Genesis 9 Coming Soon! Preorder Victoria 9 HD Today

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  • IceCrMnIceCrMn Posts: 2,319

    That bundle had better include everything I need to make and render an anatomically correct female character with nothing else to buy.Including the gens materials being of equivalent quality as the rest of the textures and maps.

    I don't care if they are using HD morphs, HD geographs, a combination of both + displacement maps, or what ever solution Daz has decided upon for fixing everything that is wrong with a unimesh platform.

    It had all better be included in the asking price for that pro bundle, or G9/V9 is dead on arrival for me.

    I did buy in to the pre-order. So I'll be among the first of the customer base to find out.

  • GordigGordig Posts: 10,600

    outrider42 said:

    "HD" is just a label. Sure it defines the morphs above base resolution, but I don't see other software calling it that. It is just a subdivided mesh. It is nothing special in other software because those software tend to allow everyone to be able to sculpt at high subdivision.

    I would imagine that, to the extent that HD has a set meaning in other software, it's mostly to distinguish from low-poly models.

  • outrider42outrider42 Posts: 3,679

    Gordig said:

    outrider42 said:

    "HD" is just a label. Sure it defines the morphs above base resolution, but I don't see other software calling it that. It is just a subdivided mesh. It is nothing special in other software because those software tend to allow everyone to be able to sculpt at high subdivision.

    I would imagine that, to the extent that HD has a set meaning in other software, it's mostly to distinguish from low-poly models.

    Yes, but it is still just a label. And in other software, it is also just a label. When it comes to TVs, we had HD years ago. Now we have 4K Ultra HD. I am surprised Daz hasn't tried advertising their morphs as "Ultra HD" yet. May as well. It has to be better than regular old HD, right? HD is so 2000's, LOL. It is time to upgrade!

    I just remembered Duskrider said he thinks they will still use the PBR Skin shader. That is quite possible, I doubt Daz would reverse course on that now. But maybe this is where the new 4.21 comes into play. Maybe they tweaked that shader to PBR Skin 2.0 or something. I do think the 8K texture maps will replace the tiling. They may still have a tiling version for people who don't want to use the 8K maps. This would be fine, it would give people the OPTION. And indeed Jay said in the video that the 8K maps were optional. To me that implies there must be an alternative, and that alternative is probably the tiled textures.

    I think some people are forgetting about the tiling detail maps. Those may very well be part of Victoria 9, and that would save data for those that need every byte they can get. Of course...we don't have any official word on that. It sure would be great if Daz could communicate with their customers about these things. With all of the people freaking out over 8K textures, now would be a very good time to clarify something like that. If tiling is an option on Victoria 9, that would maybe help calm some nerves of people who are morbidly afraid of large textures. 

  • PadonePadone Posts: 4,015
    edited September 2022

    I believe there's some confusion here. That is, subdivision aka mesh density and topology aka mesh flow are two very different things. Now G9 gets a higher density but a poor topology, that's why you can't get nipples and navel without HD. Then it is essentially true that if we use a extremely high density then topology is not needed, that's the concept of scultipng and retopology. Indeed topology is a optimization for the mesh, that makes it fit for animation with a good geometry flow. If we use directly the HD sculpting there's no need for topology or subdivision.

    @Diomede LOL that's exactly what I'm talking about, nice joke and very "informative" either as a clear example.

    Post edited by Padone on
  • LeanaLeana Posts: 12,758

    Gordig said:

    although there were a few 8.1s released before Victoria

    Victoria and Michael 8.1 were the first 8.1 figures released.

  • GordigGordig Posts: 10,600

    Oh, for some reason I thought White Priestess and Cleopatra came first.

  • IceCrMn said:

    I did buy in to the pre-order. So I'll be among the first of the customer base to find out.

     

    I really hope so... with the way they handled everything that followed the "pay now, get items later", I wouldn't be surprised if we're the last to find out. I seriously hope they're not going to mess this up as well.

  • Big pro on G9 seems to be expressions.
    8k texture maps is nothing new, and nothing G9 only. 
    You've could easily have 8k textures for Victoria3 as well.
    Big disaapointment is the mesh topologie with poor edge loops for morphing in body details at base resolution level.
    Body details needed to be HD morphs, which won't export to other apps.
    In my cristal ball, I can see, that we might end up with a huge collection of geografts fixing those topology flaws.
    I really don't like that unimesh system. I didn't like it on Genesis, and I don't like it now.

  • IceCrMnIceCrMn Posts: 2,319
    edited September 2022

    Masterstroke said:

    ...
    In my cristal ball, I can see, that we might end up with a huge collection of geografts fixing those topology flaws.
    ...

    Same as playing with a Mr. and Mrs. Potato head. LOL

    edit:This is hilarious, the similarities
    https://nbc-2.com/news/2021/02/25/mr-and-mrs-potato-head-rebranding-to-be-gender-neutral/

    Post edited by IceCrMn on
  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,388

    With the upcoming release of Genesis 9, I thought it might be a good idea to revisit making clothes for Genesis 1.  Genesis 9 uses the same unimesh for both the female and the male.  There are female and male base full body morphs to model gender-leaning clothes for.  Jay Versluis and Fugazi have a pre-copy of Genesis 9 and made a video for using Marvelous Designer to make a dress for the female full body morph and still rigged for the unimesh.  Most of us don't have Genesis 9 yet, including me, but it occurred to me that this workflow is similar to creating for Genesis 1.  Therefore, I put together a tutorial as a series of screen shots to use Marvelous Designer to make a skirt tailored to the Genesis 1 Basic Female, and then rigged for the genesis 1 base.

    Jay and Fugazi Genesis 9 female to unimesh here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkHsq7aZYjc

    My free Genesis 1 female to unimesh tutorial using screenshots starting here - https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/7729546/#Comment_7729546

    Both do the modeling in Marvelous Designer and then import the OBJ in Daz Studio for rigging.  My copy of Marvelous Designer is old, before they went subscription.  So if you have a current license or take advantage of a free trial, you will have a slightly different interface with some additional tools.

     

  • IceCrMnIceCrMn Posts: 2,319
    I'm thinking dforce clothes are going to make some, but not all,types of clothing workable for G9.
  • frank0314frank0314 Posts: 14,710

    Leana said:

    Gordig said:

    although there were a few 8.1s released before Victoria

    Victoria and Michael 8.1 were the first 8.1 figures released.

    Yes, Victoria has always been the first female release of any generation of Genesis and I believe, not 100%, Michael is the first male.

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,388

    @Padone, agree about the importance of topology.  I made some silly custom toon figures that have about 3,600 polygons.  My hero and heroine have belly buttons and nipples, so Genesis 9 has more than enough polygons for such details as a general matter.  Someone like Joe Quick who does extreme morphs could get a belly button wherever the polygons are.  But most of us want each vertex of the model to be in a convenient place.  

  • DustRiderDustRider Posts: 2,880

    Diomede said:

    @Padone, agree about the importance of topology.  I made some silly custom toon figures that have about 3,600 polygons.  My hero and heroine have belly buttons and nipples, so Genesis 9 has more than enough polygons for such details as a general matter.  Someone like Joe Quick who does extreme morphs could get a belly button wherever the polygons are.  But most of us want each vertex of the model to be in a convenient place.  

    True, but to do something like that will require a custom UV map(s) and custom textures for the UV map(s) to avoid serious texture stretching. Not a big issue for low/no texture detail toon figures, but a huge deal for realistic human textures. This approach could end up with multiple one-off figures with no alternate texture support.

  • G3 custom UV core characters were such a succesful idea that by G8 everything was made on one base standard UV set. wink

  • CybersoxCybersox Posts: 9,278
    edited September 2022

    PixelSploiting said:

    G3 custom UV core characters were such a succesful idea that by G8 everything was made on one base standard UV set. wink

    And then they intentionally changed it for G8.1, even though it clearly wasn't necessary given that 8.1 can load the the G3/G3 UV just fine, with DAZ once again trotting out the "it works better" line to justify new UV sets.  

    It's hard not to see it as the same kind of iPhone marketing that nearly killed Poser under Smith Micro.  "Oh no, headphone jacks are terrible... now you have to buy special headphones," "Oh, that power port you have a dozen accessories for is obsolete, buy all new accessories", "Oooh, look  it's a new set of figures for Poser, but they only come with the newest version of the software that is really basically the same thing with two minor feature updates."  Notice that one of the first things Renderosity did was make the newest gen figures available as stand-alones?  Shockingly, they're actually looking at what their users want, and they're pulling Poser back from the death bed in the process.   

    Post edited by Cybersox on
  • generalgameplayinggeneralgameplaying Posts: 518
    edited September 2022

    Not switching - yes, having a peek - yes.

    Concerning the anatomically correct part(s): i too feel, that it either should be in here, or buyers should get a deal on the pro-bundle, so it all makes perfect sense. Just so that having gone in early doesn't mean a penalty ;).

    That, due to the lack of transparency as to where/what this is going, in terms of anatomy...

    Post edited by generalgameplaying on
  • Cybersox said:

    PixelSploiting said:

    G3 custom UV core characters were such a succesful idea that by G8 everything was made on one base standard UV set. wink

    And then they intentionally changed it for G8.1, even though it clearly wasn't necessary given that 8.1 can load the the G3/G3 UV just fine, with DAZ once again trotting out the "it works better" line to justify new UV sets.  

    The reason for the new UVs was clear and explained - it allows a less abrupt transition in detail ("texel density") from face to back of head and collar. This was soemthing people complained about with the original mapping, so a real issue for at least some real users. And of course this didn't break anything severely, maps till applied but some scripts based on surface names needed a workaround.

    It's hard not to see it as the same kind of iPhone marketing that nearly killed Poser under Smith Micro.  "Oh no, headphone jacks are terrible... now you have to buy special headphones," "Oh, that power port you have a dozen accessories for is obsolete, buy all new accessories", "Oooh, look  it's a new set of figures for Poser, but they only come with the newest version of the software that is really basically the same thing with two minor feature updates."  Notice that one of the first things Renderosity did was make the newest gen figures available as stand-alones?  Shockingly, they're actually looking at what their users want, and they're pulling Poser back from the death bed in the process.   

  • Richard Haseltine said:

    Cybersox said:

    PixelSploiting said:

    G3 custom UV core characters were such a succesful idea that by G8 everything was made on one base standard UV set. wink

    And then they intentionally changed it for G8.1, even though it clearly wasn't necessary given that 8.1 can load the the G3/G3 UV just fine, with DAZ once again trotting out the "it works better" line to justify new UV sets.  

    The reason for the new UVs was clear and explained - it allows a less abrupt transition in detail ("texel density") from face to back of head and collar. This was soemthing people complained about with the original mapping, so a real issue for at least some real users. And of course this didn't break anything severely, maps till applied but some scripts based on surface names needed a workaround.

    It's hard not to see it as the same kind of iPhone marketing that nearly killed Poser under Smith Micro.  "Oh no, headphone jacks are terrible... now you have to buy special headphones," "Oh, that power port you have a dozen accessories for is obsolete, buy all new accessories", "Oooh, look  it's a new set of figures for Poser, but they only come with the newest version of the software that is really basically the same thing with two minor feature updates."  Notice that one of the first things Renderosity did was make the newest gen figures available as stand-alones?  Shockingly, they're actually looking at what their users want, and they're pulling Poser back from the death bed in the process.   

     

     Yes. It was often showing on bald characters and/or characters with face paints/tattoos going over the face UV seam. It's easier to mask this kind of transition when its along the collar bone.

     

    It's not like any G8.1 texture can't be rebaked with the map transfer to use it on a G3 character.

  • PendraiaPendraia Posts: 3,598

    Gordig said:

    Pendraia said:

    I think they're worried that the base level on Genesis 9 will be hd in which case it might not be possible to do your own morphs. I think this might be a bit of a leap and very much depends on whether the lowest level of the slider will allow you to create standard morphs that aren't hd. 

    Another option they're missing is it could mean that when the slider goes up on your own morph the hd gets applied. Until Genesis 9 is released this is all just speculation unless someone who already has the figure posts.

    Seems to me like there's a problem of definitions. Only PAs can create HD morphs, but in that context "HD" just means at a higher level of subdivision than the base mesh. For G9, the base mesh has higher resolution than G8, which means that base resolution for G9 is equivalent to a subdivided G8, not that G9 "is" HD in Daz terms.

    That was what I was thinking but I might not have explained myself very well.

  • PendraiaPendraia Posts: 3,598

    outrider42 said:

    "HD" is just a label. Sure it defines the morphs above base resolution, but I don't see other software calling it that. It is just a subdivided mesh. It is nothing special in other software because those software tend to allow everyone to be able to sculpt at high subdivision.

    Here are some numbers for poly counts. I removed all the eye and mouth geometries and imported this back into Daz.

    That left the skin mesh with 13,510 polygons.

    If you subdivide this you get to 54,125 polygons. This would be a HD level 1 morph. Jumping to subD 2 takes it to 216,331. And at subD 3 it jumps to 864,640. SubD 4 jumps to 3,459,247. Again these numbers are with the eyes and mouth removed. You can see the trend, since most of the mesh is made of quads, subdividing basically quadruples the numbers.

    So Genesis 9 is roughly doubling the base mesh of G8. If they are exactly doubling the skin poly count, that only gets you to 27,010 polygons on the skin. That is still far fewer than what HD offers on Genesis 8. Most PAs are designing their HD meshes far beyond HD1. Many are doing this at level 3 or 4. So while the base mesh may double polygons, I don't see how regular users are going to be able to really get much more detail than they did before. Daz might be throwing non PA creators a bone, but it is a small chicken wing, and a baby one at that, nothing meaty. Daz Studio just doesn't get it.

    Here are the numbers on a full Genesis 8.

    Base 18,176

    SubD1     67,426

    SubD2    264,134

    SubD3    1,050,382

    SubD4   4,194,616

    Thus if we assume Genesis 9 has 27,010 polygons, jumping to SubD 1 is going to push it past 100,000 polygons. At SubD 2 it will be hitting 400,000-500,000+. At SubD3 it should be well above 1,200,000+.

    These are pure guesses, and they are going off Jay's words that the base has about twice the number of polygons. We know the eyes and mouth are now separated, so we they do not get subdivided with the rest. That is a cool idea. But the numbers still add up fast. It will be interesting to see if people use lower subdivision levels on G9 versus what they did on G8. Since each subdivision in G9 appears to fall halfway between each G8 SubD.

    So on one hand it is great that the base mesh is getting a boost, but denying users access to create their own mesh in "HD" is still very much a problem. Doubling the base mesh does not solve that in the least, and it might actually backfire.

    Maybe all the geometry that got removed from breasts went to face, LOL. I suppose that is a possibility, as it does look like the chest has far fewer polygons. That had to somewhere.

    We also have no info on gen props. Neither preorder mentions it, not even the bundle. What is the deal? Is Daz really prepared for this? Why is there so much secrecy? Why are PAs still finalizing products just a couple weeks before launch??? What if one of them falls ill and is unable to provide their product? This just seems weird.

    It is fine that Daz announced G9 ahead of time. It lets people plan for it. That is quite a novel approach for Daz. But what good does the announcement do when nothing else gets revealed? There s not a single product aside from the bonus items mentioned. Video games might do preorders all the time, but they reveal what those preorders contain months in advance. How can you ask customers to preorder a bundle without any idea of what that bundle contains?

    Great explanation...

  • Chibimonchichi said:

    I want to see Gen 9 turn into a truckyes

    Ya. A truck with dragon wings.

  • I knew this would happen eventually. That's why I totally avoided the "8.1" characters. Also, I learned decades ago to avoid Preordering anything,

  • nonesuch00nonesuch00 Posts: 18,729

    I'm thinking from that Saturday presentation that he said with the high polygon count at base and the changes made to autofit that old clothing will autofit much better.

    I was going through today ( 29  Sep 20 22) and looking at products on offer with the 77% off coupon and I have to tell you, sorry, dForce clothing without nice dForce simulation presets to get nice drapes,, with wrinkles and folds, is not working. It would work, maybe, actually has worked, if the clothing is draped and then that set as a preset(s), but this business of dForce clothing with no dForce simulations with nice draping, no. It looks like they are wearing paperdoll clothes.

  • nonesuch00 said:

    I'm thinking from that Saturday presentation that he said with the high polygon count at base and the changes made to autofit that old clothing will autofit much better.

    I was going through today ( 29  Sep 20 22) and looking at products on offer with the 77% off coupon and I have to tell you, sorry, dForce clothing without nice dForce simulation presets to get nice drapes,, with wrinkles and folds, is not working. It would work, maybe, actually has worked, if the clothing is draped and then that set as a preset(s), but this business of dForce clothing with no dForce simulations with nice draping, no. It looks like they are wearing paperdoll clothes.

    I don't follow what you are saying, and don't see any connection to Genesis 9.

  • nonesuch00 said:

    I'm thinking from that Saturday presentation that he said with the high polygon count at base and the changes made to autofit that old clothing will autofit much better.

    I was going through today ( 29  Sep 20 22) and looking at products on offer with the 77% off coupon and I have to tell you, sorry, dForce clothing without nice dForce simulation presets to get nice drapes,, with wrinkles and folds, is not working. It would work, maybe, actually has worked, if the clothing is draped and then that set as a preset(s), but this business of dForce clothing with no dForce simulations with nice draping, no. It looks like they are wearing paperdoll clothes.

    If you have either the clothing or hair dForce presets from EcVh0, they work wonders and are interchangable. A lot of times if I want the clothing to really drape, I use the wet setting from the hair presets. Sometimes the default dForce settings for a product work great, but a lot of times I play around with the different presets from the two EcVh0 sets. 

  • outrider42 said:

    I don't understand why people instantly think G9 is going to crush their PC. And I equally don't understand why people would want to hold back progress for everybody else because they have a potato PC. Especially after it has been mentioned numerous times how easy it is to make this stuff work on a potato PC just in case it doesn't.

    If you played video games, a 10 year PC would be even more screwed than it is for Daz. Modern games especially will not even start on a 2GB GPU from 2012. Meanwhile, you can use a CPU to render Iray if you run out of VRAM.

    Technology moves forward. But that said, I don't think Genesis 9 is that radical of a leap to be so scared about. Are we really going to cry about a high quality texture? Are we really going to be terrified of a texture which can be reduced in size in less than 2 minutes? It will take less than 2 minutes to resize every Victoria 9 texture. And I am being extremely generous. Most of that time is you locating the folder. You then highlight all the textures. You then right click on your mouse. I am sure most of you know how to right click, right? Then in that menu you select the image resizer. You then select 'custom' and select the exact size you desire. The custom setting also lets you select the quality. You can lower the quality to reduce the image data size even more. You can click on the resizer settings to select whether you want to save new textures or replace the old ones completely. Once this is set, you can click accept. Then in about 10 seconds (and I say 10 only because I assume your PC must be slow), you will have replaced every single texture you had highlighted in Victoria 9's folder.

    Does that sound impossible? Is that really so hard? I did this for several years myself when I started with Daz Studio. It was part of my routine. And this is not the only option. Again, it has been pointed out numerous times.

    Today I find myself trying to upscale textures more than anything else. Especially environments. I am finding that many Daz environments seem to have very compressed textures. The texture might be 4K, but it is compressed to a ridiculous extreme. It really is getting on my nerves. I try to use AI image upscalers to enhance these poor quality textures. Sometimes it works. Sometimes the AI upscaling looks terrible. The point here is that is WAY WAY easier to downsize textures and compress them than it is to increase their quality. You cannot magically enhance a texture to save it. That is why it is so important to have good quality textures from the start. A good quality texture gives you options, and you can downsize easily if needed. A low quality texture doesn't give you many options.

    You can reach a point of diminishing returns. That is true. But I see plenty of room for improvement in a lot of stuff I see. A good example are the ethnic textures that Daz gave us for 8.1 a while back. While this was a nice gesture, the textures themselves have been reduced in quality. As many of you probably know the textures come from past Genesis characters. The African skin is just Monique 7. I compared the original Monique textures to the 8.1 textures Daz gave us and the originals are better. I don't know if the conversion process caused this loss of detail, since Monique was a unique UV all of her textures needed to be converted, not just the "head" torso texture. But more than that, I can see a lot more compression in the new textures. So it appears to me they used a lower quality setting on the JPG when they made them. I really hope the Genesis 9 ethnic textures they are including are not as compressed. I am quite worried they will be.

    Viva la potato PC's. I don't think I have a potato PC I know it's older now by today's newer stuff byt it wasn't when I built it LOL. I have a an i7 8700 six core,32 gig DDR4 RAM, (2) 1TB harddisks, EVGA SuperNova G3 80 plus gold modular PSU, and a, still going strong) GTX 1060 6 gig card. I don't render large, complex scenes so maybe I can bump up my graphics card. All I want to know is will my current system use the G9 if I chose to jump on it. I'm in this for fun and for those days I some mental relief LOL.  

  • AllenArtAllenArt Posts: 7,175

    Padone said:

    @PixelSploiting As I see it the nipples and navel for G9 will be made with HD, thus will be available only with figures on the daz store. Sure you can use geografts instead, but consider that geografts will lose the HD details when mixed with HD figures. Also having to use geografts to get the basic body features is a nonsense, I agree with @PerttiA on this.

    @Leana The G9 unimesh is very limited in body features topology, so non-HD figures will be of restricted use. Essentially while G1-G81 can preserve the basic body features with the base mesh, G9 can't and needs HD for that.

    The fact that there will be merchant resource hd morphs in the store confirms what you've been saying. You'll need them to base any morphs you make off of, because those contain the morphs not present in the base mesh. I don't know if they'll be available generally to the rest of us or ONLY PA's, but from the copy I've read so far, it states that they are for the Daz PA's. Talk about cutting the other sites off at the knees....

  • Time will show.

    The worst case scenario G9 will be useful for kitbashing things like monsters and creatures whilst for more human models G8+ will stay the main route.

  • AllenArt said:

    Padone said:

    @PixelSploiting As I see it the nipples and navel for G9 will be made with HD, thus will be available only with figures on the daz store. Sure you can use geografts instead, but consider that geografts will lose the HD details when mixed with HD figures. Also having to use geografts to get the basic body features is a nonsense, I agree with @PerttiA on this.

    @Leana The G9 unimesh is very limited in body features topology, so non-HD figures will be of restricted use. Essentially while G1-G81 can preserve the basic body features with the base mesh, G9 can't and needs HD for that.

    The fact that there will be merchant resource hd morphs in the store confirms what you've been saying. You'll need them to base any morphs you make off of, because those contain the morphs not present in the base mesh. I don't know if they'll be available generally to the rest of us or ONLY PA's, but from the copy I've read so far, it states that they are for the Daz PA's. Talk about cutting the other sites off at the knees....

    It will be the same as before for the creation of morphs for other sites. Nothing changes there

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