Announcing Reality 4 {Commercial}

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Comments

  • SimonJMSimonJM Posts: 5,980
    edited December 2014

    ruphuss said:
    Upgraders do get a further discount since they get it for 19.95 and new users for 29.97.

    I knew someone would say something like that
    now I try to explain
    new buyers get a free discount 40% without doing nothing
    upgraders did already buy the prog and get their discount from this action
    upgraders do not get a free discount about 40%

    I think that something is being lost in translation.

    Reality 4 costs (in round figures) $50.
    DAZ are applying a new product discount, as they often do, of 40% which would make the price $30.
    However, if you have a previous, qualifying, version you will only be charged $20. How is that not getting it cheaper, at more of a discount, than a new buyer. The upgrade price is a 'free' discount from the full price, it does not then attract the further new product discount.

    Post edited by SimonJM on
  • JimmyC_2009JimmyC_2009 Posts: 8,891
    edited December 1969

    It is also worth mentioning, that this discount (60%) applies to previous purchasers of version 1, 2 and 3, a very generous offer.

  • SerpentSerpent Posts: 4,075
    edited December 1969

    Bought Reality4 last night, after reading all this thread. Learning from everyone else's issues meant that things installed and registered fine.

    This thing is a beast, RTFM'ing is pretty necessary from the looks of it.

    I expect a few issues in the first release of a new version.. by the time I learn how to use Reality4, there'll probably be a new version! :blank:

    Urgh, back to the manual...

  • wizwiz Posts: 1,100
    edited December 1969

    ruphuss said:
    Upgraders do get a further discount since they get it for 19.95 and new users for 29.97.

    I knew someone would say something like that
    now I try to explain
    new buyers get a free discount 40% without doing nothing
    upgraders did already buy the prog and get their discount from this action
    upgraders do not get a free discount about 40%

    That's pretty standard in the software industry. Upgrade prices are getting closer and closer to purchase prices each year.

    Look on the bright side. Sometimes, the upgrades actually cost more than the new versions. I've rebought Adobe Lightroom twice and Photoshop once, because they had specials that ended up costing less than the version upgrades. Ditto Microsoft Office. When I got Office 2010, the three pack pro license was on sale for less than the two upgrades I needed.

    I wish you could buy your upgrade from a different site than you bought your original version from. Pret does something with serial numbers to prevent that.

  • Geminii23Geminii23 Posts: 1,327
    edited December 1969

    Purchased last night. Installed, but when I try to use Reality in DAZ, only 2.5 loads (previous installed version).

    Any ideas?

  • WayOfTheSwordWayOfTheSword Posts: 32
    edited December 1969

    WayOfTheSword, thanks. I'm going to step aside, as I'm not seeing answers to some of the past few pages of teething pains, in the old two-dot-five manual. Thank you, and I'll be on-board in a few days, it's not payday for me yet.

    Despite the lack of working animation tools, it does render stills very nicely. The SSS tools and smart IBL do add an extra layer of realism. And the learning curve from 2.5 to 4 wasn't too bad, especially since Paolo released a series of helpful videos on it.

    http://www.youtube.com/user/PretA3D

    Satyr-R4-2.jpg
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  • SylvanSylvan Posts: 2,711
    edited December 1969

    Geminii23 said:
    Purchased last night. Installed, but when I try to use Reality in DAZ, only 2.5 loads (previous installed version).

    Any ideas?

    You can call Reality 4 by pressing CTRL+ALT+Y

  • RAMWolffRAMWolff Posts: 10,212
    edited December 1969

    Ah, I see now. I wanted to check out the information that Estroyer just posted about calling Reality. When it's brought up the registration dialog comes up. I read earlier that the cut and paste was not working.. funny thing was I couldn't copy and past the order number but I was able to copy and paste the Serial Number. Anyway, registered and working now. YAY me.... eh hem...

  • SerpentSerpent Posts: 4,075
    edited December 1969

    Geminii23 said:
    Purchased last night. Installed, but when I try to use Reality in DAZ, only 2.5 loads (previous installed version).

    Any ideas?

    Weird. Have you looked at the installed plugin list to see if it even shows up there? If not, then it might have landed in the wrong directory somehow... :-S

  • EamonEamon Posts: 159
    edited December 1969

    I will read through this whole thread when I get a moment but can folks tell me if Reality 4 is worth getting and is it difficult to use.

    I got a juicy book cover and would like to have the best renders possible.

  • XenomorphineXenomorphine Posts: 2,421
    edited December 2014

    Further to my reply above, I've found the following sky effects for Reality, but can anyone confirm if they work with this version or whether they're out of date?

    http://www.daz3d.com/shop/skies-of-economy
    http://www.daz3d.com/skies-of-reality-volume-one
    http://www.daz3d.com/skies-of-reality-volume-two
    http://www.daz3d.com/skies-of-terra-volume-one

    The incompatibility of Daz Studio skydomes for Reality is very disappointing... I'm determined to find a way around it, though, as I really like everything else it has to offer.

    The trouble is, I'd really like to have some atmospheric effects which allow me to show stormy sky and, of course, starfields for outer space. I had some great skydomes for those purposes, but as they can no longer be used, it's throwing into question how to achieve those looks in Reality. Even with the above products, I'm at a loss for how to render a convincing stormy or outer space scene in Reality.

    Have tried converting a few skydomes to a light source, but it doesn't seem to show much success.

    Post edited by Xenomorphine on
  • SerpentSerpent Posts: 4,075
    edited December 1969

    Check out these Smart IBLs, one is the Milky Way. Not a total solution but might help! :)

    http://www.hdrlabs.com/sibl/archive.html

  • WayOfTheSwordWayOfTheSword Posts: 32
    edited December 1969

    Eamon said:
    I will read through this whole thread when I get a moment but can folks tell me if Reality 4 is worth getting and is it difficult to use.

    I got a juicy book cover and would like to have the best renders possible.

    I use Reality for everything, so I'd say yes to the first question. The main things to look out for as far as difficulty are setting up lighting and changing the materials settings. In Luxrender, all the lights work the way that real physical lights work. 80% of the time, I use a wonderful curved mesh light made by Callad or the sun light. But Reality 4 makes use of smart IBL which can really simplify lighting.
    The important thing to remember is that you set the lights up just as a real lighting setup would be. If you want a 3 point lighting setup, just load 3 lights and place them where you want them.

    As far as materials, Paolo has simplified that too by having automatic presets for hundreds of common characters and props. You just have to tweak the settings a bit if you want to do something different. Or you can just render as is to get a great result. For example, the default for a lot of hair is to have it as a low glossy material, but I prefer it to be a matte material, so I usually tweak that.

    And as I said, Paolo has some great step-by-step videos showing how to use Reality: http://www.youtube.com/user/PretA3D

  • MasterstrokeMasterstroke Posts: 1,983
    edited December 1969

    Sorry, if this allready has been asked. There used to be a conflict with Reality2.5, when OctaneRender was installed. So what about the new nr.4? Does this conflict still exist?

  • XenomorphineXenomorphine Posts: 2,421
    edited December 1969

    TroutFace said:
    Check out these Smart IBLs, one is the Milky Way. Not a total solution but might help! :)

    http://www.hdrlabs.com/sibl/archive.html

    I missed that one, thank you...

    Hoping there are more like that and, especially, a stormy sky for night-based renders. I've recently discovered how wonderful Flipmode's Night Builder is and I'm going to have to experiment and see if turning off the sky, but turning the stars into light sources, might do the trick for space, but even if the lightning could work, it'll still need swirling, chaotic clouds to properly complete the illusion.

  • Jason GalterioJason Galterio Posts: 2,562
    edited December 1969

    Further to my reply above, I've found the following sky effects for Reality, but can anyone confirm if they work with this version or whether they're out of date?

    http://www.daz3d.com/shop/skies-of-economy
    http://www.daz3d.com/skies-of-reality-volume-one
    http://www.daz3d.com/skies-of-reality-volume-two
    http://www.daz3d.com/skies-of-terra-volume-one

    The incompatibility of Daz Studio skydomes for Reality is very disappointing... I'm determined to find a way around it, though, as I really like everything else it has to offer.

    The trouble is, I'd really like to have some atmospheric effects which allow me to show stormy sky and, of course, starfields for outer space. I had some great skydomes for those purposes, but as they can no longer be used, it's throwing into question how to achieve those looks in Reality. Even with the above products, I'm at a loss for how to render a convincing stormy or outer space scene in Reality.

    Have tried converting a few skydomes to a light source, but it doesn't seem to show much success.

    If it is of any help to you, I have a short tutorial I wrote for exporting Bryce skies as an HDRI file and then using them in Reality 2.5. The process is still the same (for the most part) with 4.

    http://jasongalterio.deviantart.com/art/Using-a-Bryce-Sky-as-HDRI-Light-with-Reality-490202994

  • thd777thd777 Posts: 943
    edited December 2014

    Sorry, if this allready has been asked. There used to be a conflict with Reality2.5, when OctaneRender was installed. So what about the new nr.4? Does this conflict still exist?

    I am currently using Octane 2.1 OcDS preview 4 and Reality 4/Luxrender 1.3.1 in DS 4.6 without any issues. I can actually render the same scene in Lux and Octane at the same time without problems, of course Octane collects 4000 samples in that same time as Lux collects 200, but they are behaving well for me.
    Ciao
    TD

    Post edited by thd777 on
  • kyoto kidkyoto kid Posts: 41,041
    edited December 1969

    Damsel said:
    With HDRI lights, if you want a spec or a shadow, add a mesh light to shine in the location you want. Lights in Reality/lux are easy to work with because they work like real world lights. You want a shadow on the floor, you put a light on the ceiling. You want shadows to play up the musculature, you put a light on the left or right. Generally I find that two lights, a HDRI and a mesh light are all I need.

    A mesh light is an mesh that emits light. It can be a candle flame, a magic globe of symbols with a trans map to make it transparent in places, the glowing strip on a robot. Anything can be an emitter in Reality/lux.
    ...However for outdoor scenes, a light that simulates the sun is preferable as it's rays are almost parallel to each other so shadows cast would behave likewise. Using a smaller light source that is closer into the scene (within say, a skydome) would not illuminate the entire scene correctly nor would the shadows look as real as they would angle out from the point of the light source. I was also advised not to use the Reality "Sun" with HDRI as it would overexpose the scene.

    Paolo gives fabulous support. I bought Reality 1 through this one. Anytime I have ever had a problem, I email Paolo and he patiently answers all my questions, even dumb ones. When something doesn't work somewhere in all the thousands of lines of code in Reality, he hunts it down obsessively and fixes it. I have huge respect and admiration for his obsessive devotion to his product and his customers. Plus, you get an Octane quality renerer for $20 or $40. Luxrender is FREE. Octane is $800. Come ON.


    ....I agree 100% on this, particularly since with Octane you also need to invest in a GPU that has a decent amount of VRAM as with GPU based rendering, the entire scene has to fit in video memory. I've had 3DL scenes take up to 10G of physical memory while rendering. To render one of those in Octane (without sacrificing texture quality), I would need the VRAM resources of an Nvidia K6000 (12 GB GDDR5) which retails for around 5,000$.
  • XenomorphineXenomorphine Posts: 2,421
    edited December 1969

    Legionair said:
    If it is of any help to you, I have a short tutorial I wrote for exporting Bryce skies as an HDRI file and then using them in Reality 2.5. The process is still the same (for the most part) with 4.

    http://jasongalterio.deviantart.com/art/Using-a-Bryce-Sky-as-HDRI-Light-with-Reality-490202994

    Useful! I haven't installed Bryce since switching systems to something with Windows 8 on it, but this could be a truly excellent use for it.

  • Jason GalterioJason Galterio Posts: 2,562
    edited December 1969

    Legionair said:
    If it is of any help to you, I have a short tutorial I wrote for exporting Bryce skies as an HDRI file and then using them in Reality 2.5. The process is still the same (for the most part) with 4.

    http://jasongalterio.deviantart.com/art/Using-a-Bryce-Sky-as-HDRI-Light-with-Reality-490202994

    Useful! I haven't installed Bryce since switching systems to something with Windows 8 on it, but this could be a truly excellent use for it.

    I was in the same predicament as you; frustrated with the options for HDRI files. And I didn't feel like spending $9.95 for 10 HDRI files.

    I remembered that Bryce had a pretty robust sky generation system....

  • XenomorphineXenomorphine Posts: 2,421
    edited December 1969

    Fond memories of using Bryce at college, back in the late nineties... Even back then, just as you say, the generation system truly did impress me.

  • Jason GalterioJason Galterio Posts: 2,562
    edited December 1969

    VistaPro > Bryce > Poser > DazStudio

    I use to use Bryce for everything. Doing Sales presentations and Online Training courses. One time I even built a working analog clock in Bryce to demonstrate the timing of a maintenance procedure. Ah good times.

    That being said, I wouldn't use HDRI images in Reality unless you are doing a purely external scene. They can be pretty render intensive.

    If you want to use a skydome as a backdrop, you can play with the material settings in Reality to make it show. If you set the skydome material to translucent and place a light behind it, the skydome will show in the image. It will also act as a light diffuser.

    Alternately you can shine a light onto the skydome in the same way you would with a photo studio backdrop. I used this method once.

    I haven't tried this in Reality 4 yet, but the science should remain the same.

  • XenomorphineXenomorphine Posts: 2,421
    edited December 1969

    Slightly off-topic, but before I attempt to use Bryce to create skies of my own making for Reality, I seem to have both Bryce 7 and something called 'Bryce Lightning'. Is that an add-on to help create lightning effects or something else entirely? Don't seem to be able to find any information on it.

    And Legionair, that's very useful to know. Your experience is appreciated! I don't see a translucency option in the materials options, however. How does one go about changing a skydome to that?

  • TJohnTJohn Posts: 11,099
    edited December 1969

    Slightly off-topic, but before I attempt to use Bryce to create skies of my own making for Reality, I seem to have both Bryce 7 and something called 'Bryce Lightning'. Is that an add-on to help create lightning effects or something else entirely? Don't seem to be able to find any information on it.

    And Legionair, that's very useful to know. Your experience is appreciated! I don't see a translucency option in the materials options, however. How does one go about changing a skydome to that?


    Bryce Lightning allows you to connect multiple computers to make a small "renderfarm", IIRC.
  • fixmypcmikefixmypcmike Posts: 19,583
    edited December 1969

    Slightly off-topic, but before I attempt to use Bryce to create skies of my own making for Reality, I seem to have both Bryce 7 and something called 'Bryce Lightning'. Is that an add-on to help create lightning effects or something else entirely? Don't seem to be able to find any information on it.

    And Legionair, that's very useful to know. Your experience is appreciated! I don't see a translucency option in the materials options, however. How does one go about changing a skydome to that?

    Bryce Lightning is the network rendering node for Bryce.

  • Jason GalterioJason Galterio Posts: 2,562
    edited December 1969

    A really quick example render... (foreground is really grainy because I only let it render for 4 minutes).

    Skydome is curtosy of Dreamlight's LDP-R package. In Reality 4 Skydome is set as Glossy with Translucency turned on.

    A single Reality "Sun" is used as the light source. Positioned behind the camera and to the side.

    Stonemason's ruined building was used to give the middle of the scene something for comparison.

    The "washed out" look of the skydome has more to do with the texture I chose than the exposure. I can render again with a different skydome if you'd like another example.

    Skydome-Reality-Example.jpg
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  • Jason GalterioJason Galterio Posts: 2,562
    edited December 1969

    And Legionair, that's very useful to know. Your experience is appreciated! I don't see a translucency option in the materials options, however. How does one go about changing a skydome to that?

    Hard to explain in text, so see the attached image.

    You are welcome. When you run into a brick wall, one of the tricks I have found is to try and forget 90% of what makes "3-D" sense. And try to think of what makes light / physics / photography sense.

    Transluceny.jpg
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  • Geminii23Geminii23 Posts: 1,327
    edited December 1969

    TroutFace said:
    Geminii23 said:
    Purchased last night. Installed, but when I try to use Reality in DAZ, only 2.5 loads (previous installed version).

    Any ideas?

    Weird. Have you looked at the installed plugin list to see if it even shows up there? If not, then it might have landed in the wrong directory somehow... :-S

    Do you happen to know what the proper procedure is to remove 2.5 and reinstall 4 only? I am on a MAC. I read the doc and followed those instructions but somehow I see Reality 4 sitting in Applications by itself. Reality 2.5 shows up in the Plugins folder under DAZ though.

    The ctrl-alt-y also didn't do anything.

    Thanks.

  • Jason GalterioJason Galterio Posts: 2,562
    edited December 1969

    I did a little more experimenting. Something in the last attempt (with the city scene skydome) was bothering me. At first I chalked it up to the source image, but that did not seem right.

    These are the material settings I would use for the skydome (inside Reality 4):

    1. Turn Translucency on.

    2. Make sure that Diffuse, Specular and Translucency are using the same image. If needed, use the gear button and select "Use Existing" to pick the right image. It should be available in the menu. See attached image for further details.

    3. Go the modifiers tab and make sure "Light Emitting" is turned off. If it is on, the skydome may be overly washed out. Or the scene too bright.

    See example render attached. Again, very grainy but really only meant as a proof of concept.

    Skydome-Reality-Example2.jpg
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    Transluceny2.jpg
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  • XenomorphineXenomorphine Posts: 2,421
    edited December 1969

    It seems light emission was where I was having most problems... Turning that off helped a great deal (although, I could imagine some instances where I'd want that activated). Now I'm getting somewhere with getting the rich blackness and starlight of atmospheric sets like Flipmode's Solar System to show up with Reality. Hopefully, FM's Night Builder and Dreamlight's Rendersphere can now be used.

    This has saved me a lot of money in getting new skydome equivalents! Seems like your advice finally makes them compatible with the product. :) Now I can use these techniques for skydomes and Bryce to create my own skies, I can finally take advantage of Reality's amazing artistic potential.

    And a big thanks to those who explained what Bryce Lightning is.

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