This sure seems like a very strange way to start off the big Daz season pass. LOL.

I like the concept of variety of body shapes, but not so much the execution. The biggest problem is the skin looks so very bad on her in many of her shots. The pic of Brook with BJ Naomi skin should be embarrassing to every single person in the building (or working remotely) for Daz. Just imagine if Brook looked something like that, she would sell so much better. People would be celebrating their season passes. You guys need to figure this out. Victoria 8.1 had OK skin and appeared to signal a tiny step forward in that regard. But after that we have had cartoonish skins and sand paper. I mean, I can look at my own skin, the skin of a man, and see that my skin is FAR more smooth than poor Brook's. Why is Brook's skin so bumpy? I know this sounds harsh, but for crying out loud this is really getting bad. Stop it. Instead of trying to pump out content for the sake of content you seriously need to focus on the quality of the content. This is getting out of hand.

Daz core characters should be setting the standard for what Daz Genesis can be. If you guys want me to buy core characters, you need to make good core characters. It really should not be that hard. I don't know if it is time restraints pushing people to get these out the door or what, but the end result is not good. Core characters are becoming a joke.

Quality products will sell. I believe quality products will sell better than marketing a season pass for less than stellar products. Is such an idea crazy talk?

Is what I am saying wrong? Am I wrong in this assessment? While some people seem to like Brook, there are a lot of comments regarding some element of questionable quality in this bundle, even from people that like her.

And that doesn't even touch the completely wack backstory on this character and how her bundle makes no logical sense whatsoever, or the pricing of everything.

Sorry for the late reply, this forum might help if you still haven't solved this https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/230141/victoria-7-texture-seams-showing-between-the-legs-and-torso

JeffG
Do you mind updating the OP with all the characters in the thread that are confirmed to be PBR 8.1s?
Yes, I know it additional work, but it makes for a better thread.

Genesis 8.1 Females using the PBRSkin (Updated, New Skin, PooBer) shader:

• SASE Bellina for Genesis 8 and 8.1 Females

• Vo Rose for Genesis 8.1 Female

• Paris HD for Genesis 8 Female

• ​Rosamond HD for Genesis 8.1 Female

• Ginny HD for Genesis 8 and 8.1 Female

• White Priestess 8.1 HD

• RY Inessa for Genesis 8.1 Female

• RY Norene for Genesis 8.1 Female

• Gaia HD

• Kathleen HD for Genesis 8.1 Female

Genesis 8.1 Males using the PBRSkin (Updated, New Skin, PooBer) shader:

• Michael 8.1

• Torment 8.1

• Trance HD for Genesis 8.1 Male

• War Goblin HD for Genesis 8.1 Male

• PhxKade for Genesis 8 & 8.1 Male(s) 

• Zak HD for Genesis 8.1 Male

PS
Confirm on VYK Markie  ?

Something very wierd is happening to my renders, specifically one character of my render.

I'm trying to develop a "prom photo". (See second attachment). To do this, I created each character individually, until I got their look correct.

Then, I brought them together for a group photo.  As you can see there's something weird about the girl in the red dress. When I created her character, everything rendered fine. (See first photo). 

But when I added her to the group for the group render the weirdness happened. She's a Victoria 8 character. All are Gen 8 characters.

I thought there was something corrupt about the character, so I re-created her. Still the same ultimate result. 

I don't even know what's happening.

Any help would be appreciated.....

Thanks.

certaintree38 said:

blaz said:

It seems I'm the only one that likes the textures.

Here's Brooke reporting undercover

Her skin looks great there! I wonder if anyone can get it to look that good in low light? 

I actually really like her body, and I loved the promos of her in a slinky dress and belly dancing outfit. Those outfits are sexy and flatter her. But the dress in the bundle doesn't flatter her so much. At least her BF, Zak, is pretty good-looking. The NY tenements seem kinda redundant. We already have tenements like that in the store, by the same PA. But W/E.

The marketing does seem all over the place. On the Season Pass page, where they give the details of the contest, it says she is in the business industry. On her product page, she is described as being a News Anchor. And the marketing for her bundle calls her "Famous for being famous." When someone is in the News industry, you might call it communications, but I've never heard it referred to as the "business industry." Those are two separate things. Business people run businesses. People in communications write or talk for the masses. Additionally, when someone is "Famous for being famous," you are saying that they have no actual talents or merits. It's a term used on reality television stars like The Real Housewives, or the Kardashians, or The Girls Next Door. I can see how they might have confused "Being famous" for "Being Famous for Being Famous," but if the woman is famous for being a News Anchor, or a savvy business woman, then she's not "famous for being famous." 

If I were going to enter the contest, I might wonder which story I was supposed to tell, with so many narratives going on at once. Probably safest to stick to the business thing. 

I wishlisted Zak and the hair. I will probably wait longer to get Brooke, since I only want her for her body and mixing. 

 

I find a lot of DAZ originals (that look Caucasian to me), to be too dark. Most of them I can brighten up with shader settings. Victoria 8.1 is great at that. You can make her really pale and still natural. Brooke though, is giving me some trouble.

I still haven't decided about the bundle. I like most of it, but I'm kind of ticked that the HD (that i paid for) does not account for discount for the add-ons. And that i would have to buy 2 add-ons to get the extra 50% of the Famous Highlights.

If I do decide to enter the contest, I have an idea for which it wont really matter if she is a reporter or a fashion consultant.

Introducing the GeoBra for G3F, G8F & G8.1F, a bra so comfortable it's like a second skin! No wires, buckles, hooks or clips, in fact no geometry of its own at all.

This product uses Daz Studio's Geometry Shell feature to create a bra that can be safely worn under other clothes without requiring many resources or causing poke-through. It is intended to be used under sheer or semi-sheer tops to preserve your model's modesty.

The bra is available in two styles (lacy and plain) in both 1K and 4K resolutions, and in three colors - but you can set it to whatever color you like by changing the diffuse. Both Iray and 3Delight versions are included.

If you're looking for a bra to be worn on its own, as outerwear, this product is not for you. There are a ton of suitable products in the shop, and freebies by (amongst others) Wilmap and Beat578 that autofit nicely to more recent generations. But if your model is wearing a garment over her bra, you can get problems with poke-through if the bra has geometry of its own. This product is for that situation - it essentially paints a bra shape onto the model's skin, so it can be seen through a thin top, but doesn't actually poke through.

Here's an example of it in use:

And now in creepy Man-O-Vision:

Here's one of the icon files to give you a better view of the front. I hope the strapping looks plausible, such garments really aren't my area of expertise!

You can download it here: https://www.renderosity.com/freestuff/items/100085/geobra-for-genesis-3-8-and-81-female

Promo Credits

White Top

• Sanza for Genesis 3 Female
• Sporty Ponytail Hair
• Office Wear for Genesis 3 Female(s)

Red Top

• Agnes for Victoria 7
• MEGA Updo Hair for Genesis 3 and 8 Female(s)
• V4 Ruffle (top)
• H&C Women's Suit A for Genesis 3 Female(s) (skirt)
• Morphing Stockings for Genesis 3 and 8 Female(s)

certaintree38 said:

BTR said:

Fair enough! No doubt I am not doing Brooke 8.1 the justice she deserves with my screenshots. 

I like her skin in some of your other renders, but it really seems like PBR skin can be hard to light.

 The default skin has SSS direction set at -0,7. That's why the low SSS effect. And like Victoria and Michael 8.1 she likes a lot of light. I don't like this very much as it is sometimes hard to put them in an environment. Either you get an unnaturally dark character or an overly bright environment.

As for the lips, I don't mind them so much, as I have a friend that has really similar lips.

Hey Padone, you asked me to leave some thoughts. I'm a bit confused as to what Diffeo is accomplishing with this. For example, I understand that Diffeo's default skin shader is doing a great job of mimicking how a character will look like in Daz. Is Diffeo trying to mimic Dforce behavior in Blender or is it just trying to find a good starting point for all dforce clothes to not completely break in Blender?

I loaded in Victoria 8 with a Dforce Retro Romper. This is what it looks like unsimulated.

[Image Removed]

First thing I noticed is that the cloth has a collision modifier which confused me. 

[Image Removed]

I baked the default settings to 30 frames and got this result, which is okay but creates some material overlap in the cleavage area.

[Image Removed]

Removing the collision modifier and enabling self-collision on the garment itself (leaving the default Diffeo settings as is)  seems to give better results.

[Image Removed]

Here's the quick way of how I would have tackled this type of garment myself. Note I'm no expert in cloth sims but get by well enough to where it's useable for my projects.

This garment's topology is actually not ideal for simulating and it's default position is already wrinkly and somewhat overlapping mesh.

[Image Removed]

[Image Removed]

The bottom half of the garment seems to be autofitted well enough in Daz so added it to the pin group and excluded from the sim. I then only simulated a few frames just to get the straps to sit on the shoulders. I then applied this as a Shapekey and reassigned the pin group to only contain the area I want to do the rest of the simulation on. (Highlight the simulated area and do ctrl+i to invert the selection).

[Image Removed]

This is the 30 frame sim using Simply Cloth's Silk preset.

[Image Removed]

If this was a personal project where I would spend more time on it, I would edit the topology and add some additional vertex groups as well such as trim. These would be utilized in this section to further control the overall shape and simulation.

[Image Removed]

I may just not be understanding the goal here but adding this dforce feature to Diffeo seems like it's a lot of extra work with very little benefit. Other than setting the collision distances to 0.001 by default, all the other settings are very scene specific. For example, cloth having a collision modifier on by default may cause a lot of frustration for users not understanding these settings well. I normally try to simulate layers of clothing one at a time rather than having multiple cloth/collisions running at once. Even the Quality Steps value is so very specific not just to the garment and simulation settings, but also to the pose and rate of change. If I have a pose that's significantly different than the prior or resting pose, I need to either raise quality steps to match my minimum fps (24,30,60) or keyframe the pose over a long range of frames to make it stable. Whereas more subtle changes even a low value of 5 can be more than enough.

Overall these default settings seem fine as a starting point but I imagine it will be a source of frustration for Thomas since there's so much room for error and there may be a lot of posts of users having issues with cloth sims. Perhaps rather than it being implemented as part of Diffeo, the Diffeo manual can simply have a section on best practices when using cloth sim and how to address common issues? I can provide the presets that come with Simply Cloth as these tend to work better in my experience.

[Image Removed]

Edit: Looks like I'm unable to paste images into the body of text so I've saved and attached the finish product instead.

brother grim said:

Got it fixed. One more question is there a way to edit the ranger vest on victoria in that pose. If i select the model for the ranger top in the instance manager then click the icon to edit in assembly room the vest jumps off the character. If i select the ranger top and everything included with that model, hip, abdomen, etc. i can only edit it in the modeling room. The problem is I end up deforming the mesh a little more than I need and jumping back and forth between the two rooms which makes a bigger mess. So I make the edit jump back if it doesn't work I undo the edit and start again. If I had to fix several instances of poke through this way the vest would probably look a little off (odd bends and folds) I would think.

If you need to work on the mesh while in a posed position, it truly is a lot easier to work in the Model room instead of using the Edit option in the Assemble room.

In the model room, use the zoom tools in the tiny preview window to get the problem area as visible as possible.

Now go to the Animation tab in the model room (middle tab on the right panel) to see the item as it is on the conformed figure. We cannot actually make adjustments here, but we can select the exact polygons we need, then switch back to the model mode.

Once back in modeling mode, and the polygons selected from above, set the softness to your liking and make your tweaks while looking at the results in the preview.

We can make the preview window bigger, but then it changes the whole interface. We can move it back, but I just got used to leaving it little and just being patient with my adjustments.

I say all of this because there's no way in hell that I can stick only to morph parameters that have been included with products, and I'm always tweaking.

Another useful tidbit to follow this post

WillowRaven said:

Oso3D said:

I would REALLY not bother converting hair or skin; the tech has come a LONG way and results are unlikely to look that great.

I have thousands of dollars in characters with skins ideal for my needs. If I can salvage even half of them, I would feel less sick about making the switch.

Looking around, I've found Legacy UVs for Genesis 8: Victoria 4 & Legacy UVs for Genesis 8: Michael 4.

From what I can tell, if I can't find full character conversion tools, these will at least save my favorite generation 4 skins. :)

I love these!! they work well and I still use 3Delight , and while tech has come a long way  Generation 4 skins were under appreciated ,and not all were set up properly for DAZ Studio. It all depends on what makes you happy

Experiments in applying the Facial Action Coding System to Genesis 8.1's new face rig.

Crossposted from "'Anatomy of Facial Expression': A Genesis 8.1 Companion Guide?"

Victoria 8.1 with Vertigo Ponytail.

This male character is based on Freja 8.1 HD. Genesis 8.1 male vellus hair, Victoria 8.1 skin, Tyrone Beard, and Tousled Hair.

https://www.daz3d.com/gallery/user/5999567703113728#gallery=newest&page=1&image=1137879

Oso3D said:

I would REALLY not bother converting hair or skin; the tech has come a LONG way and results are unlikely to look that great.

I have thousands of dollars in characters with skins ideal for my needs. If I can salvage even half of them, I would feel less sick about making the switch.

Looking around, I've found Legacy UVs for Genesis 8: Victoria 4 & Legacy UVs for Genesis 8: Michael 4.

From what I can tell, if I can't find full character conversion tools, these will at least save my favorite generation 4 skins. :)

Daventaki said:

Getting the characters transferred is going to be your hardest thing.  Check out this thread.  Biggest thing to keep in mind is GenX2 is no longer supported because the creator is no longer with this world.  Zev0 has the XTranfer utility also along with RSSY's Characer converter but none of those convert from V4.  This thread has a small tutorial on how to convert to genesis manually if your interested in that.  RSSY also has hair converters.

I'm grabbing RSSY's hair converters: RSSY Hair Converter from Michael 4 to Genesis 8 Male & RSSY Hair Converter from Victoria 4 to Genesis 8 Female 

If I already have the Genesis & Genesis 2 base and a couple of characters, will I still be able to make the conversion?

I see I will want to add RSSY Clothing Converter from Victoria 4 to Genesis 8 Female to this list :)

I forgot I also will need to convert so much hair! lol

Crushguy05 said:

Very nice! Always on the hunt for regal looking hair so this is going on my list.

 

Do you remember what figure you used for the main promo picture?

It's Victoria 8.1 mixed with a bunch of other head shapes :)

I will try this - thank you!

Richard Haseltine said:

perlk said:

Well, I applied the clothing to G8F and then said it was a Genesis outfit then tried to mess around with the dimensions. It just didn't work. I didn't see Victoria 4 in the AutoFit dialogue. Do I need to install something to make that work? Even so, shoes don't really work at all :-(

Richard Haseltine said:

How did you manually convert? The results will vary but you could fir the clothes to Genesis, selecting Victoria 4 in the AutoFit dialogue, then fit the results to Genesis 8, selecting Genesis in the AutoFit dialogue. It may be worth trying that first, though the RSSY Clothing Converters have more features and may well do a better job for some items.

Fit the Victoria 4 clothing to the original Genesis, then fit the clothing converted to Genesis to Genesis 8 - it's a two-step process.

First, if this is your first step, I wouldn't start with mixing 8.0 and 8.1 (that adds complications).

Second, you can apply Leony to the G8F base figure, too, but these figures describe the differences. Basically, V8 says "make everything taller and slimmer", and Leony says (I think) "make everything more muscuLara". If you skip V8, then you'll get a more muscular base figure.

Third: hey, V8 and Leony were exactly my 2 first figures a year ago :) Probably not a popular opinion around here, but, *cough* IMO Victoria isn't as essential as it used to be. I'd look for a figure that is directly modeled on the base figure, something with a shape you like (and get DAZ' Gen 8 Female Body Morphs, it's fun and some figures depend on it). But then, Leony's nice and sooner or later you'll probably want Victoria anyway.

Ah, its starting to make sense. As i said it only happens with the same hair i used on the original character, so something must be baked in.

I'm surpised to hear you say that combining morphs isnt a good idea (although it makes sense now) as i followed a tutorial that said it was the best way of storing your custom characters. I mainly liked the idea as i could load my custom character shape on to a straight Gen 8.1 instead of the Victoria 8.1 it is based on.

Can i ask what your recomended way of saving custom charaters is? Sub scene? and is there a way of transfering my custom character settings to other base models?