumping over four dicks??? (note: the dicks and other items won't appear when you load the pose)).
View attachment 2299745
Towards the end, I gave up orientating every single pose and just took the snapshots. At least the full pose is visible.
Just download and extract the 200Mb \pose\ folder to \HS2\UserData\Studio\ Nothing should be overwritten because all the 4kb .dat files were converted to 80-110kb .png files instead (the backup dat files are also included in "\pose\!_AutoBackup). It wouldn't hurt to backup the folder just in case.
These png files are tiny and will not win any awards. My model is in different states of undress (which helped me slog through this ).

You must be registered to see the links

Awesome, thank you so much for working on this. I tried to do around 1-200 myself and it’s really time-consuming and can drive you nuts sometimes

 

[Herbmetaru]

I'm uncertain if anyone is interisted, but I'm happy to announce that a weeks worth of work is complete. I converted all the .dat pose files into .png files using the PoseLoader addon. We can now know what a pose will look like before loading it and even browse the individual png files. Also included are Viable and Freelancer604 pose files.
View attachment 2299750
One can also load a pose by dragging the pose.png file directly onto the character using file explorer.
I converted over 2,000 pose files. There were a few errors I encountered, including arms that go through torsos and even knotted up characters.
View attachment 2299724
Not sure if the original data is corrupted or if it's my character.
Some of the pose files were very confusing because the orientation was occasionally ignored by authors and/or the names were generic (A22 for example) and I didn't have any idea what was going on or how to position them.
View attachment 2299735
The pose before this one was perfectly set, yet the next pose (from the same author) used a completely different orientation.

I occasionally grew frustrated and would load dicks or other random objects to help make the pose make sense. (Is this character jumping over four dicks??? (note: the dicks and other items won't appear when you load the pose)).
View attachment 2299745
Towards the end, I gave up orientating every single pose and just took the snapshots. At least the full pose is visible.
Just download and extract the 200Mb \pose\ folder to \HS2\UserData\Studio\ Nothing should be overwritten because all the 4kb .dat files were converted to 80-110kb .png files instead (the backup dat files are also included in "\pose\!_AutoBackup). It wouldn't hurt to backup the folder just in case.
These png files are tiny and will not win any awards. My model is in different states of undress (which helped me slog through this ).

You must be registered to see the links

Excelent !! Thank you!
That was missing for long. Now I see myself using studio more often

 

[ninetofive]

Having a couple of issues with lighting and shadows on certain maps. I'm trying to do a scene on the "Suburban Street" map. The only way I could figure out how to provide good light to the scene is with a cubemap, but this doesn't project shadows to any of the objects in the scene making it look very plain. Can anyone suggest a better way to light this scene or how to get the cubemaps to project shadows on the environment?

Also having a really frustrating issue on this map where every time I try to add a new camera it's being added at 0,0,0 as oppose to the current position of the camera. If I restart Studio Neo and add one it works as normal but as soon as I add a second one it goes back to origin instead of current position. This is also a pain when trying to add lights so if anyone knows the fix for this that'd be great.

Scene attached if anyone needs it to troubleshoot.

Spoiler

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[Sepheyer]

Having a couple of issues with lighting and shadows on certain maps. I'm trying to do a scene on the "Suburban Street" map. The only way I could figure out how to provide good light to the scene is with a cubemap, but this doesn't project shadows to any of the objects in the scene making it look very plain. Can anyone suggest a better way to light this scene or how to get the cubemaps to project shadows on the environment?

Also having a really frustrating issue on this map where every time I try to add a new camera it's being added at 0,0,0 as oppose to the current position of the camera. If I restart Studio Neo and add one it works as normal but as soon as I add a second one it goes back to origin instead of current position. This is also a pain when trying to add lights so if anyone knows the fix for this that'd be great.

Scene attached if anyone needs it to troubleshoot.

Spoiler

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Spoiler: More

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Spoiler: Scene Card Here

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[ninetofive]

View attachment 2304488

Spoiler: More

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Spoiler: Scene Card Here

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That's awesome. So I see you've added these directional lights that seem to come via the F5 menu by hitting the + button? What do these do exactly it appears almost as if they suck light into them from the outside of the map, and you rotate them to collect light from different angles?

Also I see you added a skybox to the workspace, is there a purpose for this? I've tried adding skybox like this before via the find menu but nothing happened. The only way I could get the skybox to show was via the F5 Lights menu.

Lastly did you have any idea what's going on with the camera issue I asked about in the previous post? You were the one who posted the tutorial about adding lights via a camera so I thought you might have run into this issue too. Cheers.