I am confused there seems to be so many different types of figures to use for male and female I mean there is Genesis, Genesis 2, Victoria 4 5 and 6 and Michael 4 5 and 6 and others like what one is the best to use? is genesis generally better than the Michael/Victoria latest models? I just trying to get info on what the best figures are to use and what would be the ones with the best textures? and what is the primary diffrences between the genesis models and the regular Michael/Victoria 4 5 and 6? thx

Help! Where does this error come from? I attached a screenshot.

Critical error: The "Michael 4" support folder could not be found?

Could it be that Windows 8.1 causes trouble?

PS: I already deinstalled and reinstalled via DIM the M4 stuff. Moreover, I did a maintainance for the database.

princewao said:

Thank you for your fast response, fixmypcmike.

Re your replies:

1: I have 2 GB RAM, and I'm only using 30% of the hard disk, so I don't think the issue is with my PC.

2GB of Ram is not enough to do more than tiny scenes in DAZ. Is this a 32 bit OS? You really need a minimum of 4GB of Ram and a 64 OS to use DAZ Studio. I would recommend 8GB as more usable system. I have 16GB. I can do scenes with up to 12-15 characters with clothes on a set, but I'm using at 16GB of Ram to do that. Wish I had 24GB or 32GB now.

princewao said:

2: The video card is working to spec's and I don't have any other related problems, so I don't think that's connected to my DAZ issues, either. I'll explain what I meant re materials in my initial post:

DAZ Studio uses OpenGL. Some low end graphics cards have a buggy implementation of OpenGL. That was my experience with DAZ on an old laptop. Crashed all the time. When I switched to a computer with a middle of the road graphics card, crashes went away completely.

princewao said:

Say that in a given saved scene I give the Genesis Male the basic Journeyer Scout Vest, fit it to the character, then go to Materials to alter the vest's look, I'll find that under 'Materials' there are no colour images of the vest, armband, wristguards, etc, only grey squares with the file names. If I then click 'refresh', the colour images will suddenly reappear, but when I double-click on, say, the Royal Vest, what actually appears on the original vest will be every single material option for the vest at once. This anomaly occurs mostly when adding to saved scenes or scene subsets.

3: Thanks for the answers to my first 2 questions – understood, though I currently believe that the problems I'm having are just to do with the DS4 programme and not my PC as in all other areas it's in fine fettle.

I'm not so sure. What you are describing is like what I experienced on a computer with 2GB or RAM and 32bit OS. When I got a new computer with 16GB, 64 bit OS and middle of the road graphics card, the problems all disappeared.

4: Re my not being able to access facial expressions for the basic Genesis figures, they don't appear under 'parameters'. If I select the Genesis 2 Female, go to 'parameters' and then click on 'pose controls', all of the facial variant controls (and all others of course) show up; but they don't on the Basic Genesis figures – only arms, legs, hips and waist controls appear.

You need to select the head of Genesis, then on the parameters dialog you should see "Pose Controls." Expand that and you should find expressions under it. Don't remember how many expression are in the starter essentials, but there are mouth controls there too.

5: Re your reply to my 4th and 5th questions, BRILLIANT – thank you! – this is the kind of basic instruction I need.

6: Re my Question 6, the 'folder tree' route to 'Quel Bazar' in the Content Library is: My DAZ 3D Library; Environments, Architecture, Mar_Souks, Quel Bazaar. IE: I'm assuming that "Mar_Souks" is " "Marrakesh Souks 2012" – is that correct? Or is the 'runtime can't be found' message occurring because that runtime file is in "Marrakesh Souks 2012" and I don't have it?

I have this same problem and I think Quel Bazaar needs to be updated. It was made for the old "Marrakesh Souks" set that was removed from the store and replaced by "Marrakesh Souks 2012". The 2012 set installs its geometry files in a different location. and scene in Quel Bazaar is still looking for them in the old location. The individual materials preset working correctly on Marrakesh Souks 2012, but you have to select the right parts of the set to apply each one. You can save your own scene after you do that. Jack Tomalin has a lot of sets with this issue. He is working on getting them updated, but It would not hurt to send him a PM or open a support ticket.

Again, being new to DAZ and there being so little basic instruction for new customers, I'm currently struggling to know exactly what I should be buying next to progress as whatever I select of interest from the DAZ catalogue I'm continually reading that I'll need something else first, and often when I check that 'something else', I find I even need another something else before that one.
Although I need far more environment, clothes and hair options than the basics I've begun with or recently bought, I figured I next needed to buy Victoria 4 and Michael 4 – which is why I came on-site today – but again I'm left nonplussed as everything connected to those figures that I've found state I need a dastardly 'something else first'! I can't even find Victoria 4 Base on the site, but even here I'm only guessing that that's the first thing one buys. I can find Victoria 4.2 Base, but I'm not buying that as it may be that it's no good without Victoria 4 Base. This is what I mean about there being no basic instruction for beginners – the information given with most products I've seen is only meaningful if one already speaks DAZ language.

There is a lot of free content available for DAZ at sites like ShareCG. I would recommend seeing what you can do with free content, before spending a lot more money on paid content.

There is a significant learning curve with DAZ Studio. The documentation is weak. There are a lot of tutorials on Youtube and I have hear rumors DAZ is working on a tutorials.

Thank you for your fast response, fixmypcmike.

Re your replies:

1: I have 2 GB RAM, and I'm only using 30% of the hard disk, so I don't think the issue is with my PC.

2: The video card is working to spec's and I don't have any other related problems, so I don't think that's connected to my DAZ issues, either. I'll explain what I meant re materials in my initial post:
Say that in a given saved scene I give the Genesis Male the basic Journeyer Scout Vest, fit it to the character, then go to Materials to alter the vest's look, I'll find that under 'Materials' there are no colour images of the vest, armband, wristguards, etc, only grey squares with the file names. If I then click 'refresh', the colour images will suddenly reappear, but when I double-click on, say, the Royal Vest, what actually appears on the original vest will be every single material option for the vest at once. This anomaly occurs mostly when adding to saved scenes or scene subsets.

3: Thanks for the answers to my first 2 questions – understood, though I currently believe that the problems I'm having are just to do with the DS4 programme and not my PC as in all other areas it's in fine fettle.

4: Re my not being able to access facial expressions for the basic Genesis figures, they don't appear under 'parameters'. If I select the Genesis 2 Female, go to 'parameters' and then click on 'pose controls', all of the facial variant controls (and all others of course) show up; but they don't on the Basic Genesis figures – only arms, legs, hips and waist controls appear.

5: Re your reply to my 4th and 5th questions, BRILLIANT – thank you! – this is the kind of basic instruction I need.

6: Re my Question 6, the 'folder tree' route to 'Quel Bazar' in the Content Library is: My DAZ 3D Library; Environments, Architecture, Mar_Souks, Quel Bazaar. IE: I'm assuming that "Mar_Souks" is " "Marrakesh Souks 2012" – is that correct? Or is the 'runtime can't be found' message occurring because that runtime file is in "Marrakesh Souks 2012" and I don't have it?

Again, being new to DAZ and there being so little basic instruction for new customers, I'm currently struggling to know exactly what I should be buying next to progress as whatever I select of interest from the DAZ catalogue I'm continually reading that I'll need something else first, and often when I check that 'something else', I find I even need another something else before that one.
Although I need far more environment, clothes and hair options than the basics I've begun with or recently bought, I figured I next needed to buy Victoria 4 and Michael 4 – which is why I came on-site today – but again I'm left nonplussed as everything connected to those figures that I've found state I need a dastardly 'something else first'! I can't even find Victoria 4 Base on the site, but even here I'm only guessing that that's the first thing one buys. I can find Victoria 4.2 Base, but I'm not buying that as it may be that it's no good without Victoria 4 Base. This is what I mean about there being no basic instruction for beginners – the information given with most products I've seen is only meaningful if one already speaks DAZ language.

The Transfer Utility is for TriAx figures, like Genesis and the DAZ Horse 2. It doesn't support legacy figures like Michael 4. If the morph didn't load as a morph it sounds as if you did something to change the vertex order - did you add or remove anything in Hexagon?

Vaskania said:

I'm not sure. I can visibly see the 2nd mesh in the DS viewport, but there is no 2nd mesh in the scene/hierarchy tabs.

I wonder if the 2nd mesh I'm seeing is the SubD "shell" from Poser.

/edit
Yes, the 2nd mesh from mine was the subD shell from Poser. I re-saved the CR2 with subD off and no longer have the problem. The UVs for the textures didn't save right for some reason, so the maps are all misaligned, but that's an easy fix using the DS mats.

My question for you still stands though, why bother going through all of this trouble? Just create the character in Daz Studio itself, and use the DS optimized mats. If you're using custom Poser shaders, Poser procedurals don't work in DS anyways.

I'm going through all of this trouble because I'm an artist. There's no reason or rhyme to creating art. I try a thousand different variations of everything. Some of my characters are pieces of 3 different generations of figures parented together with parts of each of their bodies made invisible. Some of my characters were made before Genesis was invented. There's no possible way I can remember what I used, or what I did. The textures are a patchwork of materials I take from many different sources. I don't just buy a premade character and put hair and clothes on it. I alter and customize everything. I use almost nothing "out of the box".

The specific character figure I customized in Poser and want to render in DAZ Studio is 100% Genesis. The texture is one Michael 4 texture. I did it in Poser because I was going to use the Poser Cloth Room for dynamic clothing, but I found it would work better if I used conforming clothing, for which I need the Auto Fit utility in Studio 4.6.

I've really really tried to avoid using DAZ Studio and the Genesis and Genesis 2 products because they have incompatibility built into them. But Studio has Auto Fit, and Poser has the Cloth Room.

In Daz Studio 4.6 I load a character and it appears in the viewport. It is a character which I made in Poser, which consists of Genesis and a lot of various morphs of Freak 3, Michael 4 etc. I saved the character to the Poser library. It opens fine in Daz Studio, but when I render the scene, evrerything ion the scene renders except the character. It seems invisible to the render engine. I've checked and it is set to be visible during the render. Does anyone know why it would be invisible to the render engine?
Thanks!

V4 and her kin stay loaded in my runtimes, though her actual appearances in renders are pretty rare. Primarily she hangs around for use with plug ins like GenX, PoseMaster & my older version of Face Shop, for things that really aren't fully Genesis compatible yet, like some of the dynamic clothing, or the occasions when I need to go back to DS3 to use plug ins and features that don't exist/still don't work in DS4. I'll also use her to produce billboards of background characters so I don't have to fight the d**n shoe battle, and I DO use her skeleton a lot. And while I can't think of any V4s off the top of my head, there are a couple of insanely complex M4 sets that combine morphs and add ons that make it easier to keep Michael 4 around than even attempt GenX-ing them.

Oh, and while Zev0's toe control eliminated a lot of my need for V4 to do foot stand ins, V4's toe rigging is still much better than that of either Genesis or the Genesis 2 females. And were I the sort to be making "that" kind of renders, one has to point out that her and M4's naughty bits have a lot more options out there as well, which is why the vast majority of commercial comics using DAZ assets, a huge percentage of which ARE "those" kinds of things, have stuck with V4.

(And a big Amen! to the mention above about the arm creases above... I recently loaded up a bunch of custom characters I did a couple of years ago and I'd forgotten how really, really horrible some of the limb bends were, even with all the added correction sets.)

Here are a few renders I made based author Samuel R. Delany's 1968 sci-fi novel "NOVA". I'm a fan of Delany's work and have based work on scenes and characters from his stories for practice. All characters were made using Michael 4. I model the clothing, props and everything else in Hexagon 2.5. I use an older version of Daz Studio to render. I tried version 4.5 when it became available but it slowed my computer and I really didn't have time to peruse the forums for helpful hints on what to do with it.

I try to keep the images and designs close to how they're described in the books and improvise when I need to. I'm getting a kick out of referencing older material and keeping them simple as opposed to creating over ornate objects and costumes. ...I'm still practicing after all. My modeling skills are improving, I need to learn more on lighting and cameras and I'm still learning Daz Studio at a snails pace but I'm having fun.

The first render is titled, "Mouse". His name is Pontichos Provechi. He's a gypsy from earth, a "cyborg stud" a term for people who crew on ships and operate them via plugs grafted into their wrists and base of the spine. They control technology in this universe directly through the radial nerves and spinal chords. Like Delany's "the kid" from "Dhalgren", Mouse wears only one shoe. His "sensory syrnx" is his prized possession it can project animated holographic images accompanied by sound and aromas

The second is titled, "The Crew of the Roc on Hell3". The crew are from left to right are Mouse, Katin Crawford, the twins Lynceos and Idas, second in command Tyy her companion Sebastian and his winged gillies.

The third is titled, "Pirate". He's Captain, Lorq Von Ray with Von Ray Industries freighter The Roc. The heir of a rival family dubs his family as pirates.

The fourth is titled, "Leaving Hell3". Spacecraft in this story are not rocket propelled. They employ what Delany described as "projection vanes". The Roc has it's projection vanes extended for liftoff. I had to design a ship without the standard rocket blast.

When browsing through the curious category, I came a long some nice looking hairstyles but was unable to find them on my own.
Any ideas on where these come from:

Hair 1

And the one that's used on the Hatter:

The Hatter

Thanks in advance ^^

Short version of story: I have a Michael 4 character with muscles pumped up a little. I am trying to get clothing to fit him, but no luck. The morphed muscles extend through the clothing. I have tried "Fit to Michael4" and "Transfer Active Morphs". That helps a little, but does not solve the problem. I went to the shaping controls to try to shape the pants to fit, but there are only a few controls, and if I adjust the pants to cover his muscles, then they look really bad - stretched in some places to the point of being baggy and skin tight in other places.

Next I tried bridging my M4 and clothes to Hex. Unfortunately, the mesh of the pants is extremely fine. I started to pull them out to fit, but it became ridiculous trying to pick and pull the super fine mesh.

My next step was to make pants from scratch on my M4. That went pretty well. I will keep working on these.

However, in the meantime, I haven't given up on the original clothes. I am wondering, is there a command in Hex that will automatically distort the mesh of a pair of pants to fit the mesh of the model beneath them?

Thanks

http://www.daz3d.com/shin-tokai-the-new-city

This is textures for Stonemason's Display Room which I think is going away as well. I've used these as recently as a month ago. The only problem I found with shin-tokai is the difficulty in discerning which thumbnail is which and they're named like scene 1, scene 2, scene 3. Bad, Raw. Bad Bad Raw. ;)

btw, I like using older stuff. Just because we have more memory and can deal with more polygons and higher res textures doesn't mean older things aren't still useful depending on the type of scenes being created. One nice thing about getting a new machine is revisiting older scenes and finding they render faster and are quicker to manipulate than they were on the old. It's always a bit disappointing that new stuff on new machines often makes you feel the same as you did using old stuff on old machines.

Progress, gotta love it. I still sometimes use Michael 3. Yep. And my favorite guy is still Michael 4 even though I'm deep into Genesis and G2F. The Vampire Clan (which I don't have--I'm not into vampires and blood is all) is for m3 and Freak 3. I still prefer Freak 3 over later ones because Freak 3 can more easily be portrayed as a gentle giant whereas the new ones are better used as sweaty musclemen it seems.

Ok, that's my rant for the day. ;) I love your work Raw. Keep at it.

Ghosttech007 said:

I like both of your suggestions thanks!

Is Freak 4 compatible with M4? I have Freak 4 too. If I add F4 texture to M4, will it work?

Freak 4 is actually a morph of Michael 4, so the textures are all compatible. Same goes for Hiro 4. So if you see a Hiro 4 texture you like, you can use that too :)

arguellofernando said:

Elfwine said:

I am kinda surprised that no one has mentioned the 100 free Super-Hero poses I made for both the Mil3 and Mil4 figures.

100 Super Hero Poses for the Mil3 Figures
https://market.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/details.php?item_id=62321

100 Super Hero Poses for the Mil4 Figures
https://market.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/details.php?item_id=62318

I'm new on Daz or any 3d software so my question could be obvious but, could I use those pose on Daz studio 4.6 on genesis base? I don't have any actual character like Michael 4 or the other just the free base that it's included on the software.

Yes, the poses work well with Genesis figures. Some adjustments may be needed.

Elfwine said:

I am kinda surprised that no one has mentioned the 100 free Super-Hero poses I made for both the Mil3 and Mil4 figures.

100 Super Hero Poses for the Mil3 Figures
https://market.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/details.php?item_id=62321

100 Super Hero Poses for the Mil4 Figures
https://market.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/details.php?item_id=62318

I'm new on Daz or any 3d software so my question could be obvious but, could I use those pose on Daz studio 4.6 on genesis base? I don't have any actual character like Michael 4 or the other just the free base that it's included on the software.

I am migrating all of my work form my 32 bit OS laptop to my 64 bit desktop.
I installed DS 4.6 64bit and all of my content.

The user interface in the 64bit DS is completely different than the 32bit DS!
On my laptop in the 32bit DS, my Michael 4 has a "bald head" option. In the 64bit version, this is missing. I think other things may be missing, too, but I am not sure yet. I still need to browse more.

Do I need to reinstall Michael 4? Reinstall DS 4.6 64bit?

I have also noted that in the 32bit DS, I can choose any hair and add it to Michael even if it doesn't fit. In the 64bit, it seems to only show me things that are meant for Michael 4.

It was hard enough to learn my way around the 32 bit interface. Now I am starting over with 64 bit.

laurenwbr said:

Did you trawl through the M4 clothing? Found this. It's double-breasted with a reasonable collar and cuff trim..

http://www.daz3d.com/clothing-accessories/dynamic-uniforms-for-michael-4

:) Silene

That was the 1st out fit I looked at. But it only works in DS.

Did you trawl through the M4 clothing? Found this. It's double-breasted with a reasonable collar and cuff trim..

http://www.daz3d.com/clothing-accessories/dynamic-uniforms-for-michael-4

:) Silene

Hello,

I installed "Michael 4 Base" with "Daz 3D Install Manager" software, everything went well...

In "DAZ Studio 4.6.0.18 Pro" character appears in the menu: Daz Studio Formats / My Daz 3D library / People / Michael 4. But I have no thumbnail to insert it into the area of "modeling.

"Have you any idea ?
Thank you.
F.

In my case, I see a lot of it while I'm looking for other things.

Speaking of which... something I recently discovered while looking for other things:

Axis Powers Hetalia
Hetalia Japan Outfit for M4 Valiant
http://www.sharecg.com/v/47105/gallery/11/Poser/Hetalia-Japan-Outfit-for-M4-Valiant
(Requires Valiant for Michael 4)