As for Monique 8: if you have the model, take a look and tell me what you think.

I don't know, she actually looks fine to me. This is a Monique render, no color correction, default skin settings.

Human skin does tend to come out a bit orange to me by default though, so I usually knock that out in Photoshop.

I don't think translucency should be necessarily low. In human skin a high amount of light is actually scattered through the skin. About 94% of reflectance comes from SSS. Problem is, this really looks the most right with Chromatic SSS, and that is bugged to high heaven in DS. So often when I am setting up skin I still use mono SSS and lower translucency to avoid a single-color takeover of my skin. This is preventing me from developing and releasing skin shader settings right now, I really wish it would get fixed. :\

For what little it may be worth: the difficulty I have with Monique 8's settings is that her translucency, in particular, should not be high. At the very least, it shouldn't be as high as Victoria 8/Michael/Olympia/Stephanie/Lucas, but every single Daz base character has translucency set at 0.9. Dark skin simply isn't as translucent as paler skin; that is quite literally one of the evolutionary reasons for its existence.

This is true, but melanin is mostly at the basal layer of the epidermis, not sitting on the surface, so dark skinned characters would still have a very significant SSS contribution. I would expect the scattering and depth to be different. I don't find much references on this when I look.

I have trouble trying to bring DAZ darker characters to lower translucency also. Like lighter characters they get much more pale, and it's harder to tint diffuse without flattening the skin tone. It might require actually editing the diffuse in an image editor which won't kill detail like that.

I wonder if maybe the issue, or an issue, is that the shader needs to have separate epidermis/dermis/subdermal layers -- represented specifically as such, rather than mixed together within the model the way they are.

That aside ... For what it's worth, I just compared the settings for the newly released Darius 8 to last month's Lucas 8. The settings are identical. Absolutely identical. Same strengths, same colors for everything. I'll bet the same is true for Monique and the rest of the G8 females. That can't possibly be right.

The values for scattering and transmitted measurement distance are identical, and the values are so small that there's not a lot of space to pull them lower. I'm not sure how you could make the shader model they're using work for both dark and light skins.

As it stands, because they've got translucency on blast, they artificially darkened the palms and soles for Darius and Monique 8. Looking at their textures in the directory makes me want to weep, especially because Daz had done a very good job with the textures on their dark-skinned base characters, all the way back to Mil4. Their hands and feet probably look terrible in 3Delight, or else their Subsurface settings are just as wonky as everything else.

If you wind up with glowing hands and feet, then change your settings, don't ruin the damn texture.

That said, the fact that Darius and Monique don't look horrible in Iray points strongly to the settings for literally every other character this generation being very wrong, because they do look excessively orange and tan.

Theoretically this is what the chromatic sss solves vs the older mono (the traditional 3 layer setup has a blend of a bluish version a yellowish/greenish version and a redish version of the textures that one sets different scattering distance for, chromatic sss has one map, lets you set the ammount the reds, greens and blues scatter). I say theoretical because its... fiddly. And I'm the sort of person who likes fiddling with material settings.

The easiest basic fix is still to set the translucency strength lower .5 or point .6 (the translucency medium preset in the character materials does this) why this isn't the default... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

On the digital creations celebs, CS03 is definitely adriana lima, one of the more popular/famous victoria secret models, not allessandro ambrosio (another VS model).

Agree on the other 2, kim K and Megan Fox.

If he does a jasmine tookes Ill buy it.

Neither one is a perfect fit, but the eyebrows and skin texture match Allessandro far better than Adriana. The shape of their eyes is very close to CS03, in neither case do the lips match perfectly. They have similar jawlines. The iris color is a match for Adriana, but that is only the default promo picture. 

As for Monique 8: if you have the model, take a look and tell me what you think.

I don't know, she actually looks fine to me. This is a Monique render, no color correction, default skin settings.

Human skin does tend to come out a bit orange to me by default though, so I usually knock that out in Photoshop.

I don't think translucency should be necessarily low. In human skin a high amount of light is actually scattered through the skin. About 94% of reflectance comes from SSS. Problem is, this really looks the most right with Chromatic SSS, and that is bugged to high heaven in DS. So often when I am setting up skin I still use mono SSS and lower translucency to avoid a single-color takeover of my skin. This is preventing me from developing and releasing skin shader settings right now, I really wish it would get fixed. :\

For what little it may be worth: the difficulty I have with Monique 8's settings is that her translucency, in particular, should not be high. At the very least, it shouldn't be as high as Victoria 8/Michael/Olympia/Stephanie/Lucas, but every single Daz base character has translucency set at 0.9. Dark skin simply isn't as translucent as paler skin; that is quite literally one of the evolutionary reasons for its existence.

This is true, but melanin is mostly at the basal layer of the epidermis, not sitting on the surface, so dark skinned characters would still have a very significant SSS contribution. I would expect the scattering and depth to be different. I don't find much references on this when I look.

I have trouble trying to bring DAZ darker characters to lower translucency also. Like lighter characters they get much more pale, and it's harder to tint diffuse without flattening the skin tone. It might require actually editing the diffuse in an image editor which won't kill detail like that.

I wonder if maybe the issue, or an issue, is that the shader needs to have separate epidermis/dermis/subdermal layers -- represented specifically as such, rather than mixed together within the model the way they are.

It would be really nice to have something like this.

That aside ... For what it's worth, I just compared the settings for the newly released Darius 8 to last month's Lucas 8. The settings are identical. Absolutely identical. Same strengths, same colors for everything. I'll bet the same is true for Monique and the rest of the G8 females. That can't possibly be right.

The values for scattering and transmitted measurement distance are identical, and the values are so small that there's not a lot of space to pull them lower. I'm not sure how you could make the shader model they're using work for both dark and light skins.

As it stands, because they've got translucency on blast, they artificially darkened the palms and soles for Darius and Monique 8. Looking at their textures in the directory makes me want to weep, especially because Daz had done a very good job with the textures on their dark-skinned base characters, all the way back to Mil4. Their hands and feet probably look terrible in 3Delight, or else their Subsurface settings are just as wonky as everything else.

If you wind up with glowing hands and feet, then change your settings, don't ruin the damn texture.

That said, the fact that Darius and Monique don't look horrible in Iray points strongly to the settings for literally every other character this generation being very wrong, because they do look excessively orange and tan.

Yeah, there's something about their new settings that still needs work. I haven't figured out what it is yet.

As for Monique 8: if you have the model, take a look and tell me what you think.

I don't know, she actually looks fine to me. This is a Monique render, no color correction, default skin settings.

Human skin does tend to come out a bit orange to me by default though, so I usually knock that out in Photoshop.

I don't think translucency should be necessarily low. In human skin a high amount of light is actually scattered through the skin. About 94% of reflectance comes from SSS. Problem is, this really looks the most right with Chromatic SSS, and that is bugged to high heaven in DS. So often when I am setting up skin I still use mono SSS and lower translucency to avoid a single-color takeover of my skin. This is preventing me from developing and releasing skin shader settings right now, I really wish it would get fixed. :\

For what little it may be worth: the difficulty I have with Monique 8's settings is that her translucency, in particular, should not be high. At the very least, it shouldn't be as high as Victoria 8/Michael/Olympia/Stephanie/Lucas, but every single Daz base character has translucency set at 0.9. Dark skin simply isn't as translucent as paler skin; that is quite literally one of the evolutionary reasons for its existence.

This is true, but melanin is mostly at the basal layer of the epidermis, not sitting on the surface, so dark skinned characters would still have a very significant SSS contribution. I would expect the scattering and depth to be different. I don't find much references on this when I look.

I have trouble trying to bring DAZ darker characters to lower translucency also. Like lighter characters they get much more pale, and it's harder to tint diffuse without flattening the skin tone. It might require actually editing the diffuse in an image editor which won't kill detail like that.

I wonder if maybe the issue, or an issue, is that the shader needs to have separate epidermis/dermis/subdermal layers -- represented specifically as such, rather than mixed together within the model the way they are.

That aside ... For what it's worth, I just compared the settings for the newly released Darius 8 to last month's Lucas 8. The settings are identical. Absolutely identical. Same strengths, same colors for everything. I'll bet the same is true for Monique and the rest of the G8 females. That can't possibly be right.

The values for scattering and transmitted measurement distance are identical, and the values are so small that there's not a lot of space to pull them lower. I'm not sure how you could make the shader model they're using work for both dark and light skins.

As it stands, because they've got translucency on blast, they artificially darkened the palms and soles for Darius and Monique 8. Looking at their textures in the directory makes me want to weep, especially because Daz had done a very good job with the textures on their dark-skinned base characters, all the way back to Mil4. Their hands and feet probably look terrible in 3Delight, or else their Subsurface settings are just as wonky as everything else.

If you wind up with glowing hands and feet, then change your settings, don't ruin the damn texture.

That said, the fact that Darius and Monique don't look horrible in Iray points strongly to the settings for literally every other character this generation being very wrong, because they do look excessively orange and tan.

Most of the previous pro bundles ran about $35, some less than that.

I don't think that's true. Monique's did because she landed in the middle of the PC+ sale and there were additional discounts. I don't think the other G8 bundles where that cheap though.

The only other ones (besides Monique) I got at release were Victoria 8 Pro and Michael 8 Pro and I paid $46.26 each for them. So, The current $49 low for Darius is not much more than that.

I did get Monique 8 Pro at release with extra PC+ Anniversary discounts for $25 and Teen Josie Pro as a spotlight item during the PC+ sale for $32.40, but that was later than release.

Most of the previous pro bundles ran about $35, some less than that.

I WISH! LOL

Bundles released in September, October, and the first half of November were treated to extra discounts due to the PA Festival and the PC+ Anniversary sales. Traditionally, Pro bundles are released with a 30% intro discount, or $94.47, just like any other new release. If you're a PC+ member, you also get the 30% DO discount, bringing the intro price down to $66.13. Daz has had some unbelievable discounts thrown in from time-to-time, but $35 as typical? No. Sorry. That's just not accurate.

Now, if you're willing to wait 60 days or longer to pick up a Pro bundle, they do go on sale, and sometimes are offered at stupid-cheap prices when purchasing a new release. I got Victoria 7 Starter bundle for free last year, with a new release pruchase. (Don't recall if it required one or multiples to qualify.)

The basic rule of thumb is that, once you've gone past the New Product intro period, EVERY DAZ Original goes on sale multiple times a year for at least 70% off if you're a PC+ member.  SO, if there';s nothing in a set that's screaming "Buy Me Right Now!" you can save a bundle by waiting a few months. 

That said, lately DAZ has seemed to recognize that and has been offering a lot of convoluted ways to get the price down without actually reduce the list price of the bundle itself, and a number of recent Pro Bundles... and the previous poster's $35 per Pro Bundle figure on release is actually not far off.  Looking at some figures that I know I bought during the initial release period, I can see that the Monique 8 Pro Bundle set me back just $27.99 (and I only had to have the Monique 6 Pro Bundle to get that discount,)  the Lucas 8 Pro Bundle was only $25.60, Stephanie 8 was 33.10,  Teen Josie 8 PB was $37.79, the Mika 7 PB was 23.80,and the Elijah Pro Bundle came in at the ridiculous price of just $6.61.  That's less than lunch costs at many fast food places!  

Most of the previous pro bundles ran about $35, some less than that.

I WISH! LOL

Bundles released in September, October, and the first half of November were treated to extra discounts due to the PA Festival and the PC+ Anniversary sales. Traditionally, Pro bundles are released with a 30% intro discount, or $94.47, just like any other new release. If you're a PC+ member, you also get the 30% DO discount, bringing the intro price down to $66.13. Daz has had some unbelievable discounts thrown in from time-to-time, but $35 as typical? No. Sorry. That's just not accurate.

Now, if you're willing to wait 60 days or longer to pick up a Pro bundle, they do go on sale, and sometimes are offered at stupid-cheap prices when purchasing a new release. I got Victoria 7 Starter bundle for free last year, with a new release pruchase. (Don't recall if it required one or multiples to qualify.)

He seems ok. I'm seeing no orange banner and nothing in the exclusive offers area either. No incentive with the past Pros as I have 6 & 7 Pros already. Bad timing being first of the month with rent and such. Without any discount I'll be forced to pass. May only get the base this time. =( It's all good though.

I have an exclusive offer in the messages. Exclusive offer is "You have one of the past Darius pro bundles, so have an extra 10% off". Mildly surprised at how limited it is compared to recent offers; I wonder why? (I have both Darius 6 and 7 pro bundles, so this is probably as good as it's going to get.)

Additional discounts for the other non-bundle items are showing up in the cart now. Assuming they stabilize where they are, they're quite nice. The additional discounts are only for the other items and not the bundles, at the moment, but that may change when they kick the store to make everything settle out, if they need to do that.

The Capsces Poses and Expressions don't currently have a promo image in the pro bundle, but they're listed at the bottom in the Included items; without that promo, it looks at first glance as though there are only 10 items in the Darius pro bundle, compared to 11 in the Olympia, Teen Josie, Stephanie, Lucas, and Monique 8 pro bundles, and 12 in the Victoria 8 pro bundle . The LINK for the Capsces poses has a placeholder text of LINK, which actually goes to a product in the store, which makes for an oddly funny false drop.

Hmmm... I'm getting an offer of 25% off Darius 8.  The lowest I can get the Pro bundle to is $49.60.  Has anyone gotten it lower?

Most of the previous pro bundles ran about $35, some less than that.

The only gen8 pro bundle that went down that low for me was Monique 8, when combined with the discount. Lucas also went around 40 a week or two after the release I believe, which was also pretty low; Michael and Victoria ran about the same as Darius 8, I think... maybe I’m forgetting how much I paid though

This one could be fun...

Chameo Pull 01:

1. Jepe's Jewels and Tears for Victoria 4 - Genesis 2 Female
2. Taylor for Stephanie 6
3. Ceremonial Horse Armor
4. Michael 7
LB #1. HotCabanaWear
LB #2 Boudoir Secrets
LB #3 Nature Shaders
LB #4 FWSA Amalthea for Ninive 6

Install Steam. I believe it has options to allow a controller to work in programs.

I can understand that part of what keeps DS free is outsourcing the funcionality to the community devs (KeyMate, etc) but there needs to be some sort of "hand-off" or "hand-over" when/if one of those community devs dies so the plugin can be updated (if there's not already such a plan in place).

While not so much a program include, but more of a policy change: texture templates with everything, no exceptions. If it has a UV map, it must have a template. Also, Script source so users can edit as needed, or add functionality/change certain parameters to work with their Runtimes. Case in point, the V4 to G2F Animation Converter looks for "Victoria 4.2", but the loader names it "victoria 4.2". That capital letter means everything. The script fails if it's not a capital V. By the same token, the G2F figure must be named Genesis 2 Female, not Victoria 6, Lilith 6, Mei Lin, Aiko 6, etc. Changing this in the script so it reads the base figure instead of display name would make it faster.

Welcome back.

We are now on the 8 series - don't panick you haven't missed that much.

Due to some confusion over the numbering issue daz went from Genesis 3 with Victoria 7, Michael 7 etc to Genesis 8 and Victoria and Micheal 8 etc.

DS now has Iray as a renderer as well as 3delight and very recently dforce dynamics was introduced.

G8F Victoria was stated to have outsold any prior versions of Victoria, including V4, on introduction day, if I remember the post in the forums by a hefty percentage so from a business perspective G8 has been a hit.

Cumulatively I have no ideal for Victoria 8 sales stand in relation to V4 and other older figures sales as those are artificially inflated by giveaways (one could have gotten Victoria 7 free this past weekend, I had gotten her free though last year around the same time of year). You can be almost sure V8 has sold less total numbers than V4 and you can probably guess that V4 also has still outsold all the other Victorias from the Genesis lines. Eventually though, a new Victoria will technically have so many improvements that generation will outtotal V4. V4 is sort of a no-go for gaming development for example. It requires much more work than later generations of Victoria. 

Victoria 4 was introduced in 2006 with V 4.2 in 2008. That is longevity. Obviously G3 didn't last long, as G8 is already released. Since 2011, there is a new genesis every 2 years. It appears that right now G3 has the most products and support by vendors/PAs, and from what I've read G8 isn't really a big hit ... at least not yet. 
thoughts ...  

Pull #1

#1 3584 Maxim HD for Michael 6 (#18623)
#2 1837 Easy Environments Eternal Sands (#15599)
#3 3607 Mech Vardon (#19524)
#4 814 Caribbean Queen Hair (#14035)
LB #1: 6298 Ultimate Natural for Victoria 6 Body (#19980)
LB #2: 4395 Pillows (#11484)
LB #3: 2695 HC14-Ghost Ship (Rendo)   Broken paths, only works in Poser, and due to sheer luck and Posers helpfulness. Repull
LB #3: 4319 Parkside Tube Station (#13494)

Random numbers generated Nov 28 2017 at 9:40:37 by www.psychicscience.org  
Free educational resources for parapsychology and psychical research.

What a really weird mix of everything! Repull didn't make it easy did it, but I got an idea.

He seems ok. I'm seeing no orange banner and nothing in the exclusive offers area either. No incentive with the past Pros as I have 6 & 7 Pros already. Bad timing being first of the month with rent and such. Without any discount I'll be forced to pass. May only get the base this time. =( It's all good though.

I have an exclusive offer in the messages. Exclusive offer is "You have one of the past Darius pro bundles, so have an extra 10% off". Mildly surprised at how limited it is compared to recent offers; I wonder why? (I have both Darius 6 and 7 pro bundles, so this is probably as good as it's going to get.)

Additional discounts for the other non-bundle items are showing up in the cart now. Assuming they stabilize where they are, they're quite nice. The additional discounts are only for the other items and not the bundles, at the moment, but that may change when they kick the store to make everything settle out, if they need to do that.

The Capsces Poses and Expressions don't currently have a promo image in the pro bundle, but they're listed at the bottom in the Included items; without that promo, it looks at first glance as though there are only 10 items in the Darius pro bundle, compared to 11 in the Olympia, Teen Josie, Stephanie, Lucas, and Monique 8 pro bundles, and 12 in the Victoria 8 pro bundle . The LINK for the Capsces poses has a placeholder text of LINK, which actually goes to a product in the store, which makes for an oddly funny false drop.

And once again, I unchecked the "Hide Items..." box, and...
Victoria 5 Tank Dress? When did I buy that!!??? And Why!?

And why does the forum keep signing me out and back in?

And once again, I unchecked the "Hide Items..." box, and...
Victoria 5 Tank Dress? When did I buy that!!??? And Why!?

And why does the forum keep signing me out and back in?

I have it too; I'm certain I've never loaded it!

Every time I make a purchase I get signed out of the Forum...

Try this:
​1) Go to your Product Library: https://www.daz3d.com/downloader/customer/files
​2) Do a search on: Victoria 5 Tank Dress
​3) Valid your search.
​4) Look the ORDER number just aside of the Product Image from your search result, click on this ORDER number.
It may looks like:
 

​Order: #ORDERNUMBER - DAY MONTH,YEAR

Victoria 5 Tank Dress.

...
And you will be provided the ORDER details for this purchase (if some products have been purchased in the same ORDER number, then, they will be shown aswell !
Hope it helps :)

P3D Lorin HD for Aiko 7      Leather Bustier (Gen3F)     Venice Hair (Gen 3, 2, V4) 

Venice Hair doesn't have any morphs for the back of the hair that I can find. I had to go into Left Collar>Twist to get a section of hair to lay down, because when I was trying to get another morph to work, that strand right behind the left shoulder moved too. 

And once again, I unchecked the "Hide Items..." box, and...
Victoria 5 Tank Dress? When did I buy that!!??? And Why!?

And why does the forum keep signing me out and back in?

I have it too; I'm certain I've never loaded it!

Every time I make a purchase I get signed out of the Forum...