Where's my water and leaves in End of the Tracks?

wildbillnash

I just bought this enviroment/scene and took a look at it in Daz 3D Studio.  The majority of my trees have no leaves.  And the water under the tracks is not there.  Am I missing somethin?

Here's the link to the page... https://www.daz3d.com/end-of-the-tracks

And here's the aerial image of what I got.

BeeMKay

The leaves are instances, and are turned off in the preview so that you will be able to move in the scene. They will show up in the render. And the water surface is right at the bottom of the creek. It will be better visible when you render it, but it's even visible now.

Oh, and from the product page, absolutely pay attention to this: "This scene includes large numbers of instances: Iray renderers should ensure that Instances Optimization is set to Memory."

wildbillnash

Thanks for the info, except I have no idea what the last thing you said means.

BeeMKay

In Render Settings, go to "Optimization" in the left hand list. Click on that. Check out "Instancing Optimization" in the right hand list that shows up. The default setting is Speed. For rendering this scene, you have to switch it to "Memory" because of the many instances. If you don't switch it to "Memory", chances are your computer will freeze or even crash in worst case scenario, or take ages before it even begins to render in best case scenarion.

wildbillnash

Thanks, Bee.  Still learning this art and I do appreciate your and everyone's help.  I'll made the changes on the settings.

I rendered the scene earlier, you've seen the pic already without leaves and water.  I set up the render settings as you suggested and rendered again, and got a blacked-out image.

Also, before I made the changes, I rendered and could see the leaves.  But the water really don't show up.  Instead it looks like mud.  Here's the image...

BeeMKay

The first image you posted was a screenshot, not a render.

The blackout thing is a bug that happens sometimes. If it happens, save the scene, close DS, go to the Task manager, kill the Studio instance, restart Studio, load the scene again.

As for the water... water lives from reflections. What kind of sky are you using for this? Can you post your render settings (the Environment part)?

wildbillnash

Oops, you're right.  The first one is a screen shot.  Got up too early this morning.  

I finally, almost, got it working.  I had to click on 'Nvideo Iray' to get the setting  you mentioned.  I left it there and rendered and that's when I got a blacked out render.  I went back and changed it back to 3Delight and it's working now, almost.  The renders are graying the hair on my character.  Instead of looking like she's in her 20's, now she looks like she's in her 50's or 60's, except still in good shape.

As for the water reflection, I'm using what the scene gives me.  When I looked up the sky was blue.  So I don't know why I have mud.

 

wildbillnash

Is this what you are looking for?

BeeMKay

Ah... you're rendering in 3Delight!!!

Sorry, I had no idea. That is a different set of rules, then. Discard the info about the instances and memory. (And then it's no wonder you got a black screen, as you have a skydome in the scene, which blocks any light in Iray.)

How many bounces have you set for the light in your render settings? The default is two or so, which isn't enough to give a proper reflection in 3Delight. Try to see if your reflection looks better when you use one or two more bounces.

Does your character/hair use 3Delight surface materials?

wildbillnash

I have no idea what you are talking about in some of your questions and statements.  Please excuse my ignorance.  

I tried to render with Iray but that's when I got a black screen.  I'll try again.

Don't know what you meant by dome, but I have seen it listed.  Interesting the designer of the enviroment made something that won't work correctly.

I have no idea about 'bounces' and what they are.  I'll see if I can find the setting and try the change.

BeeMKay

No, it works correctly in 3Delight, but Iray needs a different setting. There is an Iray version in its folder, And that doesn't load with the skydome.

About the bounce/path length, I can make a screenshot, but I need to be at my computer for this. So i hsve to ask your pateience, unless someone else can provide that information.

Please note that Iray and 3Delight behave very differently, so it is important that you state your render engine when you have a problem.

wildbillnash

Thank you, I'll keep it in mind.

 

BeeMKay

Okay... there is a setting called "MaxRayTraceDepth", which tells the light beam how often it is to bounce on its way. Every entry and exit from a surface is one bounce. When the last bounce is used, the light beam stops dead in its tracks. By default, that value is set to 2. If you increase it, it can help with reflective surfaces.

You'll find it under "Sampling" in the render settings.

Also, increasing pixel and shadow samples can increase the image quality a lot, but it will not help render times.

EDIT on Iray render: If you want to render Iray, go to the scene tab and REMOVE the skydome that is in there. It is a "physical" obstacle that will keep the light from entering. Also, make sure you have the iray materials applied when you switch to Iray! There also should be light settings included that say "Iray" (usualy, called "Render settings").

wildbillnash

No, didn't work.  I have it set one the same settings as your image, except I raised MRTD up to 30.  No change.  I rendered it and it's still mud.  I deleted the skydome and still mud.  I reloaded an Iray version of the scene and it doesn't have a skydome.  I reset the settings to NVideo Iray in the render settings and I still have Mudd, Henry Mudd my friend Kirk.

BeeMKay

Well, it does look rather dark and muddy in the promo images, though it reflects the sky beautifully

Let's tackle this a different way... what colour would you expect?

wildbillnash

I would expect to see the ripples in the water, some blue in it. Instead of ripples it looks like the water rushed out of the area and left behind a muddy area.  I see no sky reflections, which could help, I think.

Um...hold on....I tried something a little different this time.  I was rendering again when I typed the above paragraph.  I had clicked on a lighting globe (don't know what it's called currently because I can't check it, it's still rendering.  Anyway, I also raised the MRTD to 30 (I think) and now it's looking like the way it should be.  Maybe I had to add that lighting effect (something about outdoor).  It's still rendering so I won't know until another 10-15 minutes.