dForce Lynx Steampunk Armor not working as dForce compatible

watchdog79

I am trying to create a scene using https://www.daz3d.com/dforce-lynx-steampunk-armor-for-genesis-81-females, but I seem to be unable to initiate the dForce simulation. I loaded a figure (G8.1F), the outfit, and I posed her. Then I tried initiating the simulation.

According to the error message I am getting, it appears the outfit does not register as dForce compatible at all. Am I doing something wrong, or is there something wrong with the outfit that needs fixing, please?

I am using Daz Studio 4.20.

maikdecker

watchdog79 said:

... or is there something wrong with the outfit that needs fixing, please?

I don't own that particular outfit, but several others by the PA and those that are supposed to be dForce-able all have at least one item that has dForce settings.

From the looks, in this case it should be the belt or rather that appendix dangling down from the the belt, because that's the only part of the outfit for which dForce would make any sense. All the other parts are either stiff (metal-ish) or clingy (fabric), so dForce would be useless on them.

That belt-appendix doesn't seem to be moving though on any of the promos, like it should when gravity would work on it. And with the leather pocket on it's upper part and the metal decorations on the lower part, I am not sure that it is easily made into something that can be dForced without asking for parts dropping off or the thing exploding.

So, from my observation I see these two possible problems:

1. the PA did intend the belt-appendix to move, but forget to implemement the needed weightmapping, dForce values and other gadgets that would make this possible or
2. it's intentional that no part of the outfit is dForceable and the PA just made a mistake when naming the product, by leaving the "dForce..." in the name part of their description template.

I see option 2. as the more probable one.

And if You would want to see that belt-appendix move under dForce it would need either You to make all the additions to allow it or contacting the technical helpdesk with a bug report and hoping that it is really an mistake that is suppoed to be fixed by some action of the PA other than fixing the name and description of the item.

Good luck anyway

EDIT: I didn't look first for possible other threads about the outfit, but if it's about the hair, there's this one here

 

Elliandra

Morning!
A couple of things to check!

Select the Belt in the Scene Tab and then go down to the Parameters Tab General Section, listed under that should be a "Simulation" section.
Click on that and make sure the Settings are as follows:
--Simulation Object Type = Dynamic Surface
--Simulation Base Shape = Use Simulation Start Frame (this is the default setting)
--Freeze Simulation = Off

If those are all set as listed above, then go into the Surfaces Tab and select the material for the partial skirt.
If you aren't sure which mat zone it's listed under, you can use the "Surface Selection" tool to just click on it in the actual viewport.
Once it's selected in the Surfaces Tab, scroll down in the long list of settings until you get to the peachy/orange section towards the bottom, which is where the Simulation Settings for the mat zones live.
Make sure that "Visible in Simulation" is set to On and that the "Dynamic Strength" has a value on it, 1.00 is the default.

If the above settings are missing, then it was probably a typo in the product name or something changed during creation/testing and was not updated.
Hope this helps!
Elli

watchdog79

Elliandra said:

Morning!
A couple of things to check!

Select the Belt in the Scene Tab and then go down to the Parameters Tab General Section, listed under that should be a "Simulation" section.
Click on that and make sure the Settings are as follows:
--Simulation Object Type = Dynamic Surface
--Simulation Base Shape = Use Simulation Start Frame (this is the default setting)
--Freeze Simulation = Off

If those are all set as listed above, then go into the Surfaces Tab and select the material for the partial skirt.
If you aren't sure which mat zone it's listed under, you can use the "Surface Selection" tool to just click on it in the actual viewport.
Once it's selected in the Surfaces Tab, scroll down in the long list of settings until you get to the peachy/orange section towards the bottom, which is where the Simulation Settings for the mat zones live.
Make sure that "Visible in Simulation" is set to On and that the "Dynamic Strength" has a value on it, 1.00 is the default.

If the above settings are missing, then it was probably a typo in the product name or something changed during creation/testing and was not updated.
Hope this helps!
Elli

Thank you. There is no Simulation section there.

I guess this calls for a support ticket.

watchdog79

maikdecker said:

watchdog79 said:

... or is there something wrong with the outfit that needs fixing, please?

I don't own that particular outfit, but several others by the PA and those that are supposed to be dForce-able all have at least one item that has dForce settings.

From the looks, in this case it should be the belt or rather that appendix dangling down from the the belt, because that's the only part of the outfit for which dForce would make any sense. All the other parts are either stiff (metal-ish) or clingy (fabric), so dForce would be useless on them.

That belt-appendix doesn't seem to be moving though on any of the promos, like it should when gravity would work on it. And with the leather pocket on it's upper part and the metal decorations on the lower part, I am not sure that it is easily made into something that can be dForced without asking for parts dropping off or the thing exploding.

So, from my observation I see these two possible problems:

1. the PA did intend the belt-appendix to move, but forget to implemement the needed weightmapping, dForce values and other gadgets that would make this possible or
2. it's intentional that no part of the outfit is dForceable and the PA just made a mistake when naming the product, by leaving the "dForce..." in the name part of their description template.

I see option 2. as the more probable one.

And if You would want to see that belt-appendix move under dForce it would need either You to make all the additions to allow it or contacting the technical helpdesk with a bug report and hoping that it is really an mistake that is suppoed to be fixed by some action of the PA other than fixing the name and description of the item.

Good luck anyway

EDIT: I didn't look first for possible other threads about the outfit, but if it's about the hair, there's this one here

 

Thank you. I guess it should be renamed, as there seem to be no simulation settings for either the head piece or the belt.

Pity.

maikdecker

watchdog79 said:

Thank you. I guess it should be renamed, as there seem to be no simulation settings for either the head piece or the belt.

Pity.

There's always the option to try adding the dForce modifier and weightmaps yourself , which is something that Ido all the time, even for products without dFoce in the name.

This thread is a great source for how to achieve the best results when doing it.

But yes, a ticket to rename the outfit seems the way to go here

watchdog79

maikdecker said:

watchdog79 said:

Thank you. I guess it should be renamed, as there seem to be no simulation settings for either the head piece or the belt.

Pity.

There's always the option to try adding the dForce modifier and weightmaps yourself , which is something that Ido all the time, even for products without dFoce in the name.

This thread is a great source for how to achieve the best results when doing it.

But yes, a ticket to rename the outfit seems the way to go here

I sent a support ticket, no reply yet. Thanks for the link, but it looks overwhelmingly complicated. 

maikdecker

watchdog79 said:

maikdecker said:

watchdog79 said:

Thank you. I guess it should be renamed, as there seem to be no simulation settings for either the head piece or the belt.

Pity.

There's always the option to try adding the dForce modifier and weightmaps yourself , which is something that Ido all the time, even for products without dFoce in the name.

This thread is a great source for how to achieve the best results when doing it.

But yes, a ticket to rename the outfit seems the way to go here

I sent a support ticket, no reply yet. Thanks for the link, but it looks overwhelmingly complicated. 

In fact, it isn't, depending on what you want to achieve. You should really try it out with some of the more simple things, like getting a cushion to react on a figure resting it's head on it or something like that. In the end, knowing to get some results keeps you from spending too much money in the shop for things you can achieve yourself by investing a little time and effort... and sometimes it helps to get things to work as they should

watchdog79

I was contacted by Daz Support. They managed to reproduce the problem and reported it to the bug tracker.

I hope the product gets fixed soon. I think I am going to refrain from buying any products by Val3dart until then. It still baffles me how this could have gotten through QA.

joegerardi

Well, 2 years later and no fix. I don't actually own this, but a friend does, and I tried it on their machine when visiting recently, because I thought of getting it, but wanted to see the issue. I couldn't add a dForce modifier because when I did and tried to simulate, the "spring rest at (xxxxxx,xxxxxx) extended" ran for about 8 minutes, and when it finally tried to simulate, it blew up Windows, threw the machine into Safe Mode, and made me restart the PC. That's what happens when the clothing is not dForce compatible.

Pity that, because it's a pretty good outfit, but with on options for that left leg cloth, the outfit is useless to me.

 

..Joe

Richard Haseltine

joegerardi said:

Well, 2 years later and no fix. I don't actually own this, but a friend does, and I tried it on their machine when visiting recently, because I thought of getting it, but wanted to see the issue. I couldn't add a dForce modifier because when I did and tried to simulate, the "spring rest at (xxxxxx,xxxxxx) extended" ran for about 8 minutes, and when it finally tried to simulate, it blew up Windows, threw the machine into Safe Mode, and made me restart the PC. That's what happens when the clothing is not dForce compatible.

Pity that, because it's a pretty good outfit, but with on options for that left leg cloth, the outfit is useless to me.

 

..Joe

That is too drastic for it to be just the outfit, it sounds like a driver or even hardware issue.

joegerardi

Nope, it's the outfit. That happens all the time, both on his machine and mine. When dForce is added to something that isn't dForce (Or like this outfit) on certain items and simulation is attempted, it will run the Extending Spring Rest (or whatever the correct terminology is) section sometimes up to 8-10 minutes as it processes hundreds of thousands of (xxxxx,xxxxx) vertices, and when it finally starts to simulate, the PC locks up, then goes into safe mode and shows an nVidia error which it recovers from, but stays in Safe Mode. Can't be the video card because I have 12Gb of RAM on mine and his has 8, and regardless of updating the drivers, it still happens. Once in Safe Mode  (at the limited resolution OF Safe Mode) the only recourse is to reboot the machine. He's using Windows 10 with 32 GB of RAM, my DAZ PC is still Windows 7 with 16Gb of RAM. (That's about to chage as i update to a AMD 3950 chip, 64 Gb of RAM and Windows 10.)

 

This has been happening for over 4 years, since I moved to DAZ 4.x and started using dForce, and he said it's been longer on his. I've also read here that  others see this as well. I posted about this and created a support ticket 4 years ago, but never got a response from DAZ, except that they said it's the clothing and to contact the vendor.

..Joe