This is interesting - if mostly in the variability being discovered. wow.

FWIW, *if* you have the GenX2 product from the DAZ store, the 3rd (?) tab can be used to enable/disable some/all of the available figure morphs via checkboxes - (at least with genesis1 figures/morphs). It simply renames the checkboxed morph *.dsf files to *.dsf.OFF in the existing folders in the background, and a reload ignores them.

For testing and/or general use, this might be a handy tool/feature to have available and know about.

I haven't tried this w any of the current Genesis figures (2,3,8), but the mechanism is simple enough that it might simply work. The developer died before G8M/F was born, so it may not 'see' those figures at all.

Also, the same PA (D3D) wrote a highly underrated utility called the Content Gatherer, that will allow you to define and bundle a figure/scene and any/all of its dependencies into a minimized runtime/lib and save it as a zipfile. Maybe that will be useful to some of your purposes. For my projects, I created a complete-but-bloated runtime/lib that contains *all* of my figure's morph resources for my character creation phase.When the figure is 'right', I 'gather' it into a small/tight dedicated runtime/lib (adding expressions, visemes, and other likely-to-be-used morphs) that I use for my active animation projects - with none of the bloat. Godsend tool. YMMV.

cheers,

--ms

Custom morphs are not animated.
1. Create morph in ZBrush
2. Animate it on the timeline.
3. Save the scene
4. Close and reopen Daz3d
Animation keys are missing from the timeline

fwiw, a recent 4.12.x change unsets the 'H' (hidden) keys setting on scenes when they are reloaded. You may have to re-set that each time you start DS/load a scene.

Also note that scene frame-counts and the like have been really wonky after reloadeding in recent releases too, but I haven't updated my system lately (last general rls, and I've played with some interim betas which didn't fix any of the animation stuff I use), as I'm really trying to get some work done - however crippled my animations tools are becoming w each update...

urg,

--ms

This creates enormous problems. If the animation fails in the middle of rendering. The app will close. And I will have to render all the animation again. Because I don't remember where and what animation keys were located on the timeline. And there are more than 20 morphs in one animation. God... at least return the ability to save morph animation, please. I don't understand why it was removed. In addition, the PRO version now corresponds to the Public version. She has the same problems. I just sit there and cry...

 

The timeline has been completely re-done in the 4.12 series, and as is reasonable-to-expect, bugs have crept in. I still have room for optimism, as the keymate/graphmate integration is a big improvement in many facets of the new timeline.

That said, the beta thread is littered with instances of problems related to this massive change, most of which are not addressed in this General Release. Apparently, if they are not formally registered as bugs in the DS tracker, they don't get attention - blame me, as I won't do a bug report if the bug is mentioned in the forums.

Re: losing your work, As I try to keep current w DS and still get work done in this forward-moving arena, I can only recommend the following:

 - *always* render animations to image series (png/tif are both lossless). By doing this, any images you have successfully generated will still be available - even if DS crashes or glitches in mid-animation renders. Most video editors have the ability to import image sequences, and yours doen't, maybe look at the 'ffmpeg' or 'virtualdub' families of utilities and see if you can generate a usable video file from the sequence with one of those tools.

 - explicitly save your render-settings as a separate settings file in your project area (Use DS's save-as facility, and select the render-settings save-type). I also always save my entire scene (as a just-in-case temp-file) right before I start the render. I also have configured my DS preferences to save my render settings with my scenes. I don't think this is the default setting.

 - Simply assume DS will glitch in any long render series, and prepare accordingly. (e.g. I'm 600 frames into a render series right now, and my main DS window is now just ... gone ... but a separate sub-window (my content lib) and the status window are still plugging away... so I'm never quite sure how to properly exit DS when this happens, as there is no longer a main window/menu to exit with... lol)

 - If you happen to have Keymate and/or Graphmate, always review your timelines before a production render/run. Many of the quirks that may occur as the new timeline issues are hashed out can be seen and fixed with these (still apparently reliable) tools.

This is the best I can offer in this environment, given you probably haven't seen most of my more verbose-but-'transient' critiques of the current DS Q/A system. YMMV.

cheers,

--ms

The outfit looks good, where is it from?

I use all kinds of mesh in many formats in DS, from .LWO (lightwave) files, to .STL (CAD) files, from .SKP (Sketchup) files, to .MAX files to of course .OBJ files. Between 3dsmax and ultimate unwrap 3d I can convert most formats, create UVmaps, or create new material zones to import into DS as an OBJ. Of course i have to usually tweak materials, but that is part of the creative process IMO..

As for rigging, if it's basic rigging the transfer utility does a pretty good job in my experience. I had been wanting a detailed tactical vest forever and no PA ever delivered, so I purchased a good one in OBJ format from CGTrader and imported it and rigged it with the transfer utility. You can see it in the attached image.

i doubt that the transfer utility would do a good enough job for a sellable product, but works pretty good for personal use.

Same. A major part of what I work with comes from free items from other, often older, tech Ive reworked into something usable. The lovely part of Genesis is you only need to attach it to a limb to have an object move along with all the poses. Its pretty sweet.

Hi there!
I want to preface this with I don't really use any 3D software besides Daz Studio and Blender

1. If you take some time on Parmy's Youtube channel and check out his lighting tutorials those will help a lot with the look of a scene. Lighting is key!
2. Daz has export options for animations. FBX is the one used most from what I remember and allows for all of the figure's JCMs (Joint Controlled Movements/Morphs) to export with the figure so the figure looks the same as in DS. We have a 30 day free trial of aniMate2 included in Daz Studio and that has actual animation blocks like dancing, walking etc. After the 30 days it reverts to a Lite version. You can also use the standard timeline (I prefer to use this one for animations I feel it gives more control). Daz is set up to do 30 fps by default and it looks pretty natural for timing.
3. Creating a custom character can take a while as it can be more difficult than you might think. If you have the Face Transfer than that can help as a starting point BUT only as a starting point it still has some kinks in it like a flatter face profile and it only uses the face section of the image you apply you'll have to merge the face with another character skin that matches the face skin as closely as possible. PhilW created a set of morphs, Face Transfer Shapes for Genesis 8 that help with the face profile flattening but I haven't gotten them yet to test them out as I don't use the Face Transfer much. If you are looking for time saving then I would suggest purchasing the hair/clothing and a character skin that matches her the best and then use the Genesis 8 Female Head/Body Morphs to get Genesis 8 looking as close to her as possible. If the character you choose doesn't have a make-up you like you can always check out the Layered Image Editor (LIE) make-up sets we have several in the store and they all have tons of options in them! If you do a search for LIE Makeup you will also see some characters pop up in the results because some of them use LIE makeups that can be used on other characters you just have to check the features listing on their store pages to make sure.
4. Genesis 8 Female has several anime/toon characters for her. Aiko 8 is the most commonly supported of the anime figures and easiest to fit for clothing that doesn't support her. If you want a fully anime girl I would suggest Sakura 8 as she comes with a true manga/anime look and tons of morphs in addition to the base shape! Any clothing created for the Genesis 8 Female will work with any of her characters BUT you may need to do some fiddling with included morph dials or just use dForce draping animations to get them to look right (you can do that while you are doing the actual animations of the figure as a time saver, just start the 0 frame with the base Genesis 8 Female shape and around frame 10-15 dial up the full character morph you want applied).
Hope this helps! Holler if you have any other questions or need more help!
Elli

(...)Question is,  which is the focal point of the scene, the environment or the character, if the character, import from unity.

Oh, I didn't think of that.
I will have different scenes of course. So the focal point will sometimes be the environment (for example an aerial view of a city and surounding lands : in Unity) and sometimes the characters (in Daz).

Can I use Unity to make HDRIs and then use those as skies in Daz ? That would work for the decor around maybe 100 meters away (depending on camera height/angle) and I would then only have to "fill in" the decor around the characters, say with architecture or nature props and stuff imported from Unity.

 

Wouldn't a reliable transfer (or integration) between DS and Unity also be great for animations?
(...)
Sounds like fertile ground for skilled programmers to produce plugins for DS to make the necessary conversions easy for the hobbyist DS/Unity user.

I don't know. Unity is mainly for making games. It has a powerfull tool for creating realistic terrains which in why I want to use it for my Daz scenes, but I don't think most people do that. Programming would this would take a lot of work, for very little profit.

You have 2 options, you the various morph sets to create a new one, or use a modeling app like Zbrush.

I just took a look at Zbrush and way out of my price range.

 

 

There are many alternatives to Zbrush if all you want is a basic head morph. There is Sculptris from the same company that makes Zbrush and it's free. Then, there is Blender that's been already mentioned, also free. If you are happy to pay a little more with more functionality you can try Zbrush Core, a version of Zbrush and less functionality. Then there is also Mudbox, an Autodesk app and I am not sure if there is an educational license for Mudbox too, but Autodesk has some good offers for students and if you are a student, you can give it a try. Zbrush creator might offer educational licenses too.

 

There are probably a lot more options for every need. Depending on what you wish to do and what functionality you desire.

...and what skill level you have (some steep learning curve)

The user guide specifically says do not have any other morphs dialed in and make sure the figure is in it's default position when rigging a morph. That is how it was designed to work. It is best to rig morphs on the default base figure, and not a loaded in character.

Custom morphs are not animated.
1. Create morph in ZBrush
2. Animate it on the timeline.
3. Save the scene
4. Close and reopen Daz3d
Animation keys are missing from the timeline

fwiw, a recent 4.12.x change unsets the 'H' (hidden) keys setting on scenes when they are reloaded. You may have to re-set that each time you start DS/load a scene.

Also note that scene frame-counts and the like have been really wonky after reloadeding in recent releases too, but I haven't updated my system lately (last general rls, and I've played with some interim betas which didn't fix any of the animation stuff I use), as I'm really trying to get some work done - however crippled my animations tools are becoming w each update...

urg,

--ms

This creates enormous problems. If the animation fails in the middle of rendering. The app will close. And I will have to render all the animation again. Because I don't remember where and what animation keys were located on the timeline. And there are more than 20 morphs in one animation. God... at least return the ability to save morph animation, please. I don't understand why it was removed. In addition, the PRO version now corresponds to the Public version. She has the same problems. I just sit there and cry...

One thing I though of, old system, and new system. Are they both using the same OS? If old system is win7 and new one is win10, that would explain a large portion of the difference. Just about everything I have tested win7 vs win10, win10 uses a big chunk more RAM.
I think I have my future game plan, at least as far as morph installs go. Going to install a handfull of full morph sets, like one fatty, one model thin, one average, one elf, like that. Have one nice base for everything I can think of, then I can use the essentials to tweak the base I load. Go through the rest, only installing nice looking faces, getting rid of all the body morphs and the load files for them. The rest just install the textures and their load files. That should lighten the load a lot from my bloated version I think lol.

To your first point, clearly there is a trade-off in terms of quality.  And I agree, some of it is quite worth it.  I am still struggling with the large difference in RAM consumption between my old system and my new system.  Both running 4.12 +/- and (scroll up to the table) with G3F and G8F base loads the jump from old to new is roughly 1 GB and 2 GB respectively.  As you will note above I am being convinced the difference is morph loading and I thought character morphs was a good place to start.  Now I am not so sure.  I am more than a bit cautious/conservative so my experiment of the day may be a bit pedestrian to you.  I used my older system and created Characters - Heads and Characters - MATs folders in my Genesis 8 Female folder.  So far so good.  I moved the bits and pieces (.png, .tip and .duf files) about and proved my earlier concept.  I then moved the data files in and out of my runtime, restarting and testing RAM consumption.  I used only one (HD) figure FWSA Sharah which was lucky because it reminded me some characters acttually use morphs from a parent. . . . . But it might not be a large enough sample.  Anyways:

at idle the older system, with DAZ Studio running, consumes 214 MB, with G8F loaded the RAM consumption goes to 690 MB....Restart

removing FWSA Sharah (depends on Olympia 8) and loading G8F, the RAM consumption drops to 688 MB....(small cry)....Restart

adding FWSA Sharah Head morph and loading G8F, the RAM consumption goes to 689 MB

So.  VERY small test.  But deleting 100 characters and saving 200 MB RAM consumption is not getting me to the 2 GB RAM consumption difference between old and new systems very quickly.  Or said another way, I must have a huge amount of morph sets (as you indicate in your 'My Essentials') contributing to this load.  I am now thinking that is the place to start but I am less certain how to do that.   

I do not have the product, but I would not expect to find those morphs in the library.

Open G8F as you showed. In the parameters tab (not the Posing one), click on 'All' (outlined in red in the image) and scroll down the list of parameters (where I have put in red 'Somewhere here') or enter the morph name in the search box. That should then show it. It will be automatically included in every G8F you have.

Hope that helps,

Richard

Another SRP Bug:

a) I loaded the Ryker by RedzStudio

b) Dialed him out.

c) Dialed in Jonathan for Ollie HD 100%

d) Dialed out the Jonathan for Ollie head to 0%

e) Dialed in a FaceGen Morph

f) Have the Ryker alter character posed.

g) Have Auto Face Enhancer Pose Expression control dialed to 100%

h) The Ryker character is wearing clothing & hair parented to him.

i) Also has Jepe's Roderick SBH parented but hidden

j) Create a group Actors & parent this morphed Ryker to it

k) Favorite the FaceGen Morph used

l) Start Shape Rigger Plus

m) Check the FaceGenMorph & set tolorance to 0 & check Include Bone Alighment

n) run SRP

o) Ryker jumps all the way to T(0,0,0) / R(0,0,0) & the SHB gets all "funky" & Ryker goes into an 'A' pose (aka Genesis 8 T pose)

p) Now when I use a pose preset to go to the A pose for Dev G8M or the DAZ Studio menu to zero the Ryker pose he's in this corrupt twisted pose if I choose 'zero selected children' but if the zero pose is selected Ryker goes into the pose he was in before SRP changed him to an A pose & moved him to T(0,0,0) R(0,0,))

So very weird bugs! Also I did things you code probably wasn't coded to stop the process if it detected a character in such a configuration (AFE for G8M, Ryker but dialed into other characters, & SBH).

I first welded it in another software and imported it the right scale after a few tries 150% if I recall

I rotated the genesis 8 figure joints to match the garment then baked joint rotations on it before using the transfer utility 

posed the unfitted garment to fit a regular Genesis 8 then converted it to a prop and fitted it

Thank you all so much I really appreciate these comments. Everything that's been said makes sense. Based on what i've learned from previous feedback i've gotten, making a suit like this for Daz, I would have a heeled and no heel optioni included, along with the gloves having a non-clawed option. Those would just be an additional feature to give it a more unique feel for people wanting to use it as a borg/droid kind of outfit. It's unfortunately not equipped with a helmet. I have a helmet on the last suit I made. I'm still considering the  options. 

@WendyLuvsCatz  Thanks for showing, how long or which method was used to get the outfits to conform? Yeah I've used KB3D items in daz too. Architectural items tend to be fine to import in, nothing to shape, shift, pose so just textures need to be applied, and shaders set up. 

@wolf359  I appreciate your explanation, thanks. And that's been my exact experience and findings too. The outfits i've made without a daz genesis base I cannot get to conform to a daz figure when i import into daz. There are always deformations,. for me even minor poses caused deforming on the outfit.I'm not very experienced or great with rigging and associated techniques. But so far I did get this much done (picture attached) but was in Cinema4D, and no way to transfer rigs as far as I know. Someone told me recently DAE files will carry the rig properly between Blender and Daz, not sure if it's true but going to look into whether the DAE export from C4D would transfer into Daz and make it easier to transfer then accept the daz genesis models rig. I doubt it though.

 

Hi I am a Daz Genesis content developer.
You need to import your Default Daz Genesis figure into your modeling application and model to fit that base shape as exactly as possible.
The Daz transfer utility will do about 96% of the work of making it a conformer particulary with form fitting bodysuits,
for looser fitting clothing with collars,shirt tails etc you may have to do addtional adjustment with the joint editor or with rigidity maps and optional movement morphs.
Just my opinion, but trying to fit randomly found Clothing meshes to to Daz figures, with the Daz transfer utility, that are not modeled to the base shape is a wasteful endeavour for anyone trying to build a versatile clothing content library.
You might, Sorta/kinda, get a fit, but it will likely result in a peice of clothing that will will have limited use with even mildly exaggerated poses and will definately fail with extreme body morphs applied to the limbs/joints.

Disclaimer: I've done what research I can, so I know that if I were to use Daz figures I'd need to pay a $50 license for every single model, morph, hair, clothing, or prop I use in the game.
I'm a bit of a newbie to game development and going through tutorials atm. I'm thinking down the line when I want to experiment with NPCs or a third person player character.
I have zero background with 3D modeling and little time or interest to learn on top of Game Development, so looking for any reasonable shortcuts to aspects of game dev I can, specifically character models.
I have a lot of assets from Daz 3D I've used for comic reference, and wondering if paying $500+ in Licenses for what models I have is worth it compared to hiring out somebody to make models for me.
I'm going to start small, use stuff like Make Human and all that, but if I ever get to the point I want to make a game with more unique looking models, I'm wondering if using Daz as a shortcut is worth the $$$ compared to hiring a freelancer (as I have no time to learn the 3D modeling aspect myself).
Appreciate any advice. I've tried to look up games that have used Daz models but almost exclusively just find goofy porn visual novels, so any *actual* 3D games that have used Daz models to look at would be great.

LOL House Party was 3D using DAZ figures

 

The outfit looks good, where is it from?

I use all kinds of mesh in many formats in DS, from .LWO (lightwave) files, to .STL (CAD) files, from .SKP (Sketchup) files, to .MAX files to of course .OBJ files. Between 3dsmax and ultimate unwrap 3d I can convert most formats, create UVmaps, or create new material zones to import into DS as an OBJ. Of course i have to usually tweak materials, but that is part of the creative process IMO..

As for rigging, if it's basic rigging the transfer utility does a pretty good job in my experience. I had been wanting a detailed tactical vest forever and no PA ever delivered, so I purchased a good one in OBJ format from CGTrader and imported it and rigged it with the transfer utility. You can see it in the attached image.

i doubt that the transfer utility would do a good enough job for a sellable product, but works pretty good for personal use.

 

 I have baked a set to match the male UV, and I have used them some, too. 

How would one bake a set to the match the male UV? This sounds interesting.

I'm sorry I never saw this question. I think you need to UV swap product first for the UVs to be available, but I'm not 100% sure. The procedure is the same as baking a unique G2 or G3 skin to match the base. You use the Map Transfer tool, but instead of selecting the base for the target, you select the opposite sex base. That's where having the UV swap product comes in.

So once done you will have a full set of textures fit to the other sex. Then you can use the nice roughness textures and materials of a bluejaunte girl on males in the same way I did for Victoria. This doesn't make them look feminine at all. It compliments pretty much any skin.

I wouldn't do a good job explaining, but this thread does, and it has helpful pictures. This was what I went by when I did mine. https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/95701/tutorial-converting-custom-genesis-2-uvs-to-genesis-3#latest

 

@outrider42 thank you so much for this. I spent the weekend trying to figure out how to transfer the maps from G8F to G8M. I use UV swap on the figure itself and it works well, but I want to use G8F skin on the male AFE mesh and of course you need a Male map for this.

 

I will study this thoroughly.

I used the UV swap first to get the female skin on the male. Then use the map transfer like described. I forgot I left that first step out. The process is actually pretty easy once you do it a couple times, its just getting the default templates to match the correct textures. Genesis 3/8 make this a lot easier since there are fewer different surfaces and groups than Genesis 2 had. And G8 makes it even easier because now all the related eye textures are one template. Basically all the surfaces that share the same texture are grouped together.

If you use a bluejaunte skin like say Nadya, you kind of only need to do it once, LOL. I think Nadya works particularly well because of how her fair skin settings seem to work more unilaterally with less tweaking. And like the newer BJ girls, she uses fewer maps to get the job done, and the maps are more optimized. Basically the newer BJ girls are more VRAM friendly and render slightly faster, too. So I think there is a real benefit to using newer ones like Nadya. I'm sure Ensley's would work great, too. Plus since Ensley has a new foot displacement texture, you could even convert that with this process and give the male that same foot displacement.

I can't find my Nix pictures for some reason, so I made a couple new ones. The is "Bluejaunte Nix". He is using Nadya roughness and bump maps. His base, trans color, and normals are still Nix. I used a bright light to show how the skin reflects it across the surface. This might be the closest we get to bluejaunte male without kidnapping bluejaunte. But this is why one would do that whole process, as it lets me use these new Nadya textures with ANY Genesis 8 male, even Genesis 3.

I am not using any HD morph, I don't have his. But that might be a consideration since I am using the Nadya bumps. I could maybe switch Nix bumps back in, but I still like Nadya's. Going this route does mean you are depending on your normals and mesh for those character specific details more than before. However I think the trade off is well worth it. His skin looks like skin to me. Grab a mesh body hair and you are in business.

I suppose the only real negative is the lack of a matching genital roughness texture. I think there was a free UV map at Rendo that somehow uses the torso texture on the Daz genital prop. I've never used it, so I have no idea how well it could work. But I happened to scroll over it one day looking at freebies.

Also, if you are doing some sort of comic like material, having bluejaunte skin on a male will make the men look like they belong in the same world with the bluejaunte women. That's really the biggest win, I think. There is no male that looks quite like the bluejaunte females. Now I could could place this Nix in a scene with Nadya or somebody and he would not look out of place.

Have they added the ability to load. Duf pose files with facial& body morph based animation data???

To your point about expressions - I have 44 (G8F) expression packages plus some number that are burried in the poses folder.  I don't know what the RAM consumption impact for them might be or if there is a difference between those that are in the expression folder and those that are included with poses.  And this might highlight my lack of understanding. 

You might recall early on I was talking about a number of related issues - or issues I thought were realted to this RAM thing and it included saving keyframes and zeroing a pose etc.  I might understand zeroing a figure taking a long time because all the morphs are loaded into RAM and they all have to be checked that they are zero, but zeroing the pose is not going through the pose collection, it is just checking all the bone rotations. . . .

I always thought posing was rigging/bones and shaping was morphs/mesh.  So as you have said it seems logical that expressions are at least partly (mostly) morphs (I want to say that some also move rigging like the jaw or tongue? Maybe I'm wrong.) and at least some of them (that include dials?) would be loaded into RAM and be contributing to RAM consumption.  Are there expressions that have no dials (only presets?) that behave more like poses and are not retained in RAM?  Or is the 'morph' in RAM anyways?