Is RaySupreme Compatible With DAZ Studio?

Xenomorphine

Just noticed this come up on Steam (although, it seems to eb a little cheaper if you buy through the company's own site:

http://www.braindistrict.com/en/raysupreme

Does anyone have a copy to confirm if this can successfully export models into something we can put into Daz Studio? Especially things with workable joints for posing within it (for cockpit canopies, swing-wings, gun turrets and so on). It does state it can export .OBJ models, but so far as I know, they're always static and grey when imported to DS.

As I've said elsewhere, I love the user-friendly interface of Hexagon, but it apparently doesn't function (or if it does, not at all stably) under Windows 8 64-bit. This is the first thing I've seen which has that Second Life-like feel to it, judging buy the videos. A friend and I would dearly love to be able to create our own models for spaceships and the like, but most of what we've found is either hideously expensive or seem horrendously complicated.

I'm guessing you can create something with prims in Daz and just parent them all together, but that wouldn't allow for 'painting' them or functional joints.

Lissa_xyz

Depends what you want out of those joints. I downloaded the trial, but from what I can see you can't rig in RaySupreme.
I ran into the same issue you did as far as materials, but who knows if I even did it right to begin with.
I did manage to crash it using the paint bucket tool in UV Paint mode though. lol

If you do buy it, just be aware that it's window size is all or nothing pretty much. You cannot manually resize the window like you can with most apps (cursor on the side+drag). It's full screen will hide your task bar, and it's minimized view will be scrunched together.

Just a tip, may want to edit your thread title specifically asking about RaySupreme being compatible with DS. Just asking "is this.." is a little counter-intuitive. /edit Rich beat you to it. lol

Richard Haseltine

Edited the title to Say RaySupreme and DAZ Studio.

Xenomorphine

Did it only save/export in .obj format? Shame if so, but it's better than nothing.

Maybe someone can make a Kickstarter project to create something as user-friendly as Hexagon for today's computer systems or an import-to-Daz-Studio facility for Google Sketchup. :)

Appreciated, Haseltine!

Lissa_xyz

It will only import obj, but will export obj and fbx.
Mtl files are exported, but I didn't try opening it in something other than DS.

Xenomorphine

Never tried importing .fbx... I'm guessing even limited rigging for stuff like in/out landing gear wouldn't be possible for that format, either?

Mattymanx

Xenomorphine said:

Did it only save/export in .obj format? Shame if so, but it's better than nothing.

Maybe someone can make a Kickstarter project to create something as user-friendly as Hexagon for today's computer systems or an import-to-Daz-Studio facility for Google Sketchup. :)

Appreciated, Haseltine!

There is never going to be a single app that suits everyone. Even if someone did make a new 3D app, in order for it to be successful it would have to offer a lot of what is already available in other apps and the more you add, the more a program becomes complicated. While you find Hexagon user friendly, to me it is not. I could barely build a crappy model in it and that was after I watched about 20 video tutorials from Geekatplay (though I still recommend them to someone wanting to learn Hex). After watching a handful of videos on Silo, I ended up building several small models and two cars. So to each their own. My recommendation to everyone is find something that suits you and learn it.

Xenomorphine

Google's Sketch Up seems the most user-friendly creation tool to me, so far (although, that could be because I got use to Second Life's CAD system and it's very alike). If there was a way to bridge it to Daz Studio, there'd be a huge influx of new artists and modellers.

Mattymanx

Xenomorphine said:

Google's Sketch Up seems the most user-friendly creation tool to me, so far (although, that could be because I got use to Second Life's CAD system and it's very alike). If there was a way to bridge it to Daz Studio, there'd be a huge influx of new artists and modellers.

Exporting to OBJ and then impoting that in to DS is the easiest way I am aware of. No differnt then what I did between Silo and DAZ Studio.

Xenomorphine

Would be nice to be able to pose stuff, though. Like, say, elevating or rotating a light or gun turret at different angles (or something as simple as swinging surfaces/wings out at specific angles). Plus, the texture issues... Whenever I've imported .obj into DS, they're not only static, but always coloured grey and the surface tab isn't overly helpful, as it treats the entire model as one single surface (which is fine if you want to 'paint' something with, say, a metal shader, but if you've got things like lights and canopies and such, you can't specify what to make look like glass and so on).

I could be wrong, but the only file format I've been able to import into DS which auto-textures the model and allows for it to be rigged, are those if the Poser-compatible type. It's a bit of a murky subject for me, as I prefer to buy stuff through the Daz store and let the auto-installer figure the installation process out for me or else I'll likely provoke a file error. :)

Mattymanx

File conversions are either easy or messy. The biggest problem is always UV mapping which is what tells the program how an image map is applied to the model surface. Not to mention that different programs handle surfaces differently and so what works in one program may not work in another and you end up having to do a lot of work just to make it work.

"Poser format" are natively supported by DS for the most part and the models are already UV mapped and surfaces assigned.

Xenomorphine

My pipe-dreams of making DS content with relative ease are clearly being dashed against the rocks of reality...

Mattymanx

Sorry to say but its not easy.

I use to think that just making poses was kinda the low end but after learning how to make models and some of the things involved, I dont regret going back to just poses for the most part since UV mapping and texturing are two things I really dont like at all. I really feel sorry at times for other PAs who have to UV map and texture all the time even if its soemthing they enjoy or are good at.

Jaderail

Xenomorphine said:

Would be nice to be able to pose stuff, though. Like, say, elevating or rotating a light or gun turret at different angles (or something as simple as swinging surfaces/wings out at specific angles). Plus, the texture issues... Whenever I've imported .obj into DS, they're not only static, but always coloured grey and the surface tab isn't overly helpful, as it treats the entire model as one single surface (which is fine if you want to 'paint' something with, say, a metal shader, but if you've got things like lights and canopies and such, you can't specify what to make look like glass and so on).

I could be wrong, but the only file format I've been able to import into DS which auto-textures the model and allows for it to be rigged, are those if the Poser-compatible type. It's a bit of a murky subject for me, as I prefer to buy stuff through the Daz store and let the auto-installer figure the installation process out for me or else I'll likely provoke a file error. :)

For SketchUp models to work properly in DAZ Studio the models must be created properly in SKU first. That means you build the items as Groups so for a plane your going to have many sections such as fuselage, wings, canopy and such. Then to get the obj out Properly only the Pay version of the obj exporter does a proper export.
You can then Import that mesh to DAZ Studio and WELD if needed or Rig if needed. You will then need another tool to create a proper UV map from your proper Mesh. So real Textures can be made for the UV template, Other wise you will only have Mat zones for each Group the obj was created with which will only take shaders.

Xenomorphine

How does one go about welding and rigging within DS? I'm assuming that could work for lots of prims created in DS and parented to one another, too?

Jaderail

You have Weld in Export Obj with Weld on. That's in the Advanced section of the Export menu I believe. So import the Obj and then just re-save with Weld selected. Rigging is done with the Figure set up tools that are now built into all versions of DAZ Studio 4.5+. There is good info on Rigging in the new Doc center. Found here http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/userguide/creating_content/rigging/start

And My first items were Prims just Welded so yes that will work.

EDIT: Do not over look Simple Deformer Morphs added to simple props as an option for some movements. They stay in the items once saved in DS as a Prop Asset. And a PP2 exporter will also export the Prop with the morphs included.*

*I have not tested the PP2 exporter in DS4.6.2 or DS4.6.3 at this time.

Mattymanx

Jaderail said:

You have Weld in Export Obj with Weld on. That's in the Advanced section of the Export menu I believe. So import the Obj and then just re-save with Weld selected. Rigging is done with the Figure set up tools that are now built into all versions of DAZ Studio 4.5+. There is good info on Rigging in the new Doc center. Found here http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/userguide/creating_content/rigging/start

And My first items were Prims just Welded so yes that will work.

EDIT: Do not over look Simple Deformer Morphs added to simple props as an option for some movements. They stay in the items once saved in DS as a Prop Asset. And a PP2 exporter will also export the Prop with the morphs included.*

*I have not tested the PP2 exporter in DS4.6.2 or DS4.6.3 at this time.

I dont recommend using the PP2 exported for professional work. Any PP2 that is exported from DS using that exporter will work perfectly in DS BUT in Poser, the center rotation for the prop will remain at the center of the scene no matter where in the scene the prop is moved to.

If a poser prop is required, I recommend using Poser to import and save it and then use Geometry Stripper to seperate OBJ from PP2 info.

kyoto kid

Jaderail said:

Xenomorphine said:

Would be nice to be able to pose stuff, though. Like, say, elevating or rotating a light or gun turret at different angles (or something as simple as swinging surfaces/wings out at specific angles). Plus, the texture issues... Whenever I've imported .obj into DS, they're not only static, but always coloured grey and the surface tab isn't overly helpful, as it treats the entire model as one single surface (which is fine if you want to 'paint' something with, say, a metal shader, but if you've got things like lights and canopies and such, you can't specify what to make look like glass and so on).

I could be wrong, but the only file format I've been able to import into DS which auto-textures the model and allows for it to be rigged, are those if the Poser-compatible type. It's a bit of a murky subject for me, as I prefer to buy stuff through the Daz store and let the auto-installer figure the installation process out for me or else I'll likely provoke a file error. :)

For SketchUp models to work properly in DAZ Studio the models must be created properly in SKU first. That means you build the items as Groups so for a plane your going to have many sections such as fuselage, wings, canopy and such. Then to get the obj out Properly only the Pay version of the obj exporter does a proper export.
You can then Import that mesh to DAZ Studio and WELD if needed or Rig if needed. You will then need another tool to create a proper UV map from your proper Mesh. So real Textures can be made for the UV template, Other wise you will only have Mat zones for each Group the obj was created with which will only take shaders.
...when you say the "pay version" you mean SketchUp Pro correct?

Jaderail

Mattymanx said:

I dont recommend using the PP2 exported for professional work. Any PP2 that is exported from DS using that exporter will work perfectly in DS BUT in Poser, the center rotation for the prop will remain at the center of the scene no matter where in the scene the prop is moved to.

If a poser prop is required, I recommend using Poser to import and save it and then use Geometry Stripper to seperate OBJ from PP2 info.

All of us can not afford a version of poser just to create props. But you do have a good point. And I already knew the Geom code was not needed in the PP2 file, as the Object was already called from the path. But Thank you anyway as some may not have known that.