Multi/Random -Replication and Instancing Lab: Application and Comparison

mermaid010

I think I got it after reading Art Wade's and Rashad's explanation Horo linked. Reading Slepalex reply to Hansmar also helped.  https://www.deviantart.com/hansmar/art/Treeline-494128484

Thanks  for your help

akmerlow

Horo said:

 I never tried objects that have several levels of grouped parts (groups within groups).

I sent Genesis figure with clothes from DAZ to Bryce, and Genesis itself is a group, so i need not only select it and clothes' mesh, but also ungroup everything... There is no "combine mesh" command in Bryce or D|S?

Horo

akmerlow - not to my knowledge. It can be tedious to ungroup every level - then you can select the whole object and group it again. But there may be things that fall apart - I don't know.

Slepalex

akmerlow said:

Horo said:

 I never tried objects that have several levels of grouped parts (groups within groups).

I sent Genesis figure with clothes from DAZ to Bryce, and Genesis itself is a group, so i need not only select it and clothes' mesh, but also ungroup everything... There is no "combine mesh" command in Bryce or D|S?

The question is incorrect and therefore incomprehensible. For what purpose do you want to ungroup a DAZ figure?
And yes, in Bryce there is no “combine mesh” command, but only “group”. In simulation programs, the “combine mesh” command is similar to the “group” command in Bryce. But if different materials are assigned to the object, then when exporting to OBJ and importing into Bryce, the object will consist of a group of different materials, that is, the objects that make up the group. It all depends on how you export and import into Bryce.

akmerlow

For what purpose

To enable instancing. As it doesn't allow to instance if it's actually a group.

Slepalex

akmerlow said:

For what purpose

To enable instancing. As it doesn't allow to instance if it's actually a group.

Rashad once proposed such a solution.
To do this, in a third-party program, combine all the textures into one and assign one material to the entire object. Then in Bryce there will be no group, but there will be one texture "Diffuse". Although you can download Bump, Transparency, etc. to other sources, but still, from the point of view of Bryce, it will be a single object and one material. He can easily clone in Instancing Lab.

akmerlow

So it will be something related to "UV-mapping" (if i remember right). Interesting workaround.

Slepalex

akmerlow said:

So it will be something related to "UV-mapping" (if i remember right). Interesting workaround.

Not certainly in that way. In your very first post, this is exactly the method used. I don’t remember, but in DAZ there are different ways to export into OBJ. There are also different ways to import OBJ into Bryce.

Slepalex

akmerlow said:

So it will be something related to "UV-mapping" (if i remember right). Interesting workaround.

Example. I explain on the fingers. I upload to Bryce Vicki 4. What do I see? Face and lips are different objects in Bryce. I can take these lips with my mouse and drag them to the side. But when I look into the texture of the lips and face - it turns out to be the same texture. Only the materials assigned are different. Lips have a stronger shine, brightness, etc.
If you assign the same material to the face and lips in the DAZ program, then with proper export to OBJ and proper import into Bryce, the lips and face will be one object. The same can be said of the rest of the body.

sriesch

If you are exporting from DAZ Studio, you can use Texture Atlas to merge all of the images into one pair of images (the diffuse and the transparency).  First make a backup of your DAZ Scene since texture Atlas changes to your material are permanent.  Then experiment a bit first with a test file to see how it works and what settings you need before trying it in your scene.

akmerlow

sriesch said:

If you are exporting from DAZ Studio, you can use Texture Atlas to merge all of the images into one pair of images (the diffuse and the transparency).  First make a backup of your DAZ Scene since texture Atlas changes to your material are permanent.  Then experiment a bit first with a test file to see how it works and what settings you need before trying it in your scene.

 

Interesting to know, thanks, As usual, DAZ Studio has many hidden wonders i never have an idea about...

I often use freebies that were made for DS and/or Poser to insert in Bryce scene, so it might be helpful.

akmerlow

Randomly ending up with reading some of older threads, i found that some points are connected with a purpose of this topic and might be mentioned as examples.

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/135641/show-us-your-bryce-renders-part-10/p70 - on that page (70), look into posts from Dave and Slepalex which concern some approaches.

 

EDIT:

Also, there is one thing that was bothering me recently. When i was doing "forest camp on the dragon" scene lately...

At first i wanted to use instancing lab for grass or other plants, but despite my attempts several times, i was encountering a collision problem, i think, as after painting instance map placement in lab and then preparing for results, in the end i see that all needed objects were not placed on dragon's back, but felt through him lower, or worse variants. So i never succeeded with adding grass to this scene, and for trees i instead used manual placing with copy-paste of groups, then later "land down" which more or less worked, unlike instance lab non-results (even though needed some manual adjustments due to not-flat nature of dragon's body).

On a side note, i want to add that it was very uncomfortable with this scene, because due to me having extra large figure (dragon), i couldnt select any objects with clicking even through ctrl+click (so sometimes had to go one by one with tab, if colour groups dont provide needed selection). Also was a bit of pain to place objects rightfully on the body, due to extremely large scale so hit and miss trial and error was needed.