Changes to Mesh/Ghost Lights in Daz Studio 4.21

Hello Supporters!

First of all, Happy New Year 2023! May all  your wishes, hopes and dreams come true. Remember to treat yourself  well, do what you're passionate about and avoid what gets you down. I  believe that's the key to happiness. Let me know what your plans are for  the new year if you have any.

I've taken a bit of a break and  hibernated, played games and spent some quality me-time while recharging  my own batteries after an incredibly busy year. As of this week I'm  back "at it" so to say and thought I'd kick off this week with an Early  Access video for you all. It's about a new way we can hide emitters on  Mesh Lights (or Ghost Lights, whatever you want to call them). I've  mentioned this in the last Daz Stream on New Year's Eve already, but thought a more cohesive video might come in handy.

The  folks that develop Iray have added two properties in the latest version  that expose two values to hide emitters easier than it has been in the  past. We now have a toggle that can switch off the emitter, much like we  have with the parametric lights. Nothing is ever easy in 3D, so  currently this involves calling two scripts and changing 5 parameters as  you'll see in the video, but I would imagine when this is released it  may be condensed into a single click.

Rob from Daz has explained  it all in a post, together with the two scripts you can manually  download and use in the Daz Studio Beta version (4.21.1.26): https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/609556/creating-a-ghost-light-daz-studio-4-21-1-25

The  plan is to put these scripts into an updated version of the Default  Resources on the next update, but I'm not sure if it'll be called 4.22  or if we'll see a 4.21 update. Either way, as soon as this is released,  I'll make another video for the Daz channel and maybe update the  Masterclass section that deals with this topic.

In other news, I'm  going to meet a new doctor today after my previous one retired. It's a  general practitioner who will deal with my everyday health and the  preservation thereof, as well as writing referrals to specialist  doctors. This may or may not involve sitting in a waiting room full of  coughing kids for several hours. I'm debating whether to take my Steam Deck  along, or just catch up on Kindle reading. I'll let you know how it goes  if/when I get back. If I get out in time, join me this afternoon on  Twitch, where I'll try to finish Deathloop from 5pm EST.

​See you next time 👋