Feature requests

[Elele]

Dunno if this is the correct place for this or if maybe there are already ways to do them or if they are even possible, but I have some features that I would like to see in the plugin

1. a little histogram, like most 2D programs have, for the renders so one can get a quick idea of the exposure
2. a way to do the postwork effects on finished renders
3. have a local shader/material library with the actual files available in windows explorer, including the ability to create a folder structure
4. Currently when a texture map moved or is not available anymore on your computer, shader/materials don't list the image name or location so you basically have no idea wich texture you need to load.

Thanks and happy new year!

[face_off]

1. a little histogram, like most 2D programs have, for the renders so one can get a quick idea of the exposure

I really like the idea of this, but it is probably not something I would add to the DAZStudio plugin in the near future (since there are so many other higher priority items).

2. a way to do the postwork effects on finished renders

You should still be able to tweak the Post Proc and Imager parameters after the render has reached the max samples. If not, let me know - since this would be a bug.

3. have a local shader/material library with the actual files available in windows explorer, including the ability to create a folder structure

Isn't this something you can do yourself already (ie. export materials to a common folder structure)?

4. Currently when a texture map moved or is not available anymore on your computer, shader/materials don't list the image name or location so you basically have no idea wich texture you need to load.

Yes, this is an issue. All my other plugins parse the saved data in the scene first, and any missing texturemap names are retained so the user can re-link them, but I don't think that happens in the DAZStudio plugin. I will investigate if this can be fixed once all the Octane 3 work has been done.

Paul

[Elele]

2. I can still tweak it when the render has reached max samples, but once i close the program it is no longer possible.

3. How can I export the materials?

[face_off]

2. I can still tweak it when the render has reached max samples, but once i close the program it is no longer possible.

Yes, Octane needs to be rendering in order for Post Processing effects to be adjusted. It cannot be done after you stop the render.

3. How can I export the materials?

In theory you should be able to export materials from the Material tab, but I suspect that is not currently working, so I will need to investigate in more detail once the Octane 3 mods are out of the way.

Paul

[Hydra]

I'd really like to be able to use Daz Lights.

I'm not sure what everyone else is doing, but I'm just creating meshes (i.e. simple square), and or converting textures to emission textures.

Anyways, from way back when I used 3DL, I found it handy, and its also well integrated into the Daz UI. You can even use it as a view port, and move around seeing where its pointed.

[face_off]

I'd really like to be able to use Daz Lights.

I'm not sure what everyone else is doing, but I'm just creating meshes (i.e. simple square), and or converting textures to emission textures.

Anyways, from way back when I used 3DL, I found it handy, and its also well integrated into the Daz UI. You can even use it as a view port, and move around seeing where its pointed.

An Octane emitter needs to be something physical (i. a mesh), and converting "virtual" spot, point, etc lights to meshes automatically is a bit cumbersome (ie. what is the mesh for a point light going to be?).

But you can set this up yourself easily....

1) Create New Point Light
2) Create New Mesh Primitive that will emit the light from the point light.
3) Select the mesh, Edit->Object->Change Parent->select the new point light
4) Edit the Octane Material of the mesh material, change it to Diffuse, and add an Emission node
5) Save the light as a Scene Subset

Now you can load that light/mesh combo in to any scene you want.

Paul

[Hydra]

Yeah.... we were doing that with Luxrender. Callad created a series of lights attached to meshes. Part of my dislike was that it was always separate from how Daz did things in terms of parameters like brightness. I think the newer Luxrender is able to use Daz as a source for its lights.

[linvanchene]

edited and removed by user

[face_off]

Would it be possible in the long run to "somehow" show the selected options in the DAZ Studio Environment tab in the OctaneRender viewport?

Yes, however I think this gets into an area where it becomes difficult for a user to determine /where/ the info driving the Octane scene is coming from. At the moment the vast majority of info is in the OctaneRender Main window, so the user knows to change values there. By migrating them out to other DAZStudio panels, this IMO makes things more confusing.

Paul

[linvanchene]

update / edit: removed some information and examples to keep this overview shorter.

Would it be possible in the long run to "somehow" show the selected options in the DAZ Studio Environment tab in the OctaneRender viewport?

Yes, however I think this gets into an area where it becomes difficult for a user to determine /where/ the info driving the Octane scene is coming from. At the moment the vast majority of info is in the OctaneRender Main window, so the user knows to change values there. By migrating them out to other DAZStudio panels, this IMO makes things more confusing.

Paul

No worries about the DAZ Studio environment options. They are a very low priority option only if it could work without much coding effort..


But you mention some important points.

- Where do users expect OctaneRender options to show up?
- How could it be less confusing to make a destinction between those DAZ Studio values that are used by OctaneRender and those who are not?

I try to give an overview of the different options available in DAZ Studio how to integrate options for different render engines so the users are less confused:

In short:
- create duplicates of the DAZ Studio parameters in an OctaneRender subtab
- create separate OR specific versions of tabs that can be docked in the DAZ Studio UI
- add pull down menus to existing DAZ Studio tabs to show only those parameters that are used by OctaneRender

- - -
- - -

The longer version:

The main idea of the past may have been to read the values from a DAZ Studio tab and then make a duplicate inside a native OctaneRender plugin subtab.

Example:
If you move the camera sliders in the DAZ Studio camera tab the camera sliders in the OcDS viewport are adjusted to the same value.

- - -

Other solutions:

More dedicated separate OctaneRender tabs for specific tasks

Currently there are only two OctaneRender tabs:
- the main OctaneRender tab
- the NGE (Node Graph Editor)

If the main OctaneRender tab gets too crowded it actually might be an alternative to add some special features as an completely new tab?

When working with more separate tabs the OctaneRender main tab could serve as some kind of hub that links to other OR specific tabs.

Example:
In the OctaneRender tab there is a Node Graph Editor button.
- When the user clicks on the button the NGE tab opens undocked.
- If the user already docked the NGE tab in the current "activity" UI the tab opens in the docked place.

- - -

Pulldown menus to display only render engine specific parameters

Currently in DAZ Studio there are already 3Delight and Iray specific settings.
In some cases there is an option to toggle between displaying the settings of the two.

Maybe on tabs that include 3Delight, Iray and OctaneRender specific parameters it could be possible to integrate a pull down menu that lets the user select an option that only those values are displayed that are actually used by OctaneRender?

- - -

K. I leave it at that. There may certainly be more pressing topics now. But maybe that overview gave some ideas for possible alternatives if the OctaneRender main tab gets too crowded...