Garibaldi Express: Hair and Fur Plugin Beta [Commercial]
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Very cool, StevieC!
Power's back on! Thank you Alisa! As promised, two more from different angles.....
Well, here's my beta 6 hair. :-)
I tried the disk cache with mixed results.
There are 2 hair nodes used here. One for the head and one for the eyebrows.
When I turned the head to disk cache, I got a R5017 error. It didn't stop the render but there was no significant speed increase either. When I added disk cache to the eyebrow so that both nodes were using it, I immediately crashed to the desktop when I tried to render.
On a seperate note, I tried to use this texture for a texture map in Garibaldi. It worked fine for providing a texture colour for the head hair. When I tried to use it to line up paint with the eyebrow it came back to DS above the textured eybrow. I had to repaint it lower in order to line up with the texture in DS but that meant that Garibaldi was now taking the texture from the skin instead of the brow so I couldn't use the texture map for the brow node.
The latest beta crashed on me (first time) while styling. I sent the crash report as a reply to the beta email, here's hoping it helps.
I'd say the only people who still have the older cards are tinkerers, either by virtue or by circumstance, and tinkerers take pleasure in solving problems by themselves. At least, I do =) I just felt I needed to mention this to encourage people who might be lurking wondering if the beta is worth trying - it is. It works on a computer most people would not even attempt running barebones DS4 on.
I have not experienced any problems with the plugin viewport whatsoever after I turned the AA off, it's only memory issues during rendering that I am running into when attempting to enable AO on whatever environment lights I try (I don't have enough skill and patience for setting up complex light rigs out of spotlghts... besides, DSMs eat memory, too). But I did expect those memory issues to arise (what, a 32bit system and 2GB RAM, I'm pushing all the limits there), so no problem.
This is a render from the beta 5 testing - sorry its artistic value is negative, I would come up with a better colour scheme if I had more free time these days. Every length group on the head is a new Garibaldi node, the brows and the beard are also two different nodes. For weird hairstyles like this (the ones I have loong wanted to have for my characters! =)), I find it very efficient re-importing the same density map for the head and erasing it in unwanted places. Though I have to say sometimes it's tricky to get the eraser to black the map out fully.
I tried using multiple density maps within a single Garibaldi node, but it didn't seem to produce the results I wanted (only one map would render at a time)
A note for Paint.NET users: while doing the brows, I noticed that PNG files saved from Paint.NET won't load (even if you just open a Garibaldi generated texture, paint over it and save back - image information says PNGs are the right type etc, but apparently Paint.NET uses a weird algorithm), I needed to reexport them from IrfanView using PNGOUT.
As for beta 6, I have not rendered anything yet (I hope the disk cache mode works for me) because DS crashed twice on me when I was saving a scene in which I created hair for vintage A3. Is that OK? Should I just stick to Genesis for the time being?
No Crashes and I can save the scene that I do...
Just a quick test in version .6...Hair and Eye Brows...
My problems are definitely WINE related...
With WINE 1.5.16 or 17 I can run any of the betas, although 6 is the most stable. I can style and create with no problems, but I can't render...and it isn't just with Garibaldi hair. I can't render with 3Delight at all. It starts, but then goes into some strange wait loop and will never finish or it will timeout and crash.
With WINE 1.5.12 I can render, but I can't actually do anything in the plugin. Because going from paint to another section, once any painting has been done is the same as closing it down. It will crash in the blink of an eye. So now, I've got this great looking beard I need to send over to my Windows machine (really my 'HTPC'...but I need to update it to 4.5, first...arghh).
The versions in between and DS have other problems...with 1.5.15 being the most stable out of the lot.
I'm beginning to suspect that there is something specific to the Slackware package that is causing these problems, because I'm not seeing similar reports for other builds. I may have to go back to building the packages myself...
Braids, dreadlocks and exact twists are going to be outside the scope of Garibaldi Version 1...
To apply tight waves, try setting a clump deformer to full strength with high bias and applying a scraggle noise deformer to that clump deformers curves.
When you load your garibaldi node back in you'll have to set which figure it's connected to. This can be set in the Garibaldi Hair Node's parameters under the 'Parent Geometry' property. This option can also be used to change a Garibaldi Hair Node to connect to a different figure in your scene as long as the figure is of the same type (eg. genesis -> genesis).
Today I had some time to play with garibaldi again. It's very nice to do it, for sure.
I will update my suggestions list( I added two :) :
-The Puff roots tool;
-The Rotate Tool;
-The grow/shrink selection feature;
-The "Length Map" on the Tweak tab;
The 3rd suggestion is based on the fact that every hair guide starts from a vertex. So you could to grow or shrink a hair selection, just as you can do on several apps. To grow, select the vertices that are adjacents to the actual selection ... It would very useful for a better progressive selection of the hair guides. So it would be easy to create hair fades using grow/shrink selection plus scale tool.
I guess that the 4th suggestion is possible, because you have a similar feature on the Tweak tab, the "Random Length" slider. A length map on this final step would be very useful for hair fades. You could even add shaved details, it would be great !
The problem on creating fades with the actual interface is that it´s a real mess to select the hair guide after it are brushed.
I'm having problems with the disk cache method... W7 64bits, 12 Gb, I always get a DS4.5 crash when I try to render using disk cache.
And finally a question : What exactly does the 'Extrude Settings' on Style Tab ?
Edited to add : The Mec4d's suggestion, the Import/Export curves ... it sounds very interesting ...
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If I understand correctly... this is probably because Garibaldi will use the uvset set when the node is first created. I'm guesting you changed the uvset when applying a texture... For version 1 there no plans to allow changes of the uv map that garibaldi uses post creation.
The nature of how 3Delight creates a cache of information in memory to speed up Ambient Occlution rendering will really push the limits of your system when handling complex geo like hair strands.
Spot lights with deep shadow maps although more time consuming to setup (although the look through spot light as camera feture helps) will mean you shouldn't have any memory issues with even 2GB of ram when used in conjunction with the 'Disk Cache' mode.
The last time I tried to use WINE was about 3 years ago to use Spotify on my workstation at work... It kind of worked but I ended up just buying a cheap Windows laptop to have on my desk (seemed like a lot less hassle)... Also meant I could listen to internet radio in flash player without it tying down a whole processor core.
I built up quite a like/hate relationship with Linux after using it every day for about 9 years.
Anyway, maybe next year will be the year of desktop linux (as every year apparently is going to be)...
Can you email a simple scene where it crashes if possible. thanks
The last time I tried to use WINE was about 3 years ago to use Spotify on my workstation at work... It kind of worked but I ended up just buying a cheap Windows laptop to have on my desk (seemed like a lot less hassle)... Also meant I could listen to internet radio in flash player without it tying down a whole processor core.
I built up quite a like/hate relationship with Linux after using it every day for about 9 years.
Anyway, maybe next year will be the year of desktop linux (as every year apparently is going to be)...
Since version 1.0 WINE for the most part works well. One of the problems is that now, many Windows errors work, too...
And like I said, I suspect most of the problem is build specific. I'm going to try building it on my own and seeing if that works better.
I save my hair nodes as scene subsets and merge them back into a new scene and that works very well. beta 6 works with my old saved nodes which is good. The render below I did with both Disk Cache and Ram Cache with the following results
2 lights, 1 distant & 1 point... both with ray traced shadows
Disk cache
Time: 6mins 35secs and I got a 3Delight error #43 with a truncated message that I think was saying an object was unnamed
Ram Cache
Time 5mins 36secs with no error message.
Neither scene took all that long so the time difference was not a huge issue but with scenes that took ages to render that time saving as a percentage of time saved would be significant so I will probably always switch to Ram Cache... but if the Disk Cache helps some systems render then it seems stable enough, although I don't know what the 3Delight error I got related to.
EDITED to fix my typing errors!
If I understand correctly... this is probably because Garibaldi will use the uvset set when the node is first created. I'm guesting you changed the uvset when applying a texture... For version 1 there no plans to allow changes of the uv map that garibaldi uses post creation.
Well, if speed isn't the purpose then no worries. :-)
I wasn't concerned about the error message - I was just passing along information. What did concern me was the fact that setting 2 or more nodes to disk cache would cause an immediate crash when I hit render.
It isn't the UV set. The texture in the render is the same one used to produce the density and texture maps for Garibaldi. That's why I was surprised when they didn't line up.
Just another test...Needs some work but its getting there...
I cant seem to Isolate sections and use the Frizz or Clumping on the Highlighted area's it seems to only work on the whole mesh....Or am I missing something obvious...?
And Genesis morphed into Freak4...No Re styling at all...
just a quick one to ask if you can think about a horizontal flip control for the curves... this would be great for asymetrical styles to have them easily available as mirrored styles.
I couldn't resist trying it out on a mermaid... I would like to get a better result with the hair but it shows lots of promise.
cool :-)
Is an advanced feature...
Lets you fade between interpolating the hair strands between style curves and extruding the hair strands to just follow the style curves. Should be used in conjunction with a control map.
Is useful for fixing issues where hair needs to separated between the style curves instead of interpolating in between and the auto parting is not suited. Such as long hair that splits in-front and behind a shoulder.
Basically means you can get effects that would have traditional required needing to split parts of your hair node into separate setups.
I got it, and will try these days.
Keep your great work !
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Here is the error message, "color_type" is mismatched. SkinFace was saved over in Paint.NET. Garibaldi then proceeds to say it's loaded successfully, and indeed the mesh turns from transparent to dark, but it is uniformly black, the white colour does not come through.
PS I keep crashing when saving a scene with Aiko3 and Garibaldi hair. It renders fine, but does not save. I'd thought it could be because of my whacky skin shader on her, but no, even a default A3 with no textures causes a crash when saving with hair. Should I send you the error report DS creates?
Playing with clumps and scraggle.
Haven't had time to play lately :( Love the renders people are doing - so much you can do with this!!
Experimenting with lights and the Garibaldi settings within Daz 4.5......long hair style this time. Had Nicole Kidman's hair in Dead Calm in mind here.....
Ok I thought that I would Make a new Mane for The Mil Big Cat aka Lion...
No go..I can start the Plugin select setup then I choose skin and when I click to accept The plugin goes Bye Bye and I am left with just DS4.5 and no Error message...So I am going to try on a few other legacy files...
The error message will be fixed in the next beta... Coming very soon.
When using raytraced shadows the Disk Cache is unlikely to save much memory.
I still recommend using Spot lights with deep shadow maps for optimal performance with Gariabldi Express.
Seems very strange... It's not that the image files imported/exported from garibaldi are currently flipped compared to the textures used in the daz studio materials?