Curious: Why using the blender (What are the advantages)?
zazemj
Posts: 2
I recently noticed that Daz3D just released the Blender bridge 2.0 version, since I never used the Blender before, curious why people use it instead of Daz Studio with native iRay rendering enging? Is Blender render faster or with higher quality?
Also, I'm looking for new rendering software to replace Daz Studio until the next release because of the Nvidia RTX 3080 driver issues that has been discussed in several posts.
Post edited by Chohole on
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Comments
Blender has many features DS doesn't have, like modeling tools. So it is useful for content creation.
It includes different render engines, like Cycles which is similar to Iray, and Eevee, which is a real-time engine based on OpenGL.
Cycles can be particularly interesting for people who have a recent AMD GPU as it can render with those GPU, contrary to Iray.
One disadvantage.
Everything else I can think of is an advantage.
The disadvantage, and it's slight, is that it takes about 5 minutes to export and import into Blender. (If you need HD, it will take a bit more time, I rarely do.)
Multiple render engines not Just Cycles and Eevee. Cycles doesn't require Nvidia, it renders much faster on CPU than Iray, and utilises AMD; AMD support took longer to add to Cycles and is slightly behind in performance I understand, but that is improving. I'll be considering AMD instead of a 3090/ or Titan should one appear. I used Blender long before I discovered Studio, and my profile pic was modelled, textured and rendered in Blender and Cycles before AMD was supported; I had a 4 core/ 8 thread I920 back then. :)
Blender is a professional grade 3D modelling suite. It is used professionally and by well known studios.
Although I love daz, it's always good to step out of one's comfort zone in order to learn new things, I have been slowly dipping my foot into Blender, and I find the water is quite warm!
My main issues are with how to import DAZ libraries, as well as JCMs and active posing within the program via Diffomorphic, as Daz's bridge has been broken with its new update, as it doesn't import the posed character anymore!
I import JCMs as part of the import process; I transfer as needed to clothes.
I have done, but rarely do now, import pose sets and single poses. I transfer props and scene elements as required. I never transfer ready-to-render complete scenes as that is a waste of time. Transfer a vignette for example, and save it seperately; re-use as needed just by Appending.
I don't use materials, lights, cameras and other items. I create my own lights and cameras; Diffeo converts shaders from Studio to Blender very well - I tweak as required.
I dont use Blender seriously right now, but eager to learn.
My main incentive:
1) make use of Quixel Bridge to Blender & other environment design tools (I am dissatisfied by many of the Daz environments that are not made by the top tier PA's, and often they dont make what i need. Quixel would give me ability to make what i need without learning modelling!)
2) Cool plugins (E.g., https://3d-wolf.com/products - there are hundreds of these types of additions to Blender because it has a much bigger user base than Daz)
3) Better file format support. Daz really only works well with .obj, some .dae, and some .fbx. It is annoying to have to convert everything i download to obj before i can use in Daz.
Great question. Blender takes a lot of time to learn, and even more time to make good renders. DAZ works out of the box. All the assets are optimized for DAZ. So, is the time spent learning Blender even worth it?
Let's say you think of something you want to create. Something beautiful, peaceful, though-provoking, whatever the case may be. If you use only DAZ, you are bound by what is available in the store and piece those things together to make something close to what you originally imagined. If you can find the correct ready-made assets, then you are good, but still probably only close to what you were imagining. Some are very happy with that, and that is ok. There is some very good DAZ art out there and it takes less time to create it.
With Blender, if you can imagine it, you can create it (mostly). The biggest hurdle is taking the time to figure out how. You can find the assets that are close to what you are imagining, combine them, add new custom assets if you can't find something, sculpt new shapes, make things move, make custom materials, etc. You are not limited by only what is in the DAZ store and if it does not exist, you can make it yourself.
The combination of DAZ assets and Blender's powerful 3d creation suite means we, with enough effort and dedication, can create just about anything we imagine. I think that is awesome.
For the record, nothing stops you from using custom content to render in DS. You'll have to model that content in another software since DS is not a modeling app, but you're not stuck with only what is sold in content stores.
Thanks for the advice!
From the log we see the next version of daz studio is probably going to support filament that's something like eevee so daz is really doing huge steps forward.
Nevertheless blender gets incredible modeling and rigging and simulation tools that are not even remotely possible with daz studio. Then as for rendering there's the quality and speed of the intel denoiser that's perfectly integrated into blender, while the nvidia denoiser in daz studio is slow and burns out details.
Cycles seems more VRAM effecient that iray, and faster. So I can render larger sizes in decent ammounts of time.
I think you should look at evee and animation in Blender if you are doing anything with animation. If you are doing stills I would stick to Daz Studio and Iray. Blender is easier on resources for animation and has more tools. Blender is Open source so if you need a feature that it does not have you can hire a programmer to make it for you and you don't have to worry about who owns what.
The beauty of Blender aside the already mentioned points is the flexibility to extend the functionality. I love the non destuctive workflow with modifiers, I for myself use a semi destructive way to create my industrial and rural/urban assets.
I use Blender for our product presentations, bringing in a bunch of cad files and render these with e-cycles, doing some product shots for q1/2021
As a hobbyist I'm transferring some of my characters I've kitbashed in Daz and adapt/modify with Daz Import from Thomas. Fiddling around with rigs/poses right now, continuing with sculpting, grooming, retexturing G8 this month.
Kudos for Daz3D to give us additional import options to use our assets in 3rd party products.
This is a big one.
@OP
Not only that, I have it set up in the Compositor (think of it as a post processing tool, that is automated; when set up, it will apply its affects to the render without any input from the user) to automatically apply it at the end of the render; it takes about 1-2 seconds.
If I want to see how much it did, I can change it non-destructive to apply no de-noising; I can vary the amount of denoising just by changing a numerical value.
My opinion of Iray is it is meant to sell Nvidia graphics cards, whereas Cycles and the myriad of other render engines are meant to render. I base this in part on its seemingly relatively poor CPU performance.
How is Octane's CPU performance?
No idea; I've only tried it a couple of times and not CPU only as far as I know
I had the opportunity to play with it at NVidia's booth at SIGGRAPH in 2019. With the denoiser, it was pretty darned fast. But I think they, of course, were running it on the heavtiest laptop money could buy; I don't remember what it was, and they didn't compare it to Cycles.
But what made me walk away was the 1 GPU limit for the free version... Cycles will do just fine, thank you very much. I later found out that the denoiser was not temporally stable and therefore not good for animation. Not that Optix is either, but still good to know.
I get to use DAZ content in Linux and my older nVidia card still works with Cycles. Better memory usage as well. Years ago, I bought Studio Pro and the Dynamic Clothing Control from OptiTex, so I'd have no issues buying a Blender add-on from DAZ that read the content natively. Yes, I even spent $80 on Reality years ago too.
Tools for prepping 3d Printing. While you can't sell 3d print files, you can have unique figures for your games.