How to solve a random textures bug with Tara 2
Elor
Posts: 2,287
Hello,
I’m speaking about this product: https://www.daz3d.com/tara-2-hd-for-victoria-7-victoria-8
And I have a texture problem on the arms surfaces, mostly visible right at the limits between the body and the arms surfaces (the arms are slightly darker than the rest of her skin).
I first saw it recently, and looking back at various renders (like this one) I did with her I didn’t see any showing the problem (it’s pretty obvious so I think I would have seen it much sooner).
Render without the problem (created on the last public beta, on my Mac):
Render with the problem (created on the last public beta but on my Windows machine but I don't think it matters):
Both renders are made with the base character, as it’s loaded, with a dress, hairs and an HDRI loaded with some change on the tone-mapping settings (but it’s also visible with the default render settings).
The bug is only active on her human skin, not on her demon skin: if I’m loading her demon skin, no problem in sight, even on a scene with the problem on her human skin. Reloading the human skin shows the problem again. An example:
All this renders were done with the Genesis 8 version, but the problem is active on the Genesis 3 version too (I thought I did some renders but apparently, I forgot to save them, well, too bad but it’s the same problem on Genesis 3).
I now have two scene files: one with the bug active, one without it. Loading the bugged scene shows the bug, loading the non-bugged scene doesn’t show it, even when the scene are loaded back to back.
Merging the bugged scene while the non-bugged scene is loaded shows no sign of the bug and vice versa.
Here is what I also tested:
- Closing Daz and deleting temporary files. Sometime it worked (no bug), sometimes it didn’t, so it’s likely not the root of the problem.
- Reinstalling Tara 2 didn't solve the problem.
- Using the last General Release, but, like what I did in 1, sometime it did work, sometimes it didn’t.
- Reloading the scene doesn’t work at all: if a scene is saved without the bug, it’ll stay without the bug. Same if a scene is saved with the bug.
Sadly, that same rule (save without the bug means loading without the bug) doesn’t apply to character preset: I created one when I converted Tara 2 skin to PBR Skin, using Texture Booster, and I just tested that using it could lead to both outcomes: a non-bugged Tara or a bugged one. I don’t know yet if Personas are immune or not.
Regarding the use of beta or general release, I saw the problem happens on both on Mac and Windows so I don't think it's a problem related to the beta version.
I checked with other characters and I didn’t see any problem with them: even a character loaded in the same scene as a bugged Tara 2 didn’t exhibit the same problem (loading Tara 2 mats on them did show the problem on them too though).
If it’s useful, my setup is the following.
I’m using DIM on my Mac to download and install everything on it, then I transfer the packaged products download by DIM through my local network on my Windows machine on I’m now also using DIM to install them on it (in offline mode with a made-up account, because I don’t intend to go online with this machine).
Before doing that (no idea if it could be the cause of the problem), I simply synchronised ‘My DAZ 3D Library’ between the two computers, installing the product on my Mac then asked the Windows computer to update the metadata from within Daz Studio.
I changed the way I’m doing it because it could take half an hour to update the metadata on the Windows machine (I could ask it only to update products I just purchased, but there is no search function in the Reimport metadata UI so I would have to search each of them manually, which would likely take as much time after a big purchase).
If someone has an idea on how to solve that problem, I’m all ears, because I would like a lot to go back to the previous state of affairs: not having the bug happening.
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Comments
The texture issue is most likely way beyond my skill-level - however one idea popped into my head. On the instance where the bug appears are the surfaces for Torso and Arms both definitely set to Iray textures? It could be that one is Iray and the other is still 3Delight and the translation on-the-fly is not doing an exact job? Probably not this but thought I'd mention it anyway, just in case.
On the other issue, I also have a similar setup in that I install products via DIM on my mac and need a way to get the metadata across to the Windows machine that mounts the products via a NAS. I am currently using a modified version of Websoul's Freebie script to import only the metadata for new products. However, I am getting that list of products via a direct query to the CMS database so it's not really a perfect solution. Something I need to improve on when I have some time.
I tested it with the default character and couldn't reproduce the issue in your 2nd SS with DS 4.22 GR and 4.23 latest PB. Besides, I don't think product per se and metadata have anything to do with the "issue".
But we may firstly do a peer testing to prove something.... I attached my DUF file down below. You can test it and attach yours as well. I'm using DS GR 4.22.0.16 and DS PB 4.23.1.40, NSD 572.6
Edit: As for metadata, I almost know nothing about Mac... but if the culster folder as well as the file formats of postgreSQL are as same as the ones in Windows (%appdata%\DAZ 3D\cms) , you can quickly synchronize metadata by copying / pasting the cluster folder from Mac to PC or vice versa ~
I checked: I even thought I changed a setting by mistake on either surfaces, so I created a shader preset from the body surface, then applied it to the arm surface while pressing CTRL (to avoid replacing existing images). Off the top of my head, it didn't change anything.
I'm using Resilio Sync to synchronise a couple of folders: before changing to my current setup, every library was synchronised, so it was a matter of re-importing everything, which took up to half an hour sometime while other time, it took a couple of minutes (no idea why, because each time I did it the same way: re-importing every product bought from Daz).
I tested your scene, no problem with it on my Mac
I tested my bugged scene on Daz Studio 4.21 on a computer with just the bare minimum to load it, and the problem was still there, so my guess is there is sometime something wrong when the character is loaded and that wrongness is saved in the scene.
I saved the scene with no hair and the basic clothes if you want to take a look.
I didn't test that solution, but I'll check if it's at least possible. Having said that, considering all the synchronisation between the two computers is done with Resilio Sync, I think it could lead to a database corruption if I tried to use it with my current setup and both computers tried to update the database closed to each other, while the sync has not yet happened.
Yes, I could reproduce the issue with your DUF file and the culprit I found is that for some reason, Image Gamma value set in Arms - Base Color is 2.5 rather than the default 0.0 from default Tara character preset... (ss1)
Zeoring the gamma value can fix the issue.(ss2) Did you by chance tweaked the gamma value there.... ?
Edit: one trick I'd like to share for troubleshooting in such similar cases : compare the problematic DUF file with the DUF file that works fine (two files should better have very same items in the scene)... by using Compare plugin of Notepad++, you can quickly find the culprit. (ss3)
It never crossed my mind to compare my two scenes files
Thank you very much, it was driving me crazy.
I did play with the gamma at one point I think, but it was either with Textures Booster or 1-Click PBR Skin, which I think are applying the gamma value to all skin surfaces.
What I don't understand is why the gamma value would apply to a character freshly loaded using the official character preset, ones, I'm sure, I did not touch (especially the G3F version, I prefer to use the G8F version): the only ones I did change were JS Fanny because the 'URL' of her brows is wrong (it reminds me that I'll have to open a ticket on that subject) and some bugged hairs mats presets (ticket still waiting for an official fix).
Time to hunt that rogue gamma value with extreme prejudice
After a search in all scenes with Tara 2, that gamma value is something I likely set using Textures Booster (it's the same ~2.5 value, and the oldests are from before I got 1-Click PBRSkin): in most scenes, it is applied to multiple surfaces and the one I checked seems to not exhibit any problem. In other scenes, it's only on the arms, other only the legs and face and I removed the gamma value in them.
The character preset I created (my guess is I took it from a scene I was happy with and didn't see the problem) also had a gamma value for the arms (I was under the impression that it could not be saved in a character preset, let's add that to the pile of thing I misunderstood about Daz Studio), which is a great new: I won't have to redo it.
I'll have to have my eyes checked, because I didn't see the problem until a couple of days ago
Ah... that's it. I didn't thought of anything about gamma value at the first place but I did know that comparing the user-facing files can mostly help.
So, consistancy in terms of surface settings is important ~~