Novica & Forum Members Tips & Product Reviews Pt 9
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I found the problem. What I have is for Bryce. They're old, so the readme is not online. I'll check them out anyway.
Well, it says Daz Studio so that is ticking me off- Poser, Daz Studio MEANS I SHOULD BE ABLE TO USE IN DAZ STUDIO. Use this to go to the product page where it says Daz Studio!
http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/read_me/index/4370/start
They are in the Content>Runtime>Textures>Greenworks folder, and what I am seeing is all jpgs. Don't they need to be pngs for the transparent backgrounds?
Yes, should be PNG's. The file list shows png's are included. They are in folder /Runtime/Libraries/Props/XP_USASouthWest/
Yep, read that a few minutes ago, but they loaded with the jpgs. I had already tested with changing them to pngs and they worked. DId you try yours- or all they all Bryce? These should not be loading with jpgs.
I did, after finally finding them. Buried about 9 folders deep. They are TIF's (which work like PNG's). After finding them, I added the image to diffuse channel, added the transparency to opacity channel, and since the white and black is reversed, used LIE to invert the map. Look pretty good. The two sampler packs I have contain 42 plants total.
Okay, keep in mind I don't know file structure- so why are the pngs in runtime>libraries instead of in runtime>textures with the jpgs, which is what the (Content Library) Poser Library uses? And I have a custom Categories section and may have messed up the Props reference, so I wil uninstall the billboards and reinstall to see if they show up, right now they don't.
I would think the .pp2 file should load with the png. In the Content Library the pp2's shoud be found under Poser Formats/My Daz3D Library/Props/XP_USASouthwest.
Okay, uninstalled and reinstalled. Now the pngs ARE in the Poser library. This is just strange. Why would DIM install it one way the first time with the jpgs, then do it with the pngs the next time? Arrrgh.
Anyway, the point of all this (wasted an HOUR) was to point out the billboards that are in xfrog inc store at 78% off (Mega FastGrab, qualifying item required), $3.38 and there's flowers, trees, and even coral! (See Red Sea one)
Well, I rendered Kieron again overnight this time and under studio type lights. It's still a very simple thing, since it would have taken a couple of days for me to do anything more complicated on my poor overworked laptop. I used Ultra Genesis Studio Vol 1 - Iray Box Lights , FW Kieron HD for Genesis 8 Male and LI Kieron Whiskers and of course Kieron Hair for Genesis 3 & 8 Male(s). I opted for a bluer light than I did in my previous renders and the default tone mapping settings, to see if he would wash out or come out looking grey. I did use the second heaviest eyeliner that he comes with, the chipped nailpolish, and the facial hair that he comes with. His arm hair is Oh My Body Hair from Rendo.
I think he came out quite nicely, he didn't wind up washed out and I still like the way he looks. I'd personally gotten to the point where I wasn't buying FW characters for G3M anymore since they had all started to look the same to me, but I'm finding Kieron to be much more unique. It doesn't look like they used the same MR on him and his face shape and body shape is not what they usually churn out.
I like how many different presets there are for him, especially the eyeliners and the chipped nailpolish ones. And he even has two different thickness of eyebrows and plenty of colors for his bodyhair. So, I am stil happy with my purchase, and I think this character is a step in the right direction for FW. I'll give their work a second look in the future.
@zombietaggerung Keiron does look better (and better with arm hair!) Thanks for showing the newest render.
Here's the XfrogPlants Billboards Southwestern again, with more examples. A lot is not shown. I have a few others (and going to see if I have problems before I buy the other ones. I reinstalled the other two I have, so will render and show you shortly. This is just using the same lighting as I did for Keiron (Pro-Studio.)
I looked at the .pp2 file and it is calling the .jpg for the transparency image instead of the .png file. It looks as if they would all need edited for them to work right in Iray.
Wrong :) See my next post.
Those look good, especially for mid- and background plants. I have lots of trees and bushes but might pick up some of the less common plants.
I just loaded the .png file into the Opacity Strength but it is the Icon File, and is low pixel so isn't the .png file for the Cut Out channel in Iray. All the .jpg files will have to be converted to .png files to work properly in Iray.
I'm not happy billboards. The jpgs are what load up for me in the Poser Library, I've wasted three hours on this and irritated. The black and white for the opacity is NOT in libraries in png format so I had to manually convert each jpg (talking 60) to a png then put it in the Textures section so when I MANUALLY have to change the opacity map they are not found in Libraries. For $3.38 I'll put up with it, but it's not doing what it should for me. To have to manually convert each jpg into a png is ridiculous (for the black and whites)
What is the ppl file supposed to be doing?
@fishtales Didn't see yours, I was busy doing exactly what you said! I got the Southwest done, working on Africa. Thanks for looking at it. Going to get these suckers done then they'll be ready for when I need them. Still going to buy some more of them due to the price, and the chart shows they do NOT go on sale very often. They're 78% off.
If you put the .pp2 file through an editor you can change the call for the .jpg file to point to the converted .png file and it should all work fine. I haven't tried that yet.
On my editor it is line 331.....transparencyMap ":GREENWORKS:BILLBOARDS:XP_FRUIT:FR02m_bill_a.jpg" which needs to be changed to transparencyMap ":GREENWORKS:BILLBOARDS:XP_FRUIT:FR02m_bill_a.png"
As I say that should work unless there is another line calling it somewhere else in the .pp2 file :)
Um, you just went over my head- would you mind terribly telling me about the editor? That would be SO cool to have it call it up without having to input all these pngs into the cutout opacity. (these black and whites are called the transparency maps, right? I get befuddled so easily when I've been frustrated for hours.)
If I had those I'd run them through an awk script and do it in about as long as it takes to type this reply out .. ;)
To do it manually, in notepad (for a Windows machine), navigate to where the .pp2 file(s) reside in your runtime. I'd select them all and make a copy of each or lob them all in a zip). Open up one of the .pp2 files and then search for the string: "transparencyMap". The lien found shoudl end ina filename, change the .jpg to .png and do anotehr search (just in case it occurs more than once in the file). Save, open next .pp2, rince, repeat.
@simonjm Would the texture map also need to be png? Found that in the notepad text also. (BTW, for others who aren't technologically inclined- to get to Notepad on Windows 10 you click on the windows logo on your keyboard +R. i had to look it up! Or right click Open>Notepad)
Okay, if you're trying to follow along here's what I did and what will probably work- still doing the last step:
The billboard files are in two places. Runtime>Libraries>Props>XP(blah blah) and Runtime>Textures>Greenworks>Billboards>blah blah.
1. The black and white jpgs have to be made into pngs.
2. They won't load automatically unless you change the script, as mentioned above. I'm still doing that so will see how that goes. To get to the script, right click on the pp2 >open>notepad then you can type in textureMap in the Edit>Find and change the texture map to png, move along that line and transparencyMap is just a little bit further. It's easy, don't let working with a "script" deter you. Be sure to go up to File>Save. Close it, done. Do the next one.
Edit- LOL a cheat- I have the files open in Window Explorer- and I quickly saw how far over the slider was going to find that line of text, so I just aligned the popup for Notepad to the beginning edge of a file photo and I zip right to it. I copied the word png then hit Ctrl+V and paste it over the jpg, zipping right along.
Yes, you'd need to conver the files to .png using the graphcis package of your choice - and I'd also suggest ensuring that the whites are white and the blacks are black before saving :)
I'm probably too late for you, @Novica, but perhaps this will help others with this issue. In the Map Transfer tutorial is an entire section on a little image utilty named Irfanview. It can convert entire folders from one format to another. You should be able to set the transparent area and convert those pesky jpegs to pngs in one operation! Here's the link: Irfanview instructions.
You'll need to extrapolate a bit, as the tut says select jpg for output. You'll need to select png instead. And poke around in the options to find the bit about select the transparency. But it could save you a lot of time.
That is what I did using IrfanView, but I forgot about the transparent background and Alpha channel so I will have to do them again when I have time :) Although doing them all only took about fifteen minutes all in.
It is not working. And it's a mess now so not wasting any more time on it (five hours today.) I changed the code, it says file path not found, so there's something else going on and I don't care enough about this enough to waste more time on it. I'll just know to change to pngs and will do that when I use them.
They don't have to be pngs (there's no actual transparency in those black & white maps, they're just representations - black = transparent & white = opaque). So jpg is fine. Put it in the Cutout Opacity channel, and make sure the slider is all the way to the right.
Thanks so much!
it's actually really easy to make your own billboards in DS (or Carrara, or . . .). All you need is a bunch of tree props or plants or anything else from your library - could even be characters. Load each prop into a blank scene, and light it how you want it to appear (sunny day, for example). Set the camera to be square, 2048 x 2048 (or 1024 x 1024 etc) and frame the camera so the prop fills the frame. Make sure it's face on, like the orthagonal views. Render it with no background & no floor shadow (Draw Dome = off, Ground = off in Iray), and save the render as .PNG. This'll give you a tree (say) against a transparent background. All you need to do now is load a plane and set this render to be its texture. Save it as a scene subset. Job done.
If you want to render a non-square shape, because it's a tall, thin tree for example, that's fine. Just make a note of the camera proportions, and make sure the plane you use is set to the same shape.
A lot of tree props you can rotate and render again, and they won't look like the same tree, which gives you several extra billboards "for free". You can render people from different angles, in groups, with different clothes or mats, which gives you a nice selection of background crowd characters - always handy!
Heads up, Flash Sale on Genesis 3 items Things which are DO are discounting 72% with new debut in cart.
Hmm, anyone that doesnt have the Michael 7 Pro Bundle? You can get it very cheaply right now. PM me (it may be posted elsewewhere on the forums, I don't think it's a glitch. If it is, I'm not ruining it for other people.)