What path would I have to take in order to use GPU as the primary workhorse?

Use Iray.

Just to inform, I don't use iRay rendering at this time.  iI presently use 3delight, with pwToon shaders.

I'd like to ask, are renders slower because of the size of images?  I did download a free script that reduces the images to a smaller size, but the extra small images make props look blurry.  is Scene Optimizer a better tool to use in order to reduce image sizes and retain better quality?  Worst case scenario, maybe i should use GIMP to manually reduce the file size and retain the same high quality.

I realize also that using Genesis figures of any version may contribute to slower renders.  I do have Victoria 4, but the trouble is, whenever Victoria 4 figures wear skirts, the skirt doesn't move with the legs.  Is there any way to make a skirt move with the legs of a Victoria 4 or The Kids 4 figure?

I also think using props with a lot of images, particularly those by Stonemason and Dreamland Models, tend to take longer to load the images.  I wonder if there are any low poly houses and neighborhoods I could purchase (but not the Toon style) anywhere?

ANYTHING can slow down a render. ANYTHING.

Just to inform, I don't use iRay rendering at this time.  iI presently use 3delight, with pwToon shaders.

I'd like to ask, are renders slower because of the size of images?  I did download a free script that reduces the images to a smaller size, but the extra small images make props look blurry.  is Scene Optimizer a better tool to use in order to reduce image sizes and retain better quality?  Worst case scenario, maybe i should use GIMP to manually reduce the file size and retain the same high quality.

I realize also that using Genesis figures of any version may contribute to slower renders.  I do have Victoria 4, but the trouble is, whenever Victoria 4 figures wear skirts, the skirt doesn't move with the legs.  Is there any way to make a skirt move with the legs of a Victoria 4 or The Kids 4 figure?

I also think using props with a lot of images, particularly those by Stonemason and Dreamland Models, tend to take longer to load the images.  I wonder if there are any low poly houses and neighborhoods I could purchase (but not the Toon style) anywhere?

TriAx was the weight-mapped rigging system devised by Daz for Ds4/Genesis, Poser didn't add weight-mapping with a similar system until later. The older figures, including Victoria 4 and Michael 4, use parametric rigging which does have separate settings for each axis but isn't what is meant by TriAx.

Thanks for pointing that out. I always thought that TriAx is referring to the separate maps for XYZ, which is not supported by most modern CG programs as far as I know. I like that quaternion weighting is identical with Cinema 4D's spherical weighting.

I have the same problem, and I still don't find her. 

I have victoria8 but I don't have victoria7 so is it because of that? I wonder...

I just don't find any tara2hd in my smart content.

The base compatibility would be with the Geensis # Female, not Victoria #, I would expect. How did you install, and in which pane(s) are you looking?

I install it through DIM (Daz Install Manager) and after that I noticed that the product was in grey color in Daz son I install it in Daz.

Now the product is colored but when I go to smart content>figures or in the products and double click on Tara2 Hd, well I just have the basic message "Where are my files"...

I was looking at Leonie https://www.daz3d.com/leony-hd-for-victoria-8 ,

Interesting muscles, interesting skin, but the characters promos show a very distinct hollow back. Looks even a bit distorted to me, not a natural way of standing. So, is ist possible to have this character corrected to a more natural behaving back? Or ist this feature something she just shows because the promos gave her very high heels?

i could swear i have seen a freebie dealing with that issue.. on sharecg. just found it:

https://www.sharecg.com/v/82308/browse/21/DAZ-Studio/Unbreak-Spine-Posture-Corrector-for-Genesis-3

no idea tho how you can transpose that on G8 - i can't use the tools for morph transfer... maybe someone else can help for that

I have the same problem, and I still don't find her. 

I have victoria8 but I don't have victoria7 so is it because of that? I wonder...

I just don't find any tara2hd in my smart content.

The base compatibility would be with the Geensis # Female, not Victoria #, I would expect. How did you install, and in which pane(s) are you looking?

I was looking at Leonie https://www.daz3d.com/leony-hd-for-victoria-8 ,

Interesting muscles, interesting skin, but the characters promos show a very distinct hollow back. Looks even a bit distorted to me, not a natural way of standing. So, is ist possible to have this character corrected to a more natural behaving back? Or ist this feature something she just shows because the promos gave her very high heels?

To be Fair Daz, is not precluding their models&content from being used outside of DS
they are only restricting

Yes of course I was talking about HD and Triax that's the features the blender plugin can't support .. everything else works fine.

I really like that Daz abandoned the triax feature with G3. This is so outdated and no professional software supports this out of the box. As far as I remember, triax was a system implemented in Poser first and thus a rigged character (e.g. V4/M4) can hardly be transferred and used in todays software. HD would be fine though.

TriAx was the weight-mapped rigging system devised by Daz for Ds4/Genesis, Poser didn't add weight-mapping with a similar system until later. The older figures, including Victoria 4 and Michael 4, use parametric rigging which does have separate settings for each axis but isn't what is meant by TriAx.

I think most of us expect too much when we first get started with Daz Studio, or other 3D programs. How can you not, with such wonderful movies as Brave showing us what is possible? It's easy to forget that those movies use an army of 3D artists and high-end software. Brave, for example, actually had new software developed just to animate Merida's hair.

But it really is possible to do amazing things with Daz Studio. It's a robust program with a lot of features. The more you learn, the easier it is to continue to learn. As far as I've come in four and a half years, I'm pretty sure I use less than half of the capabilities. And that's not even considering the new features that will undoubtedly be added in the years to come.

I encourage people to just have fun with it, learn as you go, and create art that you enjoy. And try not to buy a lot of stuff when you're first getting started! LOL

I actually started to free hand draw in 2016 and I am OK with pencil drawings.  But naturally I wanted to do more work with computer art.  I do have a  Wacom Bamboo tablet and a couple drawing programs, but I quickly found out it is pretty difficult to draw that way.  Many of my lines were very shaky and it looked like a child drew it!  LOL.  I had been playing around with character generation programs such as Azalea's Dolls, and Rinmaru.  But those kind of felt 'kid like' and very limited.  So I set out to find something like that, but with more options.  Rinmaru on steroids, so to speak.  It didn't take me too long to find Daz Studio and I have heard of it before, but I was under the impression it was a full art program like Blender or Maya.   It wasn't until I read more about and a friend of mine over at Deviant Art explained it more to me that I realized it is more of a 3D Posing and animation program similar to Poser, but better.   I did hear of Poser first, since the company that made that program, Smith Micro, made one of my art programs, Manga Studio.  BUT a huge plus with Daz was that it was free.  I could try it out right away.   BUT I was warned ahead of time about spending and was told to "Be prepared to spend more money than you dreamed possible with Daz."

They were right about that.  It does quickly become an expensive proposition. I already reached my year budget for Daz within the near three months I have it now.    I did set out to make rules about certain items that I would NOT buy and that is poses and characters since I can do those myself.  But while I was good with the former, the latter proved difficult in more ways than one.  There were a few really pretty ladies I saw and wanted and bought them.  Then there were those sale situations in that you HAD to buy something to get a deal on another thing.  But for the most part, if it isn't out of a sale deal, I only outright buy a character if she has something that cannot be created easily or has a special skin.

But by and large, the largest 'sink hole' for me is clothing.

I didn't mean to imply you thought there was anything wrong with other generations. However, I was recommending you stick with a single generation to begin with, and I didn't want to leave you with the impression there was something wrong with the others. Or that I thought there was something wrong with older generations.

This was my initial plan, but then I started to see some of the really nice fantasy themed outfits that were for Genesis 3 and so I figured that since I was Genesis 8 and it was backward compatible, I would be good to go.  But an early mistake had me question it.  As you know some outfits and hair were meant for both Genesis 8 and 3 and they had presets for both.  Well, one time I was setting hair and clicked on the wrong one and got some weird results.  BUT that wasn't a problem, as I had the other preset, but it did make me wary of using Genesis 3 hair on Genesis 8.  So I tried a Genesis 3 outfit and it worked, so I figured I had the 'gold key' to start looking for, buying and using Genesis 3 outfits.  So there was big flash sale one night on Genesis 2 and 3 items, and I did buy quite a few things from that sale and I continued to put more in my wish list.  The first few outfits I tried had low heels and they worked.  But then when I tried out the high heeled outfits that was when I ran into the problem.  I thought it was a fluke with a particular outfit, but then I tried others.  After trying 7 outfits and four of the 7 had high heels and noted that only those were the ones that failed.  So that was when I created this post.  Naturally I didn't think there was something wrong with Genesis 3 or the clothing for the same clothing DID work fine when I tested it with, Ophelia, a Genesis 3 figure I bought because she doesn't have a Gen 8 counterpart.  So I knew it was a compatibility issue with Genesis 8.  And again, I am not pinning the blame on that figure or Daz in that aspect.  I am pointing the finger at Daz for not making it more clear that there could be compatibililty issues.   However, given that Daz does have a return policy I do have the option to return those outfits.  But I did buy more in a more recent sale and I had to go through them.  Luckily in that batch the Genesis 3 stuff I bought had all low shoes.   Sadly, one of my favorite outfits I bought, is this one:

https://www.daz3d.com/downloader/customer/files/prod/20613/

I thought it was Genesis 3, but it is Genesis 2 and yes it has the problem.  Sadly being Gen 2, there is no fix for this one.  But I am going to keep this one as it really looks good on one of my Daz ladies (see attached)

As you see I got a bit creative with her footwear.  I borrowed it from another outfit.

Aside from each generation having characters that look different from the other generations, there are technical differences, mostly under the hood. Each successive generation bends better, for example, and G8 has a lot more face bones for creating expressions.

I do not create my own clothing for my figures, yet. I bought Marvelous Designer last November, but haven't had the time to really learn it yet. It's on my list of things to do this year.

Oh yeah, I gathered that there is more going on under the surface as well.  So it is mostly in the face then?  But apparently it there must be some changes in how the feet are done if there are issues with using previous generation high heels on them.

I too work almost exclusively with G8 figures. Using items across generations can be frustrating and disappointing. It can also be fun, though! Especially if you get the older items for free or for very cheap. I was successful in converting the Desperado boots from G3 to G8 using the tutorial linked to above.

Well, THAT was the main incentive.  I often saw that many deals and sales seemed to favor the prior generation figure(s).  There were mostly really good deep price cuts on Genesis, Gen 2 and Gen 3 items.  While I have not heard much about the compatibility with Genesis and Gen 2, I heard time and time again that Genesis 3 is very close to Genesis 8 and even in forums I heard this mentioned a few times too.  So didn't think much of it when I kept reading about the backward compatibiility of Gen 8 with prior Genesis characters.  So I was a bit dismayed when I encountered this problem.  Had I know ahead of time, I too would have stuck with Genesis 8.  But yeah, you do have to get more creative and look at setting up the Gen 3 outfit with Gen 8 footwear that somewhat matches.  So it does add to the interest of mixing and matching outfits, but when you buy an outfit that has these nice matching high heeled boots only to be disappointed that you don't get the full look when the shoes don't work on the figure.

To expand further (was on the phone before)...

- hair generally has good compatibility. If it's shoulder length or longer you shouldn't use auto-fit. Fitting hair manually is simple and you can find tutorials about it.

- Garments that follow the body (Catsuits, relatively tight pants or tops) generally work well with auto-fit.

- Items that are supposed to be "hard" (such as armour) sometimes distorts awkwardly with auto-fit.

- Skirts, dresses, capes, and other flowy/drapy stuff doesn't work well with auto-fit. However, there's a chance that you can make it work with dForce. Furisode is a good example of an item that doesn't work with auto-fit at all, but drapes beautifully with dForce. (That being said, dForce can be tricky and a source of frustration all by itself.)

- Fit Control can help you tweak garments that fit "almost but not quite".

- There are many other products to increase compatibility, if you really want to get into it. Sickleyield and RiverSoft Art in particular sell many such products.

Good luck!

I had a aproblem right off the bat trying to use, or should I say accidentally using a Genesis 3 hair on Genesis 8.  So I was a bit wary about buying anything hair related that wasn't Genesis 8.  For me that is not a big deal though.  There does seem to be enough Gen 8 hair styles that can keep me occupied.  But it is the clothing that I wanted to broaden my horizons with. 

I am not sure what you mean by using and not using auto-fit.  I was under the impression that auto-fit was something you couldn't turn off.  So far the dresses that I did get, did seem to work, but for the most part they are not very long and flowing.  But I have not tried really crazy poses with them either. 

Most of the outfits are skimpier medieval style outfits and sci-fi / super hero outfits which are very tight fitting and yes, those work well.

I wasn't aware that dforce works outside of Genesis 8 products that are labeled as such.  So a Genesis 3 flowing gown will work with dForce?

Fit Control does look promising, but at that price?  I would definitely need a good deal on that before I would get it.

I will see if there is something that would do the trick that is also less expensive.

- Skirts, dresses, capes, and other flowy/drapy stuff doesn't work well with auto-fit.

Auto-fitting capes is often not the best idea, simply parenting them to the target figure usually works better.

SY Ultra templates are very useful for skirts and dresses.

How does one go about non-auto-fitting an item?  As I said before, I am not aware that not using Auto-Fit could be done.

Thanks for the info guys! 

tag:luci45 #8
More Troubles for Big Ronnie
Mobster Big Ronny Rumoroso thought he had finally found a home in New Marrakesh, but trouble followed him there. He had somehow offended that hottie Valarie (or was it Veronica?) And Cindy the spa owner too - Lemur Larry said no one could ever trace the stolen spa equipment to him. Prince Rasnak was apparently the brother of one of them. Real tough guy. 

Used:
Euphrosyne for Hellenic
Marcoor FG C4  replaced by Lemur from pull 3 and Legacie Hair from pull 8
Valerie for V5
Moroccan Dreams for Victoria 4 
Princely (LB)
Newsstand (LB)
The Streets of Morocco (LB)
i13 Spa and Lounge Environment with Poses (LB)
Alien Metals - Iray Shaders for DAZ Studio (LB)
Sword Of Time Outfit for Genesis 3 Male(s) (LB)

Also used:
Vintage Male Hair
Ivan
Unshaven 2 for Genesis 2 Male(s)
Gianni 6 texture
Pivotal Moment Poses for Genesis and Genesis 2 Male(s)
Lee 6 Sword Poses
i13 Emotions Running WILD for the Genesis 3 Female(s)
From Russia for Rune 7

Yes, with a limited eccfeption in the case of the Anne Marie Goddard Digital Clone for Victoria 3 you are free to sell your 2D renders - still images and animations - made with content from the Daz store.

Edited for correction on range

To expand further (was on the phone before)...

- hair generally has good compatibility. If it's shoulder length or longer you shouldn't use auto-fit. Fitting hair manually is simple and you can find tutorials about it.

- Garments that follow the body (Catsuits, relatively tight pants or tops) generally work well with auto-fit.

- Items that are supposed to be "hard" (such as armour) sometimes distorts awkwardly with auto-fit.

- Skirts, dresses, capes, and other flowy/drapy stuff doesn't work well with auto-fit. However, there's a chance that you can make it work with dForce. Furisode is a good example of an item that doesn't work with auto-fit at all, but drapes beautifully with dForce. (That being said, dForce can be tricky and a source of frustration all by itself.)

- Fit Control can help you tweak garments that fit "almost but not quite".

- There are many other products to increase compatibility, if you really want to get into it. Sickleyield and RiverSoft Art in particular sell many such products.

Good luck!

Entry # 11

Title: Raising Mammath from the Dead

Artist: Diomede (Ted Murphy)

Category: (B - De-extinction)

Credits:  Victoria 6, Koko hair from Daz, cavewoman outfit for V6 by Sickleyield, Mammath from Content Paradise, 

Discussion: How did humans react to the disappearance of mega fauna, with whom they had coexisted for thousands of years?  Perhaps their shamans tried the occult?

Victoria 4 is the base, there isn't a Genesis-equivalent base figure for which it is an add-on (essentially Victoria 4 and Michael 4 played that role, with other Name 4 being add-ons for oen or the other - except for Kids 4 which was also a base). Victoria 4.2 is the final update of Victoria 4.

Yes, I meant that the basic files are in Poser format and therefore appear under Poser Formats in DS if you use the actual file-system view in Content Library.

Victoria 3, Michael 3, and all the other Name 3 figures are self-contained, you don't need one to use the others, and there is no dependency on them in the fourth generation figures.

Thanks again for your help Richard, still can't believe DIM cannot process these downloads and installs correctly as it does for all other Content purchased...  Wonder if I should submit a BUG report on this issue in case others are experiencing the same problem??

Victoria 4 is the base, there isn't a Genesis-equivalent base figure for which it is an add-on (essentially Victoria 4 and Michael 4 played that role, with other Name 4 being add-ons for oen or the other - except for Kids 4 which was also a base). Victoria 4.2 is the final update of Victoria 4.

Yes, I meant that the basic files are in Poser format and therefore appear under Poser Formats in DS if you use the actual file-system view in Content Library.

Victoria 3, Michael 3, and all the other Name 3 figures are self-contained, you don't need one to use the others, and there is no dependency on them in the fourth generation figures.

@RobotHeadArt - I have the CaymanStudios Legacy UV converter from V6 to Genesis 3. Can I use the method described here to use Gia 6 maps on G3 or do I need the G2-> G3 Converter?

You would need to convert the Gia 6 maps to Victoria 6 UVs instead of Genesis 2 Female.  There might be more distortion going that way, I'm not sure as I have never tried.  Once converted to V6 UVs it should apply.

So the Z Plus Size Model Shape Preset and Poses for Genesis 8 Female that just got released and comes with a 40% March Madness deal does include the Plus Size Model Morph, but still requires the Genesis 8 Female Body Morphs product - which triples the price?

Doubles would be more accurate right now, as the product is a Newly Mad release that will trigger the 50% off on the Select DOs, of which the Morphs are included.

There's unlikely to be a lot of people complaining - if you sort the store by most popular Daz Originals Genesis 8 Female products, those morphs are absolutely right up there. Nearly anyone using Genesis 8 will already have them, as  they're basically the default tool-kit for adjusting figure shape - along with the head morphs, I'd say they're almost certainly the most widely required pre-requisites for G8F figures. (Likely considerably more so than even Victoria 8).

A couple of other tricks I've used...

1. Create a null object (I typically call it something like "Victoria Eye Target"), parent it to the head or camera or whatever you want the eyes to look at. Then use Point At toward that null object instead. Because you can move the null to wherever the eyes look more natual it can help with some of the weird crossed eye looks when you try to point directly at a figure or camera that is close to your subject. You still have to use the "jiggle" trick on the null when reloading the scene though.

2. Create two very small cameras and parent them to the figure's eyes, placing it right on each eyeball. Then look through that camera as you use the pose controls on the figure's eye to aim. It can be a pain at first, but I've found it usually results in the most realistic eye positioning.

The closest thing I know of is Leony HD for V8 by Raiya https://www.daz3d.com/leony-hd-for-victoria-8  She comes with her own HD add-ons and she's actually more muscular than Ophellia, though her skin isn't as weathered.  That said, why not just use Ophelia 7?   98% of the "improvements" between Gen 3 and Gen 8 are DAZ marketing hype, and they use the same skins and mesh.  Worst case scenario, using Leony's body with Ophelia 7's skin would give you the best of both worlds.  

On the other hand it should be possible to do such a thing with Blender.

I agree 100%. There is a free plugin that, last I checked, allowed you to do some very basic direct import from DAZ to Blender, but it didn't accurately import the bones and such as I recall. It was more for a static scene. 

That's already be done and it's free and open source. I'm also quite surprised you didn't know since it's out from quite a while.

It imports G1-G8 full rigged characters, HDR maps and instances for scenes, and it even convert iray materials to cycles quite fine. The limits are it doesn't import hd morphs and it doesn't convert triax maps. So you have to prebend G1-G2 for exporting, while G3-G8 work fine. One way to export hd morphs is to bake to obj though, so not a big deal.

http://diffeomorphic.blogspot.com/

Thanks a lot. I didn't know that. I just wonder, if the dependencies between joints in G3 are supported as well. There are a lot of ERCLinks in the Genesis figures, especially when you set some additional morphs for characters (e.g. Victoria 7) and packages (e.g muscular)