Simulation Section

Many modern clothes use dForce, which simulates draping and movement of garments in DAZ Studio. The corresponding feature in Blender is cloth simulation, which has been considerably improved in Blender 2.90.The DAZ Importer offers some basic tools for importing dForce simulations. However, these tools can only be the first step in setting up a simulation in Blender, because the simulations engines in DAZ Studio and Blender are different.

Simulation support has been discussed in the blog posts on dForce simulations and Simulations moved.

 

• Make Simulation: Create simulation from DAZ data.
  
• Make Deflection: Make a low-poly deflection mesh from the active mesh.
  
• Make Collision: Add collision modifiers to selected meshes.
  
• Make Cloth: Add cloth modifiers to selected meshes.
  

In order for the simulation tools to work, the global Simulation option must be enabled. It is found in the Meshes section.

Make Simulation

Create a scene with a dForce simulation in DAZ Studio and import into Blender. No Blender simulation has yet been created. Instead, information about the DForce simulation setup has been stored in the meshes for later use.

The Make Simulation button creates a Blender simulation from the stored data.

• Preset: Simulation preset.
• Cotton.
• Denim.
• Leather.
• Rubber.
• Silk.
• Pin Group: Use this vertex group as pin group. A vertex group called dForce Pin is created by the DAZ importer when appropriate.
  
• Simulation Quality:
  
• Collision Quality:
• GSM Factor: GSM Factor (vertex mass multiplier)
  
• Collision Distance: Minimun collision distance (mm).
  

Cloth and collision modifiers are created for the sheet.

The male, slab and floor only have collision modifiers.

The sheet now drapes around the man and the bed.

Make Deflection

This tool creates a low-poly mesh that fits the character mesh and has the same armature modifier. It can be used e.g. as a collision object for simulations. For Genesis 8, the deflection mesh has 506 vertices, 1512 edges, and 1008 faces.

• Offset (mm): Offset the surface from the character mesh.
• Quads: Convert the deflector into a majority-quad mesh.
  
• Subsurf: Smooth the deflection mesh with a subsurf modifier.
  
• Shrinkwrap: Shrinkwrap the deflection mesh to the original mesh.
  

Often we only need part of the deflection mesh, e.g. in a hair simulation it may be enough to keep the head and shoulders. In that case we can delete unused parts of the deflection mesh to reduce its size even further.

The creation of the deflection mesh relies on vertex numbers, so if those have been changed, e.g. by merging geografts, there may be problems. However, if you only have added vertices to the original mesh, e.g. by joining the eyelashes, the deflection mesh is created correctly.

 

Make Collision

 

This tool adds collision modifiers to selected meshes. The option is the same as in Make Simulation.

 

Make Cloth

This tool adds cloth modifiers to selected meshes. The options are the same as in Make Simulation.