Ha Ha! I think DAZ needs to catch up to the Virtual Reality marketplace.  When thinking about building VR worlds their products could fit nicely, with a little adjustment. Image is what happens when I try exporting FBX from DAZ Studio, then import into Blender. Not the "A" pose I started with.

Not alot on the DAZ forums about using their products for Virtual Reality applications. I was recently trying this VR social program NEOSVR, available on the Steam gaming platform, most of the Avatars are furry fox looking creatures with wings and multiple tails. I guess if you visit the Klingon home world everyone looks like a Klingon.  I wanted to use DAZ Studio to create and export a custom Avatar. When I export the FBX file then import it to Neos, the program says it has no human bones and I cannot use it as an avatar. I have spend days researching other ways to re-rig the figure (using Blender 3.2), but nothing has worked so far, and I don't want to purchase more software when this should be a great start using DAZ Studio. Seems to me Avatar creation for VR applications would be a nice sales opportunity for DAZ, since they have such an awesome library of figures, clothing, and props. I tried DAZ customer service, but they admitted they don't support 3rd party products, and all the clever people are on the forums. Any help with this problem would be appreciated. Thanx!

As for diffeomorphic:

1. Basically once the scene is in blender you can do anything with it, while daz studio is limited in many ways. You can transfer everything, but HD morphs require extensive manual work so it's easier if you can avoid them, the HD shape is transferred easily.

2. There's a tool from @Millighost with some limitations, don't know how it is up to date. https://sites.google.com/site/millighostmix/home/export_dsf_prop

3. The animations you do in blender can transfer back to daz studio, this way you can use more advanced rigs for animation.

4. I don't think so, apart what you can do with the daz studio import tools as usual.

I use it often for projects Daz can't handle, it's like Daz but with very little ready to use assets, you can either import your stuffs from iclone/CC, blender or other software, the rendering engine is powered by Nvidia's RTX with native support, but it's not very useful for Daz users who rely their content creation on ready to use assets in DAZ, you can technically export your DAZ stuff to omniverse, on regular content, it will work, but on complex morph such as muscle & vien, it won't look right, not to mention all the deforced hairs, rigging and other stuff. in short, it's not very useful for DAZ users. 

LFA said:

Hello everyone,

I've learned from a YT user that a 'connector' was announced during CES 2022 in January.

At present time, the basic workflow is the use Omniverse 'Create' to convert fbx assets to USD. In that application, it is possible to assemble and render a complete scene using DAZ assets and Iray shaders. As Wintoons said, there is no issue with DAZ shaders, except for the cornea, as it is the only shader that need a fix by setting Opacity as 0 (You find all surfaces inside the 'Looks' node). From there, you can import into any Omniverse application. In this scenario, still renders will work perfectly with either RTX, Iray or Path Tracing. Also from my tests, animations are not there yet. The matter of fact, I am currently testing DAZ body and facial animations in Machinima, and I have found a small issue. DAZ body animations work fairly in both Create and Machinima, only if the animation file is saved correctly. What I mean by that is, in Create, there are noticeable minor deformations from the original animation file, such as arms rotations may be slightly different. To accomplish that, I have just found out that, in Create, save the (FBX) animation file as *USD using the option: 'Save Flattened As...' instead of 'Save As...'. The USD file will work in both Create and Machinima with slight deviations in the arm joints.

Below is a short video showing my very first scene in Create, a very basic one. 

 

Regards,

Luciano

That looks amazing-- I have had great success with iClone--I just wish we had straight access from DAZ into it as I know not everyone wants to splurge on that--physics too, although I am be getting greedy. Here's an iClone Daz/Omniverse render:  https://vimeo.com/748574758

https://vimeo.com/748574758

Thanks for the info, Just got a 3D connexion and was playing around to adjust the sensitivity. There is definitely a learning curve with this thing.Will have to pratice.

Does anyone have custom settings they can share? 

New version has customization and you can add up to 8 item dials on a Space Navigator. There is also an option to import / export your settings to share with others.

marble said:

ManFriday said:

I don't know any timeframe about DS5 either, but I don't expect to get my hands on a copy in the next couple of months.

How much work it will be to get my plugins working on DS5, I cannot say until I have it and try. In many cases it might be a few adjustments here and there and they will work again in a day or two, so upgrading the plugins will be no major effort. But I can't say that for sure at this time.

Having said that, Daz Studio 4 will continue to be available and updated. Daz Studio 5 is not primarily not about new features; it is about bringing the technical base up to date. I expect my plugins to continue to work on Daz Studio 4 for a long time.

Hope this helps!

 

Well, what helps is you saying that you have not been given DS5 (or an alpha) to help you develop which suggests to me that we are still some way out from any DS5 announcement. I think that saying the DS4 will continue to work is beside the point - yes, I do expect it will still work but if DS5 is a dramatic upgrade (such as the afore-mentioned collaboration with Unity or somemething similar) then I think a lot of people will want to migrate.

But I am encouraged by your committment to updating your scripts when DS5 eventually arrives. I have been trying to urge DAZ themselves to make a DAZ-to-Blender bridge in the same sense that GoZ and the Hexagon bridges work but those pleas were ignored. As usual, they rely on PAs to provide those useful tools. I'm assuming that your OBJ tool is a similar concept to the ZBrush GoZ bridge?

I don't have ZBrush so I'm not entirely sure, but it does a part of what I understand GoZ does. It does the export and import bit to create a morph on the Daz Studio side. My tool does nothing on the Blender side: you'll still have to do the import and then again export there, but that's not hard.

The main reason I wrote it is that exporting an OBJ manually and correctly from Daz Studio is not easy (hiding everything in the scene, unparenting things, hiding unrelated geometry that might be deep in the scene hierarchy, detaching geografts, hiding geoshells, ...). The tool automates all these clicks, and you can export many OBJs in sequence with automatic naming. And it remembers what it exported so you can import things again quickly to create the morph.

hansolocambo said:

Any 3D object, whether it's a rock or a blanket, is still as thin as OCB rolling paper. What makes 3D objects seem thick is just our brain's mental interpretation of the information it receives. 3D deceives the brain as it tries to relate what it sees to something it knows.

When a 3D simulated object looks "thick" after a soft-body simulation it's only because the physics parameters (stretch, shear, stiffness, etc) have been properly configured to help the original modeled/sculpted mesh to retain its original shape as much as possible even if forced, by gravity or other physics forces, to deform. ("solidify" in Marvelous Designer is such an amazing option for that. I still hope something similar will come to dForce someday..).

There's no thickness. It can be simulated in Marvelous Designer by duplicating a whole garment over or under the one we created. With dForce it can somehow be simulated using Collision Layer, although in my experience it doesn't do a great job at keeping layers under or over other layers.

What you want to do is :

1/ model a mesh that has enough geometry, wireframe density will help the mesh to retain most of its shape. If the mesh is from a Daz item you bought, then subdivide it once, export it as obj. Import that obj back (copy/paste shaders) and simulate this subdivided obj rather than the original one.

2/ read, test and understand properly all dFroce Surface Properties.

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/203081/dforce-start-here

It's always very technical to dive in a new soft-body simulation but understanding those dForce Surfaces properties is the only way to make things look "thick" or "thin" or "heavy", etc.

 

Everything in 3D is based on real world physics (indexes of refraction, PBR materials, etc. ), but to make objects "feel" real, one has to comprehend that 3D tools fake reality rather than reproduce it. To make a thick blanket it's not necessary to model it thick (except if it's meant to be eventually seen from under), but it's necessary to model/sculpt it thick-looking, then simulate it with Surfaces Properties that will force the cloth to retain its shape.

-----------------

Testing physics properties one after the other and writing things down is the only way (at least for me) to clearly understand what dForce Surfaces values mean, and what changing them will do. Without a bit of that understanding, clicking on "simulate" can only give random results. Not all products sold by content creators are made with a proper understanding of dForce. If a "thick" blanket looks like a bed sheet after simualtion, then dForce Surfaces weren't thought properly and need to be changed by the final user. Just a glimpse of a portion of the docx I wrote (summary with tests of what is explained in the official documentation) to help me understand what dForce Surfaces or Marvelous Designer materials mean :

--------------------------

Easy solution :

For those who don't know much about 3D and don't want to bother with dForce properties. A trick solution would be to export the object (A) to simulate as .obj (B). Import (B) back and scale it down a little so that its surface doesn't touch the original (A) object. Then simulate.

This way the towel, blanket, etc. (A) will fall on a copy of itself (B), you'll stilll have some nice folds and more natural movements of the mesh, but no more flattening issue as it simulates on itself.

Cheap trick but it does a good enough job in some situations.

saving this post thanks 

Any 3D object, whether it's a rock or a blanket, is still as thin as OCB rolling paper. What makes 3D objects seem thick is just our brain's mental interpretation of the information it receives. 3D deceives the brain as it tries to relate what it sees to something it knows.

When a 3D simulated object looks "thick" after a soft-body simulation it's only because the physics parameters (stretch, shear, stiffness, etc) have been properly configured to help the original modeled/sculpted mesh to retain its original shape as much as possible even if forced, by gravity or other physics forces, to deform. ("solidify" in Marvelous Designer is such an amazing option for that. I still hope something similar will come to dForce someday..).

There's no thickness. It can be simulated in Marvelous Designer by duplicating a whole garment over or under the one we created. With dForce it can somehow be simulated using Collision Layer, although in my experience it doesn't do a great job at keeping layers under or over other layers.

What you want to do is :

1/ model a mesh that has enough geometry, wireframe density will help the mesh to retain most of its shape. If the mesh is from a Daz item you bought, then subdivide it once, export it as obj. Import that obj back (copy/paste shaders) and simulate this subdivided obj rather than the original one.

2/ read, test and understand properly all dFroce Surface Properties.

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/203081/dforce-start-here

It's always very technical to dive in a new soft-body simulation but understanding those dForce Surfaces properties is the only way to make things look "thick" or "thin" or "heavy", etc.

Everything in 3D is based on real world physics (indexes of refraction, PBR materials, etc. ), but to make objects "feel" real, one has to comprehend that 3D tools fake reality rather than reproduce it. To make a thick blanket it's not necessary to model it thick (except if it's meant to be eventually seen from under), but it's necessary to model/sculpt it thick-looking, then simulate it with Surfaces Properties that will force the cloth to retain its shape.

-----------------

Testing physics properties one after the other and writing things down is the only way (at least for me) to clearly understand what dForce Surfaces values mean, and what changing them will do. Without a bit of that understanding, clicking on "simulate" can only give random results. Not all products sold by content creators are made with a proper understanding of dForce. If a "thick" blanket looks like a bed sheet after simualtion, then dForce Surfaces weren't thought properly and need to be changed by the final user. Just a glimpse of a portion of the docx I wrote (summary with tests of what is explained in the official documentation) to help me understand what dForce Surfaces or Marvelous Designer materials mean :

--------------------------

Easy solution :

For those who don't know much about 3D and don't want to bother with dForce properties. A trick solution would be to export the object (A) to simulate as .obj (B). Import (B) back and scale it down a little so that its surface doesn't touch the original (A) object. Then simulate.

This way the towel, blanket, etc. (A) will fall on a copy of itself (B), you'll stilll have some nice folds and more natural movements of the mesh, but no more flattening issue as it simulates on itself.

Cheap trick but it does a good enough job in some situations.

You can do this with Dforce but its hard to get drape you want, and you have to remember to freeze your simulated clothing.

Some clothings come with crumpled and undress morphs

Anyway, this is incredibly trivial with Marvelous Designer, and it will allow you to get exact drape you want, with as much detail as you want (since you can easily change the density of the meshes).  You can get a bunch of free Marvelous Designer garments on a certain 'station' website and download the Marvelous Designer free trial, and then just try it out.

After simulating, just import your marvelous designer sims as .objs into Daz. Doing all of this would probably be faster than actually trying to use Dforce to do it, tbh.  But you cant go by me.

You can also import a simplified version of your scene as an 'Avatar' into marvelous designer to easily drape a bunch of clothes over the furniture.

NextOS said:

alan bard newcomer said:

NextOS said:

Yes, we could make the agreement acceptance optional. In the following update, users can install the software without accepting it.

the current eula does suggest we can choose to exempt some levels of data... but also says doing that may impact the way the software functions without saying what may not work.
----
One other question... the promo pages say that any daz figure from 4 up thru gen8.1 can be used .... 
In my case because (possible of some changes in design between g1 and the later ones) the head morph that is central to my characters will not transfer up to g8 
so my cats currently have g8 bodies with g1 heads ... 
the goal is not really make chat bots... but have them capable of speaking lines then doing a video capture  so I can produce basically mp4 cartoons ... 
Don't want to make movie type cartoons.. one liners are my speed. 

Hi Alan. We will make the talking animation DAZ file for Gen 1,2 and Gen 3 available soon. If you have some time, you can even create this animation yourself. To do so, you can use our Gen 8 animation file to create the 23 frames in any Gen 8 character. Render the images in a folder. Then, you can open your own Gen 1 or 2 character in DAZ, set the animation timeline for 23 frames, and adjust the mouth shape of each frame starting with frame 01 (frame 00 is used for the neutral mouth position) using the rendered images as a reference to each frame. After you have your 23 frames with the mouth with the proper shape, you only need to render it and use the DTalks! Avatar Editor to convert into a DTalks talking character. This will work with people, animals, or any other character who has a mouth. To make your avatar speak aloud a specific text for you to capture and render into a video, you just have to add some text into a .txt file and save it in the folder \DTalks\queue\import  Just after you save a .txt file in this folder, the avatar will speak aloud its content. Then the .txt file is automatically deleted, and the system monitors this folder for a new .txt file to speak aloud.

 

sounds good... now I just have to wait until the eagle flies again...  because I can't be trusted with daz credits....  
I figured all that had to be done was to convert the mouth morphs backwards.... 

ManFriday said:

OZ-84 said:

Richard Haseltine said:

OZ-84 said:

ManFriday said:

OZ-84 said:

Cool Product! Thanks for that. But there is one little problem i search a solution for ... 

When exporting through DAZ GOZ to zbrush and reading the morph back in through the plugin, there seems to be no way to set an import size?! Is this correct? 

Would clearly need such an option. Otherwise its only possible to export through plugin and read back in through plugin.

Is there hope for a later "fix" of that "problem"? :-)

Thank you for your support! Can you clarify what you mean by "import size"? If you mean the scale -- I don't have ZBrush so I can't test myself, but in theory the plugin should use the same import settings that you can specify with the "Edit options" button in the top "export" group. So if the scale is off, can you try changing that in those options? Thank you!

Also, keyboard shortcuts are a good idea. I'll add that to the list.

Problem is that DAZ sends out over the goz bridge in 1% scale to Zbrush. At least Zbrush reads it in as 1% of the size it should be. 

When u do the Zbrush export now (not using the bridge to send it back to Daz (yeah there are reasons not to use it back), Daz reads it in as 1% of the size it should be. Result is that u shrink the mesh. 

But not only with Zbrush this problem is likely to happen. Since scale isnt really defined in OBJ format (i guess it can be but there is no golden standard), this problem might appear with many other tools like Max, Maya and whatever... Kind of sad this makes your plugin useless then. 

I find that using the Modo preset works for ZBrush, matcging axes to DS and 1 unit = 1m instead of the Daz Studio 1 unit = 1cm. What you are seeing doesn't mean it is sent across at 1%, it means you are importing it with (I guess) the Daz Studio native preset which uses the wrong value of the OBJ unit for ZBrush.

Well yes thats the problem indeed. Its imported with a 100% scale preset. But thats what the OBJ companion does without leaving me a choice to set the scale manually.

And thats why i am asking for an additional option to set the import scale myself. In morph loader pro u can do this, no problem. But the OBJ companion is about NOT using the morph loader pro and speeding things up... right? :-) 

I probably didn't express myself clearly before. Have you tried using the "Edit options" button on the OBJ Companion pane to set a different scale? If you change it for the export the OBJ companion should use it for the import as well.

Ooppss.. i didnt realise the export settings are the import settings at the same time :facepalm: ... yes .. this might solve my little problem :-)

If you are using dForce you don't really need to be able to fit it.

My suggestion was a bit elliptical, let me try again:

1. simulate the one-sleeve version and export as OBJ
2. modify the base geometry (in DS or by exporting it zeroed to OBJ and opening in a modeller
3. if using a modeller turn the frame-30 shape into a morph before geometry editing
4. if using a modeller, export the zeroed and morphed shapes as OBJ
5. import the modified, zeroed version into DS and rig it from the original using the Transfer Utility
6. apply the pose as it was at frame 30
7. imported the simulated shape as a morph, using the  Reverse Deformations option
8. simulate the remaining sequence with both sleeves ripped

Halcon Bluesky said:

I never thought to find plenty of freebies.

It may not be the quality of Daz, but I wiil see what can I do.

 

Free stuff does't mean lower quality. A lot of freebies are high quality and a lot of expensive assets are just crappy. Daz store products doesen't always mean quality products. And IMHO the recent products sold at Rendo are really carefully tested before realeased on the store, I know that because I sell products on Rendo, They'll never anymore let (recent)  poor quality assets appear in their big choice of assets. Daz base their choices on images only (as far as I know). Moreover Rendo are now very strict with packaging and files structure (data folder, people folder, runtime/textures folder, documentation, props folders etc). The multiple ways of Daz installing possibilities (Install manager, Daz Central, Daz Connect) only lead to confusion and mess. I never use the (not so smart) Smart Content Tab. Content libraries are easy to manage and do not need metadata.

Found that the material slots in UE5 can be copied from one mesh to another, so that rebuilding materials is not difficult.
Method 1: Fix the geograft morphs and textures in Daz and Photoshop -> Export to UE5 with DazToUnreal
Method 2: Export to Blender with Diffeomorphic -> Import morphs and merge geografts -> Use the Blender plugin SKkeeper - The Shapekey Keeper to bake HD meshes with morphs -> Export to UE5 with Blender FBX export -> Copy materials from DazToUnreal imported character to the character imported from Blender

Attached the results in UE5 from the same character, but using different methods to export to UE5.

Update: DazToUnreal has a serious bug that it duplicates the geograft in UE5 after export, also it can't correctly export animations to UE5, the face is distorted during animation.

Method 2 is the correct way to export characters to UE5 with geograft morphs and animations. Diffeomorphic is essential to export geografts and animations from Daz to UE5, DazToUnreal is optional it's used for copying the materials but you can rebuild better materials in UE5.

alan bard newcomer said:

NextOS said:

Yes, we could make the agreement acceptance optional. In the following update, users can install the software without accepting it.

the current eula does suggest we can choose to exempt some levels of data... but also says doing that may impact the way the software functions without saying what may not work.
----
One other question... the promo pages say that any daz figure from 4 up thru gen8.1 can be used .... 
In my case because (possible of some changes in design between g1 and the later ones) the head morph that is central to my characters will not transfer up to g8 
so my cats currently have g8 bodies with g1 heads ... 
the goal is not really make chat bots... but have them capable of speaking lines then doing a video capture  so I can produce basically mp4 cartoons ... 
Don't want to make movie type cartoons.. one liners are my speed. 

Hi Alan. We will make the talking animation DAZ file for Gen 1,2 and Gen 3 available soon. If you have some time, you can even create this animation yourself. To do so, you can use our Gen 8 animation file to create the 23 frames in any Gen 8 character. Render the images in a folder. Then, you can open your own Gen 1 or 2 character in DAZ, set the animation timeline for 23 frames, and adjust the mouth shape of each frame starting with frame 01 (frame 00 is used for the neutral mouth position) using the rendered images as a reference to each frame. After you have your 23 frames with the mouth with the proper shape, you only need to render it and use the DTalks! Avatar Editor to convert into a DTalks talking character. This will work with people, animals, or any other character who has a mouth. To make your avatar speak aloud a specific text for you to capture and render into a video, you just have to add some text into a .txt file and save it in the folder \DTalks\queue\import  Just after you save a .txt file in this folder, the avatar will speak aloud its content. Then the .txt file is automatically deleted, and the system monitors this folder for a new .txt file to speak aloud.

Mark_e593e0a5 said:

There is absolutely no way to fully override the daz default categorizations, independent of the OS. If you are not familiar with PosGres SQL, you are out. The only way is raisng a ticket and let Daz fix the issue. They have [slipped] up. they need to fix it.

Sure there is. The metadata is imported from a DSX file which contains human-readable text. Open (your library)/Runtime/Support/DAZ_3D_85317_Moryen_HD_for_Genesis_8_1_Female.dsx in your text editor of choice, search for "/Anatomy", add "/Default" before it, save the file, and reimport the metadata.

OZ-84 said:

Richard Haseltine said:

OZ-84 said:

ManFriday said:

OZ-84 said:

Cool Product! Thanks for that. But there is one little problem i search a solution for ... 

When exporting through DAZ GOZ to zbrush and reading the morph back in through the plugin, there seems to be no way to set an import size?! Is this correct? 

Would clearly need such an option. Otherwise its only possible to export through plugin and read back in through plugin.

Is there hope for a later "fix" of that "problem"? :-)

Thank you for your support! Can you clarify what you mean by "import size"? If you mean the scale -- I don't have ZBrush so I can't test myself, but in theory the plugin should use the same import settings that you can specify with the "Edit options" button in the top "export" group. So if the scale is off, can you try changing that in those options? Thank you!

Also, keyboard shortcuts are a good idea. I'll add that to the list.

Problem is that DAZ sends out over the goz bridge in 1% scale to Zbrush. At least Zbrush reads it in as 1% of the size it should be. 

When u do the Zbrush export now (not using the bridge to send it back to Daz (yeah there are reasons not to use it back), Daz reads it in as 1% of the size it should be. Result is that u shrink the mesh. 

But not only with Zbrush this problem is likely to happen. Since scale isnt really defined in OBJ format (i guess it can be but there is no golden standard), this problem might appear with many other tools like Max, Maya and whatever... Kind of sad this makes your plugin useless then. 

I find that using the Modo preset works for ZBrush, matcging axes to DS and 1 unit = 1m instead of the Daz Studio 1 unit = 1cm. What you are seeing doesn't mean it is sent across at 1%, it means you are importing it with (I guess) the Daz Studio native preset which uses the wrong value of the OBJ unit for ZBrush.

Well yes thats the problem indeed. Its imported with a 100% scale preset. But thats what the OBJ companion does without leaving me a choice to set the scale manually.

And thats why i am asking for an additional option to set the import scale myself. In morph loader pro u can do this, no problem. But the OBJ companion is about NOT using the morph loader pro and speeding things up... right? :-) 

I probably didn't express myself clearly before. Have you tried using the "Edit options" button on the OBJ Companion pane to set a different scale? If you change it for the export the OBJ companion should use it for the import as well.

scobb3_60a649a03a said:

scobb3_60a649a03a said:

I am noticing in the latest release that all of the materials are coming in as node materials now.  Is there any way to make it so that the plugin generates standard materials instead?I

I just noticed this is happening in C4D 2023, but not R26. 

and NOW I realized it was my FBX import preferences in 2023 that were set, by default, to import materials as node materials. :) 

Jo said:

This drove me crazy for ages, I wanted to get strand hair out of daz and into unreal.

Solution that worked for me:

Strand hair can be exported via the third party diffeomorphic plugin that sends daz characters to blender.

In that plugin, the hair is converted to particle hair. The instructions for this are on the authors site.

It takes only a few clicks and in my case a long 2 hours wait, where it seemed like blender had crashed.

Then from blender, The particle hair can be exported as alembic file, then imported into unreal (with Groom alembic input plugin enabled)

as Groom hair. From there bind to your importated DAZ skeletal mesh, setup materials, enable simulation and done.

Hey eventually i did the same way. But i've got on problem with that. In DAZ and render the hair's scalp is invisible but if i import it into unreal the scalp is visible. Do you know any solution?