...well what they expect (and want) is for everyone to use the DIM.

I have given up on it because it has been nothing but trouble for me from day one including not reading what I downloaded when I try to use it on the workstation to corrupting my username every time I open it up. I've filed a support ticket on the latter only to be told the issue is on my end. Sorry, I've gone through all my browser settings, cleared cache & whatnot, uninstalled it, ran ccleaner to clear any traces of it from the registry, reinstalled it, and it still fouls up my username every time I open it up. Now the newest release has a separate zip for the filters which, according to the archive's internal setup, are supposed to go into a folder I doesn't even exist on my system (I even did a search for it and came up empty handed) so I have no idea where to install them to as there is no readme.

I'm not being paid to be DB administrator (a nice five digit salary in the private sector). I'm paying for the licence to use these tools and content to create the scenes I envision.

Now with Genesis2 it has become even more of a headache (and apparently, expense) to do what the original Genesis could with a couple clicks.

Reading what I have here and on other threads is becoming more and more discouraging.

The fact they chose to no longer to support the V4 UV or the ability to transfer clothing from the older generation figures (which was supplied with the original Genesis) makes me wonder if this could spell the end of the line for the "Millennium" series of figures. It took a PA with some concern to provide the means to use the V4 UV map (which is central to many figures including a couple of the Gen5 ones), and the ability to autofit her clothing to G2F. However, how far will this go? Will we see the other Iconic figures supported or will Vicky4 be the only one meaning no AIko3, Steph4, or Freak clothing fits or morph transfers?

And what of the Genesis toon characters?

The whole dividing of Genesis2 into separate male/female figures (with no child shape) and restrictions on it's versatility is a step backwards, not forwards, the explanation for which is pretty weak.

It's marketing plain and simple. Limiting what can be done with the base figure means the ability to sell more gender/character/age specific content. In this respect, the original Genesis was both a huge success (for the user) and a disaster (from the sales perspective). One could pretty much fit most clothing, even pre genesis toon clothing, to Genesis (like I did for my pic of my Annika character). Yes there were a few glitches with footwear and long skirts (for which Sickle Yield provided an excellent fix with the Rigging and Morphing System), but yes, I can see where being able to recycle old clothing content could put a crimp in sales. Without a specific body shape (like Aiko3) for G2, autofit and character maps for that particular figure will not work properly. So other than (maybe) Genesis/Gen5, G2 will require one to purchase all new clothing, character morphs and maps to make it useful

In this respect it makes perfect sense why transfer support for the older figures was dropped.

A suggestion: There are a lot of (older) products without metadata yet. And a lot of people are doing the work of creating the metadata for their own system. If they could export the (not user custom) essential data and upload them to a central pool, then after maybe 3 identical versions DAZ could make them downloadable in the third tab of the shop page - like the texture resources. (And give them to the product author for checking them, so that they could integrate them in the next version.)

I think that, if such a system is well established, the other vendors like Renderosity could simulate it (modified and optimised for their purpose naturally). Maybe the authors there could not test their products for DAZ Studio because they could only work with Poser (language barrier or missing documentation), but it would be a opportunity for more selling when they got a response (and maybe a metafile) which of their products is working directly, which part with manual correction and which definitely not.

And this could also be a chance, to win new artists selling products for DAZ Studio.

With best regards

Thomas G.M. Mainka

Actually, I think there may be a much easier solution for you. When I modded Neverwinter Nights, I used a plugin made by the community that worked with GMax modeler. Look around in the modding community for your game and find out who's doing what. There is likely a plugin made for blender. That way you can use the models that are already in the game and edit them. I made an entire package that used nothing more than new textures that entirely altered the appearance of things. I have to warn you though, modding games is an addicting effort! Koukutso from the Post your Render thread might be able to steer you in the right direction in that regard. I think that it's Skyrim she's totally hooked on! :)
My son wants me to get addicted to Skyrim too. But I've just re-addicted myself to Neverwinter Nights 1 again! We made entire modules for Firefly (including the Firefly vessel), Star Wars, Warhammer, Dragonlance, Planescape, I was on the Spelljammer Team and C.R.A.P.(Classic Roleplay Adaptation Project) - where we had a bit of a motto starting out: Some acronyms are made from a group of words. Our group of words was created from the acronym! lol

Anyways, I started by just creating new textures for the game. Then a modder found me and asked if I would do textures for their cause - the Spelljammer Team (D&D in Space). Next thing you know, we became jolly friends and I was making models for the game. Thus was my entry into learning 3d software. I had GMax, and free version of 3dsMax for game modding - made by Discreet - who was the then developer for 3DS. GMax is still the same as it was back then - no updates. But it's still available - which is good. If you'd like to see if they have a compatibility with Skyrim it's at TurboSquid.com

I have a feeling that there's probably some plugins for it for Blender, though. Then you can bring in the models and tweak on them. You need the game plugins because they're what import and export the parts that the game needs to use such a model. In NWN, for example, there was a central Node to which all bone were connected. This node tells the game were weapons hit on a high, low or middle hit. It also held every animation for that, specific model. So, in GMax, we could change or add animations to the models. Changes aniamations would show up in the game. But I wouldn't even think of that... their animations is why I love the game so much! New animations can be added, however. You can call forth the animation in the game engine via script. That's how we eventually got rideable horses in the game. The Dragonlance Team (DLA) had the really good modeling guy. He made the ninja animations and many more - plus he made the plugins that really gave you the control you needed - and he made them not just for 3DS, but for GMax as well! How cool! Well that team figured the whole thing out and got it working smoothly. BioWare ended up buying their adventure and selling it to us as a Premium Module. They even had David John on their team - who composed and recorded their soundtrack. Modding teams like that are really cool. You'll see various teams get mad at each other - but in the end, we're all just people living together on the same planet. When you find a good team like that, they usually have a forum set up so they can all communicate to one another. Most good teams are more than happy to accept visitors and answer questions, point out links to where you get the tools, etc., Often there will be some ambitious new person on the team who hasn't been given an assignment yet - so they monitor the forum waiting for someone to chat with. They'll find you what you need and point you in the right direction - perhaps. At least that's how it was with NWN and NWN2. My friend, that got me into it all actually got his name in the credits of the NWN2 release! He became an expert at modeling areas. Man, Obsidian's people are so cool - so are the guys from BioWare. Those were some days, I tell ya... yup.

...I agree. Seems the nit picky details outweighed the overall versatility of the Genesis concept. I have very little issue with chest size in female characters then again, the central characters in my story are teens with very petite physiques which would cause the breast mesh of Vicky X ore the Generic Genesis Female to collapse and distort when dialed down beyond a certain point.

Genesis and Young Teens5 made it so one could do a totally flat chested preteen girl (8 - 11 years old) which we haven't had since the Gen3 days, and insure clothing fit properly.

Annika (below) is wearing the JeanZ for V4, Teen Ashley Sneakers, and Sadie Fae top, none of which is made specifically for Gen 5.

Yep, the original Genesis still has a lot of life in it.

This is my first post in this forum. Please excuse my bad english.

I don't understand the meaning of the argument DAZ is trying to make money with the new G2 figure. Most part of my life I didn't try anything else. A company with employees SHOULD do this. But then - G2 is for free. So - me - I can't find an argument for the question "is it worth the money?"

DAZ could make even more 3D-Models, big ones, small ones, funny ones, scarry ones. Separated, all in one - why not? What's bad?

It's me to consider if I need those or not. It is not the decission of the company, it's my descission, the consumer. And I'm glad if I have many choices.

But ...

... I use DAZ studio only in my rare spare time. And I must say in the last year I wasn't very creative. Because most of this time I spent with converting. Converting poses, converting shoes, exporting, importing, realoding, deleting ... trying again. I learned many thing about this processes I wasn't really interested in. That's not - what software was made for. Especially if you offer software for creativity.

For me that's the question, the argument and the central point for my decissions: are these 3D-Models compatible? For me that's the only question. Can I uses my morphs I created in long winter afternoons on this summers new figure. No?

But ...

... I don't want to start over and over again with the poses and morphs and things I made. After a year of doing that I want to become creative again and make some funny renders.

I think that's the main reason why people complain. They shurely will like G2 - but they don't like to begin with her again from the start.

I don't think people are tired from those new products or from spending money. They are tired from all those compatibility questions and converting tools and processes.

I think people got tired to keep four different versions of one clothes on their harddrive just for compatibility reasons. That was the good idear with the genesis figure - an universial figure so all the stuff: morphs, poses, clothes you have to make only once. And you haven't to spent hours/days/month converting them when a new 3D-Models is offered that seems to be better than the previous.

It has become some kind of a psychologicial problem: every time we are arguing against a new figure BECAUSE we like her (and having in mind how much sweat it will need till we got here dressed up well). So this not a question if I use G2 instead of G1. I will like both. I like them all. But I simply am afraid of liking her too much - so I will do all this work for her again that I don't like to do.

So, dear DAZ, make many new models. But please keep them compatible with each other. This deal doesn't feel good: three times the same morph bundle for three different figures. For me - the customer - this deal feels good: three diffrerent morph bundles for one figure. I think that's what my arguing is about. Poor little G2. She isn't bad. But I'm somekind afraid of her.

Udane Hair, Bree (Genesis 2 Starter Essentials) Darkwoods Heroine

This render took HOURS in vs4.6. Anyway, I didn't tweak it at all, this is with the Udane Hair without any tweaking. It appears there is a button on the Darkwoods Heroine outfit going into the arm, that should be an easy thing to tweak. Love the textures. This is just the starter essentials Bree.

EDIT: Set your scale for the shoulder piece to 100.9 if you are just using the standard V6 and that shoulder piece will be full size. It's not that the button is going in the arm, the sleeve isn't coming OUT.

IN PROGRESS: FULL BODY SHOT OF THIS OUTFIT. This is a full render and this one of the head/bust took HOURS so check back! Render started at 2:45am central time.

Here's just the boots- I am redoing the full body as the hair was going through the upper chest. Looked fine until it started coming in as a render. Thought I'd give you a sneak peek.

OK, I thought I'd give this a try. I've only included DAZ items in my list, and I'll remove items which I have used before. My random selections were:
Apartment 39
The Billiard Table
Songbird ReMix: Pose Pack
CD Player

Quite a cosy selection really - except the Songbird Pose Pack, which perhaps I should have excluded. But seeing it had some animated poses I decided to make one of those the central focus.

Title: Snookered
TAG: Cayman#1

What is difficult (but not impossible) to fake is color bleeding.
If you look at the top of the central wall, you'll see that the roof color is bleeding on the top of the wall in the GI render and not in the non GI.

Otherwise, I completely agree with Joe. Not using GI allows more control over what is needed to be highlighted or not.

One other thing to remember is to use ambient occlusion. It helps a lot without the need for patience.

Aluworm said:

Eustace Scrubb said:

What's the source for the "King of Arcadia" backstory?

Greek myth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycaon_(Arcadia) wiki link for it. Arcadia was the central region of the Peloponnese in ancient Greece and all the myths follow the formula of sacrificing a child to test Zeus (really bad Idea anyway you look at it.) then Zeus punishing the person or persons responsible.

Yep...this! ;)

The "poor taste in food" aspect was to purposely play around the brutal gory aspect of the meal without going into details.

Rawn

Eustace Scrubb said:

What's the source for the "King of Arcadia" backstory?

Greek myth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycaon_(Arcadia) wiki link for it. Arcadia was the central region of the Peloponnese in ancient Greece and all the myths follow the formula of sacrificing a child to test Zeus (really bad Idea anyway you look at it.) then Zeus punishing the person or persons responsible.

HI Holly, :)

No idea,. but if that's how it worked before, then it should still be the same. ....I should try to keep up on mac stuff more.

As for PC,.. any leaves need to be in the Data / plants folder, and the default leaves are in the Data/Plants/Leaves.
but you can create a sub folder inside the Data/Plants folder for plants and leaves if you're making a product.

I think It would be nice to have a central location for Carrara products, but I've no idea how easy, or difficult that would be to make happen.

Kyoto Kid said:

ps1borg said:

Thing about cricket is it takes hours for something to happen, and if you aren't looking is over so quick you miss it.

....kind of like driving through central Nebraska looking for any sign of civilisation. Flat boring, flat boring, flat boring, then you blink, and you've missed the last town.

hehe we got plenty of that here, called the Nullabor Plain. First you drive through the Little Desert. Then you drive through the Big Desert. Then you get to the real big desert, the Nullabor Plain. After that is the Outback, that's flat as well.

ps1borg said:

Thing about cricket is it takes hours for something to happen, and if you aren't looking is over so quick you miss it.

pwiecek said:

User #124454 said:

I managed to locate this:

http://www.daz3d.com/s-f-c-s-ii
http://www.daz3d.com/s-f-c-s-ii-texture-packs

Unfortunately, I'm not finding any actual rooms to put all the decent sci-fi props in, like this or the futuristic/dystopian office packs! I'd like to see some relatively empty rooms, in the style of 'Aliens' and 'Event Horizon'. The typical office-type rooms I've found at Daz 3D have things like central heating grills or styles of windows which look too modern. Needs to be something which looks like it could just as easily fit in a colony or space station.

Someone like Stonemason would make something perfect, no doubt. :)

The idea for the SFCS II was to build the room with SFCS I.

http://www.daz3d.com/s-f-c-s-sci-fi-construction-set

There are also some ships in this thread

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/114/

That have interior layouts. I think they use SFCS II and Equipment.

OK, now that I've thought it through, Davo DOES do a lot of the "same" textures for multiple sets. By "same" I mean that two products might both have a "concrete" texture set. There's a chance that if the pieces are mixed the textures will blend perfectly. Theres a good chance that they will look good together even if they're not a perfect match. THAT means that some of Davo's sets could be used as locations for the SFCS II without having to build a room out of SFCS I pieces.

Is this new? You can now download directly from My Orders in your account section! You don't have to go to the product library to do it. That is so cool, particularly if you were using Taozen's downloader and have your stuff organized by order date. (I do, on an external hard drive.)
Just found this out at 11:30pm June 4th (Central time, USA)

User #124454 said:

I managed to locate this:

http://www.daz3d.com/s-f-c-s-ii
http://www.daz3d.com/s-f-c-s-ii-texture-packs

Unfortunately, I'm not finding any actual rooms to put all the decent sci-fi props in, like this or the futuristic/dystopian office packs! I'd like to see some relatively empty rooms, in the style of 'Aliens' and 'Event Horizon'. The typical office-type rooms I've found at Daz 3D have things like central heating grills or styles of windows which look too modern. Needs to be something which looks like it could just as easily fit in a colony or space station.

Someone like Stonemason would make something perfect, no doubt. :)

Stonemason mentioned he is making a crew quarters set. I saw a promo shot here in the forums a while back when I asked about a sci-fi apartment.

I was curious about the above sets as well, however, it is really tough for me to see with the quality of these screenshots how they will render up. I try not to buy stuff that looks of date. I'd love to see more screenshots to see how it renders in a setting.

User #124454 said:

I managed to locate this:

http://www.daz3d.com/s-f-c-s-ii
http://www.daz3d.com/s-f-c-s-ii-texture-packs

Unfortunately, I'm not finding any actual rooms to put all the decent sci-fi props in, like this or the futuristic/dystopian office packs! I'd like to see some relatively empty rooms, in the style of 'Aliens' and 'Event Horizon'. The typical office-type rooms I've found at Daz 3D have things like central heating grills or styles of windows which look too modern. Needs to be something which looks like it could just as easily fit in a colony or space station.

Someone like Stonemason would make something perfect, no doubt. :)

The idea for the SFCS II was to build the room with SFCS I.

http://www.daz3d.com/s-f-c-s-sci-fi-construction-set

There are also some ships in this thread

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/114/

That have interior layouts. I think they use SFCS II and Equipment.

I managed to locate this:

http://www.daz3d.com/s-f-c-s-ii
http://www.daz3d.com/s-f-c-s-ii-texture-packs

Unfortunately, I'm not finding any actual rooms to put all the decent sci-fi props in, like this or the futuristic/dystopian office packs! I'd like to see some relatively empty rooms, in the style of 'Aliens' and 'Event Horizon'. The typical office-type rooms I've found at Daz 3D have things like central heating grills or styles of windows which look too modern. Needs to be something which looks like it could just as easily fit in a colony or space station.

Someone like Stonemason would make something perfect, no doubt. :)

I decided to do yet another spin - do two takes on my draw, one more dramatic, one more comic (hopefully ;) This was another way to train the ol' creative muscles. Finding a way to incorporate a 2d environment into a huge 3d interior is always a challenge not once but twice .

These were the items I pulled:

Central District Subway Station
Urban Fae
Pure Hair Casual for Genesis
Hunter's Moon

Both: 3ds Max Mental Ray Rendering + Photoshop / Filter Forge post

#1
Dr. Grouchypants Evil Plan
To steal all the pants in the world
"No! Not the pants!"

(An inside joke - inspired by my nickname in the morning at school before I've had enough coffee)

+ Night Out Suit
War Dog for Genesis
Astral for GIS
Boudior Bliss
Classical Ballet Poses for Victoria 4
Ron's Particles

#2
Subway Reverie

+Lisa's Botanicals - Creepy Trees II
Ron's Fog

I need to nap, getting very sleepy, must rest.

Is the time stamp off an hour now or what. I thought it showed whatever zone you were in. For me right now it is showing DAZ time. I am in central time, so it should so 3:43 AM approx. for me at the time of this post.

Edit: Nope it showed 2:43 AM.