Flowscape And Daz Studio - So Many Backdrops!

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  • Thanks... It all makes good sense, when you put it that way, but I'm not sure it's better than just loading it into Blender and popping them there - especially since Blender writes a far better MTL file that's easier to edit (though, it's only a few keystrokes easier, to be fair - it just has more parameters established from the get-go.)

  • 3Diva3Diva Posts: 11,518

    This is a pretty long thread (12 pages so far) so I don't know if this has been asked yet, but has anyone tried making an HDRI with Flowscape? Is that something that is possbile?

  • dawnbladedawnblade Posts: 1,723

    This is a pretty long thread (12 pages so far) so I don't know if this has been asked yet, but has anyone tried making an HDRI with Flowscape? Is that something that is possbile?

    It has been a couple months since I used it, but at that time it only allowed saving as .png 1920 x 1080. I am asking for you in their forums now, so when I get an update I'll post here.

  • ArtiniArtini Posts: 9,458
    edited April 2020

    Sadly, it is not possible to create HDRI with Flowscape.

    You could cheat, if you save 360 degrees panoramas as JPGs, but it is not the same as it would be using EXR files.

    EXR implementation in Flowscape is broken.

    It looks like, the creator of the program has abandoned this project, so you are mostly on your own.

    He explained, that he lives in Australia and had hard times with the fires.

    Post edited by Artini on
  • dawnbladedawnblade Posts: 1,723

    Artini is right. I was hoping that the Nvidia Ansel integration was fixed, but the resulting .EXR file is still just black. Tried adjusting exposure in Photoshop but it didn't help.

  • 3Diva3Diva Posts: 11,518

    Thank you, @Artini and @dawnblade - I will save my money then. I thought it would make for some cool HDRI creation but since that's out, I don't see me using it enough to warrant purchasing. Thank you for the information. It's much appreciated. 

  • 3Diva3Diva Posts: 11,518
    Artini said:

     

    He explained, that he lives in Australia and had hard times with the fires.

    Oh man, that's awful. I hope that he can get back on his feet and is able to overcome that. I might have to reconsider not purchasing - to help him out a little. Not that my little purchase could be of much help. :(

  • richardandtracyrichardandtracy Posts: 5,678
    edited April 2020

    To be honest, it's pretty amazing. It cannot do two things that I wish were possible:

    1. Generate DS compatible HDRI's 
    2. Nor can it export the landscape generated.

    Either would make it probably the most useful tool in anyone's DS landscape toolbox, eclipsing HowieFarkes's Ultrascenery by orders of magnitude. You can literally paint the scenery where you want it & hey presto, it appears as you are painting. To change the scenery, you delete & re-paint. It's not like Ultrascenery where you launch the generator and hope you like the result, it is vastly more flexible than that. I wish we could persuade the developer to complete either route into DS, and then I'd feel like a pig in clover. Taking DS figures into FS does work, but the FS rendering engine is not as good as iRay, which is hardly surprising as it's probably trying to render at a rate of 60 frames a second, though on my machine with its GTX1060 it achieves closer to 12fps with a detailed landscape.

    It is, without question, a program to keep an eye on. If it goes beyond V1.5 it may have more features we would find useful. The developer has, apparently, put a road map up for it on the Discord site. However, I have not been able to stomach that site for long enough to be able to find it. The whole place feels like a school playground filled with ADHD suffering egomaniacs, and, well, I ran out of patience before finding anything useful.

    Regards,

    Richard

    Post edited by richardandtracy on
  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,213
    edited April 2020

    you can of course learn Unity game engine which basically does the same thing but not packaged into a nice UI yes

    or Unreal like I do which also has the foliage brush

    I also have a lot of the animals and buildings used in Flowscape as Unreal assets

    Post edited by WendyLuvsCatz on
  • laugh Yeah. Right. It's bad enough slowly learning C++ without adding another level of complexity to what I need to learn. Must be a slow learner, as it has taken me 20 years to get moderately competent at using one compiler and user interface and finally come out with a few programs of limited use to a few people.

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,213

    I cannot compile anything, code is completely foreign to me

    Unity baffles me too that's why I use UE4

    it's interface not bad and it has Blueprints which are node based and still hard but not impossible for me with lots of tutorials to follow

  • Nodes.. Like Bricks on the DS diy shader creator? Find them utterly baffling. I feel like crying out for a nice bit of easy to follow text code.

  • dawnbladedawnblade Posts: 1,723
    Artini said:

     

    He explained, that he lives in Australia and had hard times with the fires.

    Oh man, that's awful. I hope that he can get back on his feet and is able to overcome that. I might have to reconsider not purchasing - to help him out a little. Not that my little purchase could be of much help. :(

    I am certain that your purchase will be helpful to the developer. Why wouldn't it be?

  • Right now I have a tab open with flowscape on itch, but I haven't bought it yet, probably will in a minute. Also have to admit that I have not yet scoured this thread, but I have a quick question for BlueIrene or anyone else who has been using this: what did you do to make your daz characters cast shadows on the flowscape background? pwcatch, ibl master, some other, simple trick?

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,213

    iray has a shadowcatch plane by default 

    3Delight you need other means, it's possible using Shadermixer too as well as the pwcatch product 

  • iray has a shadowcatch plane by default 

    3Delight you need other means, it's possible using Shadermixer too as well as the pwcatch product 

    Thank you. Mac user, so 3DL for me.

  • I used the brute ignorance and force method. I took my posed DS figures into FS as obj files and dropped them into a FS scene. Not entirely satisfactory as the FS rendering engine is not as good as iRay.

    The other method to consider - more expensive I admit - is doing everything in DS with UltraScenery and forget FS entirely. Its results are better, but it's slower, much less flexible (but getting better) and much less fun, though.

    There's no complete solution that I know of yet. Frustrating, really.

    Regards,

    Richard.

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,213

    for animation with backdrops I also create a drop shadow in Hiltfilm express, I use several effects, the angle distortion lightness/saturation and blur, an image editor should be able to do this too with a layer of your original alpha png render sandwiched behind your render on top of your backup 

  • FirePro9FirePro9 Posts: 456

    Hopefully a FS update soon.  Here is preview of some the upcoming features 

    Personally I'd like to see FS add animated FBX import and better camera controls for animations.

    Just an FYI, Flowscape has no export, therefore, workflow between DS & FS consists of importing images created in FS into DS to use as Backgrounds or Iray Domes.  Conversely, one can export meshes from DS into OBJ format and import the OBJs into FS.

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