TRRazor wrote:Not entirely sure if the plug.-in offers the OctaneRender materials to be included in a MAT file.
I did some new tests to see what works with the new build.
It seems you can save scenes, material presets etc. the same way you would when saving content with 3Delight and Iray materials.The OctaneRender materials are saved along.
You are just not able to see and select OR specific nodes in the material presets save options.
I can confirm that it is possible to
- save scenes as .duf file with OctaneRender materials
- save material presets with all materials for all surface zones of an object
- save material presets for individual surface zones of an objectNot yet tested
- save presets for wearables, props, etc.
In theory if it works for scenes and individual material presets the process should also work for wearables and props etc.- - -
I add some images to illustrate how this works and include some workflow steps how loading content and materials works in DAZ Studio in general.It seems important to understand the difference between saving complete scenes, props, wearables that also contain the geometry data and simple material preset files that only contain the material data without geometry.
Saving complete scenes with OctaneRender materials included - has always worked
If you save a complete scene as .duf file you include all the geometry and also the OctaneRender material information for each surface in the scene.
In DAZ Studio select
File/Save as/Scene
Saving wearable(s) with OctaneRender materials included - not yet tested
In this example you can see several presets for "wearable(s)" that load both the geometry and the material information.
Things to test:
In DAZ Studio select
File/Save as/Wearable(s)
Check if OctaneRender materials are included.Each time you click on a preset a complete new set of geometry is added to the scene and with it the default materials.
This also means it will take time to load the presets because the geometry is included.
What is the benefit of Material Presets compared to saving as a complete scene, wearable, actor or prop?When you select an object in the scene in the smart content tab you can see all material presets that are compatible with the selected object.
In this example the vest was selected in the scene and all the color options for the vest are displayed.
When you click on the materials preset only the materials are reloaded. Because the geometry is not loaded the process to change materials is very quickly.
In addition with the help of material presets it is also possible to just load new material options for one surface zone while leaving all the other surface zones of the selected object unchanged.
How are Material Presets created that include OctaneRender material information?- Select the object in the scene
- In DAZ Studio select
File/Save as/Material(s)
- In a pop up window you can now select which specific 3Delight or Iray nodes or surface zones should be included in the material preset.
3Delight and Iray are both integrated directly into the DAZ Studio surfaces tab.
This direct integration with the DAZ Studio surface tab seems to make it possible that in the save dialogue for the material presets you can choose individual surfaces and even nodes that should be included.
Because OctaneRender is not integrated directly into the DAZ Studio surface tab it seems not possible to select individual nodes to be included or omitted in the material presets.
BUT
You can select the surface zones for which OctaneRender materials should be included. In this example I created a simple diffuse material directly inside the OctaneRender materials tab.
This means the original surface in 3Delight or Iray OpenGL viewport is still a default color.
Because we only want to create material presets for OctaneRender we do not need to worry about that for now.The shirt arm is red.
The shirt base is blue.
If you want to
save all OctaneRender materials for all surface zones of an object all you have to do is click on accept in the material preset options.
If you just want to
save a material preset for one surface zone select the surface zone you want and uncheck the others.
In this example we only want the red shirt arms:
I also created a material preset for just the blue shirt base.
- In the save location you choose you will find the material presets as .duf file and also an preview image that was automatically generated based on the OpenGL color of the shirt.
Note that in the preview image the color of the shirt is still default because in the OpenGL viewport OctaneRender material changes do not show up.
Nevertheless it will only take a few minutes to manually create a preview image based on a product render so nothing to worry about.- If needed you can also manually move the .duf file and the preview image to another location in your DAZ Studio library.
In this example the material presets show up in my personal library for my edits.
All you have to do now is to click on the material preset and the OctaneRender viewport is updated a second later.
This means all the OctaneRender surface zones in the OctaneRender materials tab are updated automatically with the click of just one button.
There is no more need to tediously drag around material presets saved inside the OcDS materials tab over to the OcDS surface zones.- - -
How to create material presets for Iray or 3Delight and OctaneRender at the same time?OctaneRender material presets saved with the described workflow can include 3Delight or Iray materials together with the OctaneRender material presets.
A basic workflow would be:
- customize your materials for 3Delight or Iray in the DAZ Studio surface tab
- auto convert to OctaneRender materials (or create OctaneRender materials from a blank material)
- fine tune the OctaneRender materials
- use the described workflow to export both OctaneRender and the Iray / 3Delight materials together.
- - -
Guess that covers the most important points.
I assume most DAZ3D products artists are better suited to comment on how to usually save materials for their products with Iray / 3Delight.
I tried to add as much information as I could from the OctaneRender side of things.
If someone is up for testing if saving wearables, props, etc. include the OctaneRender materials as well that would be awesome.
Bonus Question: Since which build has this workflow actually worked?Honestly. No clue at all.
Maybe it was not possible with the first OcDS builds and added later?
Maybe because other things did not work no one actually bothered to try again?
In any case I guess artists can now finally start creating real OctaneRender material presets for their products.