Daz Indoor Lights and room environments

[coffeeaddicted]

So, well. I have a problem.

This is what i use.

Ansiko Motel Room

The room itself has lights. But the overall problem i have is to give the impression of day and night. Night would be easy as it lights great for that.
I didn't find any adjustments for the lights though.
Bear with me. I am still a beginner.

The only way i found for easy fix is to intensify the environment. This seems like a cheap trick though. I do like to preserve the overall vibe of the location.
My problem is more in general nature i guess. Most of the room interiors come with lamps and light but it always seems to dark.
The other day i tried out the European Apartment and its great but again, problems with light. Its just too dark.
So i clearly do something wrong. I tried to do Scene only or Sun light... but that did not change much.

I think i still have that expectation that if a room or any interior comes with lights, that is it. It should be just light.
Well in this case, it does have the light but overall i think its too dark. It looks more like midnight.

If someone can point me do some guide or tips...
I think i want to make the room itself more lighter rather than point light at a character.

I did try to get the outside to light up with this.
Future City Park - 8k HDRI Scenes
But it does seem to go through the window which i hoped it would. Of course there is always the possibility that i did something wrong.

Of course i can remove the ceiling but if thrown in some outside lighting, that will be a problem.

There is another issue i haven't found a solution for. The window. Since there isn't anything for outside i am not sure what i should do to not have it look light empty space.
There seems to be no house fronts that are low on resources and some buildings are nice but you can't take them really apart.

I did see this thread which i will try, though this is more character specific.
https://f95zone.to/threads/lighting-in-darkness.44144/#post-2923618

Thanks

p.s. here are two examples.
The both have the future city added.
One is interior the other in the hallway and ceiling is active.

Spoiler: Examples

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[GamesMtP]

So some things:

1. Ghost lights. Search for them in the asset section. Make sure you get the correct ones (depending on if you use Daz 4.20 or an earlier version). The easiest place to begin is to set up a ghost light just below the ceiling and make it close to as big as the ceiling. Then play with the power of the light. Ghost lights used this way are great for adding some extra light "all over" a room, but should definitely not be your only light source.

2. In tone mapping, you have some settings, exposure speed, shutter value, F/stop, ISO film. These are all camera terms and honestly, I'd be damned if I could tell you what the difference between them is for Daz. Pick one, such as ISO, and adjust it to brighten/darken the scene. There's some experts around here that might jump in and give more details on this

3. You will need (in my opinion) to have some spotlights set up for the characters. Typically when a room looks "ok", and you put a character in it, the character will look too dark. Plus the lighting will be boring.

4. In general, dome & scene is what you want. Put a HDRI in and draw dome on if you want to see some sky outside the window. If you want more sunlight in through the window, you can use a distant light, a spot light, a ghost light and so on to shine in through the window.

5. Scene optimizer (search the asset section). Take any house front you like and optimize the hell out of it, as long as you don't plan to have closeups of it.

 

[coffeeaddicted]

So some things:

1. Ghost lights. Search for them in the asset section. Make sure you get the correct ones (depending on if you use Daz 4.20 or an earlier version). The easiest place to begin is to set up a ghost light just below the ceiling and make it close to as big as the ceiling. Then play with the power of the light. Ghost lights used this way are great for adding some extra light "all over" a room, but should definitely not be your only light source.

2. In tone mapping, you have some settings, exposure speed, shutter value, F/stop, ISO film. These are all camera terms and honestly, I'd be damned if I could tell you what the difference between them is for Daz. Pick one, such as ISO, and adjust it to brighten/darken the scene. There's some experts around here that might jump in and give more details on this

3. You will need (in my opinion) to have some spotlights set up for the characters. Typically when a room looks "ok", and you put a character in it, the character will look too dark. Plus the lighting will be boring.

4. In general, dome & scene is what you want. Put a HDRI in and draw dome on if you want to see some sky outside the window. If you want more sunlight in through the window, you can use a distant light, a spot light, a ghost light and so on to shine in through the window.

5. Scene optimizer (search the asset section). Take any house front you like and optimize the hell out of it, as long as you don't plan to have closeups of it.

Actually, that is what i use at the moment. I mean just now.
I downloaded the Iray Ghost Light and this is a huge improvement. So rendering takes for me 15 minutes. Not sure if that is long or not. There are still some freckles on the body though.
Here is my result. I placed the plane in the window to get the light effect you would have from a real window.

Spoiler: Improvement

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[GamesMtP]

There are still some freckles on the body though.

You might get rid of them with filtering->firefly filter enable->on

You can also see if you like the results from the post denoiser. It's pretty handy for many things, but be careful of it when doing closeups as it can ruin skin details (lips especially imho). There's external denoisers too if you think you might want to use one, that way you can render without, test apply a denoiser, compare results.

As for 15 minutes. It's impossible to say if it's slow or fast, it is what your hardware does with the settings you used

 

[coffeeaddicted]

You might get rid of them with filtering->firefly filter enable->on

You can also see if you like the results from the post denoiser. It's pretty handy for many things, but be careful of it when doing closeups as it can ruin skin details (lips especially imho). There's external denoisers too if you think you might want to use one, that way you can render without, test apply a denoiser, compare results.

As for 15 minutes. It's impossible to say if it's slow or fast, it is what your hardware does with the settings you used

Understood.
Though i have one problem.
If i place the plane in the window and go the following steps: select vertical ghost light, apply setup and then apply preset, its invisible. No illumination.
What am i doing wrong with this thing. If i don't apply the setting everything works but of course i have the red/black pane visible.

 

[GamesMtP]

Understood.
Though i have one problem.
If i place the plane in the window and go the following steps: select vertical ghost light, apply setup and then apply preset, its invisible. No illumination.
What am i doing wrong with this thing. If i don't apply the setting everything works but of course i have the red/black pane visible.

What version of Daz studio are you using? If you're on 4.20 and using old ghost lights, nothing will happen.

If two-sided is off, is it pointing in the right direction?

 

[coffeeaddicted]

What version of Daz studio are you using? If you're on 4.20 and using old ghost lights, nothing will happen.

If two-sided is off, is it pointing in the right direction?

Its 4.20 pro. Yes, the arrow leads to the interior. There isn't really an instruction with it. So maybe i did it wrong.
I just checked the website on DAZ. It seems that this isn't available anymore. Have to change it to the new app.
Maybe that will solve my problem. For the slides i used the (older) version i will leave it as it is. Not pointing to the window in them.
Didn't know that apps can be outdated.

 

[GamesMtP]

Its 4.20 pro. Yes, the arrow leads to the interior. There isn't really an instruction with it. So maybe i did it wrong.
I just checked the website on DAZ. It seems that this isn't available anymore. Have to change it to the new app.
Maybe that will solve my problem. For the slides i used the (older) version i will leave it as it is. Not pointing to the window in them.
Didn't know that apps can be outdated.

4.20 brought changes to how some things work. These changes broke old ghost lights. You need the new ones, I forgot their name.

Basically, lighting in 4.20 is a factor of opacity * lumens and since ghost lights work by having minimal opacity, they produce almost no light.

 

[coffeeaddicted]

4.20 brought changes to how some things work. These changes broke old ghost lights. You need the new ones, I forgot their name.

Basically, lighting in 4.20 is a factor of opacity * lumens and since ghost lights work by having minimal opacity, they produce almost no light.

That explains it then. Thanks for the explanation. I would never thought of that.

This the one that i downloaded now.
Iray Ghost Light Kit One

 

[rayminator]

That explains it then. Thanks for the explanation. I would never thought of that.

This the one that i downloaded now.
Iray Ghost Light Kit One

these work for 4.20

SY Invisilights Iray
https://f95zone.to/threads/sy-invisilights-iray.109281/

 

[GamesMtP]

these work for 4.20

SY Invisilights Iray
https://f95zone.to/threads/sy-invisilights-iray.109281/

I -think- the latest one by kindredarts that yester number 64 just downloaded are for 4.20 too, so they should both work. We'll know when we hear back from him! Her! It?

 

[coffeeaddicted]

I -think- the latest one by kindredarts that yester number 64 just downloaded are for 4.20 too, so they should both work. We'll know when we hear back from him! Her! It?

I like it. But no, him.
Yes, i checked if its compatible. This something i have to keep an eye out in the future.
I will get back once i try it out. Hopefully this works out well. Indoor seems really complicated. But i am sure i can get it to work.
Thanks

 

[coffeeaddicted]

these work for 4.20

SY Invisilights Iray
https://f95zone.to/threads/sy-invisilights-iray.109281/

This seems great. So i have two choices. I will try the out both.
Thanks

 

[coffeeaddicted]

Well it does work. So that good.
But i spend almost several hours because i thought it didn't.
So i checked.
>> Not enough memory for kernel launches
I had 7 people + prop in the pic. I was trying to make title pic. It seems i was hitting the limit of my GPU (RTX3060).
Single person works fine.
But it does work.

 

[rayminator]

well first setup your scene then save then delete all characters then render then reload daz and reload your save delete the scene and some character then render then repeat

make sure you setup camera with headlamp set to off

then after the renders are done add all images together with photoshop or gimp

you might get away with 4 to 5 characters at a time with your video card (guessing I don't have a 3060)

how much is a 3060 is it a 12gb and how much is you ddr4/5

with a 2060 card I used to be able to do 4 to 5 character at a time but something changed in daz that brought me down to 3 to 4 at a time

 

[coffeeaddicted]

well first setup your scene then save then delete all characters then render then reload daz and reload your save delete the scene and some character then render then repeat

make sure you setup camera with headlamp set to off

then after the renders are done add all images together with photoshop or gimp

you might get away with 4 to 5 characters at a time with your video card (guessing I don't have a 3060)

how much is a 3060 is it a 12gb and how much is you ddr4/5

with a 2060 card I used to be able to do 4 to 5 character at a time but something changed in daz that brought me down to 3 to 4 at a time

You know i did not really know that there is a limit. I think it should have been for me.
Yes, it has 12GB of ram. Thats why chose this card. My main system has 16GB. In theory i could put in 128GB. Its DDR4 ram. I should probably stock a little more ram into my system.
And i think that how i have to do it like you described.

Thanks, at least i don't have to worry now. Just need to do it one at a time.

 

[coffeeaddicted]

btw. i have to say that both kits are great.
I did this image with Iray Ghost Light Kit One and it works perfectly.
So much better and no worries about hiding. Great tool for a noob like me.

Spoiler: result

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thanks both of you for helping me.

 

[moose_puck]

btw. i have to say that both kits are great.
I did this image with Iray Ghost Light Kit One and it works perfectly.
So much better and no worries about hiding. Great tool for a noob like me.

Spoiler: result

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thanks both of you for helping me.

I noticed you still had a little noise on the character's side facing the camera.

I'd suggest running your completed renders through this denoiser script...

You must be registered to see the links

Go there and grab the Drag n Drop app and one or both of the scripts. I personally prefer the intel one.

Then you can just take your completed renders and drag them onto the GUI and they will be denoised and the denoised copy will be saved in whatever folder you set up on the GUI. On my system, it takes just 2.7 seconds per render, on average. So you can take a whole sessions worth of renders and just drop them into this app and they'll be done in like a minute.

This thing does a great job with noise. It's especially useful when you run into those problematic renders that seem to take forever and still have some noise, even at 100% convergence. Or when you need to end a render early due to time constraints.

 

[moose_puck]

Just for a test, I downloaded your motelscene01 image above and ran it through my Denoiser. Then I did a couple of simple adjustments in photoshop. Basically a shadows/highlights adjustment and an unsharp mask. took me less then a min to do all that. Here is how it turned out...

 

[rayminator]

here is another example: