A DAZ Newbie's Guide to The Figures
SickleYield
Posts: 7,629
This is so I and others can just link back to this explanation instead of having to retype it, since this is a common point of confusion to newcomers. The DAZ store doesn't make it immediately clear what is a figure and what is a morph, and we want to get newcomers oriented and creating as quickly as possible, so here's how that works.
The figures and morphs:
Victoria and Michael through V3, M3, S3, etc.:
These are DAZ legacy figures that were made to work mostly in Poser. They are in the .cr2 format.
Generation 3 was especially prolific:
Victoria 3
Michael 3
Stephanie Petite
Luke and Laura 3, also called "Millenium Kids" or "Young Teens 3" or "YT3"
Hiro 3
Aiko 3
Freak 3
David 3
This generation is also when the Baby, Cat and Dog came out. Every one of these is a separate figure that can't wear the clothes of the others, and most have separate UV maps as well.
Victoria 4, Michael 4, and the Kids 4:
These are referred to as "Generation 4" or "Gen 4." They are also in .cr2 format, although I believe this generation was the first to start offering dedicated materials for DAZ Studio in addition to the Poser materials. These are still popular with Poser users, and outfits for V4 in particular still get made, although not as commonly in the DAZ store.
V4, M4, and K4 are all separate figures. Everything else with "4" in the name is a morph of one of the others. All have separate UV maps, although with some fiddling they can be made to share.
For V4: Girl 4, She-freak 4, Aiko 4, Stephanie 4
For M4: Hiro 4, Freak 4
For each: Morphs++, Muscular morphs
Genesis and the 5 Series:
Genesis, retroactively referred to as G1 (not official, but convenient), is a fully unisex base figure and the first DAZ native to be offered in .dsa and .duf, not just in .cr2. This is the point when Poser became "supported" instead of the native platform.
Genesis has UVs from Generation 4 plus its own Generation 5. It so far does not have Generation 3 UVs. This means it can use many textures that were originally made for Michael 4 and Victoria 4.
There is a HUGE list of morphs for this figure, whether male, female or creature. A partial list includes:
Victoria 3, 4, 5
Michael 3, 4, 5
David 3, 5
Freak 3, 4, 5
Stephanie 4, 5
Aiko 3, 4, 5
Hiro 3, 4, 5
Young Teens 5 (Julie and Justin)
The Troll, Mr. Hyde, Undead Fiend, and Behemoth
The Creature Creator morphs
Evolution head and body morphs
Muscle morphs
(And many excellent unofficial morphs as well, which it would take too long to list.)
Any time you see the number "5" after something, it is usually a morph of Genesis 1. Check carefully because there are morphs for Genesis that imitate generations 3 and 4, but are not separate figures; they are available in "legacy" packs. Always read the description before buying.
Genesis 2 and the 6 Series:
Genesis 2 is another DAZ native with Poser support. Instead of being one figure with morphs for all characters, it is now two figures, Genesis 2 Female and Genesis 2 Male. So far characters for these mostly have 6 in the name, except for Olympia and Gia, who did not exist in previous generations. Official morph creation for them is ongoing where it is probably complete for Genesis 1.
Genesis 2 has UVs from Generation 5 and 6 natively. Add-on products are needed to use Generation 4 UVs. See compatibility section for more on this.
Genesis 2 Female: Young Teen 6 (Josie), Victoria 4, Victoria 6, Gia, Olympia, G2F Head And Body Morphs
Genesis 2 Male: Michael 4, Michael 6
Genitalia
Separate conforming genitals were offered for Generations 3 through 6. Generation 3 and 4 have female genital creases offered with Morphs++ but not separate female conformers.
In Generation 3 they are available with purchase of M3 Morphs++ only.
In Generation 4 they are available with purchase of the M4 Morphs++ only.
In Genesis/Generation 5, they are available with purchase of an M5 Pro bundle only (and V5 pro bundle for the new Female genitalia conformer).
In Genesis 2/Generation 6, they are available with purchase of any Pro bundle (not just V6 and M6 but the female gens also are included with Olympia Pro bundle, etc.).
Clothing And UV Compatibility
Most clothing is meant to be used with the generation it was made for, so check product pages to see if it is for V3, V4, etc.
Generation 3 textures cannot be used on any other figures except by using something like the Texture Converter program. Generation 3 clothing can sometimes be used on Genesis if one has the Legacy Shapes pack, which adds clothing clones for them. The Autofit conversion is not as good as with G4 sometimes.
Generation 4 textures can sometimes be used on other G4 figures by loading alternate UVs in DAZ Studio (not in Poser).
In order to use Generation 4 textures on Genesis one must have the V4 and M4 shapes for Genesis. These also have the clothing clones that allow Generation 4 clothing to be used on Genesis through Autofit.
In order to use Generation 4 textures on G2, one must have the Victoria 4 and/or Michael 4 add-ons for Genesis 2 Female and/or Genesis 2 Male. These also enable the use of Gen 4 clothing on the G2's through Autofit.
Generation 5 textures natively work on Genesis and Genesis 2 UVs.
Genesis 2 has a different material zone setup that can only accept materials in .duf format. If a texture set has materials in .dsa format, they must be converted by loading onto Genesis 1 and saving back to the library as .duf, or loaded using Draagonstorm's V4 and M4 Auto Converter products (which will load Generation 5 UV .dsa mats as well).
Morphs
Normally, morphs for any given generation cannot be used on the others. So if you buy a character for Victoria 4, while you may be able to use the textures on Genesis and load them on Genesis 2 with Draagonstorm's products, you will not be able to use the face morph or dialed preset that is included.
Similarly, you cannot use a morph for Genesis on Genesis 2 Female and Male or vice versa.
There are ways around this. Generation X, for sale in the DAZ store, makes it possible to convert morphs from Generation 4 to Genesis. Morphs from Genesis can be converted to Genesis 2 using the Transfer Utility, although this takes some work. Tutorials are available on my deviantart page linked in my signature and in Kattey's massive "Now with Clones" thread here on the forum.
Morphs can be converted between Genesis 2 Female and Genesis 2 Male fairly quickly, by copying them from one set of data folders to the other and text-editing them. Again, see Kattey's thread.
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Comments
Well we did have this thread already in this forum
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/24257/
That one is much better researched and comprehensive, mine is a lot shorter. ;)
True :coolsmirk:
Great job collecting all this.
V5/M5 UVs natively work on Genesis 2, but a lot of non official gen 5 figures used textures with V4 UVs that do not work natively. Also some of the official DAZ figures, like Stephanie 5, have there own UVs, the S5 UVs. As far as I know those are not supported (at least yet) on G2. There are a few other characters that used the S5 UVs.
Since this intended for newbies, you might add a few sentences explaining what UVs are.
V5/M5 UVs natively work on Genesis 2, but a lot of non official gen 5 figures used textures with V4 UVs that do not work natively. Also some of the official DAZ figures, like Stephanie 5, have there own UVs, the S5 UVs. As far as I know those are not supported (at least yet) on G2. There are a few other characters that used the S5 UVs.
Since this intended for newbies, you might add a few sentences explaining what UVs are.
If they're newbies to the point where they don't know what UVs are, no post will be long enough.
I'm not going to go into unofficial figures and morphs. There are some great ones, but there are way too many to deal with in one post meant to answer "Can I use V4 clothes on V5, and is V5 the same as Genesis" questions. If thoroughness is what's wanted, Scott-Livingston's thread is what you want. ;)
I think the M3 genitals came with Morphs++, not the base figure. Also, V3 and V4 had genital crease morphs - again in the Morphs++ set as I recall.
You have Young Teens 6 (Julie and Justin) - should be 5.
Thank you, I've fixed it.
This is great...and for what it's worth I don't think it's redundant (as you've noticed, the questions get asked all the time). Thanks for your kind words about my related thread though. Having this information in multiple places isn't a bad idea. And along those lines, I thought I'd also point out that there's now an official Compatibility Matrix.
This was an excellent post. As someone who has a newbie mind. I think you were right in your assumptions as to what is the most pertinent things to mention, without clutterring. And at the same time saying a enough to be thorough
For Genesis 1 if you want the genitals without the pro packs you can just get the models and genitals in this set.
http://www.daz3d.com/people/genesis-michael-victoria-combo-bundle
I wish this option was available for the G2's maybe one day....
Also if you the pro versions of Michael and Victoria 5 for genesis they come with Carrara. And there is a sale on Carrara for PC members, its $171. And Platinum club is 30% off for the annual membership, that's $49. If you are going to buy any of this stuff, might as well join the platinum club. You do get a discount on it with PC. I think the savings for just M6 and V6 pro packs are at 51% right now. I believe its about $61 each.
Newbies might want to figure out how to get the most stuff for less. As a poor newbie, I need to know this stuff. I was thinking it would take me months to get enough stuff to play around with. I joined the Platinum Club and suddenly I could get stuff twice as fast to get really started. Do it on day one, just add it on to your first purchase! You'll be glad you did.
Sorry but deals really caught my eye and made this all doable. I wanted to help others find out how to save money and get what they want and need.
I have a favorite Steph petite (S3) texture I'd like to convert to V4 or Genesis 2. Where can I find this Texture Converter?
Thanks
I have a favorite Steph petite (S3) texture I'd like to convert to V4 or Genesis 2. Where can I find this Texture Converter?
Thanks
http://www.daz3d.com/texture-convertor-2-tc2-bundle
Thank you. Naturally it doesn't work with Mac. Does anyone know if the converted textures can be saved on a PC and loaded on a Mac or are we only able to do this on PC's?
Once converted the textures will work on both. 3D Universe is now developing only on Macs, but I don't know if they plan to do anything with TC2.
Hi. Can we update this for V7/G3?
So let me get this straight, with Genesis (1) they created morphs for Victoria / Michael 3 and 4? So is a Genesis V3 different from the original V3?
I like my information even quicker…at a glance. Here's a stab at a one page reference. Give me notes and I'll update and correct as needed.
Okay, here's some corrections:
A general correction: the same UVs means they can use the same textures, not the same clothes.
1st and 2nd Generation:
The original Millennium Woman and Millennium Man, Vicky (sometimes also referred to as Millie) and Mike. Two separate meshes.
The Millennium Kids (both male and female) were built out of Vicky's mesh.
The original Stephanie was build out of Mike's mesh, but rigged so she could wear Vicky's clothes.
The original Aiko was a morph of Stephanie.
Vicky 2 and Mike 2 used the same meshes as the originals but had morphs built in.
3rd Generation:
These were the original Unimesh figures, although ultimately there were two meshes, one for Mike and The Freak and one for everyone else.
They all use pretty much the same UVs, so they can share textures pretty well but there are small differences. M3 and D3 have the exact same UVs.
Unlike the 2nd Generation figures with built-in morphs, they came with morph channels, including some extra "community" channels, into which morphs were injected. However, the number of channels couldn't be changed without making a new .cr2.
4th Generation:
Three figures, V4, M4, and Kids4. V4 was updated twice, so V4.2 is the figure meant when people refer to V4. They all had the same mesh, but different UVs. Instead of a fixed number of injection channels they used the ExP system which allowed new morph channels to be created -- that's what that "Initialization" step is when you add a new set of morphs.
5th Generation:
Only one figure, Genesis, everything else is a morph of that figure. It can use different UV sets, and comes with the V4, M4, and K4 UVs, so it can use their textures. It also has autofit for wearing clothes made for other figures, and comes with clones for V4, M4, and K4 to wear their clothes. Add-on autofit clones for the major 3rd Generation figures were later created as separate products, however they can't use 3rd Generation textures
6th Generation:
Genesis 2 Female and Male, two base figures, but they do use the same mesh. Include the V5 and M5 UV sets and autofit clones for Genesis 1 and for each other. UVs and clones for V4 and M4 were created as separate products.
7th Generation:
Genesis 3 Female (Male version not yet released). UV set is markedly different from the 4th/5th/6th generation UV sets, so she can't use their textures, but does have an autofit clone for G2F.
Thanks for this post! It was really informative. However, after reading this and Scott Livingston's post, I still have a few questions that need clarification. I am trying to decide on which bundles to aquire, but I would like to be sure where to start.
- If I got it right, the Genesis series are like a framework, so if I want more control over the characters' shape, then I should get the morphs (head and body), is that right?
- On the other hand, if I want textures, clothes, hairs and such, then those are present in the figures packs such as Victoria and Michael ?
- If so, am I correct to assume that every pack that says "Compatible Figures: Genesis 2 Female", for example, should be usable (even if some tweaking is needed) with one another?
- Last, but not least, would the basic difference between Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 be the number of meshes? I also compared the Genesis 2 and 3 head morphs, and there seems to be less options in the G3 one, is that because it is still new and being developed?
I am very sorry if these questions are too basic, but I really couldn't find a clear answer to them anywhere else!
Thanks
Thank you for this info! It has been quite helpful in clearing up for me (mostly anyway, LOL) what is what with these figures and gives me a better idea of how I am supposed to use some of the converter products that I have bought, but wasn't quite sure how to use.