dForce hair is .. s-l-o-w ...

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dForce hair is .. s-l-o-w ...

February 19, 2026, 10:22:37 PM

I recently did a test render of a model with a dForce hair.
It went very slow. About 5 times the rendertime of a similar scene of a model with transmapped hair.
Should have understood this since the simulation time was a lot longer than for the dForced dress she's waring, but ...

And the result ? Mehhh ... Not 5 times better.
So, if you'r gonna use dForce hair in your renders, expect the rendertime to be a lot longer than anticipated and the result not proportionately better.
- John -

Re: dForce hair is .. s-l-o-w ...

Reply #1 – February 20, 2026, 11:33:09 AM

I don't even see a reason to use dforce hair.
I got some with the monthly free character, but wouldn't buy any.
Beside that, almost every hair has now written dforce in front of the name and it didn't even make sense, cause a simulation isn't possible at all, cause it's too short.

So I tried this hair: https://www.daz3d.com/eirgrid-hair-for-genesis-9

The simulation took 7 min, the render, since there is nothing more in the scene, some seconds.
The result is disappointing, cause real hair wouldn't be glued to the back, but showing a clear distance in this pose.

Re: dForce hair is .. s-l-o-w ...

Reply #2 – February 20, 2026, 06:06:30 PM

That image is about the size of my test renders..

Nowadays most everything is dForce - wether it has to be or not.
Think it's used as some kind of "quality statement".
Like 4K. Most don't even know what 4K really is, but use 4K as some sort of benchmark.

"Oh yeah, it's 4K so it has to be good !"
... but the image looks like crap - and 4K won't do anything positive about it.
Just a big waste of space.

I fell for a dForce hair by Linday, who usually do high quality stuff and this IS a high quality hair - no doubt.
It also uses the shell feature to make it even more dense.

But I did the mistake of putting it on a model that dominate the scene and with a blurry background = DOF on camera.
Well, mistake did and done and I will not make the same one again.
Note to self.
- John -

Re: dForce hair is .. s-l-o-w ...

Reply #3 – February 22, 2026, 12:37:34 AM

It's a mixed bag that's dependent on what you're trying to do. For some things it turns out rather well, for other things... ugh. Sometimes I'd rather just have morphs/adjusters and meshgrabber to get hair where it needs to be.

Re: dForce hair is .. s-l-o-w ...

Reply #4 – February 22, 2026, 11:53:19 AM

I agree with you, MKDAWUSS,
dForce hair is a hit-and-miss thing. Sometimes it works well and sometimes it does not..
Just need to keep in mind which ones does what...

Most of the time I do well with transmapped hair and use the move or rotate features to get it where I want it.
Sometimes I have to do it in post.
Meshgrabber is a possible approach, because I'm on a version of DS where Meshgrabber actually works..

- John -

Re: dForce hair is .. s-l-o-w ...

Reply #5 – February 22, 2026, 09:29:59 PM

And this is the result:

Yes, the hair follows the shape of the model and the dress very nicely and it looks ... well ... good.
But does it look five times better than other non-dForce hair ? No !
I can't find anything about it that motivates an increased render time by 5.

So, the mistake is did and done and I will sure not do it again.
Note to self.
- John -

Re: dForce hair is .. s-l-o-w ...

Reply #6 – February 23, 2026, 12:55:20 PM

So dforce and extreme glossy, no wonder, that the render time was so extreme.

That's one thing I always check first, for anything, how high the glossy factor is.
And when a face shines like a piece of bacon rind, hair looks like plastic and many other things, I always set the glossy value down.
Decreases the render time enormous.