by 3drendero | Apr 19, 2013 | Cafe Articles, Carrara Plugins
The new Luxus the Luxrender plugin for Carrara is being developed by Spheric Labs at a very rapid rate. This blog is supposed to collect the most important information in one place.
The latest support additions are manual changes, free shaders and a FAQ, thanks to rk66, 3DAGE and Jay NOLA.
Luxus has been released and can now be bought from: http://www.daz3d.com/luxus-for-carrara
1. Release list/Change log
– CarraraCafe -> https://carraracafe.com/forum-3/?cid=1&show=59
2. Downloads (Updated December, 07, 2013)
– Official release of Luxus 1.0.0.0 (updated to 1.0.0.1) for Win/Mac 32/64bit is now available at -> http://www.daz3d.com/luxus-for-carrara
– Luxrender -> http://www.luxrender.net/en_GB/standalone
3. Documentation (Updated October, 17, 2013):
– Unofficial Manual by rk66 -> https://carraracafe.com/plugins/luxus-for-carrara-manual-pdf/
– Official Manual -> http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/read_me/index/16380/start
– FAQ (scroll down to Spheric Labs) -> http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/290982/#Comment_290982
4. Other related downloads/links:
– Some Sample Shaders -> http://sphericlabs.com/carrara/LuxSampleShaders.zip
– M4/V4 Lux base shaders by 3DAGE -> https://carraracafe.com/forum-3/?cid=25&show=217
– Luxus for Carrara Resource Pack by PhilW -> http://www.daz3d.com/luxus-for-carrara-resource-pack
– Luxrender Manual -> http://www.luxrender.net/wiki/Main_Page
– Unofficial Manual as PDF by Holly and rk – > https://carraracafe.com/downloads/?did=33
5. Forum threads:
– CarraraCafe -> https://carraracafe.com/forum-3/#cid=1,tid=30
– Daz3D -> http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/20383/
– Daz3D -> http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/22779/
6. FAQ (Updated 2016-04-24):
Q1: How do I create an animation with Luxus?
A1: Luxus only saves one file per frame of the animation (does not launch Luxrender), then you need to manually open the files in the Queue page of Luxrender, which renders an image of each file in the same folder. Detailed steps:
1. First you MUST set ONE of these settings, otherwise the first frame will render forever: Render Room/Rendering/Film Options:
-Halttime: 60 (means 60 seconds of rendering per frame)
-Halt SPP: 100 (means 100 samples per pixel, maybe overkill for an animation)
2. Setup Carrara for animation rendering (Movie, frame rate… assume you know this)
3. Check “Choose path” in the Rendering page in Carrara/Render room/Render/Rendering/LuxRender, to make sure that you know where the *.lxs files get saved.
4. Press Render. Done. Super quick since only files are saved, no rendering job has been done.
5. Load Luxrender and go to the Queue page and press “+” to load all the *.lxs files.
6. Watch Luxrender do its thing, all images should be saved in the same folder.
7. Enjoy!
by 3drendero | Apr 13, 2013 | Carrara Plugins, News
Spheric Labs is working hard and fast, the new proof-of-concept build that was just released, includes enough features to call it a beta version, it works until the end of April.
Here is a complete feature list, bold means new since last build (Windows 64bit only):
Luxrender via Luxus (Render room/Renderer)
-Sampler
-Hybrid (GPU assisted)
Lux Surface (Shader room/Top Shader)
Lux Lights (Assemble room/Insert menu)
– Sun Sky2
– Infinite (HDRI) Use forward slashes for setting the path to the map in the “Map” filed. HDR and EXR both work. Example: c:/Program Files/DAZ 3D/Carrara8/Scenes/Global Illumination/DoschHDRI.hdr
– Sun Updated 17/4
– Sky2 Updated 17/4
Lux Materials (Shader room/Material) Updated 16/4
– CarPaint
– Cloth
– Glass
– Glass2
– Glossy
– GlossyCoating
– GlossyTranslucent
– Layered
– Matte
– MatteTranslucent
– Metal2
– Mirror
– Mix
– Null
– RoughGlass
– Scatter
– Velvet
Lux Volumes (Shader room/Material)
– Clear
– Homogenous
99% stable save/load function (Added 17/4, the fourth release)
-for future updates, so you should be able to start saving *.car files now already, that should work with the upcoming stable version.
Known bugs/issues:
-Camera zooms in more than in Carrara
-Some material options are missing
-Some parameters values are too limited
-Dynamic hair is not supported, SDK limitation?
Download and discussion in the new Forum thread at: https://carraracafe.com/forum-3/#cid=1,tid=30
Direct download link for Luxus: http://sphericlabs.com/carrara/Luxus.zip
Get Luxrender here: http://www.luxrender.net/en_GB/standalone
Here is a link to the Luxrender manual, a must read is the lights and material section: http://www.luxrender.net/wiki/Main_Page
-For those completely new to Luxrender, here is the main difference in lighting setup:
In most cases, it is recommended to use only meshlights/area lights and environmental lighting for your scene, rather than point or spot lights. This is becauase the point and spot lights are unphysical and have no real world equivalent. As a result, they tend to produce unnaturally hard lighting and sharp shadows. Avoiding the point and spot lights will help improve the realism of your scene.
-Also, try to change the lights WHILE rendering in Luxrender, in the “Light group” sheet, check screenshot below.
-Also, switch Luxus render from “sampler” to “hybrid” to run GPU assisted rendering, limited to one light currently.
by 3drendero | Apr 11, 2013 | Carrara Plugins, News
Developer Spheric Labs that is selling Luxus the Luxrender plugin for Daz Studio, has already released an alpha release for the Carrara version.
Since it is an alpha version, it is very limited and should be seen a glimpse of what we may see in the near future if all goes well.
Here is the Forum thread with the discussion and download (updated): https://carraracafe.com/forum-3/#cid=1,tid=30
Direct download link for Luxus: http://sphericlabs.com/carrara/Luxus.zip
I have made the following simplifications to get this to you quicker.
1) Win64 only for now. (Please don’t kill me over this)
2) LuxRender must be installed like so
– CarraraFolder
— Carrara.exe
— LuxRender
— LuxRender.exe
3) Autotranslation is very primitive. I doubt it will work at all.
4) 2 new shaders. Lux Surface should be the top most shader, Lux Matte must be in the first slot of Lux Surface
5) Only the diffuse channel of Lux Matte will work. You can set a color or a texture there.
6) The Rendering Options only let you specify general stuff, not options on those things.
Get Luxrender here: http://www.luxrender.net/en_GB/standalone
Luxrender gallery: http://www.luxrender.net/forum/gallery2.php
Luxus for Daz Studio: http://www.daz3d.com/luxus
Updated 20130412: Added a quick render comparison of Carrara internal vs Luxrender via Luxus alpha.
To start Luxrender, note the top right corner: Renderer: Luxus via Luxrender, then press Render as usual.
Installation: Extract the zip file of Luxus into the Extensions folder of Carrara 8 64bit. Install Luxrender in the Carrara 8 folder, see the screenshot below that shows the correct paths/files:
by 3drendero | Feb 25, 2013 | Carrara Plugins, News
UPDATED: Casual has released the first early version for Carrara export to Cycles:
Download and Tutorial: https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts2/mcjblendbotspecial
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Casual, the maker of the Daz Studio to Blender Cycles GPU rendering scripts called McjTeleBlender, has shown early script support for Carrara to Blender Cycles GPU rendering engine. While it may take several months for Casual to do something that is easy to use, it is possible to see preview can be done already now, more details in these threads:
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/17623/
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/2877/P150/
Original scripts for Daz Studio: https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts/mcjteleblender-for-ds1-2-3-4
by 3drendero | Feb 9, 2013 | Carrara Plugins, News
Fenric has just updated three of his plugins for Carrara, details below:
Blending Mode Shader 1.1
This adds a “Fade” slider that allows you to adjust the strength of the effect, favoring either the top or bottom layer. It also enables non-color shaders to be used.
Enhanced Shaders 1.1
This corrects the issue where non-color shaders (value or black and white) did not have any effect.
Shader Doctor 1.2
This adds the ability to hold down ‘Shift’ while launching the Shader Doctor to display a dialog box that allows you to optionally specify the highlight, shininess, and bump amplitued. Check the box next to the value you wish to change. Any un-checked boxes are processed as usual.
More info in Fenrics store:
http://fenric.com/wordpress/store/products/
by 3drendero | Jan 9, 2013 | News
Fenric has been very busy lately and has managed to make three new plugins for Carrara and even a new store to buy them from at a very low price. There are also trial versions available. Here is the basic info about them, more data available at Fenrics site:
Layer Blending Mode Shader
This is a Carrara shader that provides Photoshop-like layer blending.
Enhanced Color Shaders
These are enhanced versions of the Color Balance and Color Merge shaders from the “Pose and Shading Tools 2″ package at DAZ. They take a sub-shader for control rather than using sliders.
Selection Changer
Change the current selection using your keyboard!
More info and how to buy the plugins here: http://fenric.com/wordpress/store/products/category/carrara-plugins/Trials here: http://fenric.com/wordpress/downloads/
by 3drendero | Jan 9, 2013 | Carrara Plugins, News
Both Architools and Baker have just been updated and Replica was updated to so long ago. Head over to inagoni.com to get the updates, no matter if bought at Daz3d.com or at inagoni.com. Some update info:
“Two updates available today: one for ArchiTools that fixes a bug with shading domains being multiplied; one for Baker that fill properly the alpha channel of normal and light maps.
ArchiTools latest update fixes some level related bugs (undeground levels, undo/redo).”
An example of what ArchiTools can do:
