Daz to UE, general realism is seriously lacking

markdkberry

I've been learning Daz and UE5.2 for the last week, and I am now pulling my hair out - pun intended - trying to get a Daz G9 model to look realistic in UE5.2.

The skin and the hair, the face, the eyes, it all looks plastic and rubbish once brought into UE (using any method I have tried sucks, but currently DazToUnreal plugin). I am pretty sure I have now exhausted all methods and suggestions on YT tutes from going via Blender or tweaking things in UE. Maybe it just isnt possible after all. Before giving up on Daz for UE and going to Metahumans, I wondered if any of you guys can offer some advice on improving this debarcle.

Here is what I am talking about. A Daz render followed by the import in UE5.2



 

metaside

Other people might have more specific suggestions (I'm using UE mostly not for realistic renders but for game projects and Metasounds), but from a quick look at your renders I think your biggest problem are the materials, so I would recommend looking into what you can do with materials in UE. If you like Metahumans, you can also take a look at how the materials are set up for these and how the textures look in comparison to your Daz textures.

For instance, it looks like the hair has no opacity/transparency maps applied at all. It's no problem to do that, just plug your opacity map into a sample texture node connected to opacity in you UE hair material.

Lighting in UE is another aspect you probably should look into more in-depth.

delectro_9f6dc82a97

It's the lighting, mainly, and yes, it's a complex subject. A DAZ render has fixed lighting, optimized for bringing out the proper shades and effects and details. UE has has a responsive lighting system and is ever changing with every movement of your character, it's built for movement, after all. If you station a character inside a room in UE, and play with setting up the lighting the way you'd find it done in DAZ (hopefully you understand how to actually light a character for best results), you can achieve immensely better results. Also, what metaside said. You are going to have to futz around with card hair, in particular, after bringing it into UE, and what's best for one hair will not be for another. Groom hair is easier, but more expensive, of course. And you have to use skin materials that are made for realistic characters. DAZ to Unreal won't do that. You'll need to use skin materials adapted from Metahumans for best results.

And, after all that, you're not going to get perfect results that stand up to every place your character is in UE. Real life is not like that either, people can look washed out on a bright beach, for instance.

Learning the particulars of UE or any game engine is not a quick experience. Keep at it. Research more. Learn the lighting, and the materials, and be ready to have to adapt to many types of characters and situations. A lot of game work is learning how to fake the looks of things using the engines's tools and your own ingenuity.

markdkberry

So, in essence, check into materials first, then lighting. Thanks for the tips. I had tried converting the hair via blender into groom, but the one I had didn't work very well and came in as translucent strands. The one in the linked pictures was as-is on export with that cardboard look.  There is also lots to learn in a multitude of different softwares. This is what I thought, but was more concerned I was making a rookie error going out of Daz, rather than it being something I needed to delve into adjusting in UE. Thanks again.

Macislav

Skin realism seems to be some kind of industry secret that hinders progress in hobbyist's projects and MetaHuman skins look awfull btw. (too blurry)

delectro_9f6dc82a97

UE5 will use blurrier textures the further you are from the character unless you force it to use the highest rez, don't forget.You can set the LODs used and the distances at which they switch in.

Macislav

It's not about lods or texture memory. Look at the many previw images and you will see how blurry und rubber like it all looks (in close up view) and in daylight it's much worse.

With daz you can at least get some details, but true realism in virtual human skin/characters is top secret esp. under daylight conditions. (or hasn't been invented yet?)

catmaster

ARealiti

Macislav said:

It's not about lods or texture memory. Look at the many previw images and you will see how blurry und rubber like it all looks (in close up view) and in daylight it's much worse.

With daz you can at least get some details, but true realism in virtual human skin/characters is top secret esp. under daylight conditions. (or hasn't been invented yet?)

Yes diffucult and a continuum of results, but not impossible IMHO to get results that are close to realistic in Unreal/Unity, difussion and lighting and shading and materials and environment are all coming into play to get the character / whole thing looking good in an enviornment in real time engines.

I have done the same things in Unreal and Unity they end up looking very similar so it is not the engine and it is not the Daz models that can't look good it is the setup IMHO.There are probably dozens of individual concepts to grasp then apply to good models and materials/textures and blend for a good result with good lighting. I wish I could explain more, but it would be exhausting 

Half Sun Profile

 Sun Side Profile

Shade Side Profile

Sun Side Distance Profile

Shade Side Distant Profile

 

frankiev888_28b3c399af

Well there is no such thing as a free lunch and one has to work for the results they are looking for

Starting with the basics geometry is geometry and materials is materials and the difference is how the two apps makes use of the basics so from that perspective the desired result can be achieved. The thing is the bridge gets better with each new version so I can see at some point the result will be better than at least a Daz based rendered actor. For that matter how long will there be PBR based mater sold on Daz3D.

Daz Studio makes use of more parameter driven solutions where material use is based on PBR based materials and in my experience the bridge does a “good” job of converting to the different required elements.

SO yes materials is the most logical starting point as photo realistic actors is by a large margin the most difficult to achieve.

On the other hand nothing says you can't use Metahume materials on your G9 character as once again materials are materials and I've been using the PBR eye materials for a while now.

David Vodhanel

The good news is you don't need to use the materials I made.  The plugin will help map paramaters in Daz Surfaces to your own Unreal Materials also.

Working with Materials in Daz to Unreal – David Vodhanel

And I added a system so you can make a plugin with your own materials that will override the ones in the bridge.

Daz To Unreal – Making a Material Pack – David Vodhanel