Render Engines Questions

JasmineSkunk

Hello! 

Still trying to catch up! When I was here last....

Daz was using 3Delight render engine, which I think was a renderman type engine? I could be wrong. Then IRAY came on scene, but I don't think I used it, it was still very new when I left. I had a version of UnReal engine once upon a time and now I see people talking about Octane.

So...

What's the current render engine used and what do I need to know? What's the difference between them and which one is most highly recommended? Do I need all?

Thanks in advance! 

Artini

If you have some experience with UnReal engine, keep using it for realtime animations.

There is a separate Daz Forum to discuss UnReal topics.

There is a free Daz Studio to UnReal bridge, that will help somehow with transferring

Daz items to it.

https://www.daz3d.com/unreal-bridge

I use Unity game engine, if I need to render quickly animation

and there is a bridge to it, as well

https://www.daz3d.com/unity-bridge

Other, than that, I use iRay for static renders.

 

crosswind

As default, except for Octane plugin (a free package you may install separately), 3DL and Iray engine are always within the software package.

Some veterans only use 3DL and they always can make great renders even though 3DL is and old engine. I myself has been only with Daz for 6 years so I always use Iray engine. So it's just up to your preferences to choose which engine you're gonna use.

There're lots of great renders from different engines in Gallery. Pls take a look and see which engine's VE you prefer...

JasmineSkunk

Artini said:

If you have some experience with UnReal engine, keep using it for realtime animations.

There is a separate Daz Forum to discuss UnReal topics.

There is a free Daz Studio to UnReal bridge, that will help somehow with transferring

Daz items to it.

https://www.daz3d.com/unreal-bridge

I use Unity game engine, if I need to render quickly animation

and there is a bridge to it, as well

https://www.daz3d.com/unity-bridge

Other, than that, I use iRay for static renders.

Thanks, Artini! 

JasmineSkunk

crosswind said:

As default, except for Octane plugin (a free package you may install separately), 3DL and Iray engine are always within the software package.

Some veterans only use 3DL and they always can make great renders even though 3DL is and old engine. I myself has been only with Daz for 6 years so I always use Iray engine. So it's just up to your preferences to choose which engine you're gonna use.

There're lots of great renders from different engines in Gallery. Pls take a look and see which engine's VE you prefer...

Good to know, crosswind. Thank you. 

Leana

JasmineSkunk said:

What's the current render engine used and what do I need to know? What's the difference between them and which one is most highly recommended? Do I need all?

3Delight and Iray are currently the main rendering engines included in DS.

Iray is now the default render engine, and most content released nowadays only has Iray materials. Iray is a physically-based render and is most efficient at rendering photorealistic images.
One of the big drawbacks of Iray is that if you want it to render quickly you'll need to have a recent Nvidia GPU with a good amount of VRAM. Otherwise it will use the CPU to render and that's way slower.

 

3Delight is also still there. It is indeed a renderman engine, and it's a biaised engine, so you can do some things with it that can't be done with Iray, like have lights which don't cast shadows (which is not possible for real lights, so won't work for Iray lights), IMO it's also easier to make non-photorealistic images with it than with Iray.
Unfortunately most vendors don't support it anymore, so using it means having to convert materials yourself. The version of 3DL included in DS has also not been updated for years.

WendyLuvsCatz

there's Filament 

iray▼

Filament ▼

JasmineSkunk

WendyLuvsCatz said:

there's Filament 

iray▼

Filament ▼

What's this, Wendy? ANOTHER render engine? OMG! I will never catch up with everything! 

crosswind

AFAIK, to be exact, Filament is not a real render engine but a DrawStyle in Viewport...

WendyLuvsCatz

crosswind said:

AFAIK, to be exact, Filament is not a real render engine but a DrawStyle in Viewport...

you can render the viewport drawstyles though

including wireframe and even bounding blocks animated 

 

crosswind

WendyLuvsCatz said:

crosswind said:

AFAIK, to be exact, Filament is not a real render engine but a DrawStyle in Viewport...

you can render the viewport drawstyles though

including wireframe and even bounding blocks animated 

 

Yeah, I know that.

csaa

Artini said:

Daz items to it.

https://www.daz3d.com/unreal-bridge

I use Unity game engine, if I need to render quickly animation

and there is a bridge to it, as well

https://www.daz3d.com/unity-bridge

JasmineSkunk,

As Artini pointed out, there are other options beside the default Daz render systems. These appear to be sanctioned, in that Daz has provided free bridges that allow us to bring assets -- mesh and materials, sometimes poses -- to other softwares. You'll find sub forum discussions for each one

It's worth mentioning the folks have incorporated other software tools into their workflow, bridge or no bridge. For example, Houdini. Other enterpresing folks have stayed with 3DL. In the same spirit, but stepping aside from Daz, some have shown that Hexagon paired with other renderers still delivers an impressive wallop. Then there's Godot, the up-and-coming (or already arrived?) game engine.

Each altenative rendering systems comes with its own value proposition. As others have stated, the choice depends on your goals and where you place the sweet spot between productivity-convenience on one hand, versus expansive feature set on the other. For many iRay in Daz settles the matter quite nicely. Others (I myself use Blender Eevee) look elsewhere.

Dipping into these sub groups may give you a sense of which renderer matches your goals. Do you like what they showcase? Each tool comes with its quirks; is it worth it? Regardless of the choice, there's a good sized community out there that can offer guidance and help.

Cheers!

Leana

JasmineSkunk said:

What's this, Wendy? ANOTHER render engine? OMG! I will never catch up with everything! 

Filament is another render engine that Daz has started adding in DS since version 4.14. It's an open source physically-based rendering engine, its main selling points being that 1) it's really fast, almost real-time and 2) it works pretty well on older systems as well.

In DS it's mainly used as a viewport drawstyle for almost real-time preview, though it's also possible to use it to render.

It is only available in Windows version of DS and with limited features for now. Adding it to Mac version (and probably extending features) requires upgradng the Qt framework DS is based on, which will be done with DS5 (which is supposed to be released "soon", but as always with Daz "soon" can mean at anytime between now and the end of the universe )

JasmineSkunk

WendyLuvsCatz said:

crosswind said:

AFAIK, to be exact, Filament is not a real render engine but a DrawStyle in Viewport...

you can render the viewport drawstyles though

including wireframe and even bounding blocks animated 

 

I'm glad to know abut this one.  You can never know too much. LOL. I happen to always feel like I never know enough, so I appeciate being filled in, thank you! 

JasmineSkunk

csaa said:

Artini said:

Daz items to it.

https://www.daz3d.com/unreal-bridge

I use Unity game engine, if I need to render quickly animation

and there is a bridge to it, as well

https://www.daz3d.com/unity-bridge

JasmineSkunk,

As Artini pointed out, there are other options beside the default Daz render systems. These appear to be sanctioned, in that Daz has provided free bridges that allow us to bring assets -- mesh and materials, sometimes poses -- to other softwares. You'll find sub forum discussions for each one

It's worth mentioning the folks have incorporated other software tools into their workflow, bridge or no bridge. For example, Houdini. Other enterpresing folks have stayed with 3DL. In the same spirit, but stepping aside from Daz, some have shown that Hexagon paired with other renderers still delivers an impressive wallop. Then there's Godot, the up-and-coming (or already arrived?) game engine.

Each altenative rendering systems comes with its own value proposition. As others have stated, the choice depends on your goals and where you place the sweet spot between productivity-convenience on one hand, versus expansive feature set on the other. For many iRay in Daz settles the matter quite nicely. Others (I myself use Blender Eevee) look elsewhere.

Dipping into these sub groups may give you a sense of which renderer matches your goals. Do you like what they showcase? Each tool comes with its quirks; is it worth it? Regardless of the choice, there's a good sized community out there that can offer guidance and help.

Cheers!

Awesome! Thanks for all the info, csaa! Much appreciated! 

JasmineSkunk

Also, Thanks, Leana! 

JasmineSkunk

While I have you guys here....

One more question.Some of my installed stuff is showing up with a triangle and exclaimation point instead of the thumbnail. What does this mean? How do I correct it?

WendyLuvsCatz

those are videos I posted BTW in case it wasn't apparent 

click on them

I do lots of videos with Filament 

JasmineSkunk

WendyLuvsCatz said:

those are videos I posted BTW in case it wasn't apparent 

click on them

I do lots of videos with Filament 

okay, cool! Thanks! 

P.S. I subscribed to your channel! 

Richard Haseltine

Leana said:

JasmineSkunk said:

What's the current render engine used and what do I need to know? What's the difference between them and which one is most highly recommended? Do I need all?

3Delight and Iray are currently the main rendering engines included in DS.

Iray is now the default render engine, and most content released nowadays only has Iray materials. Iray is a physically-based render and is most efficient at rendering photorealistic images.
One of the big drawbacks of Iray is that if you want it to render quickly you'll need to have a recent Nvidia GPU with a good amount of VRAM. Otherwise it will use the CPU to render and that's way slower.

 

3Delight is also still there. It is indeed a renderman engine, and it's a biaised engine, so you can do some things with it that can't be done with Iray, like have lights which don't cast shadows (which is not possible for real lights, so won't work for Iray lights), IMO it's also easier to make non-photorealistic images with it than with Iray.
Unfortunately most vendors don't support it anymore, so using it means having to convert materials yourself. The version of 3DL included in DS has also not been updated for years.

Unfortunately updating 3Delight woulda lso entail material conversion as the newer versions dropped the use of .rsl (Renderman Shader Language - as has Renderman itself).

WendyLuvsCatz

JasmineSkunk said:

WendyLuvsCatz said:

those are videos I posted BTW in case it wasn't apparent 

click on them

I do lots of videos with Filament 

okay, cool! Thanks! 

P.S. I subscribed to your channel! 

LOL thanks, I have utterly no idea who is as 34K of them and I had to disable comments as many are trolls 

JasmineSkunk

Richard Haseltine said:

Leana said:

JasmineSkunk said:

What's the current render engine used and what do I need to know? What's the difference between them and which one is most highly recommended? Do I need all?

3Delight and Iray are currently the main rendering engines included in DS.

Iray is now the default render engine, and most content released nowadays only has Iray materials. Iray is a physically-based render and is most efficient at rendering photorealistic images.
One of the big drawbacks of Iray is that if you want it to render quickly you'll need to have a recent Nvidia GPU with a good amount of VRAM. Otherwise it will use the CPU to render and that's way slower.

 

3Delight is also still there. It is indeed a renderman engine, and it's a biaised engine, so you can do some things with it that can't be done with Iray, like have lights which don't cast shadows (which is not possible for real lights, so won't work for Iray lights), IMO it's also easier to make non-photorealistic images with it than with Iray.
Unfortunately most vendors don't support it anymore, so using it means having to convert materials yourself. The version of 3DL included in DS has also not been updated for years.

Unfortunately updating 3Delight woulda lso entail material conversion as the newer versions dropped the use of .rsl (Renderman Shader Language - as has Renderman itself).

Good to know! Thanks for the update, Richard. Okay! I have a lot to sort out! Lol. Thanks for the info, tips and advice everyone!