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V4 UVs for G3F?

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  • XtraDimensionalXtraDimensional Posts: 509
    edited July 2015
    Nadino said:

    There just isn't a way around learning to use Blender.

    I've already gone through 3 interations of my Bake tutorial and it's driving me crazy the amount of pages dedicated to explaining the basics. The whole Baking process and set up itself takes only about 20 minutes.

    The fingersnail and toenail areas are not perfect and will need to be cleaned up. I've only done the actual skin and not the mouth or eye parts. So I don't see this as a solution for most users, especially those that are not comfortable with Blender already. But probably more useful to those that create their own skins.

    I keep meaning to knuckle down and learn, but things keep getting in the way. I appreciate all the work you're doing, and thus if where I shake my pompoms and cheer for your perseverance, which I hope will help me greatly. 

    I don't mind having to clean some things up in Photoshop, but main details, like, say, the face, are beyond me trying to do it totally by hand. I tried to hand-transfer a skin, and ended up having to completely redo the back tattoo from scratch (which took me 3 hours but I finally did it, and it looks pretty good), but I so badly mangled the face that I ended up just changing the tone of the V7 diffuse maps to match the skin tone of the original V4 maps and running my burn tool over the face to try and approximate the same lightness. It looks okay, but is definitely not good enough for continuity's sake. 

    Please don't feel as though you need to make a complete Blender tutorial. I think if you just include the hotkeys needed and maybe if something is a buried menu option, we begins can muddle our ways through it.

    Post edited by XtraDimensional on
  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001
    edited July 2015
    Bejaymac said:

    Just to give people some idea of the problems a V4/G1/G2 > G3F UV converter would have.

    The attached image shows G3F with my V4 clone dialed up, the red area is the surfaces that the torso texture gets applied to.
    Now that yellow outline you see is the area that Victoria 4's torso texture would cover, notice how there is quite a bit of gray inside the outline and some red outside it.

    This means a surface would have to use two separate diffuse maps at the same time, and none of our existing shaders could cope with that.

    You could remap G3F and redo the surfaces to roughly match and then save it as a subset, but the seams (points at shoulders) are going to be ragged as hell, and I doubt if DAZ would even allow it in the store let alone let you distribute it else where.

    The only real choice for the masses is something like TC2, that can render/bake new textures for G3F from the textures of the older figures.

    Bejaymac,  MallenLane commented specifically about that and stated that with the changes in layout, that (shoulders and other areas) would remain ragged no matter what you did to them.  So yes, the ONLY way is painting/'baking' the textures.  And 3DU pretty much implied in a post a couple pages back in this thread that TC2 (and maybe any updates) is 'pushing up daisies'...so it's probably a new dev/PA that will need to build a conberter program.

    Post edited by mjc1016 on
  • cosmo71cosmo71 Posts: 3,609
    edited July 2015

    The wish for V4 UVs for all new Generation Figures is what I support and also want because my character Dixie is still a v4.2 cr2 figure and I have fixed the textures for her and if I go to the new generation figures I want to use the skin of my Dixie smiley Dixie has her fans and I can`t image what psychological disaster it will cause for the fans if I do renders with a new character.

    Post edited by cosmo71 on
  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 96,943

    As has been explained, V4 UVs for G3F are not an option. What we can hope for is a tool to convert the maps, the way Texture Coinverter 2 did for older figures.

  • patience55patience55 Posts: 7,006

    In case anybody is wondering, I've put my little project on hold to have the time to fix a kazillion links.

    Bejaymac, the attachment links to a page 404? Yes those are certainly what I'd call "challenging areas". I have a couple of ideas which are as yet untried. Sometimes ideas work and sometimes, they don't. They are more complicated though than I have time to explain atm.

  • ZarconDeeGrissomZarconDeeGrissom Posts: 5,412

    I'm finding some links are spontaniusly fixing themselvs, as with other stuff. The forum transistion may still be in progress.

    As for an 'Automated tool', no.   http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/849438/#Comment_849438

  • patience55patience55 Posts: 7,006

    Leg check ... doable but not exactly a beginner project for sure.

    At best it would be a way to salvage the use of some textures but figure will likely will need some clothing ;-)

    Will check arms later.

     

    013 test leg seams works.png
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  • patience55patience55 Posts: 7,006

    Testing idea for arm seams, seems to work "more or less".

    no jags.png
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  • cwichuracwichura Posts: 1,042

    With all the changes in G3 and finally breaking away from the legacy, I wish the eyes has been split into left and right by default.  You could then use a surface group to make a combined Eyes to make it easy to set both of them at the same time.  I do a lot of scifi/fantasy stuff were one eye is very different from the other (e.g., think a cybernetic eye and a normal "human" eye on the same character).  I don't use a base G2F, for example, instead starting new characters from a version I modified in Studio's geometry editor to split the left and right eyes into separate surfaces.

  • cwichuracwichura Posts: 1,042

    Also, with the rearangement of the UV islands, I really wish the nails has been given their own map.  While they do have higher resolution in the new maps, they're still awkwardly placed for creating custom nail textures.  With G/G2F, Xena's alternate fingernail UV was a godsend.  The Lune Designes nails UV for G3F is easier to work with than the base G3F UV, but also rather perplexing since it has the nails as tiny cells within a giant, otherwise empty UV.  And Xena released a G3F version of her nails over at Rendo, but it uses a different UV mapping than their G/G2F UVs, so can't re-use the various custom textures I already created against their UV.  /sigh

  • j cadej cade Posts: 2,310

    just to notify the folks subscribed to this thread I put together my tutorial for using blender to convert textures here http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/59665/tutorial-converting-textures-from-gen2-to-gen3

  • MelanieLMelanieL Posts: 7,152

    Thanks for the Blender Tut - looks quite complicated but it'll be intresting to try smiley

  • SickleYieldSickleYield Posts: 7,629

    Using the projection and bake options? Lordy, I wouldn't wish those results on my worst enemy, lol.  If it works for you, though, go for it.

  • j cadej cade Posts: 2,310
    edited July 2015

    Honestly, its not difficult, just really tedious, as for the results. Not the best render for showing off texture detail, but it does show how cleanly the eyebrows cam in, also no distortion on the eyeliner. I think they may actually be cleaner than the map transfer tool (not that it would work in this case anyway).

     

    tex-converter2.png
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    Post edited by j cade on
  • SickleYieldSickleYield Posts: 7,629

    Can I see it with the head tilted up to show the chin seam area?

  • larsmidnattlarsmidnatt Posts: 4,511

    yeah that doesn't seem bad from what I can tell. I just need to get some free time to try it.

  • ZarconDeeGrissomZarconDeeGrissom Posts: 5,412
    edited July 2015
    SickleYield said:

    Can I see it with the head tilted up to show the chin seam area?

    And posibly to the side, to see that seam by the ear as well?

    Post edited by ZarconDeeGrissom on
  • j cadej cade Posts: 2,310

    Here ya go. also including lilith, because Anna has some wierd baked in discolorations that are from the original texture.

     

    Only visible-ish seam line I've found is with the torso specular, the part that is transferred from the face is less noisy because of how much it gets shrunk down, but its just the spec map, and its covered by hair, so I'm not too worried about it

    tex-converter3.png
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    tex-converter4.png
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  • SickleYieldSickleYield Posts: 7,629

    No, I admit, those are nice results!

  • j cadej cade Posts: 2,310

    And here are the ears, front and back

    tex-converter5.png
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    tex-converter6.png
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  • larsmidnattlarsmidnatt Posts: 4,511

    thanks for sharing.

  • j cadej cade Posts: 2,310

    Oh and no one asked for this one, but I want to show it off any way: the shoulder! No seam lines, and I think there may actually be less stretching than the original texture had when you put the arms down thanks to how the new uv's are arranged. I think I'll have to convert a freckled character next.

    tex-converter7.png
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  • ZarconDeeGrissomZarconDeeGrissom Posts: 5,412

    That is incredible. Far better then almost all of my former V4-to-G2F attempts, lol.

    I'll admit that looking at maps, allot of them have texture that goes beyond the edge used by the UV. I had expected that 'Overrun' room to not be there with a 'Backed' map, and that to have similar effects (not as thick) as a V4 map on G2F without the proper UV mapping, lol.

    You may possibly be onto something there about the lack of stretching, in that the new UDIM may not need excess texture beyond the edge to cover up opening UV seams from flexing a joint.

  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001

    Well...it's not perfect, but it gets you most of the way there.  Some sets are converting nicely, but others need clean up work in an image editor. 

  • dakkuuandakkuuan Posts: 305

    G3F seems like a great step forward, but I don't think people are ready for her. I can't even begin using her because I can't transfer shapes.  If it wasn't for GenX I wouldn't be able to use G2F.  I have a rather important shape that blends V4 and the default female shape in Genesis and I've never been able to reproduce it on G2F without a direct transfer. And considering I still use Bree (I've tried replacing it with Anna and just couldn't be happy with it) I'm stuck with G2F for a while.  And workflow on it is pretty slow because I have to pull most of my clothing and such from previous figures and if I do that, I have to transfer to G2F first.  G3F is the future, but I think it's even going to longer for her to catch on the way G2F finally did just recently. 

  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001
    dakkuuan said:

    G3F seems like a great step forward, but I don't think people are ready for her. I can't even begin using her because I can't transfer shapes.  If it wasn't for GenX I wouldn't be able to use G2F.  I have a rather important shape that blends V4 and the default female shape in Genesis and I've never been able to reproduce it on G2F without a direct transfer. And considering I still use Bree (I've tried replacing it with Anna and just couldn't be happy with it) I'm stuck with G2F for a while.  And workflow on it is pretty slow because I have to pull most of my clothing and such from previous figures and if I do that, I have to transfer to G2F first.  G3F is the future, but I think it's even going to longer for her to catch on the way G2F finally did just recently. 

    The transfer products...pose, morph, clothing are out or not too far off.  It's just textures that are a 'no go' without manual intervention. 

  • ZarconDeeGrissomZarconDeeGrissom Posts: 5,412
    edited July 2015
    mjc1016 said:
    dakkuuan said:

    G3F seems like a great step forward, but I don't think people are ready for her. I can't even begin using her because I can't transfer shapes.  If it wasn't for GenX I wouldn't be able to use G2F.  I have a rather important shape that blends V4 and the default female shape in Genesis and I've never been able to reproduce it on G2F without a direct transfer. And considering I still use Bree (I've tried replacing it with Anna and just couldn't be happy with it) I'm stuck with G2F for a while.  And workflow on it is pretty slow because I have to pull most of my clothing and such from previous figures and if I do that, I have to transfer to G2F first.  G3F is the future, but I think it's even going to longer for her to catch on the way G2F finally did just recently. 

    The transfer products...pose, morph, clothing are out or not too far off.  It's just textures that are a 'no go' without manual intervention. 

    I just pealed the 'New' stickers off of three G3F figures, and I beg to differ. There is a bigger issue then just getting older content to work on generation 7 stuff. I want to peal the 'New' stickers off a few more outfits before I totally commit to my rapidly descending opinion of Generation 7.

    Post edited by ZarconDeeGrissom on
  • ModernWizardModernWizard Posts: 850

    Heads up! Cayman Studios has just released V4 UVs for G3F over at Rendo: https://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/legacy-uvs-for-genesis-3-v4/113767/

    --MW

  • JOdelJOdel Posts: 6,254

    Saw that! The textures need to be in .duf format. Wasn't there a conversion utility in the shop, or tutorial in the forums here for converting the older skins to .duf?

  • HavosHavos Posts: 5,306
    JOdel said:

    Saw that! The textures need to be in .duf format. Wasn't there a conversion utility in the shop, or tutorial in the forums here for converting the older skins to .duf?

    Just apply the skin to V4 or Genesis, and then save as material preset, and you get a duf. There is also a batch utility product in the store for doing many conversions at once

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