Freebie - Simple DAZ Studio WorldBall

Well, it's taken me a lot, lot longer than expected to get the DAZ Script version of the WorldBall working, but I got there in the end! It's available at ShareCG as Simple DAZ Studio WorldBall.

I ended up using the ShaderBuilder Diffuse IBL I was working on back in April's 'Ongoing - DIY DAZ Studio Basic IBL: Shader Mixer, to Shader Builder, to Pulling My Hair Out!' post. It's more-or-less as it was in post #21 on my DAZ forums thread (i.e. 20th April!) - I never really managed to resolve the problems I was mired in there...
The DAZ Script itself is still at the 'held together with sticky tape and string' stage, and needs a fair bit of tidying up. But it already handles a lot of the most likely problems, and I'm quite pleased with the simplicity of the UI (i.e. the dialogues presented to the user).

The whole shebang's far from perfect, but it does actually work quite nicely. And the ability to add your own environment sets by simply editing a text file is a big, big plus from my point of view.

I've also uploaded a couple more environment sets, entitled 'Above The Clouds' and 'Below The Waves'.

To use them with either of the WorldBall's you need to manually edit that WorldBallData.txt file. But once you've done it once...

Happy rendering!

Freebie - Simple Poser WorldBall

I can't believe it's been a month since I last posted!

My investigation of DAZ Studio IBL, and the stuff I was doing on my website about 'Landscape' software got a bit mixed up and whisked me off into the world of equirectangular maps, light probes and HDR.

The first thing to come out of this melting pot is my Simple Poser WorldBall available from Renderosity or ShareCG. Check out the ShareCG page for more info.

It's been up for a week already, but I've been so busy working on related stuff (e.g. DAZ Studio version in the works...) that I forgot to post here...

Better late than never!

Ongoing - DIY DAZ Studio Basic IBL: Shader Mixer, to Shader Builder, to Pulling My Hair Out!

I was progressing nicely with my attempts to get a Shader Mixer based solution thanks to some helpful folks on DAZ3D's DAZ Studio forum - see my Shader Mixer (DS3+4): How to make a very basic diffuse IBL? thread.

Around post #17 to 18 I was beginning to think I needed to use Shader Builder instead, and by post #20 and 21 I thought I was almost there with a Shader Builder solution.

But I've run into some really, really basic problems with Shader Builder due to the lack of any detailed documentation. Same problem as Shader Mixer. The best official documentation I can find is this:

Shader Mixer documentation at the old Artzone wiki

Shader Builder documentation at the old Artzone wiki

Both these old Artzone software guides are marked as being 'in progress' and it's a 99.9%+ certainty that those particular documents won't ever be updated (because the old Artzone wiki was for DAZ Studio 3, and DAZ no longer support that).

Sadly, if you do a Google search for Shader Mixer documentation or Shader Builder Documentation those old Artzone wikis come at (or near) the top of the list). 

So I've started a new Shader Builder Queries - One Problem, One Post thread in the Nuts'n'Bolts forum at DAZ3D site, on the grounds that this is driving me nuts! ;o)

The DAZ 4.5 Shader Builder Tutorial - MK Gooch Shader by LJ Studios (aka DollyGirl) at ShareCG is definitely worth a look. Although I haven't found solution to my specific problems yet...

There's also a  Shader Mixer Tutorial I by ZigGraphix at DAZ3D and I think it's genuinely free - i.e. you don't have to be a PC member, and you don't have to buy something else first