Post your DAZ to Unity renders

Artini

Synthoid meets Zellarian

https://www.daz3d.com/synthoid-for-genesis-8-female

https://www.daz3d.com/zellarian-for-zelara-8--genesis-8-females

Artini

Kiko 8.1 exploring Urban Future 6

https://www.daz3d.com/kiko-81

https://www.daz3d.com/urban-future-6

 

algovincian

Artini said:

Kiko 8.1 exploring Urban Future 6

https://www.daz3d.com/kiko-81

https://www.daz3d.com/urban-future-6

This is excellent, @Artini! Seems like you're making progress with DAZ/Unity - cheers!

- Greg

Artini

Thanks a lot. The newer versions of Unity give better visuals. I have also learn, how to manage Daz environments with instances in Unity.

Right now the workaround is to change instances in Daz Studio to objects and then export to Unity via bridge.

Artini

Prototype exploring Urban Future 7.

https://www.daz3d.com/prototype

https://www.daz3d.com/urban-future-7

 

Artini

Sakura 8 with toon treatment in Unity

https://www.daz3d.com/sakura-8-pro-bundle

 

chris_63502790

It is insanely difficult to get any kind of character from either Daz or CC to look like a character in a AAA game. Unity really needs to match the lighting to Unreal and deliver a much more realistic skin shader. It's really the poor light sampling in Unity HDRP, since there's still no global illumination available. Anyway, here's what I've been able to do from an import perspective, with speech and emotion shapes too. 

danielbui78

chris_63502790 said:

It is insanely difficult to get any kind of character from either Daz or CC to look like a character in a AAA game. Unity really needs to match the lighting to Unreal and deliver a much more realistic skin shader. It's really the poor light sampling in Unity HDRP, since there's still no global illumination available. Anyway, here's what I've been able to do from an import perspective, with speech and emotion shapes too.

I really like the screenshot / render, especially the lighting and character expression.

I agree that it is very difficult to product professional film and game studio quality human renders with Unity, but I disagree that it is because there is no global illumination in Unity.  Perhaps you mean global illumination using a specific algorithm, because there have been multiple methods of global illumination in Unity for several years now.  Please refer to the Unity 2020 manual on global illumination: https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/LightingInUnity.html

However, I do agree that the current HDRP shaders and the current IrayUberSkin shader is not sufficient by themselves to produce photorealistic human renderings.  I'm hoping this will change soon, though, since there is framework and documentation in the DazToUnity sourcecode that outlines plans to use features in the more recent Unity engine versions to enhance skin shading and subsurface scattering.

In my opinion, the major barrier to producing AAA game visuals with Unity engine is the very poor documentation of the Unity Editor and the Unity API.  One problem is that there is a multitude of very poorly written and poorly produced tutorials and videos on how to use Unity.  These truly drown out the very good videos and tutorials on using Unity out there.  Another problem is that there are very few resources that do a good job of teaching the advanced techniques necessary to create AAA quality visual effects in Unity.  Perhaps it's because these skills and concepts are highly valued and closely guarded in a very competitive game industry.  Whatever the reasons, the end result is that Unity still has a greater learning curve to create stunning visual effects compared to Unreal which can do it with a few clicks of a button.

 

Please refer here for tips on how to achieve high quality, physically-based lighting in Unity using real-world photographic and cinematic lighting parameters:

Please refer to these links for tips on creating high quality, real-time human skin rendering:

https://developer.nvidia.com/gpugems/gpugems3/part-iii-rendering/chapter-14-advanced-techniques-realistic-real-time-skin

http://web.cse.ohio-state.edu/~machiraju.1/teaching/cse5545/LectureNotes/PDF/Misc/ProjectReportRajMicah.pdf

https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/[email protected]/manual/Subsurface-Scattering.html

Tugpsx

Wow thanks for links and tutorials.

Artini

chris_63502790 said:

It is insanely difficult to get any kind of character from either Daz or CC to look like a character in a AAA game. Unity really needs to match the lighting to Unreal and deliver a much more realistic skin shader. It's really the poor light sampling in Unity HDRP, since there's still no global illumination available. Anyway, here's what I've been able to do from an import perspective, with speech and emotion shapes too. 

Great composition of the image. Please post more.

 

Artini

danielbui78 said:

chris_63502790 said:

It is insanely difficult to get any kind of character from either Daz or CC to look like a character in a AAA game. Unity really needs to match the lighting to Unreal and deliver a much more realistic skin shader. It's really the poor light sampling in Unity HDRP, since there's still no global illumination available. Anyway, here's what I've been able to do from an import perspective, with speech and emotion shapes too.

I really like the screenshot / render, especially the lighting and character expression.

I agree that it is very difficult to product professional film and game studio quality human renders with Unity, but I disagree that it is because there is no global illumination in Unity.  Perhaps you mean global illumination using a specific algorithm, because there have been multiple methods of global illumination in Unity for several years now.  Please refer to the Unity 2020 manual on global illumination: https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/LightingInUnity.html

However, I do agree that the current HDRP shaders and the current IrayUberSkin shader is not sufficient by themselves to produce photorealistic human renderings.  I'm hoping this will change soon, though, since there is framework and documentation in the DazToUnity sourcecode that outlines plans to use features in the more recent Unity engine versions to enhance skin shading and subsurface scattering.

In my opinion, the major barrier to producing AAA game visuals with Unity engine is the very poor documentation of the Unity Editor and the Unity API.  One problem is that there is a multitude of very poorly written and poorly produced tutorials and videos on how to use Unity.  These truly drown out the very good videos and tutorials on using Unity out there.  Another problem is that there are very few resources that do a good job of teaching the advanced techniques necessary to create AAA quality visual effects in Unity.  Perhaps it's because these skills and concepts are highly valued and closely guarded in a very competitive game industry.  Whatever the reasons, the end result is that Unity still has a greater learning curve to create stunning visual effects compared to Unreal which can do it with a few clicks of a button.

 

Please refer here for tips on how to achieve high quality, physically-based lighting in Unity using real-world photographic and cinematic lighting parameters:

Please refer to these links for tips on creating high quality, real-time human skin rendering:

https://developer.nvidia.com/gpugems/gpugems3/part-iii-rendering/chapter-14-advanced-techniques-realistic-real-time-skin

http://web.cse.ohio-state.edu/~machiraju.1/teaching/cse5545/LectureNotes/PDF/Misc/ProjectReportRajMicah.pdf

https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/[email protected]/manual/Subsurface-Scattering.html

Thanks for the excellent resources you have posted link for.

Watched this video tutorial with great interest.

danielbui78

Here's a video to help you see what is possible with Unity HDRP:

Video Description:

Digital Human based on Unity HDRP.
AR remote, Realtime Raytracing SSAO.
it can follow user's facial moving by iphone.

Individual works by Hyeong-il Kim / Gyutaek Lee
Hyeongil Kim : https://twitter.com/rumiga0

 

By the way, I have been analyzing the IrayUberSkin shader and realized that Dual Lobe Specular/Roughness are not enabled.  Preliminary tests with it enabled look very good.  I will make an update to the Unofficial DTU Bridge as soon as I can (later this week).  CORRECTION: Dual lobe is actually enabled, but the implementation in my opinion is not optimial.  The current IrayUberSkin shader incorporates the floating point values for dual lobe roughness1 and dual lobe roughness2 but leaves out any dual lobe roughness maps.  Also, it linearly interpolates both floating point values together and uses a single merged value that is set to the second roughness port of the shadergraph.  This might work if the first roughness port is actually populated with a distinct roughness value, but it is populated by the Glossy Roughness value from the IrayUber Shader material in Daz.  For most Genesis 8 and, I think, 8.1 characters, skin roughness and specular is specified only by Dual Lobe Specular and not by Glossy Roughness.  So the first roughness port in the Unity shader is currently not well utilized in the IrayUberSkin shader (in my opinion).  Whether or not modifying it to give more mathematical weighting to the dual lobe roughness over the unused glossy roughness makes a visual improvement is probably more subjective... I'll post before and after pictures once I finish tweaking it.

 

Also, here's another great skin rendering article that I forgot to post before: https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1018270/Next-Generation-Character

danielbui78

HDRP Victoria 8.1 with Original Dual Lobe Specular and with New Dual Lobe Specular:

The new skin shader has more definition in highlights around the skin pores.  These would probably be stronger if I had placed a directional light instead of using just HDRI lighting.  However, you can still notice the most difference in the fine highlights on the ears and on the sides of the scalp and cheeks.  The new skin shader also has preliminary Top Coat support with hardcoded values to mimic Daz Studio settings.  Glossy Roughness and Glossy Specular are completely disabled in this skin shader, so the only specular component comes only from Dual Lobe Specular values.  In my opinion, the Original Dual Lobe Specular looks a little flatter and slightly washed out -- probably because the specular component is heavily weighted towards the Glossy Specular and and Glossy Roughness properties, which are not used by Victoria 8.1 and defaulted to white.

 

Also: I've made several project changes to better reproduce the Iray render output and enhance overall image quality (applied to both images):

1. Increased Max Size of all textures from default 2048 to 4096.
2. Replaced the default HDRP Sky image map with the default Iray HDRI lighting map from Daz Studio.
3. Modified the HDRP Sky and Fog Volume settings to better match the physically-based Iray render settings from Daz Studio, including: HDRI Sky Intensity 3500 Lux, disabled Fog, changed Exposure to "Use Physical Camera", added "Shadows, Midtones, Highlights" component and configured it to mimic Iray's default Crush Shadows and Burn Highlights settings: Shadows 0.58, Midtones off, Highlights 1.36, Highlight Start 0.
4. Disabled the default HDRP Directional Light.
5. Modified the default camera to physically based settings to match default Iray render settings: ISO 100, Shutter Speed 1 / 128, Focal Length 65 + Aperture 8.126 (equivalent to F/Stop 8), checked "Link FOV to Physical Camera", changed Near Clipping to 0.03, enabled "Temporal Anti-Aliasing", TAA Sharpen Strength 2.
6. IrayUberSkinDiffusionProfile modified: Thickness Remap Values: Y changed from 25 to 3.

 

There is also an additional DazToUnity converter script modification to automatically map eyelashes to the DazToUnity Hair shader, btw the DazToUnity Hair shader already uses the underlying Unity HDRP Hair shader engine.

Artini

I am trying to figure out, how this volumes work in Unity.

Below is a render of Agma with some items from recent Steampunk bundle.

https://www.daz3d.com/the-agma-bundle

https://www.daz3d.com/steampunk-traveler-bundle

danielbui78

Victoria 8.1 with some dramatic indoor lighting and the work-in-progress New Skin Shader.

 

LightBalls recipe:

1. Create GameObject -> 3D Object -> Sphere.
2. Scale x,y,z of Sphere to 0.25.
3. Create new Material and assign to Sphere.
4. Material Settings: "Use Emission Intensity" - checked, Emission Color: Hexademical: 469EB0, Emission Intesity: 22 (EV100).
5. Duplicate as many times as desired and place in scene.

Point Lights recipe:

1. Create GameObject -> Light -> Point Light
2. Type: Point, Mode: Mixed
3. Intensity: 5000 Lux, At 1, Range 5, Indirect Multiplier 1
4. Volumetrics: Enabled - checked
5. Shadows: Enabled - checked, Update Every Frame, Resolution: High (1024), Near Plane: 0.001, ShadowMask Mode: Distance ShadowMask, Contact Shadows: Medium

Light Probes:

• Create GameObject -> Light -> Light Probe Group

Reflection Probe:

• Create GameObject -> Light -> Reflection Probe

Project Settings:

• Quality->HDRP, HDRenderPipelineAsset: Shadows: Filtering Quality: Medium (Unity 2019 has bug where High quality causes bad aliasing)

Sky and Fog Volume Settings:

• Visual Environment: Type: None, Ambient Mode: Dynamic
• HDRI Sky: HDRI Sky unchecked
• Exposure: Use Physical Camera
• Add override: Bloom, Shadows-Midtones-Highlights: Shadows 0.54

Camera Settings:

• Clipping Planes: Near: 0.01
• Anti-Aliasing: FXAA
• Dithering: Checked
• ISO: 100
• Shutter Speed: 1 / 60 seconds
• Focal Length: 50, Aperture 8

Ground and walls:

• Plane and Sphere
• Plane scaled to x: 2, y: 1, z: 2, position set to 0
• Sphere scaled to 10.5 and position set to 0
• Set Sphere Material to double-sided, Flipped Normals
• Both:
  • Lighting: Cast Shadows On
  • Contribute Global Illumination - checked
  • Receive Global Illumination: Light Probes
  • Static - checked (found on same line as GameObject's name, at the very top of the Inspector tab)

Light Baking recipe:

1. Click Menu: Window -> Rendering -> Light Settings
2. Environment (HDRP): Profile: Sky and Fog Settings Profile, Static Lighting Sky: None
3. Lightmapper: Progressive CPU
4. Lightmap Size: 1024
5. Compress Lightmaps - unchecked
6. Ambient Occlusion - checked
7. Auto Generate - unchecked
8. Manually click "Generate Lighting" after setting up all lights, ground and walls of scene.

 

Artini

Thanks a lot for the receipes.

I just wonder if 3D.sk resources could help with the map creation for even better looking characters in Unity?

https://blog.daz3d.com/daz-studio-3d-sk-discount-code/

https://www.3d.sk/photos/freeSample

https://blog.daz3d.com/what-is-retopology-and-how-to-use-it-to-improve-your-3d-models/

https://blog.daz3d.com/how-to-use-free-3d-models-for-faster-game-development/

 

 

Artini

Using a receipe from @danielbui78 on Agma... sort of...

Artini

Easily got 5 Genesis 8 characters rendered in Unity. In Daz Studio my graphics card limits me to max 2 Genesis 8 characters in iray.

https://www.daz3d.com/commando-speed-boat

danielbui78

@Artini, great renders!  I like the lighting!!!  The boat scene is great too, I will have to try out that boat with the one of the Unity Ocean Physics plugins when I get the chance.

Here is my latest render while working on the new skin shader.  This time, focusing on improving SSS in addition to the Dual Lobe Specular tweaks.

Artini

Thanks. You are getting very nice results with your skin shader.

hans_vet_4f0833902d

Hi all,

Glad to see Daz has made a bridge for Unity. So here is a work in progress using the HDRP. It's going to be a short animation piece. The scene will be the scary ballerina walking down a hallway. I've found pointlights and spotlights work well with the Daz models. And adding some post processing effects

Artini

Nikolina - https://www.daz3d.com/nikolina-for-genesis-8-female

rendered in Unity 2020.3.22f1

Artini

Testing, testing, testing.

Nikolina 8 movements in Unity 2020.3.22f1

 

Artini

More testing: Unity 2021.2.3f1, Nikolina 8 with Fluffy based hair. YouTube video below:

 

danielbui78

Youtube Video:

Performance testing iPhone VR + DazStudio assets: 35 Victoria 8.1 models dancing in HelloCardboard example scene. 

Daz Assets imported into Unity 2020.3 URP with uDTU 1.2.  Decimator for Daz Studio used to reduce each model to ~110,000 polygons (figure+clothing+hair).  All models are being drawn at full game resolution (110K polys) with no instancing, LODs, billboards or other tricks.  For reference, Victoria 8.1 at base Daz Studio resolution is about ~34,000 polygons (no subdivisions).  Maximum texture resolution in Unity was set to 512.  Demo was played and recorded on iPhone Xs using iOS Screen Recording built-in software on iOS 14.8.

A lot of people are doubtful about the feasibility of using Daz Figures in games because they think Daz Figures are way too high definition.  This should prove to you that even a 4 year old smartphone can process a scene containing 35 NPCs made with Genesis 8 and draw 8-10 at the same time in stereo without any performance loss (not even accounting for real-time video capture and encoding with the same device).  If I incorporated LODs, animated billboards and advanced culling system, the number of NPCs could be even higher.  The main hurdle is choosing hair and clothing which has the same level of optimization as the Genesis 8 Daz Original figures.  If they are not optimized, then you will need a polygon reduction tool.

FYI, the hair on some models is disappearing at the edges because the VR camera is not using the full stereoscopic viewing angle (both cameras) to cull objects on the screen edges.  This is worked-aound in the current version of the demo by resizing the hair's bounding box to be the same size and placement as the actual figure.  This way, if you see the figure, you will always see the hair.

Artini

Prototype exploring Urban Future 7

https://www.daz3d.com/prototype

https://www.daz3d.com/urban-future-7

Video on YouTube:

 

Artini

Flight of the Sparrow.

Video on YouTube:

 

Artini

Robots in environment created with Gaia  2021 Pro. Rendered in URP version.

Droid - https://www.daz3d.com/droid

RoboTNY - https://www.daz3d.com/robotny

Artini

Droid Adventure

Featuring:

Droid - https://www.daz3d.com/droid

RoboTNY - https://www.daz3d.com/robotny

Video on YouTube:

 

st3ph3nstrang3

My skin shader in Unity that makes use of base/normal/spec/AO/micro detail maps from Daz. Still need to figure out SSS among other things, but a huge improvement over using only color/normal maps.