problem loading all Genesis 2 add-ons in Carrara

jmlazgar

Thanks to everyone who has helped so far. I can now load G2 female, and all the morphs show up under parameters. New problem: Tried to load actual eyes - got "error loading." Tried it by dragging on to G2 in main window, tried by double clicking with character selected, tried to drag onto menu where G2 was highlighted - all got "error loading" Tried it with shirts and skirts, tried to load hair,tried it with poses package, all got error loading. Not "error-could not find," just "error loading" All of the content shows up, just can't get it to load onto base G2 character. Any ideas? Thanks! Jay

chickenman

Try looking in here there are lots of hints for people who are just starting out.

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/15970/carrara-information-manual/p1

jmlazgar

Chickenman, thanks for suggestion, but didn't find anything on my particular problem. I know it's something simple, but can't figure it out. In V4, you dragged items on to V4, like hair, clothes and poses. Everything I try to drag onto Genesis 2 gives "error loading." The figure shows all it's own DAZ body morphs, and they are working, so that's going right. Just can't load anything "external."

chickenman

Which level of the character are you dragging it onto?

Try this thread.

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/1687711/#Comment_1687711

jmlazgar

Chickenman, I am loading content purchased from DAZ specifically for Genesis 2, and trying to load it onto Victoria 6 (Genesis 2). So there should be no problem. I am loading all from the smart content folder. All was downloaded and installed using DIM. This my adventure trying to learn Genesis 2 content, as I am transitioning from using only Victoria 4 for many, many years. With me, it seems there is always an issue early, but once I get it, I've got it.

Stezza

sometimes items in the smart content folder don't work... if so try going to the Genesis 2 folder tab in the content and load from there to see if it works... be prepared for black demonic eyes though which you will have to manually fix in the shader room 

I stay away from the smart content tab because of these problems. Hope you get it working.

3DAGE

Jay :)

when you're loading anything,. it's better, more accurate, to use double click, to apply the item, or pose, to the selected figure..

You should be able to load content into carrara from the browser,. but Genesis is slightly different from V4,.

With V4, you needed to select the figure, then apply the item,. and it should autofit to the selected figure.

Genesis has an extra branch in the heirarchy,. so you need to expand the Genesis (in the instance list) then select the second level "genesis" or actor level,.

As a quick test,. to make sure your content is working correctly

,. You should be able to double click on any item in your content, such as a dress or hair,. and that should load into the scene,. (whether you have a figure in the scene, or not)

 

Using Drag and drop ,.. Carrara automatically scans whatever the mouse is over as your dragging,. it'll autodetect shading domains,.. it can be an erratic way to work.

select the figure,. browse your content,.. double click the item's thumbnail, to apply it to the selected figure.

 

If you can't get any items to load into an empty scene,. then there's possibly something wrong with your content installation,.

was everything installed using DIM,. ?

 

jmlazgar

I finally made some progress. My carrara, for smart content, was pointing to a driectory something like:

C:/users/public documents/DAZ 3D/.....             when in fact, the DIM was downloading to

C;/users/public documents/ My DAZ content/...       or something like that.

Now everything is loading.

My only problem is that Awesome eyes, as an example, just turn the enitre eye black, rather than a new color. Have had a couple of problems with skins turning black, also. I assume when it says a product is for "Genesis 2" that means all iterations of Genesis 2 such as "Giselle" for Genesis 2?

3DAGE

My only problem is that Awesome eyes, as an example, just turn the enitre eye black, rather than a new color. Have had a couple of problems with skins turning black, also. I assume when it says a product is for "Genesis 2" that means all iterations of Genesis 2 such as "Giselle" for Genesis 2?

The problem here is that you'r loading a "Preset" shader /Pose / material,. which was designe to be used in DazStudio,. so the shader settings are all for DS,. not for carrara.

In carrara,. you need to go to the Shader room, and adjust the (eye surface) shader,.

In Daz Studio,. the shaders use "alpha maps" and "reflection maps",. to "fake" the transparent eye surface. (which may not be loading in Carrara)

Carrara has "real" transparency and real relections,.

you can change the shaders settings for the "eye surface" to use transparency (instead of alpha map) and reflections from the scene,. (instead of a reflection map)

set the Index of Refraction to "water".

 

Once you've done that,. You can drag and drop that shader into your "my shaders",to save it,... then use it on other figures.

 

SileneUK

Dartanbeck recently refreshed my feeble mind about eyes in a PM.  I really hope he won't mind me sharing some parts of this very helpful info about how he does it. Very similar to Andy, plus some, eg I use water and glass interchangeably.  This has made such a big difference in that I now can do this on autopilot...almost!  

Anything in brackets [[[ ]]]  is my editing.

 Silene

[T]he trans maps for eyelashes don't load, and the eye surface bumps for iris, cornea, etc are set to the main text map and not the one I'd think you put in there (grayscale) "

In the appropriate channels, browse to get the maps from (by default using DIM) C > Users > Public > Public Documents > My Daz3D Library > Runtime > Textures > DAZ > Characters, and then the appropriate folder from there. Bump will often have a suffix of _B or _BUM   Highlight Channel maps are called Specular in D|S, so _S or _SP or _SPEC maps - darker gray scale - go into the Highlight channel. If the render is too glossy, lower the brightness of this map. Skin should have a Shininess between 0 and 3 or maybe 4 or 5, depending. The more wet or sweaty you need the person to look, the higher you go with both Highlight and Shininess - but be aware that Shininess over 30 gets really small to where you may not notice any shine. I usually only use 15 or higher on objects that I want to make look as if they're reflective, without using Reflections.

[This is] what I do for the Cornea, Eye Surface, Eye Reflections, Tears

Open [the[ Shader browser, go under Glass, and drag the "Clear" glass shader onto the Top Shader portion of the shader in question - then tweak it a little - or not.

Example: That shader, Clear glass (just called "clear") uses refraction. So I want it to have two surfaces to refract with. So if the figure has Cornea and Surface, I add it to both, though I might remove the reflection in the underside one - usually not, though. Quite often, for speed, I just drag the shader directly onto the shading domain, then drag that to the other surfaces needing that clear, reflective shader.

[And s'more...]

[T]here's more here [see link below]. Check it out, but especially the part down lower...  the link to Indigone's Endless Eyes kit, which takes a much different approach that I really like, too! Hint: Her skin shaders also work with Genesis 1 and 2, even though it says V4. try it - and just load the texture maps in from where I said earlier. Read her directions - she says a lot. Oh... and if you use her skin shaders, just remember that they use SSS, so if they're too slow, turn that off! 

► Working with Content
With Carrara 8.5 beta, this software is getting much closer to true compatibility with Daz Studio. This article attempts to illustrate what can and cannot be taken back and forth. It also covers some of the basic techniques required to get the most out of any Poser/DS content within Carrara.