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Re: some news from the ongoing frontier

Posted: Mon Nov 25, 2013 11:32 am
by bluerocket
Thanks t_3 for ALL the HARD work!

Best regards

Re: some news from the ongoing frontier

Posted: Sat Nov 30, 2013 12:52 pm
by AlfaseeD
t_3 wrote:i'm working my a.. off to have a nice xmas present for all of you. knowing the past history of development, i should better not be more specific :oops:
I know what you mean :D
(and if you need a beta-tester, since I do a lot of render, I'm glad to help you!)
t_3 wrote:honestly, i don't know how or what the poser plug does, but i expect to provide an easy and flexible way to do it. will post a little more in a few days. since still in the works questions and wishes are welcome...
Sorry for the late reply. Well, with Face_Off's plugin (the poser one) you can do simple but pretty useful things:

-Copy and paste a node
-Export/import a material
-Export/import all the materials of a figure (like a MAT pose for the whole figure)
-Paste a node to all the materials with the same name (ex. all materials named "Metal")

So for example I'm able to copy the material mix node SkinHip and paste it to noother material.
Also I'm able to export all the material settings of Victoria (or any clothing) and then import them in when I need them (on a second character, in a new scene etc.). A few weeks ago we released a set of textures (Inks) and thanks to that export I was able to create my personal library and re-use them in any moment.

The format is pretty simple, it's a text file, so I can edit without any fuzz and I was also able to bunch-rename my exported material.

The copy and paste function is also pretty useful because it allows me to create a single material (most of the case is a material mix (diffuse+glossy)) and past it wherever I need it in a very easy and quick way!

Anyway, this is how the Poser plug-in works and it's pretty flexible and friendly but maybe you found an even a better way of handling this :).

In any case I hope this can help!

Ps Any chance to have an option to set the panel as un-docked or docked ?
So I don't need to set them every time I open and close a panel! Thanks!

Re: some news from the ongoing frontier

Posted: Sat Nov 30, 2013 1:13 pm
by t_3
AlfaseeD wrote:-Copy and paste a node
-Export/import a material
-Export/import all the materials of a figure (like a MAT pose for the whole figure)
-Paste a node to all the materials with the same name (ex. all materials named "Metal")
you can already copy and paste nodes and paste node settings onto other nodes in the nodegraph editor (which is meant to be the main mat editing area); just right click on a node to copy it and paste it into other mats or the node settings onto other nodes.

the new version will also allow to drag & drop other materials (completely), or single nodes from other materials into a currently edited material.

saving will have 2(3) options:
complete sets of materials along with the daz material setup will be saved into .duf user presets; i.e. if you choose to save a figure preset, a material preset or a single material in the daz content manager, all the octane settings (including the node graph) will go into it.

means you can use this to save a template where you later can replace all texture maps (with a single click for a whole figure), or just have explicitly tweaked sets for specific texture sets. this also means that you can provide a daz material preset or figure preset along with all octane materials set up in a single standard daz file.

2nd option is the local material db, which can be operated directly from within the plugin - similar to the live db, except you can of course save to it, and rename/delete materials.

3rd option, as soon the octane api is ready, will be octane's own .ocm files which can then be exchanged between all the plugins and the standalone also...

Re: some news from the ongoing frontier

Posted: Sat Nov 30, 2013 1:26 pm
by t_3
on a note about replacing textures: the plugin will track the origin of a texture map to let you replace maps even in complex octane material setups; as long as maps are used that are - at the time of editing - part of a daz shader in the scene, the daz channel is memorized (i.e. specular strength), and no matter where it is finally used in a octane material (glossy specular power, sent through mapping nodes for roughness, ...) it can still be replaced against any other map by a general "replace textures" function after loading different mat sets onto a figure.

if this relationship is broken at some point, i.e. because of loading maps directly from disk, there is still a single-click import (already now in the plugin btw), to take all the maps of the currently linked daz material and place it into the nge (either from the material tab context menu, or from the nge context menu) - this at least saves time to create all the image nodes by hand.

the current version also provides a replace function which lets you replace maps for a number of octane mats at once, the difference is, it just tries to find a matching octane material pin according to the daz shader origin (diffuse -> diffuse, bump -> bump, and so on), what of course only works for simple octane setups...

Re: some news from the ongoing frontier

Posted: Sat Nov 30, 2013 2:34 pm
by withgoodman
t_3 wrote:
AlfaseeD wrote:-Copy and paste a node
-Export/import a material
-Export/import all the materials of a figure (like a MAT pose for the whole figure)
-Paste a node to all the materials with the same name (ex. all materials named "Metal")
you can already copy and paste nodes and paste node settings onto other nodes in the nodegraph editor (which is meant to be the main mat editing area); just right click on a node to copy it and paste it into other mats or the node settings onto other nodes.

the new version will also allow to drag & drop other materials (completely), or single nodes from other materials into a currently edited material.

saving will have 2(3) options:
complete sets of materials along with the daz material setup will be saved into .duf user presets; i.e. if you choose to save a figure preset, a material preset or a single material in the daz content manager, all the octane settings (including the node graph) will go into it.

means you can use this to save a template where you later can replace all texture maps (with a single click for a whole figure), or just have explicitly tweaked sets for specific texture sets. this also means that you can provide a daz material preset or figure preset along with all octane materials set up in a single standard daz file.

2nd option is the local material db, which can be operated directly from within the plugin - similar to the live db, except you can of course save to it, and rename/delete materials.

3rd option, as soon the octane api is ready, will be octane's own .ocm files which can then be exchanged between all the plugins and the standalone also...

really save material?
I do not know English translation is impossible, i'm not understand.
metarial Save as the duf should I do?
Why am I not?

I need a simple tutorial.

Please~~~~~~

Translator was used.
If you want to understand.

Re: some news from the ongoing frontier

Posted: Sat Nov 30, 2013 4:01 pm
by birdovous
withgoodman wrote:really save material?
I do not know English translation is impossible, i'm not understand.
metarial Save as the duf should I do?
Why am I not?

I need a simple tutorial.

Please~~~~~~

Translator was used.
If you want to understand.
It is not possible yet. It will be possible in the new version.

Re: some news from the ongoing frontier

Posted: Sat Nov 30, 2013 7:28 pm
by AlfaseeD
you can already copy and paste nodes and paste node settings onto other nodes in the nodegraph editor (which is meant to be the main mat editing area); just right click on a node to copy it and paste it into other mats or the node settings onto other nodes.
I notice that, but it's not so handy and immediate to use (you always have to open the NGE)
The more convenient way to use the copy/paste is in the material tab.

For example :
I have Genesis in the scene, I select the material tab, choose the shoulders, copy node, then I choose head and then paste.
I know you can create the linked group (pretty awesome feature), but sometime, when you have some characters in the scene, you really need to speed up your workflow and the simple copy/paste sometime is the best !


the new version will also allow to drag & drop other materials (completely), or single nodes from other materials into a currently edited material.

saving will have 2(3) options:
complete sets of materials along with the daz material setup will be saved into .duf user presets; i.e. if you choose to save a figure preset, a material preset or a single material in the daz content manager, all the octane settings (including the node graph) will go into it.

means you can use this to save a template where you later can replace all texture maps (with a single click for a whole figure), or just have explicitly tweaked sets for specific texture sets. this also means that you can provide a daz material preset or figure preset along with all octane materials set up in a single standard daz file.

2nd option is the local material db, which can be operated directly from within the plugin - similar to the live db, except you can of course save to it, and rename/delete materials.

3rd option, as soon the octane api is ready, will be octane's own .ocm files which can then be exchanged between all the plugins and the standalone also...
Sometime going simple is the best way (save material, etc) and the new feature sound awesome !

Re: some news from the ongoing frontier

Posted: Sun Dec 01, 2013 2:06 am
by t_3
AlfaseeD wrote:I know you can create the linked group (pretty awesome feature), but sometime, when you have some characters in the scene, you really need to speed up your workflow and the simple copy/paste sometime is the best!
hm; there is a ~similar way to achieve this for now, if the intended result is, that the target material inherits all attributes of the copied mat (settings, nodegraph, textures):

- select all the mats of a figure (in the oc tree) that uses the oc mats you like to copy,
- use context -> "copy as new",
- then replace the target oc mats by dropping the new copies (from the unlinked section) onto the target mats.

the click count is a tad higher than copy&paste, but it's still much faster than doing it by using the nge.

i know that there are a few drawbacks, mainly because of the automatic naming when mats are grouped (depends on the order in which studio build materials = often different), where oversight of what to drop where is only 2nd best. btw to overcome that naming thing i'm about to implement a simple "renaming rules" section, where you can enter a list of strings, which will result into a single other string when mats are grouped.

[snip]

when thinking into this... it should be indeed not a big thing to provide copy&paste directly in the mat tab, which gives the same result. i just would go on step further and allow it for a whole figure, like: select figure in the _right_ tree, click "copy" somewhere (or ctrl-c), select another figure, again in the right tree and click paste (completely / ctrl-v) or paste settings (=keep texture maps / ctrl-shift-v) 8-)

(using the daz structure to init copy&paste is imo ideal, as it allows to doubtlessly find out if source and target have matching surfaces, whereas using the octane side would make it rather complicated as 1 oc mat may be connected to not only a single figure)

on the other hand a rather simple copy and paste for single oc mats in addition should be also no problem...

Re: some news from the ongoing frontier

Posted: Sun Dec 01, 2013 2:10 am
by t_3
withgoodman wrote:really save material?
metarial Save as the duf should I do?
Why am I not?
birdovous is right - this is not yet possible, but it will be.
it is part of the update that you all are waiting for (several months now :oops:)

Re: some news from the ongoing frontier

Posted: Mon Dec 02, 2013 8:53 pm
by AlfaseeD
t_3 wrote:
AlfaseeD wrote:I know you can create the linked group (pretty awesome feature), but sometime, when you have some characters in the scene, you really need to speed up your workflow and the simple copy/paste sometime is the best!
hm; there is a ~similar way to achieve this for now, if the intended result is, that the target material inherits all attributes of the copied mat (settings, nodegraph, textures):

- select all the mats of a figure (in the oc tree) that uses the oc mats you like to copy,
- use context -> "copy as new",
- then replace the target oc mats by dropping the new copies (from the unlinked section) onto the target mats.

the click count is a tad higher than copy&paste, but it's still much faster than doing it by using the nge.

i know that there are a few drawbacks, mainly because of the automatic naming when mats are grouped (depends on the order in which studio build materials = often different), where oversight of what to drop where is only 2nd best. btw to overcome that naming thing i'm about to implement a simple "renaming rules" section, where you can enter a list of strings, which will result into a single other string when mats are grouped.

[snip]

when thinking into this... it should be indeed not a big thing to provide copy&paste directly in the mat tab, which gives the same result. i just would go on step further and allow it for a whole figure, like: select figure in the _right_ tree, click "copy" somewhere (or ctrl-c), select another figure, again in the right tree and click paste (completely / ctrl-v) or paste settings (=keep texture maps / ctrl-shift-v) 8-)

(using the daz structure to init copy&paste is imo ideal, as it allows to doubtlessly find out if source and target have matching surfaces, whereas using the octane side would make it rather complicated as 1 oc mat may be connected to not only a single figure)

on the other hand a rather simple copy and paste for single oc mats in addition should be also no problem...
Thanks for the tip. It's pretty clear you are doing all of your best to give us the best possible plugin in DS. Thansk !