- This topic has 12 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 9 months, 2 weeks ago by
.
-
Posts
-
So, the recent release of character from Lala rabbit has 8k detail normal map, it seems to be a trend for those eastern asian vendor (Lala, and VOOTW). I usually ignorant and just install them as if, but now after my storage almost depleted, I begin to question what made these characters so bloated. Most of the offenders are 8K detail normal maps. The question now? When does 8K detail map start matter? when it doesn't? And is it fine if we resize it to lower resolution like 4K? I mostly render on 2K resolution rather than 4K
It matters only in relation to the surface's proximity to the camera and the focus of the camera. Think in terms of real life photography. Otherwise, there is no benefit. The significance of including them in a product is that you can't make hi res images from low res, but you can make low res images from hi res. My recommendation is make a med res version (1k-2k?) of the textures. If at some point you need hi res, it's still available in the original install file.
Agreed.
The perceived benefit is only if you want to do extreme close up renders.
If, like me, you only do half or full body renders the benefits are marginal & not worth the bloat.I'm sure there's also no small amount of hype and marketing bullshit. They advertise these amazing amounts of detail and show closeups with every pore shown, but how many people do this?. They don't mention the fact that one character will grind the average machine almost to a halt and if someone complains, that asshole Haseltine washes the complaints under the forum's rug.
Hello, as eelgoo and 3Demon say, I guess it depends on your rendering sytle. And skills; for my crappy renders it's definitely overkill.
Best regards,
Adding my plugged nickel's worth of commentary ...
In DAZ Studio, it probably doesn't matter, unless you're rendering a closeup portrait, as others have said.
It matters more if you render in an "industry standard" system like Blender, Maya, or RenderMan because those engines can use the resolution to greater advantage. Even then, it's better to use a skin detail map (like you find in G9) that can be tiled, and reduce the size of your normal maps to 4K.
You make a great point regarding other software. And hardware. DS on Macs doesn't allow for GPU (CPU rendering only IIRC), so 8k textures are a monster to render in a reasonable amount of time.
Try upping subdivision for close-ups.
Unfortunately I dont render large enough or close enough to see much benefit in 8k texture.If you find that 8K normal maps are bloating your assets, you can safely downsize them to 4K or even 2K using a tool like Paint.NET. This is especially practical since such high resolution is only truly beneficial for extreme close-up renders.
For most full-body or half-body shots, you won't see the difference. To easily manage this, use the Surface panel in your software: you can disable high-detail maps (like micro-details in PBR or bump maps in Uber) for wide shots and enable them only for specific areas (head, torso, legs, arms) in close-ups. This way, you save significant storage and VRAM without sacrificing quality where it counts.
I hate any map bigger than 4k, full-stop. I don't use EEVEE or any higher-end render engines, and since I focus more on toons as a subject than anything else, I don't give a rodent's rectum about having every pore mapped.
Here's what you do (and I did):
0. Back up your DS directory, just in case. You should always have backups anyway, but I wrote this to make a point: back things up just in case.
1. Get Windows PowerToys from Microsoft. It's free, has a lot of gee-whiz shit that Microsoft should have included by default, but it also has one particular 'toy' that you will love: Image Resizer.
2. Read this page: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/image-resizer - set up an image size called "DS Shrink", and have it set to "Fits within 2048x2048" (or if you prefer, 4096x4096)
3. Using File Explorer, go to your DAZ Studio Runtime/Textures directory, then in there, use search to get all images one file type at a time (.jpg, .png, etc). Wait for it to list everything - this will take a long time if you don't have the disk indexed.
4. Select All, then use Image Resizer (right-click - it's in the context menu) to crank down all bigger images to "DS Shrink". The other options to have checked is:
- Make pictures smaller but not larger
- Ignore the orientation of pictures
- Overwrite files (you'll want to nuke the older images)
(I leave the "remove metadata" option unchecked, but it's harmless either way.)5. Click "Resize", then go get some coffee, do perverted stuff with your spouse, go grocery shopping, translate War and Peace into Swahili, whatever. Point is, it will take a long while if you have a big DS directory, so don't touch it while it's working.
6. When it's done - go do all the other image types (typically you'll see .jpg, .png, .tif, .jpeg, .webp, .jif, occasionally some dummy uses .bmp, whatever.)
7. Enjoy all the GB of newly freed up disk space!
There's another useful tool https://www.daz3d.com/scene-optimizer
🙂
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
