Cutout Opacity question
I have this product, and on the page it says it has transparency maps.
https://www.daz3d.com/dforce-classic-barbarian-armor-hd-for-genesis-9
Are transparency maps not the same as Cutout Opacity? I am trying to hide certain parts of the outfit in the surfaces tab, but there is no Cutout Opacity option. Am I doing it incorrectly, or should I look for something else?
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There is an opacity map for clothes - /Runtime/Textures/Luthbel/CBarbarian2023/Clothes/05_Opacity.png. As far as I can see that is all, the other items look to hae metalicity, base, normal, and roughness maps only.
http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/read_me/index/91098/file_list
You are correct that Cutout Opacity is what you would look for to hide a surface for the Iray Uber shader. You don't need a transparency map to hide the whole surface; you can just dial the Cutout Opacity to 0. I don't own the product you are working with. The product page says "breathtaking Iray shaders simulating actual, physically accurate materials (PBR)". I wonder if that implies that a custom shader was used, rather than the standard Iray Uber shader. If it is a custom shader, the shader creator may not have included Cutout Opacity in that shader, or may have named it something else. If you select one of the clothing pieces and go to the Surfaces pane, what shader name is shown at the top of the Surfaces pane Editor tab? I attached a screenshot of what to look for.
I have that outfit and the only opacity map is for the inner kilt. I haven't seen cutout opacity settings in any of the other parts of the outfit. While you can remove or make invisible the geometry for various parts in the scene tab, you could apply another shader (that has cutout opacity settings) to any of the surfaces that you want to hide (for example, the leather straps, rings, etc. on the corset). Just set the cutout opacity to zero. Works well as long as the specific part you want to hide has an exclusive surface setting. If that makes sense.
Lee
PBRSkin (MDL) is what it says.
I tried Lee's method and was able to hide the items, so thanks a lot everyone!
Very happy that worked for you, nissikon! :)
Lee
PBRSkin shader does not have Cutout Opacity. PBRSkin is designed for use on figures, using volumetric shading principles like subsurface scattering that are incompatible with Cutout Opacity. I'm glad Lee was able to give you a solution that worked for you.
Josh and I have been working on a product that extends the PBRSkin shader with Cutout Opacity and also Emission!
Can't share much more than that now, but as with Iray Uber adding an opacity map to this channel will disable volumetrics. But you can use it for creating non volumetric materials like woven fabrics and take advantage of the extra detail channels for extra normal map, for example.
I think Genesis 9 characters use a mix of PBR and Iray Uber shaders. PBR shaders are used for the head, body, legs, and arms, and Iray Uber shaders are used for the eyelashes and eye tear transparency.
And a lot of Genesis 8 clothing uses Iray Uber Cutout Opacity, so it would be impossible to convert them to PBR shaders if you couldn't mix the two shaders.
So, I would guess if you see the words transparency or opacity on a Genesis 9 character product page, they are actually using Iray Uber shaders.
Actually, as barbult mentioned, it's pretty reasonalbe to exclude Cutout and Emission on a PBRSkin shader, as in real world there's no those things physically.
But in a 3D software, they could be mixed. We'll see Josh and Silas' work then.