Is there a way to make the viewport less... dark

Serene Night

I am ashamed to admit, but I have trouble sometimes discerning the ground and objects on it, because my viewport is so dark.

by going in preview mode I can of course see it, but I just can't  see it in the main window. CTRL L doesn't always work to light up the floor area. Especially in sun sky mode

Is there any other option for getting my scene better lit for the purpose of placing objects?

nonesuch00

I have the same problem. I was thinking of changing color in viewport from grey to white but then it is so bright. Turning off the Preview Lights (tCTL-L) does help most times.

I forgot, how do I make my empty scene default color white (or a much lighter grey)?

Serene Night

I’ll tell you as soon as my render is done. It’s cooking now. Yeah. Often ctrl l works... but sometimes no especially if the ground is a dark color.

If drop to ground actually worked I wouldn’t have that issue... but drop to ground puts my characters above and below the floor and so I can’t rely on items not going through the ground or hovering above it

DrNewcenstein

Either delete the lights you've placed in the scene and use light-emitting primitives instead, or create a new camera and turn its headlamp to On and use that as your setup camera.

 

To get the background colors, go to Window>Style>Customize>Viewports.

You have to set each of the 4 primary tabs separately, though (Actors, Pose & Animate, Lights & Cameras, and Render). If you use a multi-viewport layout (2 or 3 or 4 panes), you can either set them individually or all at once.

Serene Night

Wasn't able to see it, the user guide says this, but couldn't find what it was talking about either. Sorry

https://helpdaz.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/207529693-How-do-I-change-the-background-color-in-DAZ-Studio-

DrNewcenstein

Yeah whoever wrote that.....

Anyway, I seriously doubt that was true one year ago, and even if it was, it's not true right now.

I literally just now verified my instructions above on two machines.

 

Though I should clarify, when you click "Window>Style>Customize Style" it will open a popup that has a Viewports entry. I realize now that the way it's written insinuates there's a further extension after "Customize".

Serene Night

Thanks Dr Newcenstein! adding a mega headlamp really helps light the scenese better. I am using sun sky mode and I think in that mode the regular sun just doesn't light the ground sufficienty.

nonesuch00

DrNewcenstein said:

Either delete the lights you've placed in the scene and use light-emitting primitives instead, or create a new camera and turn its headlamp to On and use that as your setup camera.

 

To get the background colors, go to Window>Style>Customize>Viewports.

You have to set each of the 4 primary tabs separately, though (Actors, Pose & Animate, Lights & Cameras, and Render). If you use a multi-viewport layout (2 or 3 or 4 panes), you can either set them individually or all at once.

Ah, thanks

DrNewcenstein

Serene Night said:

Thanks Dr Newcenstein! adding a mega headlamp really helps light the scenese better. I am using sun sky mode and I think in that mode the regular sun just doesn't light the ground sufficienty.

Wow, really? I use Dome and Scene mostly, and it's plenty for me. I just switched to Sun-Sky Only and holy moley it's waaaaaay bright.

You have your monitor set to play spooky scary games? lol

 

Serene Night

No, its just really dark for some reason. This is my outdoor beach scene:

You cannot tell but there is an uneven light sandy ground. It is impossible to get anything aligned on it because the ground is quite literally black. It is lit using sun sky mode.

I will say that I never used to have this problem until a few versions back.

Richard Haseltine

Serene Night said:

No, its just really dark for some reason. This is my outdoor beach scene:

You cannot tell but there is an uneven light sandy ground. It is impossible to get anything aligned on it because the ground is quite literally black. It is lit using sun sky mode.

I will say that I never used to have this problem until a few versions back.

The OpenGL preview does have issues with light hitting surfaces at a very shallow angle (especially if it's a low polygon surface, I'm told) - so if that't the headlamp/previwe lights is off it isn't altogether unexpected. I sometimes add a distant light pointing straight down for use in setting up, though it's then important to turn it off before rendering.

Serene Night

Thanks Richard. That makes sense. I will try the distant light. I really like the sand from beach pod but it is likely not terribly high res.

IsaacNewton

It can be a problem sometimes. Black shoes on a black (or dark) floor (which is not in the floor plane), for example, almost always needs a render to see if the shoes are flat to the floor.

I suppose changing the colour of the floor temporarily might work, but is a pain! Maybe try toggling the display settings? A "drop to a specific object" button would make the workflow faster.

DrNewcenstein

You can use the Align function for that. Add a Pane (if you have room) and select Align. Select the two items you want to align (figure in question and floor) and pick your X, Y, Z transforms to perform, which can be either align both objects' center points, stack along the outer edges (X or Z), or on top or bottom (Y).
Or it can perform all 3 functions at once: tile an object to the side, raise it by the thickness of the "pivoting" item, and place it at the front or back corner. Useful for stacking boxes, or putting figures on platforms, or furniture, or on the hood of the car, or under the car, if that's your thing.

It's a bit tricky, as the operation depends on which item you select first. If you select the figure first then CTRL+Select the floor and select Stack +Y, you get the floor on top of the figure. However, if you select the floor first and then CTRL+Select the figure and Stack +Y, the figure will be on top.

But then, with shoes, especially thick soles (platforms), you end up with the figure's feet on the floor anyway. If you select parented boots, then they won't move, but their center point will appear to.

Another way to tell if you're on the floor is the bounding box corners that are always visible. If you can see them, you're above the floor. That box extends to the boundary of attached clothing, or at least to the soles of boots, and the Drop To Floor command will consider the boot soles.

Also, set your viewport draw style to Hidden Line, and you can see the two surfaces a little better, depending on the mesh resolution. You may want to hide the Floor grid (box in the top right corner of the viewport).

DrNewcenstein

Brightness/visibility also depends on your monitor: I posted an image in the Art section yesterday of a dark dungeon. On my LCD TV, I can see the fog plane and the figure on the right. On my LED TV, it's darker. I had to set my DS Style to Highway because a lot of the text blends into the background on the LED, but I can see it fine on the LCD.

 

nonesuch00

Even when I can see the floor well I often can't tell if the feet are floating above ground as there are no shadows to clue me in in viewport openGL textured mode. And so I have to zoom in on the feet and rotate all around the feet and below the ground only to find alot of times both feet aren't properly situated on the ground even though the pose icon for the pose set indicates that both feet (or partial feet) are touching the ground.

I guess dForce will eventually remedy the need to do this extra inaccuracy prone work...

Serene Night

Me too. I do admit the inability to make sure models correctly connect to the ground is a frustration of mine. This image above has taken hours not because it is particularly hard but because I cannot see the ground and the ground is uneven I had to dforce the beach blanket because it looked okay in the viewport but was far above the sand which seems to rely on displacement which makes it hard to position. After I repositioned everything the ice chest was hovering so I had to redo that.

The only way I can really see if something is positioned properly is to zoom into the feet and make sure the soles are at the level of the ground plane.

Griffin Avid

I usually have to move my viewer - in perspective mode - 

when I change the angle, sometimes steep.....the ground shading lightens up and I can see the ground plane properly.

I do slide the camera under the ground plane too- I mostly, like to have a small bit of the heel or sole to intersect the floor plane.

That white bounding box outline cannot be trusted. lol

DrNewcenstein

If the ground plane is high-poly enough, you can select the area your figure will stand or props will sit with the Geometry Editor, dForce that spot, and then do a short animation to get your items in place. The items will contact the ground plane and reshape it at the points of contact.

You can also do this to furniture to make it concave when a figure sits in it.

 

If the ground plane is not high-poly enough, you can generate a primitive plane with adequate polycount and dForce that and let it lie on the existing ground plane to adopt its shape, then remove the original, export the new one so it holds its shape, bring it back in and dForce it again for the spot-dForcing.

 

I'm working on a video tutorial for this and other things you can do with dForce and scenery, but I'm also in the process of moving house, so it's taking time.