How to know in advance that attractive pack of shaders you are about to buy is 3Delight only

Federmann

How to know in advance that attractive pack of shaders you are about to buy is 3Delight only

As a DS beginner having only started Dec. 2021 I have absolutely no interest in exploring 3Delight, as a matter of fact I wouldn't touch it with the proverbial 'ten-foot pole' having seen its rsl materials spoil my Iray renders on too many occasions (not always MDL is easily found in a pack and you sometimes pick the wrong mat etc.). 

In the recent DAZ sale avalanche I bought the seemingly delightful Strange Substances Pack #1 and #2 from DimensionTheory #1 [link]  #2 [link], only to find out Iray renders surfaces (like primitive --> planes) with these shaders as pretty much opaque black squares and only 3Delight renders bring out their intended colors and subsurface scattering shader (SSS) qualities. Quite disappointing because the packs are curated exemplary and there's even a nice tutorial included and I am assuming a very useful script giving the same ID to selected entities like figures and their geoshells (facilitating blending them).

A quick search suggests that you cannot convert 3Delight shaders into Iray shaders, so these purchases will have to be returned.

What struck me is  that many shaders at the DAZ shop do not clearly indicate whether they are Iray or 3Delight; obviously many packs have "Iray" in their title and/or description but that still leaves many shader packs that for beginners like me have status "unknown", they might be (early?) iRay compatible shaders or outright (‘unusable’) 3Delight shaders only.

Anyone has a tip how to deal with this issue? 

Is there any use for 3Delight shaders in an Iray rendering world?

Thx y'all

 

Togire

Very simple: If the shader does not say explicitely "iray" in its description, it is 3DL. Works 99% of the times.

EDIT: Also, look at the SKU of the product. Products wth a SKU<~20000 are all 3DL

WendyLuvsCatz

as a matter of fact I wouldn't touch it with the proverbial 'ten-foot pole' having seen its rsl materials spoil my Iray renders on too many occasions 

you do realise they don't render that way in 3Delight  

it is based on the Renderman Engine so while not the straight PBR only renderer iray is, it does have PBR options as well as a multitude of non photorealistic options so not to be scoffed at entirely

depending on one's artistic direction

if of course you only want to do photorealistic art then yes iray your best choice

PerttiA

Before Iray, the materials and shaders were just referred to as "DAZ Studio materials / shaders" as opposed to ones meant for Poser.

Federmann

WendyLuvsCatz said:

as a matter of fact I wouldn't touch it with the proverbial 'ten-foot pole' having seen its rsl materials spoil my Iray renders on too many occasions 

you do realise they don't render that way in 3Delight  

it is based on the Renderman Engine so while not the straight PBR only renderer iray is, it does have PBR options as well as a multitude of non photorealistic options so not to be scoffed at entirely

depending on one's artistic direction

if of course you only want to do photorealistic art then yes iray your best choice

 

Yeah, I shouldn't have used that pejorative pole phrase knowing full well 3Delight has its proponents and particular applications. Never did explore its non-photorealistic strengthts, only today I did my first 3Delight quick render to verify those shaders I'd purchased were 3Delight shaders.... Given that I haven't found my art yet, I might as well hold on to these shaders. At the point of writing (and not before) I did realize "you do realise they don't render that way in 3Delight  " but without actually ever having tried to build a complex 3Delight based scene. I'll put that on my to do list!

Federmann

PerttiA said:

Before Iray, the materials and shaders were just referred to as "DAZ Studio materials / shaders" as opposed to ones meant for Poser.

Thx, good tip,many recent bargains I couldn't resist prolly turn out to be 3Delight although I know for a fact I also bought plenty discounted Iray (it says on the tin) shaders. My current dilemma: can you ever have enough shaders?

Federmann

alainmerigot said:

Very simple: If the shader does not say explicitely "iray" in its description, it is 3DL. Works 99% of the times.

EDIT: Also, look at the SKU of the product. Products wth a SKU<~20000 are all 3DL

LoL kind of saw that one coming! Fortunately I bought plenty shaders with Iray in the title. I have yet to explore the 3Delight domain; for now I would have liked DS to hide ALL non-Iray mats,shaders and such...

Leana

Federmann said:

What struck me is  that many shaders at the DAZ shop do not clearly indicate whether they are Iray or 3Delight

Until DS 4.8 there was only 3DL in DS, so products released before that would not specify that they were 3DL shaders, only that they were DS shaders.