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How do I get rid of the disco dots? ... OMG! Now I have a bigger problem! {Resolved}

WillowRavenWillowRaven Posts: 3,787
edited February 2014 in The Commons

This topic came up once before, and the supposed explanation was the lights are not on raytace. However, I only ever use raytaced lights.

Size or complexity of a scene doesn't seem to carry relevance, either. My Kraken Station, rendered at 5000 pixels, and had no colored pixels. But this little 900 pixel, two figure draft has yet to render without them somewhere. The location and configuration is never the same twice, or in the same location or number of pixels.

Anyone have an idea as to how I remedy this?

Using DS4.6

Is there an easier rendering option?

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Post edited by WillowRaven on

Comments

  • StratDragonStratDragon Posts: 3,167
    edited December 1969

    one of your light must have a shadow map along with anyone that is using a raytraced shadow.
    If not try making a subtle camera adjustment then if that doesn't work delete the lights and camera and recreate them from scratch but it shouldn't come down to that.

  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001
    edited December 1969

    AidanaWillowRaven said:
    This topic came up once before, and the supposed explanation was the lights are not on raytace. However, I only ever use raytaced lights.

    Are you using any premade light sets?

    If so, have you confirmed each and every light in the set is raytraced?

  • WillowRavenWillowRaven Posts: 3,787
    edited December 1969

    Yes, I use pre-made light sets most of the time. But when the same light set is used in a previous scene, to retain a similar look and feel, and I don't get the dots, it still hints to another issue.

    And yes, I always put all of my lights on raytrace. And moving the camera a bit doesn't seem to help.

    On a whim, thanks to something I read in another thread today, I tried rendering on 'Progressive Rendering', just out of curiosity, since I didn't even know that setting existed until today, lol. It's not finished rendering yet, but so far, the dots are much smaller are considerably fewer.

    I'll post an updated draft as soon as it's finished so ya'll can see the difference.

  • WillowRavenWillowRaven Posts: 3,787
    edited December 1969

    OK ... Here are the three drafts of the scene, together for easy comparison.

    Notice how significantly fewer disco dots are present in the 'Progressive Render' draft.

    The questions remain: Is it because I used the Progressive Render option? Does this mean it's not a lighting issue at all but a render settings issue? And why do some scenes do this and not others, especially when using the same light sets or elements? Also, was this rener being better a fluke or because of the alternate render option?

    battle_3.jpg
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    battle.jpg
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  • patience55patience55 Posts: 7,006
    edited February 2014

    It's more of a rendering issue than lighting ... here are a couple of links - I know there were more but search just isn't the same these days.


    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/153/

    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/3532/#45251

    Post edited by patience55 on
  • WillowRavenWillowRaven Posts: 3,787
    edited December 1969

    That's sorta what I was thinking, but not being real proficient at the technical stuff, I was going on my own backwards logic ... lol.

    Thanks. I'll check out the links.

    Do you ever get the dots? It seems random to a degree.

  • frank0314frank0314 Posts: 14,048
    edited February 2014

    Normally those happen with deep shadow map. Have you tried adjusting you camera ever so slightly and see if it goes away.

    Post edited by frank0314 on
  • WillowRavenWillowRaven Posts: 3,787
    edited December 1969

    I always, always use raytraced lights. I find deepshadow fuzzy and diffused. It's not the lights.

  • WillowRavenWillowRaven Posts: 3,787
    edited February 2014

    Frank0314 said:
    Normally those happen with deep shadow map. Have you tried adjusting you camera ever so slightly and see if it goes away.

    That didn't work, either. The only thing to help so far was progressive render, and who's to say that wasn't coincidence.

    On the plus side, I did find a new render option ... lol. Will save me a lot of draft time by not having to wait for the full scene to render to see potential errors :D

    Always a learning experience :D

    Post edited by WillowRaven on
  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 100,781
    edited February 2014

    Try saving running this script:

    var lights = Scene.getLightList();
var DSMLights = [];

for ( var n = 0 ; n < lights.length ; n++ ) {
 if ( lights[ n ].getShadowType() == 1 ) {
  DSMLights.push( lights[ n ] );
 }
}

var list  = "DSM on the following lights:\n";
for ( n = 0 ; n < DSMLights.length ; n++ ) {
 list = list + DSMLights[ n ].getLabel() + "\n";
}

MessageBox.information( list , "DSM Light List" , "&OK;" );

    (Paste it into Notepad, set the save type as All Files(*.*) and then call it DSM Lister.dsa). Once saved run it using File>Merge... - it should tell you which, if any, lights in your scene are using DSMs.

    Post edited by Richard Haseltine on
  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 100,781
    edited December 1969

    Or this version will just select the lights - make sure you have nothing else (or at least no lights) selected, run it, and change the shadow type to Ray traced.

    var lights = Scene.getLightList();
var DSMLights = [];
var shadowType;

for ( var n = 0 ; n < lights.length ; n++ ) {
 if ( lights[ n ].getShadowType() == 1 ) {
  lights[ n ].select( true );
 }
}
  • patience55patience55 Posts: 7,006
    edited December 1969

    AidanaWillowRaven said:
    That's sorta what I was thinking, but not being real proficient at the technical stuff, I was going on my own backwards logic ... lol.

    Thanks. I'll check out the links.

    Do you ever get the dots? It seems random to a degree.

    I only got the dots [lots of 'em] once when rendering out one of the D/S spaceships ... in one of the few renders that really mattered to me. Initially I figured it was something to do with the model but in poking through some threads discovered no, something to do with the [at the time new] D/S render whatever. Not my tech specialty either.

  • carrie58carrie58 Posts: 3,982
    edited December 1969

    Ooops my bad I thought the post said "How do I get rid of disco ducks?" ......and while I haven't got a clue ,now I have the song Howard the Duck stuck in my head ........it's been a long night ........
    as for the dots ,the few times I've gotten'em I just post work them out .....

  • ghastlycomicghastlycomic Posts: 2,531
    edited December 1969

    God dammit! Now I got the song Disco Duck stuck in my head.


    Can't believe I liked that song when I was a little kid.

  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited February 2014

    The issue is DSM and just ONE light, any light at all set to DSM will cause it. But the script is cool, forces the DSM to off.

    And I'm only repeating the ones who made the 3Delight render engine. I've seen DSM stuck in UE lights before which I never expected.

    Post edited by Jaderail on
  • HeraHera Posts: 1,957
    edited December 1969

    Besides the point, but AidanaWillowRaven - I love the Lovecraftian look to that structure. Looks like something a James Bond meance from the 80ies migt have owned.

  • WillowRavenWillowRaven Posts: 3,787
    edited December 1969

    Now what's happening?!?

    I swear, I changed nothing in the scene.

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  • WillowRavenWillowRaven Posts: 3,787
    edited December 1969

    Herakleia said:
    Besides the point, but AidanaWillowRaven - I love the Lovecraftian look to that structure. Looks like something a James Bond meance from the 80ies migt have owned.

    Thank you :D

  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001
    edited December 1969

    AidanaWillowRaven said:
    Now what's happening?!?

    I swear, I changed nothing in the scene.

    That looks like one light is being 'over driven' and the others are 'off' or pointing the wrong way...

  • WillowRavenWillowRaven Posts: 3,787
    edited December 1969

    I even tried rendering with the lights completely removed. Still all red and black render.

    I tested another scene and it renders fine.

  • MattymanxMattymanx Posts: 6,902
    edited February 2014

    without seeing ALL your setting for everything, especially your advanced render settings, its impossible to guess.


    edit:
    save it as a new scene and restart DS and try again

    Post edited by Mattymanx on
  • WillowRavenWillowRaven Posts: 3,787
    edited December 1969

    Mattymanx said:
    without seeing ALL your setting for everything, especially your advanced render settings, its impossible to guess.


    edit:
    save it as a new scene and restart DS and try again

    No such luck :(

    Screenshot of render settings ...

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  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001
    edited December 1969

    Gamma is 0.01, it should be 1 or more, depending on whether or not you've got color profiles/calibration set up, OS settings and what not. (I believe 1 is 'default').

  • WillowRavenWillowRaven Posts: 3,787
    edited December 1969

    mjc1016 said:
    Gamma is 0.01, it should be 1 or more, depending on whether or not you've got color profiles/calibration set up, OS settings and what not. (I believe 1 is 'default').


    Whew! Thanks. I have no idea how that changed ...

    Daz also seems to be switching my raytrace setting to DSM after reload. Not sure what that's all about. And here I was insisting my lights were all on raytrace. How dare I assume Daz actually saved my settings!

    But ... even when I went through each light by hand and set to raytrace, I got the disco dots, again. So I decided 'screw it' and chose a poser light set. FM's lights rarely steer me wrong :D

    So now that I finally have a render...

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  • WillowRavenWillowRaven Posts: 3,787
    edited December 1969

    Finished :D

    Thanks for all the help, guys :D

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