Summary and Quick Guide to Texture types, Synonyms, Abbreviations
IceEmpress
Posts: 639
The first section of this thread focuses on the surface types in DAZ Studio, while the second (my feature presentation) is a quick guide to texture types in other 3D programs, as well as abbreviations.
This is intended as a reference guide for those importing models exported from other programs which are accompanied by a set of textures—as well as for those who wish to utilize Nobiax’s (aka Yughues on ShareCG) lovely textures.
This list is still a work-in-progress.
Because I intend to make it user-friendly, even to those for whom English is not their native language, I have attempted to simplify descriptions and use simple words and terms as much as possible. As such, this glossary neither describes material components in-depth, nor is not very formal-- and certainly not of publishable-quality.
Please let me know if any of this information is incorrect.
General Rule of Thumb: As with DAZ and Poser texture sets, most texture creators of 3D models in other programs do not indicate in the texture’s title whether a texture is a color or strength map—though usually you can tell based on whether the texture is in color or grayscale (black & white only)
Before I begin, here is a short glossary of terms that are used a lot in this guide.
--Area Lights: Also known as "environment" or "universal" lighting. In 3D programs, Area Lighting is a special type of light which lights up the entire scene from all directions. It is neccesary for ambient occlusion (see that definition in this glossary for more info on this type of light) Ambient Occlusion is needed in order to create realistic lighting for a scene. Remember, lights, like shaders, only work in the render engine they were designed for. The Area Light for DAZ Studio is the UberEnvironment2 light.
--CMY: Cyan-Magenta-Yellow; a type of color-space. This is used for certain things in 2D image programs like Photoshop, Gimp, and Paintshop Pro, and for certain things in 3D programs.
--CMYK: Cyan-Magenta-Yellow, plus Black. It's used the same way as CMY, but it also has another important use. CMYK is what paints and printer ink are based off of in real life, and because of this some people convert and RGB image or render to CMYK when they want their printed image to look more like how it does on the computer, which uses the RGB color system.
--Color-space: Color-space is a special mode or system of color used by computers and digital imaging, and TVs. The colors are calculated by combining two or more base colors, just like people combine primary colors on a colorwheel (such as red, blue, yellow, white, and black) to make intermediate colors (such as green, purple, orange, and gray) Most color-space modes use 0 for no color and 255 for the maximum amount of color.
--Grayscale: In 2D and 3D digital imaging, grayscale is a color-space that only uses black, white, and gray, like what you see in black and white photos and TV. In 3D programs, some types of texture maps use the grayscale color system.
--IBL: Image-based Lighting. Image-based lighting is the use of texture maps on a light, which makes a scene look more realistic. IBL is especially important in order to make render more realistic glass, water, and eyeballs.
--Kd/Ka/Ks: The color-space used by Poser. Unlike most color-space modes, Kd/Ka/Ks uses a decimal system, with 0 being no color, and 1 being the maximum amount of color. Winterbrose has created a simple program called DasRGB in order to convert Kd/Ka/Ks values to RGB values-- or RGB values to Kd/Ka/Ks values.
--Node: Shader or Material node. These are bricks (a preset of mathematical functions) used in node-based 2D digital imaging programs (such as Filterforge and Genetica) as well as most 3D digital imaging programs. A single brick is plugged into another brick which tells the program what to do. Examples of bricks include diffuse color, sub-surface scattering, texture nodes (like spots or granite), and mathematical nodes which tell one node what to do, or tells multiple nodes how to interact with each other.
--Opacity: Something is opaque when no light can pass through it at all, and you can't see through it, either.
--RGB: Red-Green-Blue; a type of color-space. RGB is the color mode used by your computer, as well as by 2D image programs like Photoshop, Gimp, and even MS Paint. It's also used by most 3D programs, though Poser isn't one of them.
--Raytrace or Traced: In 3D programs, raytracing is where a render engine calculates how light is bounced, reflected, or scattered, as well as how it affects the appearance of a surface. Because the render engine has to take time calculate it, raytraced shader nodes slows down a render a lot and uses a lot of memory. Reflection is a rsytraced node, as is any node which calculates how light hits, passes through, reflects, or bounces off a surface.
--Saturated: In 2D and 3D image programs, saturation is how bright and colorful something is. Low saturation will make something look dull (not very colorful, and kinda brownish, or in this case, grayish) and washed-out (like if you added a lot of water to acryllic or water paints)
--Shadowcatcher: A special type of light that creates the effect of a cast shadow.
--Surface: In 3D programs, a surface refers either to an object or more commonly, a material zone (a model whose surface is split into different parts, each of which can be given a different color and texture) This term is used when talking about coloring or lighting a model.
--Surface Light: In 3D programs, a surface light is a light attached to a surface in order to light it up AND make it shed light. Surface Lights are commonly used on objects such as lightbulbs and lasers. For most objects, the default shader with a high ambient strength is often used instead because surface lights slow down render time.
--Translucency or Trasnslucent: This is also known as "sheer" when talking about clothing. Something is translucent if light passes through it or you can see through it, but it's not completely see-through like a window. Examples of real-life translucent objects are rubber gloves and pieces of paper.
--UbS: Ubersurface Shader, an advanced shader used in DAZ Studio.
First, a brief rundown of the surface parameters in DAZ Studio:
PRIMARY
Diffuse Color: This is your primary color texture. It is by far the most common type of texture map.
Diffuse Strength: How strongly the diffuse color shows up. Low diffuse strength makes the surface look dull, unsaturated, and dark—with certain exceptions, Diffuse Strength should always be at 100%.
The primary exceptions to this rule are the use of refraction and subsurface scattering, though there are disagreements on the formula to use-- most agree that the added up strength percentage of subsurface scattering and refraction (and in some cases-- translucency, caustics, and fresnel) should be subtracted from diffuse strength. (this thread will not cover said formulas—search elsewhere for that—such as other threads on these forums, and tutorials on Deviantart)
Glossiness: This dial determines what percentage of the surface is NOT covered in the specular shine. (E.g. 90% gloss means that 10% of the surface is shiny)
Specular Color: Specular is a gloss/shine. Specular color determines what color the shine is. If you want the shine to be colored instead of white, then you generally need to select a very dark color.
Specular Strength: This dial determines the "hardness" or "softness" of the specular color-- both how bright or noticeable the shininess is, as well as how "hard" or "soft" the edges of the shine are (e.g. how much they fade as they reach the edge) Specular Strength texture maps are grayscale maps loosely based off of the diffuse texture. However, a decent specular strength map should not be little more than a grayscale/desaturated version of the diffuse texture (one exception to this is a low budget specular map of a tilable texture taken from a photograph). Unlike most grayscale type strength maps, there is no "negative" specularity. Black (0) = 0%, 124~126 = 50%, and white/255 = 1.0/100%.
Please note that unlike diffuse and ambient, specular strength and glossiness look different in renders.
Ambient: Ambient is the glow. It makes the surface look really bright and makes it resist dark lighting. This can confer a “glow in the dark” look. High ambient strength will wash out the details of the diffuse color and texture unless an ambient color or ambient strength map is used.
Textures listed from this point on are not visible until you render the scene.
Bump Strength: Bump is a memory-cheap way to make a surface look like it has a 3D texture by affecting how light hits it. They are grayscale texture maps which use a special but simple formula from the RGB color system—0 (black) is negative bump, 255 (white) is positive bump, while 128 is neutral bump. These affect the level of bump based on the dial strength used.
There is an additional modifier to this formula—the Min/Max, which technically means that only a min/max of 0 to 1.0 creates the default formula of black = 0, 128= .5, and 255/white = 1. I realize this sounds confusing. As a general rule, the default setting of min -.10 and max .10 is best. Remember, Poser’s default Bump strength is min -.01 and max .01—these levels are too low for DAZ Studio and must be adjusted. This is one reason why separate material presets for Daz Studio and Poser are usually needed.
INTERMEDIATE
Displacement Map: Displacement maps are grayscale maps that use the same formula as bumpmaps, except that they actually change the shape of an object—raising the surface or dimpling it. DIsplacement uses a tiny bit more memory than bump.
Normal Map: Normal maps are RGB color maps which work similarly to bumpmaps, but the surfaces are sharper and more crisp in a well-made normalmap. Normalmaps are rarely used in DAZ Studio or Poser, but are one of the four primary texture maps used in gaming. They use a tiny bit more memory than bumpmaps do.
Opacity Strength: More commonly known as a "transparency map". These are grayscale image maps which make part of a surface transparent or translucent (this is NOT the same as translucency discussed below) It follows the same formula as Specular Strength maps, with black being completely transparent. The majority of transparency maps only use black (RGB 0/0/0) or white (RGB 255/255/255) in order to create solid edges. Grays will either soften edges of transparency or render part of the surface translucent. Transparency maps increase render time a lot in Daz Studio and Poser.
Reflection Color: Reflection is a type of raytraced “shininess” which shows a nearby object in its reflection. However, since raytrace-type nodes increase rendering time (sometimes greatly so) most objects use reflection maps to create a “fake” reflective surface. Unlike most textures, reflection image maps so not change based on POV (point-of-view)—the same part of the texture is visible regardless of whether you are looking at the object from the front or back. However, if you're looking at it from above or below, the map may not look very good on some objects, such as spheres.
Reflection Strength: You know the drill by now. A high reflection strength (far higher than usually recommended) gives the object a “fake” ambient look (doesn’t glow in the dark, but still makes the object look really bright and saturated—and washes out detail from other textures). Because of this, most material presets (except for some using a texture map) do not use strong reflection strength (e.g. most glass presets use a strength between 15 to 30%)
Refraction Color: Refraction simulates how light is dispersed through and reflected through a non-opaque surface. This setting will not affect the surface as intended unless one or more lights are used in the scene. However, similar to reflection strength, it can give a “fake ambient” look if diffuse strength is too high. Because of this, most material presets have diffuse strength dialed way down unless they’re going for a bright, glowing, oversaturated look.
I don’t know if there are any maps specifically designed for this category. I have read that in DAZ and other programs, reflection maps are generally applied here if a texture map is used (which is almost never)
CyprithTheCat Offers a VERY nice tutorial on Refraction in DAZ Studio here:
http://cypriththecat.deviantart.com/art/DAZ-Surface-Tutorial-Part-4-147495906
Refraction Strength: You know the drill by now. As stated above, this setting will not affect the surface as intended unless one or more lights are present in the scene. However, similar to reflection strength, it can give a “fake ambient” look if diffuse strength is too high. Because of this, most material presets have diffuse strength dialed way down unless they’re going for a bright, glowing, oversaturated look.
I don't know if there are any maps specifically designed for this category. I have read that in DAZ and other programs, reflection maps are generally applied here if a texture map is used (which is almost never)
ADVANCED
None of these surfaces are found in the DAZ Default shader setup (the one normally loaded with a model)
Fresnel: Fresnel's principle states that reflectiveness increases at the edges of an object rather than the center. In DAZ, several shaders support fresnel effects. Two examples of the fresnel effect in real life are glass marbles and chrome spheres (or ball-bearings)
Opacity Color: I don't know what this does, to be honest. Maybe it changes the color of models seen through the surface.
Skin: Skin is a type of subsurface scattering node meant to simulate skin. I can't describe it very well as I don't understand much about it.
Subsurface Scattering: Also called “SSS”. Subsurface Scattering is meant to simulate how light is dispersed (scattered) through a mildly translucent surface such as skin, teeth/ivory/dentine, milk, non-woody vegetation, and many types of lapidary gems (agates, jaspers, jade, feldspars, zeolites, etc.), and wax. As with most texture categories, there are two types. In real life, most objects possess a very low subsurface strength—a high SSS power makes a surface look like wax.
Subsurface color maps look like oversaturated, blurred versions of the texture map with regions of higher subsurface scattering possessing richer colors (for example, on V5 Bree, low SSS areas are of an orange-yellow color while high SSS areas are bright red) SSS strength maps appear to work like either bump maps or specular maps (I’m not sure which) The use of SSS requires that diffuse strength be dialed down.
Translucency: This is a special type of parameter. Translucency creates the appearance that light is passing through an object. Translucency color determines the color of the "light". A shadowcatcher light is required in order for translucency to work. Major examples of translucent surfaces include fabric, hair, and the hands, feet, and ears of a human (also the ears of many animals), wax, many types of translucent gemstones, and some types of frosted glass.
Velvet: This is a special type of specular that looks similar to fresnel, but is very soft. It is meant to simulate pubescence (very soft, light hair, like that on most of the human body, fresh peaches, or on some types of cloth, such as velvet.) Velvet is also meant to simulate a shiny coat of fur on an animal, or the terminal hair *body hair found on a man’s arms, legs, and unshaven face* from a distance.
NODE BASED
These are advanced parameters which are not, in themselves an individual component of a surface, but rather, are attached in shadermixer to a surface parameter (e.g. diffuse, specular) in order to replace and modify it. Zigraphix provides a better glossary (w. illustration examples) for these and other nodes, which can be found in the DAZ Marketplace Freebies.
Caustics: This is a special type of raytrace-based parameter which simulates the scattering of and projection of light through an object to nearby surfaces. Examples of this include prisms, gemstones, and underwater scenes. It does not change the appearance of the actual object with the caustic surface-- it only changes the other objects near it-- in effect this makes it a type of advanced lighting, and as with other highly advanced types of lighting (e.g. gel lights, which are not covered here), caustics only work with a special caustics camera setup.
3Delight is not very good at simulating realistic multicolor caustics however. For that, you are better off downloading some shader setups from Blendswap along with Blender, and then using the Teleblend plugin by McJ which exports a DAZ Scene to Blender's Cycles render engine. On a similar note, neither DAZ nor Poser are any good at realistic gem brilliance (the multicolor sparkling of a gem, esp. cubic zirconia, lead crystal, or a diamond). For this, you will also need a render engine such as Cycles or Luxus/Reality.
Clay: The clay node, when connected to another surface (esp. diffuse and specular), gives its brightness as well as its borders a harsher appearance.
Edgeblend: This is a special shadermixer node which gives a surface parameter (mainly diffuse, specular, or bump) a different color on the edges. This actually splits the surface into two colors (an inner and outer)
PART 2: TEXTURE SYNONYMS IN OTHER PROGRAMS
—Ambient Occlusion: Ambient strength maps. It should be noted there is a huge difference in definitions between ambient occlusion textures—and ambient occlusion lighting. The proper definition of AO refers to lighting—In Computer Graphics, "ambient lighting" involves the use of a soft (e.g. like a cloudy day) universal/environment light, which illuminates all parts of the scene equally with no variation (e.g. the Uberenvironment Light base) Ambient Occlusion is an advanced shader/material setting which shades parts of the scene using such a light, and tells it how many times parts of a surface can reflect a light—simulating the real-life effect where multiple objects, sides, or distance blocks an ambient light from reaching a surface.
—Anisotropic: Anisotropy simulates the types of specularity seen in hair, teeth, stones like cat’s eye and moonstone, and general long-thin specularity that is not simulated by default in most render engines. I do not know if anisotropic maps from other programs are compatible with DAZ Studio or not, though they are almost always anisotropic strength maps.
---Base Map: In certain 3D programs, these are diffuse color (see beginning of glossary) maps that are used with lightmaps or darkmaps (see Lightmap below for more information)
—Color Map: Diffuse color.
—Cubemap: No equivalent in DAZ or Poser. In some programs, this is used as an alternative to skydomes, but it is NOT compatible with them. If done incorrectly, it results in vertical “seams” or gaps in parts of the sky (interesting note, this was done intentionally in the game “Return to Mysterious Island” as a special effect, which IMO, though a tad lazy, is quite creative.)
—Darkmap: Similar to lightmaps (see below), but are based on the subtractive color model (CMYK) Darkmaps are combined with the “Base Texture” to darken the model.
—D-Normalmap: aka Derivitive Normalmap—a type of normalmap that uses the RGB rather than the CMY colorspace. These are not compatible with DAZ Studio, and you’ll be able to tell a D-Normalmap from a regular one as it will be mostly green and red. They look similar to the .bum files from Poser 4.
—Emissive: I don’t think there’s an equivalent for this in Poser and DAZ. Emissive maps “create the illusion of a slight aura/corona/glow emission off the surface of an object with high ambience”. In Luxus, emissive maps are used for surface lights (compare to UberSurface lights in DAZ, which are used to light up a model/mesh object). However, they usually work just fine in DAZ as ambient color maps.
—Environment Map: This is usually Reflection Color. However, they are also used in image-based lighting (IBL), especially for Latitude-Longitude IBL maps, also known as panoramas, panoramic, or “pano”. In some cases, they can also refer to skymaps—though skymaps are more commonly used for skydomes, it is not uncommon for an artist to create a high-resolution skymap which can be used for both, or to provide two separate versions of the same environment map—one low-res, and one high-res.) Environment Maps meant for quality IBL maps are typically in HDR or EXR format.
—Gloss: Specular Strength
—Glow Map: Usually a synonym for an ambient strength or ambient color map. Usually one can tell the difference by looking at the texture—if it’s grayscale, then it probably goes in Ambient Strength; if it’s RGB (color), then it goes in Ambient Color.
—Height Map: Usually this is a displacement map, but sometimes it’s meant as a bump map.
—Lightmap: I don’t think there’s an equivalent for this in Poser and DAZ. Lightmaps are used for light baking in 3DS Studio and other high-end programs, with the goal of exporting the model to a game engine or 3D movie. Think of it as fake image-based lighting (IBL)—lightmaps are used as an alternative to dynamic lighting (lighting which changes based on camera angle and distance) because they use less memory. Lightmaps are used with a "basemap" in additive color models (aka additive texture blending) and are usually multiplied to lighten the model or parts of it. Theoretically, you might be able to get a similar effect by plugging the texture into ambient color or ambient strength.
—Metallic Map: This is a special type of reflection map which DAZ does not at this time possess. A metallic map may work just fine as a reflection map, or (in UbS2) the Reflection Map 2 if the model or texture set already has a reflection map.
—Opacity Map: Transparency map.
—Reflective Occlusion: Reflection Strength.
—Roughness: Usually this is a bumpmap, but it may instead be a diffuse roughness (e.g. that found in the Ubersurface Shader/UbS), or even a displacement strength texture. Note that there is more than one definition of “roughness”, however—in DAZ and Poser, “roughness” most often refers to specular roughness in specular-type shader nodes found outside of the default Daz and Poser shader setups.
—Specular Color: Specular Map (the color map)
—Specularity: Specular Color or Strength.
—Specular Power Map: Specular Strength
—Spheremap: These are generally light probes—pictures— (like IBL environment/Latitude-Longitude maps-- the environmentmap entry explains more about Latitude-Longitude maps) usually in HDR format, less commonly EXR format, of a chrome sphere with a reflected surface over a black background. They are IBL. Light probes are not compatible with DAZ Studio (but they are compatible with Poser, Luxus/Reality, and many other 3D applications)
Very rarely, a spheremap may be used as the title for a reflect map in Poser— as this is the name for the environment image map shader node in that program.
ABBREVIATIONS
AO: Ambient Occlusion (Ambient Strength)
B: Bump.
C: Diffuse Color
D: In other 3D programs, usually displacement.
Df: May stand for either diffuse or default.
Dif: Diffuse Color
Diff: Diffuse Color
E: probably environment map (usually reflection color), but rarely, may stand for "emissive".
G: In other 3D programs, may stand for either “gloss” or “glow”
H: In other 3D programs, usually bump, but possibly displacement (see “Heightmap”)
L: May stand for luminosity (ambient), or lightmap.
M: “material”—usually Diffuse Color.
O: Opacity
R: May stand for reflection, or rarely, roughness.
Ref: Reflection
S: Specular (usually strength)
SSS: Subsurface Scattering
T: Usually stands for transparency-- may stand for "tattoo". In very rare instances, it may stand for translucency.
TL: Translucency—either color or strength.
EXTRA BONUS: POSER<->DAZ SHADER NODE NON-DEFAULT NODE EQUIVALENTS QUICK GUIDE (incomplete)
NOTE!!: Be warned that the nodes are NOT identical the same in both programs. They use different calculations and algorithms, and in many cases, possess different input and output nodes-- they may require you plug them in to additional math or utility nodes in order to work in DAZ.
This section lists the Poser node first, and then the DAZ node.
Blender: Mix
Blinn: No exact equivalent, as the Specular: Blinn node has fewer settings-- you might want to go with Gloss instead.
Cellular: IIRC, no equivalent.
Color Math: Binary Operation (color)
Color Ramp: Array
Fastscatter: No equivalent, but would use Sub Surface Scatter, instead.
KS Microfacets: No equivalent; Gloss would come the closest, however.
Math Functions: Binary Operation (usually float)
Scatter: Sub Surface Scatter
Turbulence: Fractal Sum: Turbulence
SYNONYMS OF THINGS IN OTHER PROGRAMS
Light, Volumetric: This is the synonym for a volume light (e.g. ubervolume light). Volume lighting is-- well-- a light with "volume" or a "field". It is most commonly used for sunbeams (also known as "godrays" in 3D programs), fog, smoke, and clouds, though it can also be used for flames, rain, snow, blankets of darkness, fiery explosions, laser beams, or even a field of sparklies. As with all lighting, volume lights only work in the render engine they were designed for.
Particles: In 3D programs capable of more advanced animation physics, a particle system (also known as "particle physics") is one that creates a lot of dynamic objects, sprites, points of light, etc. that are emitted (flow out from) a single mesh object. Particles are used to create many different effects, such as rain, snow, flame, smoke, light rays, fog, hair, grass, twinkling stars in a sky, falling objects, etc. Particle physics can also be used as a massive clone generator.
Neither DAZ Studio nor Poser are capable of particle physics, though DAZ's ubervolume light can simulate most of these effects. DAZ Studio's LookatMyHair and Garibaldi Hair Systems, as well as Poser's dynamic hair system, are capable of creating many types of hair, fur, and grass (the fuzz seen in particle physics cannot be created in DAZ or Poser at this time, however; In addition, massive clone generators such as "Send in the Clones" and the "M.O.M" also exist for DAZ Studio and Poser. The LookatMyHair system is the closest thing DAZ Studio has to particle physics, and the creators have voiced intentions to expand upon the software with the hope of simulating particle physics.
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Comments
Glossiness determines the sharpness and size of a surface's highlight. Specular Strength is just as the name implies, it determines how strongly the specular gloss will appear. It really doesn't make sense to have a high Glossiness level and low Strength level as the shine may not appear. On the other hand a low Strength level with a low Glossiness level will protect the surface from getting washed out in a specular haze.
I'm sorry for ripping this post apart, but there are several problems in these descriptions. Most of them are "good enough" from the point of view of how someone uses the settings, but there are some technical errors in how they are described in regards to what they mean inside the rendering engine. I have written several tutorials on these topics myself.
Diffuse, Specular, and Ambient
Bump and Displacement
Normal Maps
I don't want you to feel like I am "picking" on you, but I also don't want bad information to be shared with new users either.
There are many factual errors here. First, reflections and specular light have nothing to do with each other. Second, the slow rendering of true reflections has nothing to do with memory, it is the calculation time to calculate the path of the light for the reflections. Third, the reflection strength controls how much of the reflection effect is calculated into the look of the surface, it has nothing to do with ambient (glow), etc. It's more accurate to say that the stronger the reflection effect the more "mirror like" the object is. All you're doing by supplying the map is telling it what to "reflect" rather than calculating true reflections.Opal- just wanted to say regardless of the technical aspects (I'll leave that to jestmart and JonnyRay, you're in great hands) I really appreciate the time and effort you took to type all this up and share it with others. I know that took a long time and it is well organized. JonnyRay- thanks for helping out. Likewise, I know that took a long time as well.
Cathie
Jhonny Ray: No problem, that's what I asked for when I asked for corrections. I have no problem with criticism (esp. constructive criticism) from people so long as they're not asses about it (i.e. being insulting, mocking, or patronizing. And by insulting, I'm mostly talking about really blatant stuff.)
Though it sounds like with a few of the nitpicks, we are dealing with multiple definitions (e.g. AO and Roughness)
Though I could be wrong, I am doubtful that AO texture maps in other programs apply to area lights or special shader nodes. This is further supported by the fact that I've seen some PAs name the ambient strength maps as "AO".
The Roughness thing was something I'd read by someone in another topic on these boards, I believe.
It sounds like I definitely need to clarify that the definitions of AO and Roughness can vary between 3D programs. (Actually, come to think of it, I think some of the roughness maps in other 3D programs do at least sometimes refer to diffuse roughness....)
As for the emissive entry, I was referring purely to texture maps-- I know there are area lights in DAZ-- what I do not know, however, is if emissive maps from other 3D programs work with DAZ's area lights or not.
No, none of them came across that way :)
A stronger specular highlight with a higher glossiness setting will create sharper edges, while the same strength at a lower setting will create softer edges.
I don't understand the second part of this-- does "same strength" refer to glossiness or spec strength?
I have not corrected the AO one yet, either, as I'm unsure how to phrase it yet-- your example, for instance, is much too complicated for the purpose of my glossary, which I try to keep simple enough so people who don't know much about digital programming can understand it.
Proper AO definition and 'common tongue' definition are definitely two different things...much like shader is. (In the DS world shader is way overused/misapplied...90%++ of what is called/sold as shaders are presets, not shaders.) It would probably be best to state something along the lines of the Rispec/Renderman/3Delight definition of what AO actually is and then give some indication of what AO is from the vendor/artist side of things. One of the confusing things about AO, is that often, in the 3D world at large, Ambient is dropped from the discussion...and it's just called Occlusion. And for physically based renderers, there is no need to specify a controllable property for it...it's done automagically by the renderer.
As to roughness...there's even more to it. It's not, strictly speaking, a property of specular...but rather a property of the specular model used. Not all specular models have a roughness parameter or they assume a uniform value without being able to change it.
Diffuse strength is also not quite 'true'...100% is NOT what it should be, always. 80 to 90% is closer to 'correct' and for export to physically based renderers, like Luxrender, 80% should be the maximum. I've noticed a lot of the newer material presets/character textures coming in at 80%. At 100% there is no room for other effects like translucency, without 'overdriving' (creating more 'energy' than the light hitting the item has) the material. While not exact, the totals for SSS, translucency, diffuse and velvet (using the Uber shaders) should equal 100% to get the closest to 'physical accuracy' (Not sure what they should be for the AoA shaders)
And, no, by themselves, emissive maps won't do anything...they are just another image used for control purposes. You would need a surface shader that includes the area light code for them to do anything.
The two types of environment maps that 3Delight accepts are latitude-longitude (latl, lat-long) and cubic (not the same as cube maps already mentioned, but similar...they look like a t-cross), Tdlmake will accept jpg, tif and hdr formats...but not all are convertible by DS for some reason...jpg always works, tif sometimes gives strange output and hdr is hit or miss. Manually running tdlmake often has a better chance of converting some images...for some odd reason. The spherical maps can be converted into lat-long by other programs and then used in DS, but will still need to go through tdlmake.
Also on the whole reflection map/metal map...using an environment map/skydome and raytracing the reflections (making sure there are enough 'bounces' on the depth setting in the render options) pretty much eliminates the need for such 'fakery'.
Lightmaps/darkmaps are another 'cheat'...when rendering in the 'highend programs' for things outside of game use they are rarely, if ever, used. They came into being specifically for gaming, where calculating the 'real' light slowed down the action too much.
Caustics in 3DL is very doable (even with dispersion), but it is NOT easy...and it requires 3 parts to work...the surface, camera and light all need to be made 'caustics aware'...and there's a bunch of specialized shader code to do it. In DS terms, the ShaderMixer is capable of getting all the parts needed, but it's not something that's all that obvious/easy to find (yeah there's an example surface preset, but without delving into the documentation/forumarchive there's no mention about needing a light and special camera setup). The dispersion code, though is not something that is included with DS or in the 3DL example shaders...and it's not a complete, physically accurate dispersion, but a pretty decent 'fake'. Caustics is much easier in Luxrender or Cycles...in Lux, basically you set the material to 'glass', set the IOR and it does the rest (setting the glass material in Lux to 'architectural' turns OFF the caustics).
CRAP! I am learning a lot from this thread. Thank you all for sharing your knowledge and thank you, Opal, for beginning this thread!
I hope that after conferring with these other experts, the original post may be rewritten and reoffered as the more definitive version. I look forward to that and more discussion here!
Thanks again all!
Problem is that I have no idea how to simplify MCJ's comments into easy-to-understand 2~3 sentence statements. I really prefer to keep things simple and using as few sentences as possible (and I seriously need to abridge some of the entries I already have written up.)
I'd also prefer not to delve into lighting or cameras at all (beyond the one-sentence mention of area lights) because that's a far more complicated area which I do not understand and would be much more difficult, if not entirely impossible to explain in simple, short paragraphs without delving one bit into 3Delight calculations and algorithms. The bump map formulation is going to be confusing enough for the vast majority of people. I absolutely cannot include anything about programming, algorithms, or render engine calculations-- the mention of DAZ shader parameters/nodes were never meant to be a detailed or complete guide to what they are and do in the first place.
Ambient Occlusion (AO) :Ambient = Light, Occlusion = to Occlude or Exclude.
So if ambient is light and it is excluded that would mean there is no light in areas where the light finds hard to get to.
A room, without manmade lighting and window/s facing the opposite direction of the Sun’s rays is lit by Ambient Light and the closer objects are together the less light gets into those tight spaces, that is Ambient Occlusion (AO)
MCJ, your mention about diffuse strength is also helpful information to me (explainds a lot)
What other surfaces besides SSS, translucency, and refraction require/look best with lowered diffuse?
Can anyone answer my question, please?
What other surfaces besides SSS, translucency, and refraction require/look best with lowered diffuse?
That covers most of it...but other effects like fresnel and velvet can benefit from not having diffuse strength at 100% too.
Taking a shot, what about something like this...
opal,
Since this is going to be a very informative, and helpful thread to newbies, and veterans alike, I would like to offer a correction for the bump map section.
Both bump, and displacement are grayscale maps, but they are not black & white (2 bit; black/white only). They are 8, or 16 bit 256 (grayscale, black/0 to white/255) dynamic range grayscale maps.
Also, on the median issue; From a 0.0 to 0.1 factoring, the mid gray is 0.5 (which has already been stated, but I submit to you as a basis for the correction). For 256 grayscale the median is 127.5 (If not counting the 0 integer). The accepted mid gray is either 127, or 128 (though, 128 is more correct if one is not allowed to fraction, and would have to round the numeral).
Please, if you will, make the correction to your statement that bump/displacement maps can use the median of 124 - 126 (neutral bump). These would be indentations on a mesh with a median grayscale setting. The 0.5 = 128 (or 127 if you prefer) in your DS min/max factoring.
Thank you for creating this thread. It is very helpful.
Since this is going to be a very informative, and helpful thread to newbies, and veterans alike, I would like to offer a correction for the bump map section.
Both bump, and displacement are grayscale maps, but they are not black & white (2 bit; black/white only). They are 8, or 16 bit 256 (grayscale, black/0 to white/255) dynamic range grayscale maps.
Also, on the median issue; From a 0.0 to 0.1 factoring, the mid gray is 0.5 (which has already been stated, but I submit to you as a basis for the correction). For 256 grayscale the median is 127.5 (If not counting the 0 integer). The accepted mid gray is either 127, or 128 (though, 128 is more correct if one is not allowed to fraction, and would have to round the numeral).
Please, if you will, make the correction to your statement that bump/displacement maps can use the median of 124 - 126 (neutral bump). These would be indentations on a mesh with a median grayscale setting. The 0.5 = 128 (or 127 if you prefer) in your DS min/max factoring.
By "black and white", I was referring to grayscale, like black & white television. Not everyone (esp. those whose native language is not English or who are new to digital graphics) knows what grayscale is, as this is a technical term.
What you are asking me to change is much too complicated and technical-- even I don't understand it. Terms like "median" and "dynamic" are too complicated/technical-- (esp. since dynamic usually means something entirely different in 3D programs) hell, I need to proofread my stuff and seriously reduce them to much simpler and more common terms, and NO MATH-- (hell, my mind draws a blank once mathematics are introduced to a guide-- though I also suck at math) if math is introduced, it's likely to confuse anyone who either isn't very good at it and/or doesn't understand programming code.
However, if I understand you correctly, you are stating that 128 is neutral bump, and not 125, am I correct?
Edit: I have gone through and attempted to simplify my glossary as much as possible. This has removed any formal and professionalist feel it had before, as I intend to make it as user-friendly as possible, even for those whom English is not their native language.
I fixed some of the gripes mentioned before by adding a short "glossary glossary" of sorts. Thus, no more referencing to grayscale as "Black & White" in parenthesis.
128 and 127 are either side of neutral with the default settings. But if the minimum and maximum numbers are changed so they are no longer equal and opposite then the neutral value will be elsewhere (in the extreme case, if the minimum is 0 then black will be neutral and if the maximum is 0 then white will be neutral - and if the minimum was 1 and the maximum was 2 there wouldn't be a neutral value).
You could go on ... for instance in older versions of Poser, it would only bump in the positive direction. So if content was created during that time, you had to change the Min value in DS to 0.0 to get the same effect. But for a primer on the topics, the above may be good enough?
I think it might be too confusing for a newbie to think about how if I bump from -1.0 to 0, or from 0 to 1.0, I've changed the meaning of Black and White in the bump strength map. It might be better just to say the values from 0 to 255 map to the min and max bump settings and leave it at that.
I think there might be an additional level of confusion by what is meant by “neutral” as well. What Richard is describing is a “neutral bump” meaning that the surface is not bumped either up or down. I think what DaremoK3 and Opal were getting at is what is the middle value of the grayscale.
Actually, I meant "neutral value" for the setting, and not the color (e.g. in displacement, no displacement up or down)
You're right about the bump parameters being too confusing for a newbie-- unfortunately, it's one of the most primary/commonly used parameters of the default shader setup (along with ambient, specular, gloss, and diffuse color/strength parameters)
Actually bump, especially in DS is not really complicated. Mid grey (128) of grey scale is flat, lighter is up darker is down. So pure white is highest pure black is lowest.
Poser is a bit different because by default it only bumps up, so black is flat and white is highest level up. TO make the 2 way displacement you have to add a negative math node in the mat room.
Actually bump, especially in DS is not really complicated. Mid grey (128) of grey scale is flat, lighter is up darker is down. So pure white is highest pure black is lowest.
The min/max is what makes it complicated.
Anyone have any critiques to how it's written, now?
So, should I assume that everything is 100% correct since I haven't gotten any responses?
Looks good...for now. There's probably more that will be disputable, but right now it looks 'correct' enough to be a 'primer'.
Fixed the erroneous definition of translucency, and added shadowcaster to quick definitions.