Daz What the hell am I doing wrong in DAZ?

[MissFortune]

Could you tell me what program you're using at the beginning of the video?
This is what it means "technique is to render out a noisy version of the render "?
You might think I'm being lazy, but that's a lot of work to do with just one render.
But if you're doing 500-600 renders, this method won't work, at least not for me.

Not lazy at all. It's totally understandable how some might not want to do it. This method is traditionally not for every single render. It's usually done by devs who have very inconsistently noisy renders, so it's typically only done for either a few renders or a scene. For example, I recently used it for this:




It was the only render in the series that had this level of noise (and it still has noise in it, but that was added again afterward via overlay for a bit of a grungier look).

For now, it's perfectly acceptable to just denoise and move on. However, postwork is an absolute must for any successful AVN, though. You don't need to do anything crazy, but fixing pokethrough, color adjustments, and stuff of that nature should absolutely be done.

The software at the beginning is Topaz Photo AI. Should be pretty easy to get if you're comfortable with pirating it. Think I got it from Rutracker.

 

[iDTerra]

Bro, try rendering in the Leather Room.
In the Red Room, I achieved a result I was happy with.
But I ended up moving the scene to a different environment.
And I've already seen some benefits. The scene renders in 18 minutes instead of 30. And it doesn't require any post-processing.
I rendered a room with leather walls using IrayGhostLightPropKit.

Yeah, the purple light ("backroof_emissive") is atrocious. Once you identify that and turn it off, it's not too bad (500 iterations, guided, nominal 200):

You could then run OIDN and paint over the leftover specks on the walls. Honestly though, this environment just sucks. The emissive surfaces are set up badly, and the whole thing just looks terrible. I too would recommend finding another asset.

 

[boboqwe]

Yeah, the purple light ("backroof_emissive") is atrocious. Once you identify that and turn it off, it's not too bad (500 iterations, guided, nominal 200):
View attachment 5303636
You could then run OIDN and paint over the leftover specks on the walls. Honestly though, this environment just sucks. The emissive surfaces are set up badly, and the whole thing just looks terrible. I too would recommend finding another asset.

The rendering was quite passable at 500 iterations.
What is OIDN?

 

[boboqwe]

Not lazy at all. It's totally understandable how some might not want to do it. This method is traditionally not for every single render. It's usually done by devs who have very inconsistently noisy renders, so it's typically only done for either a few renders or a scene. For example, I recently used it for this:

View attachment 5303575
View attachment 5303578

It was the only render in the series that had this level of noise (and it still has noise in it, but that was added again afterward via overlay for a bit of a grungier look).

For now, it's perfectly acceptable to just denoise and move on. However, postwork is an absolute must for any successful AVN, though. You don't need to do anything crazy, but fixing pokethrough, color adjustments, and stuff of that nature should absolutely be done.

The software at the beginning is Topaz Photo AI. Should be pretty easy to get if you're comfortable with pirating it. Think I got it from Rutracker.

Great! I'll go look for Topaz Photo AI.

 

[MissFortune]

The rendering was quite passable at 500 iterations.
What is OIDN?

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It can be a bit hit or miss depending on the amount of noise, though, but usually good results when it works. It's also command line, so if you're command line averse like myself, I'd look for a GUI.

Great! I'll go look for Topaz Photo AI.

I got it from here:

You must be registered to see the links

 

[Turning Tricks]

Honestly, it takes a long time to get consistent results with DAZ, in regards to making renders as noise free and well-lit as possible. There's a heavy learning curve and so many variables that effect how well the render cooks.

In the OP's example, there's probably several things making the render quality tank...

1. If it's default settings then there is probably environmental lighting still. Remove that! It's an interior shot and having a scene dome and any environmental lights is a waste of resources and GPU cycles. DAZ is still trying to calculate that light, even if there's only a cm of open wall space to let it in.

2. Many of us have switched the pixel filtering from the stock settings (think it's 1.5 and Gaussian?? Can't check right now as my DAZ DB is rebuilding itself again... ugg) Lately, I've been using Mitchell at 1.0 and it seems to make for sharper images that render slightly faster.

3. The textures in your scene are a huge drain, if not chosen well. For example, that white basic shirt is way too bright and probably messing a lot of the calculations up.

4. And the lighting is probably the number 1 influencer on render speed and quality. A lot of older DAZ assets use mesh lights that are huge resource hog and drain. I limit the use of Ghost lights and generally stick with 3 or 4 spots and the odd emissive. And remember, if the scene is just a little dark, then you don't necessarily have to go around and crank all your lights up. You can also try rendering it with Tone Mapping at say 12.5 instead of 13. That's (I think) equivalent to half a point in exposure, which is quite a large boost.

5. Of course, the resolution you pick will have a big influence. rendering at 1080p should be pretty fast. 1440p is what I use most of the time and I get a good full frame render in about 3000-4000 iterations. OH - ya, ditch the quality control and other stock settings in renders. Do test renders and just change the Iterations to what looks good, while still being fast. Then denoise as needed after. For 1440p renders, I generally start at 4K iteration, max time 0 and Render Quality OFF.

6. The Genesis characters, I find, also influence render times and quality a lot... probably mostly due to their textures. I just find G9's render out much nicer, with hardly any fucking around with the settings needed.

For example, here's some of my recent work images, from an update I'm posting here tomorrow...

This first one is a render at 1440, in raw format. It's the un-touched output PNG. Nothing done to it. On my 4060 Ti, it took apx 25 minutes and did 4000 iterations (it was on a nightly QUEUE)



Now here it is Denoised but no other filters.



Finally after I did the Post Work. I generally don't mess with my renders much. I have a go-to Camera Raw filter where I add a bit of Temp, bump the Exposure up about 0.30 and Clarity about 10 and then add 4 points of Saturation. Plus i fix any errors like that small clip-thru on the left arm of his t-shirt. (Photoshop context fill FTW) I like this render and it was done full frame. Usually if I have slowdowns on full frames, i will do FG and BG separately then composite them, but I just went all-in on these and they turned out great. Both those toons are G9 BTW. And it was done with a heavy Depth of Field, which usually slows down render speed by a bit.

View attachment s050_r144.webp

PS: Kinda surprised F95 took the raw PNG's.the one is over 6MB, lol

 

[boboqwe]

Honestly, it takes a long time to get consistent results with DAZ, in regards to making renders as noise free and well-lit as possible. There's a heavy learning curve and so many variables that effect how well the render cooks.

In the OP's example, there's probably several things making the render quality tank...

1. If it's default settings then there is probably environmental lighting still. Remove that! It's an interior shot and having a scene dome and any environmental lights is a waste of resources and GPU cycles. DAZ is still trying to calculate that light, even if there's only a cm of open wall space to let it in.

2. Many of us have switched the pixel filtering from the stock settings (think it's 1.5 and Gaussian?? Can't check right now as my DAZ DB is rebuilding itself again... ugg) Lately, I've been using Mitchell at 1.0 and it seems to make for sharper images that render slightly faster.

3. The textures in your scene are a huge drain, if not chosen well. For example, that white basic shirt is way too bright and probably messing a lot of the calculations up.

4. And the lighting is probably the number 1 influencer on render speed and quality. A lot of older DAZ assets use mesh lights that are huge resource hog and drain. I limit the use of Ghost lights and generally stick with 3 or 4 spots and the odd emissive. And remember, if the scene is just a little dark, then you don't necessarily have to go around and crank all your lights up. You can also try rendering it with Tone Mapping at say 12.5 instead of 13. That's (I think) equivalent to half a point in exposure, which is quite a large boost.

5. Of course, the resolution you pick will have a big influence. rendering at 1080p should be pretty fast. 1440p is what I use most of the time and I get a good full frame render in about 3000-4000 iterations. OH - ya, ditch the quality control and other stock settings in renders. Do test renders and just change the Iterations to what looks good, while still being fast. Then denoise as needed after. For 1440p renders, I generally start at 4K iteration, max time 0 and Render Quality OFF.

6. The Genesis characters, I find, also influence render times and quality a lot... probably mostly due to their textures. I just find G9's render out much nicer, with hardly any fucking around with the settings needed.

For example, here's some of my recent work images, from an update I'm posting here tomorrow...

This first one is a render at 1440, in raw format. It's the un-touched output PNG. Nothing done to it. On my 4060 Ti, it took apx 25 minutes and did 4000 iterations (it was on a nightly QUEUE)

View attachment 5305598

Now here it is Denoised but no other filters.

View attachment 5305630

Finally after I did the Post Work. I generally don't mess with my renders much. I have a go-to Camera Raw filter where I add a bit of Temp, bump the Exposure up about 0.30 and Clarity about 10 and then add 4 points of Saturation. Plus i fix any errors like that small clip-thru on the left arm of his t-shirt. (Photoshop context fill FTW) I like this render and it was done full frame. Usually if I have slowdowns on full frames, i will do FG and BG separately then composite them, but I just went all-in on these and they turned out great. Both those toons are G9 BTW. And it was done with a heavy Depth of Field, which usually slows down render speed by a bit.

View attachment 5305632

PS: Kinda surprised F95 took the raw PNG's.the one is over 6MB, lol

Thanks for the detailed answer.
Honestly, the render at 4000 iterations turned out well, so no post-processing is required. At least, I didn't see any difference between the processed and unprocessed versions.
Could you please tell me what is Camera Raw filter?
Is it built into the camera or does it need to be purchased separately?

 

[MissFortune]

Could you please tell me what is Camera Raw filter?

Do you use Photoshop? If so, it's meant for RAW images normally. However, it makes for great quick editing/color correction if you don't need to do anything too technical for the render.

 

[boboqwe]

Do you use Photoshop? If so, it's meant for RAW images normally. However, it makes for great quick editing/color correction if you don't need to do anything too technical for the render.

I use Gimp. Photoshop was too complicated for me. I read up on the RAW format.
And yes, I downloaded Topaz; you were a great help.

 

[Midnight Prophets]

Not lazy at all. It's totally understandable how some might not want to do it. This method is traditionally not for every single render. It's usually done by devs who have very inconsistently noisy renders, so it's typically only done for either a few renders or a scene. For example, I recently used it for this:

View attachment 5303575
View attachment 5303578

It was the only render in the series that had this level of noise (and it still has noise in it, but that was added again afterward via overlay for a bit of a grungier look).

For now, it's perfectly acceptable to just denoise and move on. However, postwork is an absolute must for any successful AVN, though. You don't need to do anything crazy, but fixing pokethrough, color adjustments, and stuff of that nature should absolutely be done.

The software at the beginning is Topaz Photo AI. Should be pretty easy to get if you're comfortable with pirating it. Think I got it from Rutracker.

I think both renders look great, but my eyes aren't as trained as yours. What's your average time you'd say you would spend on a render?

 

[MissFortune]

I think both renders look great, but my eyes aren't as trained as yours. What's your average time you'd say you would spend on a render?

Just making the render? Or the whole process? As a whole it can vary pretty wildly. Something like the quoted render, I spent more time on the background/environment than I did posing or lighting. Since it was a promo render, I did put a bit more into it than a regular render, so the overall render probably took 20 minutes (ignoring import times for model given that this was Blender.) from environment to posing to lighting. Probably another 5 is Photoshop, could be closer to 10.

But if it's just a single render in a scene of 100+ renders (for example), I generally only do color correction/noise removal and fixing obvious issues (pokethrough/clipping, etc.). Highlights and shadows will be emphasized on characters if needed (stuff like adding catchlights manually is also something that happens a good bit.)

But I've also been doing it a minute. I know where basically every light goes before I even start the scene in many cases, along with general ideas for posing, framing/comp, and so forth. More experience you have, the faster you'll go without losing any sort of quality.