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Leana

Daz has released 9 generations of figures so far starting from the first "Victoria" and "Michael" figures.
Generations 1 to 3 predate Daz Studio and were made for Poser only.
V4 was released in 2006 and was primarily made for Poser, though materials for DS were sometimes provided (3DL ones, Iray wasn't part of DS at the time). Same for Michael 4 and Kids 4.
Genesis 1 was generation 5 and the first one made specifically for Daz Studio, released in 2011. 

There are many technical differences between V4 and the Genesis line:

• V4 is in poser format (cr2 file)
• V4 is not weight mapped, the figure uses a type of rigging called parametric rigging. Genesis 1 and 2 are weigh mapped using a type of rigging called "TriAx", while G3, G8 and G9 use dual quaternions rigging.
• The morph system used is also different: V4 morphs are not all loaded and ready to use when loading the figure, you usually have to first "inject" morphs you wanted to use to activate the corresponding dial. Also, due to the rigging system the V4 base mesh is split into groups corresponding to the various bones, so some morphs can be "partial" morphs related to only one body part.
• Clothes don't follow V4 morphs automatically unless there's a matching morph in the clothes. There's a "transfer active morphs" feature in DS which can make the clothes follow active morphs in V4 but it's something you have to activate explicitly.
• You can't autofit clothes to V4. Autofit only works when the target figure is weight mapped. You can autofit clothes from V4 to Genesis line figures though (if you have a V4 clone for them).
• dForce didn't exist when V4 was the main figure (it was introduced during Genesis 3 time IIRC), so V4 clothes are not dForce-ready. There's nothing stopping you from applying a dForce modifier to them but the results will vary depending on how the clothes were built (among other things, dForce needs clothes to be welded and not have intersecting parts). Poser dynamic clothes made for V4 have a good chance of working well with dForce as they were intended for simulation in Poser cloth room (they load as static props in DS though).

"V4 for G2F" is a product which includes a morph for Genesis 2 female to look like V4 base, UVs so that G2F can use V4 textures, and an autofit clone to fit V4 clothes to G2F. The actual figure you use is Genesis 2 female so it has all the features of G2.

 

Regarding availability, the earliest generation figures (V1/2 and the first kids figures based on generation 2) are not available for sale anymore. The generation 3 base figures are still in the store, but a lot of content for them has been retired several years ago. V4 and all Genesis figures are still available and will likely continue to be available for now. 

And we'll probably get a Generation 10 figure at some point, but there's no set schedule for that.

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Bejaymac

Using "Edit - Figure - Rigging - Convert Figure to Weight Mapping..." will break her in a few ways.

Some character morphs wont work right, see attached image for one example

Poser figures uses what's called INJ/REM to add morphs into empty morph channels, that will no longer work.

Vicky 4 uses Poser magnets for her Joint Controlled Morphs (JCM), haven't tried to do a full convertion on her in several years, but each time I did those JMCs wouldn't work.

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chris-2599934

Victoria 4, Vicky 4 and V4 are all the same figure.

You can use V4 in Daz Studio, just load her up, load her clothes, pose her, save her in a regular Daz scene file. There's no need to convert to weight mapping. But why would you bother? 

V4 was released twenty years ago, and replaced by Genesis fifteen years ago. That's one helluva long time in CG terms, and a lot of things have changed and improved. Sure, it's still possible to get great looking images with V4 figures, but only with a lot of extra work and skill applied that may be beyond a beginner.

If you want to use an older figure to keep costs down, consider using Genesis 8. There's a ton of content available for her, as her reign as the current Daz figure lasted almost as long as V4's did, and you can use a lot of G8.1 and G3 stuff on her with a little tweaking. A lot of people (myself included) still use G8 for most of their stuff, that's not true for V4.

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Richard Haseltine

blue_ said:

I have a few Questions about the Genesis Figures. Are new Versions released at regular intervals? Why was there only one Basic Figure with Genesis 1, but subsequent Versions had both a Male and a Female Figure? Why is there only one Basic Figure again with Genesis 9? Why was Genesis Version 8.1 developed and not Version 9 directly? Are there any other Figures available for Daz Studio? I'm asking because I now know that several Figures were developed for Poser. For example, "La Femme", "La Homme", "Dusk", "Dawn", ... (I believe the last two Figures are compatible with both Daz Studio and Poser.)

Genesis and Genesis 9 use a single figure which can be morphs to male or female, the intrvening have separate figures for each. There are advantages and disadvantages to both appraoches.

Geness 8.1 was not a new figure - it was an incremental change, but one of the modifications was changing  how the figure was divided for materals and that couldn't be done with the existing Genesis 8. 8.1 was the result, with DS "knowing" through coding to use Genesis 8 content with the new figure as if it was native (which in most respects it was).

Yes, Dusk and Dawn have daz Studio versions - indeed, I believe they were the development models (DS can export Poser weight maps but can't read them, for one thing)

Now, a quick word about the Genesis Figures. What I know so far is that, for Example, Clothing from one Genesis Version isn't readily compatible with Another. This means that Creators have to readjust the Clothing every time a new Version is released. It also means that many great Outfits aren't necessarily available for new Versions, as the Creators may not want to put in the extra effort.

Daz includes at least one previous generation of AutoFit clones to handle conversion, PAs may also may clones as alternatives or to reduce the number of steps or to go backwards. But yes, converting manually is often nearly as much work as the original creation, for (probably) lower sales and without the (usually more interesting) modelling step.

Perhaps someone with technical knowledge can explain to me why each Genesis Version is a completely new development. By that, I mean that each Version is a different Size and the Body Shape also changes slightly. Let me try to compare this to something else. As an example, I'll use two Operating Systems. First, Windows (Microsoft), where you have to buy every new Version, and each Version is like a newly developed Version (similar to the Genesis Figures). It's different with MacOS (Apple). There are also major Updates, but you don't have to buy a new Version with every Update. Now back to the Genesis Figures. If I take the Genesis 1 Version as an Example, what if the Basic Shape were retained and only the Skeleton was modernized and the Textures Updated? Then, for Example, the Clothing wouldn't need to be re-adapted every time, but could simply be used with each Updated Version. This is the Perspective of a Programming Novice. I'm asking because it's not entirely clear to me. Someone familiar with the Subject will surely know why these Differences exist. I'd be interested to know.

While they could keep elements, such as shape, from an older generation in a newer it wouldn't entirely avoid issues (new bends would still require new joint work and corrective morphs, for example, even if the shape was the same). Generally each new figure will be the best Daz (or other developers) can do at the time, and if something is being changed then they may as well roll all the potential breaking chnages up into one release rather than do a lot of dot releases (like 8 to 8.1).

What I'd also like to know is why DAZ Studio and Poser have such a high degree of Compatibility. Did this arise from the development of Poser and later DAZ Studio? My understanding so far is that before DAZ Studio was released, the Company that developed DAZ Studio created Products for Poser. After DAZ Studio was released, development for Poser was discontinued. Since then, there has been no further collaboration with Poser. Why is it even possible to use Poser Products in DAZ Studio? Why isn't there this kind of Compatibility with other Programs? (For example, Blender, Cinema 4D, etc.)

Poser, which is a eparate company (well, a string of separate companies) wasn't discontinued. Up to DS 4 Daz studio did use Poser content for props and figures, even if it had its own materials and rendering systems among other things. DS 4 introduced weight mapped rigging which poser did not have at all at that time, and SubD for emsh smoothing. Poser did later add those features, but using different systems.