Shader Questions

static

Exactly what is a Shader?
To me, it appears as though its a fancy name for materials, but I admit they do seem to work a bit differently. I guess if I knew what they were, I could understand the difference a bit better.

Is there a difference between Shaders and Shader Presets?
Actually, this question applies to all the "Preset" Categories. My Library is full of Folders that 'seem' to be for the same thing, i.e., Lights, Light Presets, Lights inside of Light Presets, Light (as opposed to Lights). Is all this necessary, or is someone having fun with new words they have just learned?

Is Shader Mixer and Shader the same?

I find some shader tutorials, but they all seem to start differently. What I mean is, some seem to assume you already know all you need to know from start to where the tutorial begins, some make it seem like I need some sort of IDE for a shader-esque platform.

I need basic beginner help, please.

Please Note:
EDIT:
this note no longer applies:
Due to recent technical difficulties, I ask that you do not direct me to a You-Tube video tutorial. When I straighten that out, I will update this post but,until then, they won't do me any good.
ENDEDIT

A downloadable video tutorial that plays in VLC would be fine, if that's what you have in mind.

Thanks

Richard Haseltine

A shader is code that tells the renderer, 3Delight for DAZ Studio unless you use an add on like reality or Luxus, how a light, camera or surface works. A shader preset tells DS which shader to use, and what to set its parameters to. Shader Mixer is a way of building a shader from bricks with specific functions, the whole being interpreted at render time (while Shader builder is similar, but gives access to the underlying code in the bricks and produces a final block of code that can itself be optimised before being turned into a full compiled shader.

static

So, a shader modifies a material?

If that's correct, how does it do so? Does it change color, hue, or saturation levels on the material itself, or does it change the way the light reflects off the materials? Or am I just totally lost?

I have tried using some of the shaders I have, but I can't quite get them to work as I 'think' they should.
For instance:
I was using a shader from "Pimp My Pro" by Marieah on a Rock which I think came from Nerd3D's "Cave System". the Shader was 'Stone Seamless Light' but I was not quite happy with the way it looked on this particular rock, so I noticed in Poseworks "pwSurface2", a shader called 'Ancient Stone', but when I clicked that, it seemed to replace the Marieah shader but the rock looked nothing like the PW shader was supposed to either.
Did the two combine, or was the one replaced by the other, and if so, why doesn't it look right?
You see, I really am quite new to this shader business, and though I have a rough working knowledge of programming, I can't get my head around what's happening when I use them.

Joe Cotter

To answer the first question, a material is a component of a shader, not all shaders, but if something has a material it will be a component of a shader. Shaders that have materials have other settings beyond just the material settings often. Shaders also may have nothing to do with materials as in the case of a camera shader (well technically, a camera shader may have a material associated with it in some cases but I don't want to confuse the issue.)

To answer the second question, applying a shader doesn't always give the result one expects for a myriad of reasons and why it doesn't work in a given instance is often specific to that shader/instance. As to why the pwShader didn't work the way you expected, pwShaders are advanced shaders that require an advanced understanding of shaders to get them to do what one expects. The best bet is to look at some of the videos at DAZ's YouTube channel on shaders, do some playing then come back and ask some questions on the specific problems you are having. Asking now would not really help because one needs a good understanding of the basics to understand the explanation of specifics.

Richard Haseltine

I'm pretty sure Pimp My props is a set of shader presets, not new shaders. One thing you might try, when applying pwSurface, is holding down the ctrl key (cmd on a Mac) as your double-click and in the options dialogue select ignore under maps - that will leave the seamless texture from Marieah's set in place, probably, while switching the shader to pwSurface in place of whatever is currently used and using the parameters from the preset other than the maps.

static

Well, as I mentioned in post 1, I can't watch YouTube right now (old-age pc and related problems), but I will try that ctrl-click and see what that brings about.
See, I need some real basic tutorials, but everyone is doing video these days.

Thanks to both of you, I'll come back here after I have done some more tinkering.

static

OK, my YouTube troubles are over so what are the best tutorials for Shader beginners?

I really don't want to start with something that requires knowledge I may not have.
No offense to anyone, but, a lot of experienced people seem not to consider this possibility. I mean, they had to learn something first as well, right?

Thanks, in advance, for any useful inputs.

Joe Cotter

I would recommend you going through the DAZ starter videos if you haven't. They lay the foundations for understanding shaders, especially from 7 on. However, I wouldn't skip the tutorial in the beginning if you haven't gone through it yet. After going through those, or if you've already, then come get another list or continue on to the more advanced videos there, depending on what you specifically want to accomplish. Never underestimate beginner videos. I often go back and go through them again after going through mid level and even advanced tutorials, picking up things I missed the first time. They can really help solidify the foundations.