Global Settings

The Import DAZ File file selector has some option which are changed often (Mesh Fitting and Viewport Color). However, the result also depends on many other settings, which normally remain the same for all files. These settings are found in the Global Settings dialog. To invoke the dialog, press the Global Settings button which is close to the top of the Setup menu. It opens up a separate window with the import options grouped into different sections.


DAZ Studio Root Directories 

The most important setting is the information about the root directories, which is found in the left-most column.. The root directories must be the same as in DAZ Studio for the plugin to work. How to set up these directories was discussed in the setup documentation .

 

General

  • Unit Scale: Conversion factor between DAZ Studio and Blender units. Defaults to 0.01 which converts from centimeters to meters.
  • Verbosity: A value between 1 and 5 which determines how much information is printed in the terminal window. At higher values problems such as missing assets raise errors.
  • Case-Sensitive Paths: Enable this on a case-sensitive OS (Linux or Mac), disable on a case-insenstive OS (Windows). This option should automatically be set to the correct value.

 

Unit Scale

This parameter converts between DAZ Studio and Blender units. The units used natively by DAZ Studio are centimeters. The default value of Unit Scale = 0.01 thus corresponds to setting the units to meters in Blender. Here are some common values for this parameter.

    Centimeters: Unit Scale = 1.0, 1 B.U. = 1 cm.
    Decimeters: Unit Scale = 0.1, 1 B.U. = 1 dm.
    Meters: Unit Scale = 0.01, 1 B.U. = 1 m.
    Inches: Unit Scale = 0.3937, 1 B.U. = 2.54 cm.
 

Debugging

  • Z Up: Convert from DAZ's Y up convention to Blender's Z up convention. Disable for debugging only.
  • Unflipped Bones: Use the bone orientation in DAZ Studio, and don't flip axes during import. Enable for debugging only.
  • Dump Debug Info: Write debugging info to the file daz_importer_errors.txt after the scene has been imported, even if there are no errors. Useful for debugging.
  • Show Hidden Objects: Don't hide objects which are hidden in DAZ Studio.
  • Prune Node Tree: Remove nodes from generated node trees that have no connection to the output nodes. Disable for debugging only.
  • Merge Shell Materials: Merge shell materials with object materials. Empty meshes with shell materials are created if this option is disabled. Disable for debugging only.

 

Meshes

  • Build HD Meshes: Build high-resolution meshes if included in .dbz file.
  • Add Multires: Add multires modifier to HD meshes and rebuild lower subdivision levels.
  • Multiple UV Layers: Use multiple UV layers for HD meshes with multires modifier.
  • Auto Smooth: Use auto smooth if this is done in DAZ Studio. This can be useful for objects with hard edges, but leads to poor performance and artifacts for organic meshes.
  • Use Instancing: Use instancing for DAZ instances.
  • Simulation: Add influence (pinning) vertex groups for simulation.

For more information about high-resolution meshes and the multires modifier, see the following blog posts:

High resolution meshes
HD meshes and geografts
Baking normal maps
HD meshes and geografts revisited

For more about simulations, see


Rigging

  • Quaternions: Use quaternions for ball-and-socket joints (shoulders and hips).
  • Connect Close: Connect bones to their parent if the head is close to the parent's tail.
  • Location Locks: Add location locks to bones as in DAZ Studio.
  • Location Limits: Add location locks to bones as in DAZ Studio. Only for the DAZ Studio orientation method.
  • Rotation Locks: Add rotation locks to bones as in DAZ Studio.
  • Rotation Limits: Add rotation limits to bones as in DAZ Studio. Only for the DAZ Studio orientation method.
  • Display Rotation Limits: Display rotation limits as IK limits.

For more info, see the blog posts on DAZ Studio bones and Rotation locks and limits.

 

Morphs

  • Adjust: Add extra sliders to adjust the overall strength of translation channels (shapekeys and locations).
    • None: Don't add adjusters.
    • Morph Type: Add adjusters for morph type.
    • Morph Strength: Add adjusters for morph strength.
    • Both Type And Strength: Add adjusters for both morph type and strength.
  • Make Hidden Sliders: Create properties for hidden morphs, so they can be displayed in the UI.
  • Slider Limits: Min and max values for sliders. 
    • DAZ: Use min and max values from DAZ files if available. The limits are multiplied with the factor below.
    • Custom: Use min and max values from custom sliders.
    • None: Don't limit sliders.
  • Final Limits: Final min and max values for DAZ properties, when all sliders are taken into account.
    • DAZ: Use min and max values from DAZ files if available. The limits are multiplied with the factor below.
    • Custom: Use min and max values from custom sliders.
    • None: Don't limit sliders.
  • Multiplier: Morph multiplier. Multiply the min and max values for sliders with this factor.
  • Custom Min: Custom minimum for sliders.
  • Custom Max: Custom maximum for sliders.
  • Show Final Morph Values: Display the final values of morphs.
  • Strip Category: Strip category from the beginning of morph names.
  • Load To Modified Meshes: Load morphs to meshes that have been modified by merging geografts or lashes. Warning: can give incorrect shapekeys if meshes have been modified in edit mode

For an explanation of the sliders (raw morph values) and the final morph values, see On raw and final slider values.

Loading morphs to modified meshes is discussed in Adding morphs after lashes and geografts have been merged.

 

Materials

  • Material Method: Type of material node tree. More details.
    • BSDF: Full Iray materials (Cycles only)
    • Principled: Node tree with a principled node (Eevee and Cycles).
    • Internal: Blender internal rendered (Blender 2.7x only)
  • SSS Method: Method for subsurface scattering.
    • Christensen-Burley.
    • Random Walk.
  • Refractive Method: Type of nodes for refraction.
    • BSDF: Node group with BSDF nodes.
    • Second Principled: A second principled node. Only if Material Method = Principled.
    • Reuse Principled: Reuse the principled node used for opaque materials. Only if Material Method = Principled.
  • Hair Method: Type of material node tree for hair materials. More details.
    • Hair BSDF: Node tree with the Hair BSDF node (Cycles only).
    • Hair Principled: Node tree with the Hair Principled node (Cycles only, Blender 2.8x and later only).
    • Principled: Node tree with a principled node (Eevee and Cycles).
  • Viewport Color: Method to choose viewport colors. More details.
  • World: When to create a world material.
    • Always: Always create world material.
    • Dome: Create world material from dome.
    • Never: Never create world material.
  • Reuse Materials: Reuse materials already present in the scene. Avoids creation of duplicate materials but may lead to problems if the existing material differs from the imported one.
  • Bump Factor: Multiplier for bump strength. Some DAZ materials have unusually high bump strength, e.g. Victoria 8 has bump = 5. 
  • Fake Caustics: Add a node groups that fake caustics in Cycles.
  • Fake Translucency Textures: If there is no translucency texture, use diffuse texture instead. Sometimes useful to avoid "white skin" effect, in particular if Volume is disabled below.
  • Interpolation: Image interpolation.
    • Linear.
    • Closest.
    • Cubic.
    • Smart.
  • Render Settings: Cf. blog post on Render settings.
    • Update: Update insufficient render settings (default).
    • Warn: Warn about insufficient render settings.
    • Ignore: Ignore insufficient render settings.
  • Light Settings: Cf. blog post on Render settings.
    • Update: Update insufficient light settings.
    • Warn: Warn about insufficient light settings (default).
    • Ignore: Ignore insufficient light settings.
  • Displacement: If disabled, ignore displacement.
  • Emission: If disabled, ignore emission.
  • Reflection: If disabled, ignore reflection.
  • Volume: Use volume node in BSDF tree. If this option is disable it may be necessary to enable Fake Translucency Textures.

 

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