I'll start with just the Genesis 8.1 update in the updated starter content (in its own separate runtime so I don't have to reinstall plain Genesis 8 to use anything incompatible) and see how that works with existing content before maybe buying Victoria 8.1 (the bundle has nothing of interest for me, so there's no point in buying that). I don't have much use for just Victoria 8.1 without Michael 8.1 anyway.

OK, so the update is finally here. What do you guys think?

https://www.daz3d.com/victoria-8-1

https://www.daz3d.com/victoria-8-1-university-bundle

That sounds like Victoria 8.1 is knocking on the door.

vwrangler said:

xyer0 said:

My reasoning was: Genesis 2 Blowout yesterday, Genesis 3 Blowout today, Genesis 8 Upgrade tomorrow. But if they can wait, I can.

Or maybe Genesis 8 blowout tomorrow (which would be weird, but kind of in keeping with everything else), and 8.1 either Thursday or next Wednesday. Who knows what lurks in the hearts and minds of the Daz braintrust? 

This break has actually run slightly longer than the break between Tristan and CJ at the end of 2019, beginning of 2020; that was almost exactly one month.

Assuming that Victoria is the first of the 8.1 figures (a reasonably safe assumption, given that a fit for her has already appeared), I wonder if maybe Michael will come along two weeks later, or if they'll do the same schedule as with the original G8 releases? That would put Michael two months after Victoria, and a month after Olympia.

I also wonder to what extent there may be a change in physical appearance. (I'm assuming, for the sake of sanity, that the texture layout will remain essentially the same. If it's only a 0.1 update, most of the changes should be under the hood, so to speak.) I hope that a converter or clones aren't needed for clothes, but I suspect (based, admittedly, on nothing more than past pattern and practice) that this may be a forlorn hope.

I think it would be bad if we were forced to buy converters a few months from when those converters will break because of the change to Qt5.  Not saying that it can't happen, only that it would not be good.

Also, I wonder if our script wizards have been allowed behind the curtain so that they can start acquainting themselves with the future of Daz scripting. 

xyer0 said:

My reasoning was: Genesis 2 Blowout yesterday, Genesis 3 Blowout today, Genesis 8 Upgrade tomorrow. But if they can wait, I can.

Or maybe Genesis 8 blowout tomorrow (which would be weird, but kind of in keeping with everything else), and 8.1 either Thursday or next Wednesday. Who knows what lurks in the hearts and minds of the Daz braintrust? 

This break has actually run slightly longer than the break between Tristan and CJ at the end of 2019, beginning of 2020; that was almost exactly one month.

Assuming that Victoria is the first of the 8.1 figures (a reasonably safe assumption, given that a fit for her has already appeared), I wonder if maybe Michael will come along two weeks later, or if they'll do the same schedule as with the original G8 releases? That would put Michael two months after Victoria, and a month after Olympia.

I also wonder to what extent there may be a change in physical appearance. (I'm assuming, for the sake of sanity, that the texture layout will remain essentially the same. If it's only a 0.1 update, most of the changes should be under the hood, so to speak.) I hope that a converter or clones aren't needed for clothes, but I suspect (based, admittedly, on nothing more than past pattern and practice) that this may be a forlorn hope.

I have come across this issue where the article of clothing is not really formed with dForce in mind, and dForce is applied. Then these items (if they don't explode) seem to try to slip off in the global +X direction. And it's only in the global +X direction in my experience. I have no idea why, it's just an observation that it happens. Can't really help except suggesting you try different stiffness, bend and shear values from the default ones for the main surfaces & see what happens.

I experienced this most recently over the weekend with some underwear I was trying to drape over a radiator with dForce and another a few weeks ago where the Victoria 3 hair I was using on G8F didn't want to drape, just looked like a strong wind was applied. I gave up on trying to correct it and applied an HDRI that seemed appropriate for a strong wind.

Regards,

Richard.

Its the promo caharacter from here https://www.daz3d.com/dforce-x-fashion-sweatshirt-set-for-genesis-8-females

The face shape looks a lot like Victoria 8, but the texture does not fit.

Kevin Sanderson said:

Here are some for G8 but you can roll your own.

https://pixelsizzle.com/updated-gofigure-animate-blocks-victoria-8-genesis-8/

How to use aniMate 2 from the WayBackMachine

https://web.archive.org/web/20180413184339/http://www.gofigure3d.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=92&Itemid=86

Thanks again Kevin. I thought I had a copy of that archived tutorial but couldn't find it. It will be useful to go through it again though. 

Here are some for G8 but you can roll your own.

https://pixelsizzle.com/updated-gofigure-animate-blocks-victoria-8-genesis-8/

And

How to use aniMate 2 from the WayBackMachine

https://web.archive.org/web/20180413184339/http://www.gofigure3d.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=92&Itemid=86

If you are happy with G8, just skip the old Victoria 4 and Michael 4. I have a HUGE library of content for both of them and most of the converters and I just don't use any of it anymore. Sticking to newer items myself now.

sample images:

https://imgur.com/a/1qeQqIE  ; (rt-click & view the images)

Victoria 8 wearing 'librarian hair', colored brown.

Viewport, openGL render engines - same results.

in first image, she's without a backgrund.  I tried iray and 3delight color schemes, and neither one changes this.  The other engines do improve, but it takes too long.

In the second image, she has a white primitive cube behind her / over her right shoulder.

Thank you for your responses.

Dartanbeck said:

Even if I don't run them through VWD (which is really quite fast, I must add), sometimes I'm still converting them to static props so I can cut away what I don't want and then parent the end result - like a collar, for example. Rosie 5's boots, when she's in her medieval mode, like the Mimic Pro video, are Michael 3 Wildenlander boots! The Platina Armor iron bikini is for Victoria 3 (Awful Soul, now Aery Soul)

Oh, and sometimes I just use Auto-fit. I have the complete line of Generations for Genesis 1 auto-fit, and a lot of these clothing items fit amazingly well, and come with a plethora of morphs for fitting, movement and styles. 

Thanks UB and Diomede!

Don't worry. Even during dark times, I still Always manage to learn more things toward achieving the end goal.

Dartanbeck.com was created as a place where I can share all of this stuff, so I do. It's packed with the history of my journey and hints at what is to come. In fact, although I haven't added more to this line of fun, What Happened at Odysseon Station is a small article I made to help illustrate how I use my Daz 3D Wish List to shape purchases that lead to stories - or the stories lead to the purchases.

It saves a lot of money (for me) to think along these terms, and let them guide me as to which things to buy during a big sale or any other day. There are always so many glittery items to choose from, it's easy (for me) to buy something cool that doesn't lead me any closer to what I'm trying to accomplish. Still fun, but less effective in reaching that goal.

PC+ Cloth Frenzy is an article on how I use the new technology of VWD to get really great fitting clothing from the least expected source - older generation of Daz 3D figure's clothing lines! Even clothing made For Genesis 1 often doesn't fit nearly as well as these older gems - and PC+ can help us get them so close to free it's unbelievable. But even stuff that isn't PC+ goes on sale quite often here. And I'm always keeping my eyes open for them.

Even if I don't run them through VWD (which is really quite fast, I must add), sometimes I'm still converting them to static props so I can cut away what I don't want and then parent the end result - like a collar, for example. Rosie 5's boots, when she's in her medieval mode, like the Mimic Pro video, are Michael 3 Wildenlander boots! The Platina Armor iron bikini is for Victoria 3 (Awful Soul, now Aery Soul)

Story > Pacing and Rendering was written in direct response to some issues I was seeing from a lot of forum members in Carrara and other software, and I felt compelled to share my experiences.

Writing in that site gives me the pleasure of at least attempting to help others grow in all of this. Carrara-centric, yes. But I'm hoping to alleviate the need of having Carrara to gain knowledge from all of this. Years ago I gave a response to someone saying: "Daz 3D just wants us using Daz Studio and nothing else"

I was in tight with many of Daz 3D's staff at the time, and I knew that to be the opposite of the truth! Daz 3D didn't care what software an artist used. They wanted to offer (and sell) great 3D content - Period. How? By having very tight, educated Quality Assurance on everything going into the store. By having a Great reputation and Amazing artists creating incredible conent. That was the thing. I was always quite small in the grand scheme of Daz artists, yet most of them were always very neighborly to me and were willing to share ideas and inspiration. 

I get a lot of joy by helping others. That, to me is even more important than achieving the end goal.

When my friend gave me a nudge toward lip syncing I was still heavy into Daz Studio and Genesis 8. I used Mimic Pro for Carrara on Misty's Veronica Wr8th (G8F preset that works in Carrara) and exported the results via Fenric's PZ2/BVH Exporter. Just know that, for anything Genesis 1 and newer, the PZ2 function does not work, so we need to select the BVH option within the dialog.

The results were... okay. I say that now but I was overjoyed at the time. Truth is, not a lot worked correctly. But at least it does work.

Wendy told me that the 32 bit Daz Studio has lip sync built in, so that's likely the better option for that. I don't have that one installed yet, because:

In working with Genesis 8 lip synce, then simulating the hair, then trying to get a render, I was spending days and days on this thing. I just got the render started and Octane told me that I'll get my results back in some 14 hours.

In frustration I aborted and opened up Carrara. At this point, it's been a while.

Oh... there was Rosie 5. What a sweety! I mean, yeah... she can kick my ass! But she's adorable! :)

So strange. I mean, I was really having fun in Daz Studio - amazement galore! Rosie 8 is gorgeous and a lot of fun to work with, truly!

Rosie 5 in Carrara is amazing. She's built using shapes from the whole Victoria 4 family, six Genesis 2 Female characters and a whole lot of the Genesis stuff. She has custom teeth and eyes, Generation 3 clothing, and has Genesis 2, 3 and 8 clothin in her closet.

But animating her... Wow!

Messing with Rosie 8 and Daz Studio - and by this time I felt that I had originally assessed Studio too harshly, I was getting along pretty good, I thought!

I started animating Rosie 5 and it felt like I just had the perfect sleep and have been given the Best cup of coffee I've ever had! She's nowhere near as Realistic as Rosie 8, even though Rosie 8 is still very stylized - Rosie 5 is something special. 

She did tell me, however, that since I've created Rosie 8, I'm not allowed to just let her sit in the library by herself. So for 2021, we'll likely be jumping back and forth a bit. She assures me that I'll get better with Daz Studio that way.

Cheers my friends! Happy New Year!

malcolmkarpeta_40f9af0b00 said:

I like the look of this skin but I want one for any G8F character, is that possible?

https://www.daz3d.com/v5-elite-skin-texture-valerie

It works together with https://www.daz3d.com/legacy-uvs-for-genesis-8-victoria-5

Sometimes you can get it really cheap during a sale: 1.99$

I am normally a user of Gensis 3 and Genesis 8 only. I saw MMKnit CDSet V4 and the accompanying texture set MMKnit CDSet V4 Revival Textures in the Daz Web Site, and was tempted, so I purchased them, even though I have had very little success doing anything at all with Victoria 4 despite trying many times. My experience with these two products have been no better.

I can find the basic clothing items deep down in the Poser Formats section under ...\Figures\mamomamo, and can load the clothing onto Victoria 4. However I have spent about an hour looking for the additional textures. They definitely physically exist in the expected folder ...\Daz3D Content\Runtime\Textures\BUG\BUGRevKnitCD. There are 86 jpg files in that folder. But  I cannot find them in the Content Library structure inside Daz Studio.

What am I missing?

The best theory I've seen is a mix somewhere between Osuine and Victoria 8. (I think about 70% Osuine and 30% Victoria was fairly close, although I might have those percentages the wrong way around).

Gemini Queen said:

It's a silly question, but I'm having a hard time finding out where they're at in the terms of Genesis.

Nowhere. Victoria and Michael 4 were before Genesis 1, which is Generation 5 of Daz figures.

There are converters to use their morphs, skins or clothes with figures from the Genesis line though.

It's a silly question, but I'm having a hard time finding out where they're at in the terms of Genesis. They look too advanced to be Genesis 1 or 2, but not enough to be Genesis 8. I'm looking at some products for a request that I have (to make a half human/half snake - naga) and I saw this - 

https://www.daz3d.com/lizardians-xtreme

And thought that it might be a good skin for it, but not really sure if I can use it with G8F. 

Basic question, I know, thanks for helping me out anyway.