Sorry I don't make it to the forums right now. Busy little drummer boy!

After joining in the special presentation, I just have to come in and add some thoughts:

Not another new Version to buy for....!!!

Yeah, I can get that. In fact, I was on the same page, hoping for other news.

However, Daz 3d has truly knocked it out of the park with this one! 

There has been/is a great run on the Genesis 8/8.1 lineup which, it appears to me to have been an amazing launchpad for this new generation in many ways, while also being so excellent as to still give many folks a massive assortment should they they opt out of a new era. It usually takes a bit for new generations to grow their wings anyway, so in the meanwhile we have some really great people to work with.

This next level of Genesis generation is also not meant for the lowly computer - something that Genesis 1 still really does well with. Daz 3d loves to make great people. In order to do that, they'll need us to up our game in the computer department. Most Daz artists I know of won't have an issue. But with 8K maps and a higher resolution base, Genesis 9 reaches a level of realism that's hard to ignore. So to start us off, the free Genesis 9 Unisex figure was very intelligently designed to be unisex. You'll see what I mean. In base resolution, we can see the elegance of a SubD cage with an interesting base shape that looks perfect for lending into either male or female or some sort of animal or creature. This is exciting to me!

We'll also be getting four skin tone material presets for male and female humans: Caucasian, Oriental, South African and Hispanic along with the usual, decent variety of starter morphs and such - including some basic emotion sliders and even one for asymmetry!

They've also made eyes and mouth separate figures that conform to the base, like eyelashes and tears of 8.1. This means less distortion of those elements through shaping morphs, etc., which also means that products like Riversoft Art's Character Convertors will likely be able to be a lot more successful of 'less-than-normal' shapes. But it also means that character artists will have an easier time with making their products. HD teeth details anyone? 

It's amazing what can be done with HD morph technology. I'm guessing that HD is how we'll get details like nipples and such, since they don't seem to be present on the base mesh, and I can't see them opting for Normal Maps because that would be a poke-through disaster! Simulations wouldn't see them!

Seeing this Unisex 'unimesh' cage immediately got me excited about the future of this generation - with this much change (according to what might have been holding them back from the more real looking figure) artists will have a cleaner slate that doesn't include the mesh for the eyes, lashes, tears or mouth (unless they need to), they'll likely feel more free to make a wider variety and get even better results.

When Jay did his comparisons between Genesis 8.1 and 9 expression dials, it was night and day! Genesis 8.1 looked great, but not 'real'. Genesis 9 sure looked real to me. Well, to be more specific, it was the incredible new Victoria 9 in the comparison against Victoria 8.1. All Victoria's are great, but 9 is truly stunning!

I'm still using Genesis 3 because it works better for me on my aging new system. I've also made a Genesis 8 version of Rosie, who is meant to be used for closer shots, but Rosie 7 kinda rocks the closeup as well. But nothing like Victoria 9! Yikes!

The rigging is entirely different now. There are spine bones. Jay mentioned that this is the modern universal bone naming structure and, if that's the case, I'd want them to go that route too - even though it'll mean more converting for me... but for a figure this special, I wouldn't mind.

There will be a lot of controversy about all of this, I know. But from someone who knows that he cannot yet jump to this newer version just yet, it was (hands down!) the right direction to go for a new figure. Just try to keep in mind that, while we might wait for someone to make x for this figure, Daz Studio has a plethora of Solid Tools to help us make some of our own improvements the way we like them as we wait. I'm doing a Lot of that to my Genesis 3 and 8 figures which is really cool! Now I have the experience I need to make these tools even Better for a whole new figure - this time I only have to make them once! :)

Cheer, my Daz 3d family! I miss you all and hope you're all doing well!

DarTANbeck

marble said:

Petra said:

I am very happy that we get G9 and that it is like the Original first Genesis.

No buying guys or Girls, just slide the dials.

Was hoping they would go back to that.

Pre Ordered Victoria 9 and can not wait to get playing.

 

 

Are you sure about that? I imagine that the store will fill up with females and males just like always. Clothing will be designed for the female shape or the male so we will still have the bust cling and other problems as Jay explained in the presentation. 

The pa's should create a custom morph for both the female and the male figure. I'm not sure what others could reasonably be expected these days as there are so many core products.

Petra said:

I am very happy that we get G9 and that it is like the Original first Genesis.

No buying guys or Girls, just slide the dials.

Was hoping they would go back to that.

Pre Ordered Victoria 9 and can not wait to get playing.

 

Are you sure about that? I imagine that the store will fill up with females and males just like always. Clothing will be designed for the female shape or the male so we will still have the bust cling and other problems as Jay explained in the presentation. 

Twilight76 said:

Pendraia said:

Outfit fitted to genesis 8 then morphed in zbrush to fit. Had to be a morph as when I updated the mesh it was raised up. Would probably work if not raised up prior though. Too early I need more coffee.

The reality is the new figure will be like any other figure that's been introduced. Eventually people will swap over to it or find work arounds if their machines don't cope with high ram.

Can anyone remember the size on the elite textures for v4?

The Elite Texture was "only" (4096 x 4096)

Thanks, given that Victoria 4 had a much denser mesh and most machines would have a lot more ram on the video cards as well as the system I'm sure most will cope. If not I'm sure there will be workarounds like lowering the size of the textures maps a bit...

richardrhinson said:

bytescapes said:

richardrhinson said:

So clothing might work?
What about hair?
Characters?
Skins?
Or is this a start from scratch all over again scenario?

Based on what Jay Versluis said, clothing from previous generations will be fitted to the new figure with AutoFit, and tight clothing will work better than loose clothing (this seems to be a general rule with AutoFit).

He demonstrated applying poses to the figure using a script developed by one of the PAs; it looked as if that worked pretty well.

He showed a G8 hair fitted to G9/V9, but if I remember correctly he said that he'd had to work some magic in Blender to make it fit properly.

No mention was made of applying or converting characters from previous generations; I assume that's not going to be possible at launch, but perhaps a PA will develop a converter tool.

Ditto for skins. It sounded from what was said -- or, rather, what was NOT said -- as if you can't just take a G8 skin and apply it to G9. Again, someone might come up with a conversion tool, although that could be quite challenging.

The impression I had -- and I am not an expert on this stuff at all -- was that converting character shapes and skins from G8 to G9 will be more complex than converting G3 to G8.

So it's not quite start from scratch, but it's not likely that you'll be able to use everything you already own on Launch Day, and you may need to buy additional software to use your existing assets effectively.

Let's just say that DAZ weren't making any promises about compatibility.

So for casual artists like myself 8.1 is a hard stop point until V9 is offered for free at some point so we can see if she'll even render on our rigs, and some PA is going to have to do what DAZ did not, which is to provide a path forward for the thousands of dollars already invested into art assets by so many.  Which is fine, because granular face morphs only because an easy thing all of last week on 8.1.... so as big news goes, this was a dud.

I doubt that as the genesis 9 base will be released with Daz Studio from what has been said. This will allow people to use the figure and there will no doubt be freebies created for the figure. V9 is after all just another character these days. It used to be the base figure was Victoria that's no longer the case...

Several people tuned in the special announcement iclucing me.

No free item yet, not even the latest build for Daz Studio.

But with so much fanfarre is being told about Victoria 9 

Also I have not found any entry with what was announced just recently.

Catherine3678ab said:

WendyLuvsCatz said:

I am assuming there will still be a free base figure

believe or not I still don't own G8.1 Victoria or Michael and no wish to

AFAIK, yes.

Yes the base is free as usual. You will need to purchase V9 and M9 also as usual.

WendyLuvsCatz said:

I am assuming there will still be a free base figure

believe or not I still don't own G8.1 Victoria or Michael and no wish to

Yes it should be in 4.21Jay said

I am very happy that we get G9 and that it is like the Original first Genesis.

No buying guys or Girls, just slide the dials.

Was hoping they would go back to that.

Pre Ordered Victoria 9 and can not wait to get playing.

WendyLuvsCatz said:

I am assuming there will still be a free base figure

believe or not I still don't own G8.1 Victoria or Michael and no wish to

AFAIK, yes.

I am assuming there will still be a free base figure

believe or not I still don't own G8.1 Victoria or Michael and no wish to

Is Victoria 9 Rebecca Mader (actress from LOST, Once Upon a Time, etc.)?

can Victoria 8.1 skin be used on G8F? (not G8.1 F but original G8F

thanks

Blando Calrissian said:

Am I getting this right? $60 for Victoria 9 base figure and $160 for the Pro Bundle?

My goodness, that's quite a markup over 8 and 7, isn't it?

Victoria 8.1 is regular $49.95.  Victoria 9 is regular 59.95. The two 8.1 bundles are $149.95 each, the 9 bundle is $159.95.  It's a $10 increase for higher res models.

Xellosz said:

Will Hexagon be able to handle it???

G8 works in Hexagon, with the double amount of polygon I think G9 might crash it.

I don't know the numbers, but it would still be lighter than Victoria 4/Michael 4.

caravelle said:

I have seen Windows logos in the background now and then. Does this mean that Genesis 9 only works on Windows machines? That would be terrible. I just pre-ordered Victoria 9, but if it doesn't work on my Mac, I'll have to cancel that.

And I didn't find the link for the freebie because the chat was blocked (??). It would be nice if Daz would post this link again.

It's content, it's just that those people were suing Windows machines 9and probably needed them to show redners quickly enough for the stream).

I have seen Windows logos in the background now and then. Does this mean that Genesis 9 only works on Windows machines? That would be terrible. I just pre-ordered Victoria 9, but if it doesn't work on my Mac, I'll have to cancel that.

And I didn't find the link for the freebie because the chat was blocked (??). It would be nice if Daz would post this link again.

captainalvord said:

What exactly comes in the Bundle?  Be nice to know if its worth the $$$ before pre-ordering.  

I'd like to know this also... "The Victoria 9 HD Bundle comes with poses, expressions, outfits, hair, and more." is a bit vague. 

So I'm looking at the bundle for Victoria 9 and it doesn't list what's included. Does anyone know when that will be announced or should I look at preordering the base figure?

I'm not spending $111.99 without knowing what I'm buying...