@jakiblue "but they don't work for me as they throw up an error message wanting Victoria 8 UVs which I don't have. "

Are you sure about that? When I load V8 with "Victoria 8 All Maps", the UV for skin shows as base female".

Further when I load the Olympia 8 Eyebrows.duf, it just loads with no issues. I can alos load the various mats with no problems.

Wait. Olympia 8 DOES come with an eyebrow prop. That's my problem with her - she comes with an eyebrow prop, plus mats for the eyebrows, but they don't work for me as they throw up an error message wanting Victoria 8 UVs which I don't have. 

 

Good point about the eyebrows. Olympia 8 comes with materials for eyebrows, but unfortunately there aren't any eyebrows included with her (unlike with Victoria 8). Not sure if this was an oversight or not. So I used OhMyBrows on her instead.

Reading all the comments makes me feel like I've dropped into the Twilight Zone. I think she looks stunning!! Really beautiful! 

it is amusing don't you think that usually the complaint is each figure is toooo pretty/perfect not average everday looking or is youngish looking needs to be more mature older looking or toooo skinny and then they give us that or try to and then still complaints saying she's ugly or fat or old or butch the only female figure I've seen relised that everyone raved over was Star. Oh well can't please everyone. I also look at the related  extras you can buy which gives you more an idea of the newer character/s some interesting like the add on clothing textures or poses and so on as sometimes these better display the potential of the new characters and there are a few there that show off both the tough gritty side as well as more softer side of Olympia, Victoria and Gen8 as well as some of the add on characters. Got pro yeah maybe could've just gone for the base but want a few things to get going yeah she and Vicky can use older stuff but still nice to have few of their own things too and I think the archery set is ok too has that action comic suoer hero vibe feel to it would buy some of the extras if could afford 

lol Yeah. Can't please everyone, that's for sure. One thing I think MIGHT be causing (or at least contributing to) the complain-fest is that there is a lot of really negative stuff going on in the world right now, and I think that might be affecting both people's moods as well as making them a LOT more picky about what they spend their money on. (That's just a theory though.)

I absolutely love Olympia 8 and will be getting her as soon as I'm able to get some money coming in. :)

I think you'll like her you know she may make a good starting point for a G8 version of Lady Death

yeah always negative now days in everything just look at anything on facebook even a cute and funny aniaml pic or video enrages people 

some say O looks too manly maybe some she looks like a tough lady but there are plenty in rl do but same time there are a few promo renders that make her look softer and others that make her look like an average don't wanna say plain but as someone that doesn't stand out as for some saying looking like Vicky well looking at the different shots I think even in the base promos some are featuring showing what she looks like with Vicky skin or part of her dialed in but not saying it like others promos have when they've displayed other characters shapes dialed combined or skin textures used

hahah She WOULD make a nice base for Lady Death! :)  I'm still working on trying to find a couple of really good white-haired hair shaders.

She's pretty much perfect for Lady Death. I'm definitely looking forward to getting her!

 

 

I've been experimenting to get white hair; trouble is, it takes on colour very easily from its environment.

There wasn't a suitable greyscale texture in the Liv hair, so I created one and lightened it. Head inset had a tiny bit of yellow in the shader; the main shot had less.

Not bad! It's still a bit blond. Super light colored hair can be really tricky. Getting a straight white color is crazy hard for me - at least getting it to look photo realistic.

Thanks to Novica showing her renders, I tried a different light set up here. Used "light 10r" from Colm's Pro-Studio light set, the first one. Massive difference in her skin. I think the trick to Olympia is going to be the lighting if you don't want her looking like an oompa loompa. I'm going to have redo entirely my light set up for Olympia. I still think she looks a bit plastic with her skin. 

Quick test render here. Click for larger pic. 

I forgot a light to put highlights in her eyes, and I hate her painted on eyebrows, because the mats for her eyebrow prop don't work unless you have Victoria 8, so I'm stuck with the painted ones from the makeup mats. 

 

Very nice render! She has such a lovely shape! The lighting makes a big difference, you're right. And I have to agree on the skin, some of the renders I've seen of her the skin looks a bit off. But then again I'm never happy with "out of the box" skin/textures and have to make adjustments to the shaders of every character I buy.

What I do for older skins is just load the character that has the skin textures you want to use and then save it as a Material Preset (File >> Save As >> Material Preset). That should change the mats to a daz file that you can then load onto your G3 boys with the use of the Legacy UVs script. :)

Wow, if that's all it takes, maybe I'll give it a try!  Does it matter where I save them, though?  I always get very confused with the file structures, so I tend to save stuff in folders on my desktop so I don't misplace them.  Will that be ok, or do they have to go somewhere specific?

Also, is there a way to use G2 skins on G3?  I tried doing a search for products, but couldn't find anything  

G3 came out with Uvs that are too different from the older UVs to convert skin from G2 to G3 with something as simple as including the older UVs for the new models. The G2 and older generations include both arms and legs on one map, where the G3 have arms on one and legs on another. There are other differences, but that one is the most obvious, I think.

There are programs out there that can convert older skins to the G3/G8 UVs, but there again, you're looking at spending quite a bit of money. That brings you back to using another Legacy UVs product from Cayman: "Legacy UVs for Genesis 3: Genesis 2 Male and Michael 6".

If you have more time than money, you could use the Map Transfer utility to convert your M4 skins to the Genesis 2 Male UVs, (not the same as converting to .duf files as mentioned above,) and use the Legacy UVs product for G2M to G3M. I have a tutorial, (link is in my signature below,) that covers this for G3F to G8F, but the principles are the same. Give it a try with one M4 skin on G2M, and if you're successful with that, return the Legacy UVs product you "just purchased" and get the one for Genesis 2 Males and Michael 6 instead. Daz has a 30 day, no questions asked, return policy.

On the other hand, if you run into issues trying to follow the tutorial with M4/G2M, or you don't have the time to spare, just go ahead and get the Legacy UVs for Genesis 3: Genesis 2 Male and Michael 6. I have both, and it was money well spent for me.

Whoops, how did I miss that product?  Me and the search bar have never gotten along very well, I'm afraid.

Thanks for the tips, I'll read your tutorial and see what I can do.  I have much more free time than money, so if it's something I can figure out, that'd be great!  

Feel free to ask questions in the tutorial thread. Some things in the tutorial are specific to Victoria 7 and G8F and may not translate well for your needs. I'll do my best to help you get it figured out.

This may be a n00b question, but I come from a traditional 3d background of Maya / Zbrush. My main question here is why are there so many face/ body products? It's obvious that the hair and clothes products are all unique for instance, but the "characters" faces/ bodies all use the same base DAZ UV/ poly maps right? So, then are all the unique characters just morphs? 

For example, if I'm starting with Victoria 8, can I use that base mesh through using morph controls to achieve the same faces found on characters such as Amy-Lee, Lainey, Duffy, or Elizabeth? I'm aware that each character has their own texture files, which are unique to those characters. But can those same looks be achieved through just morphing?

As for the bodies, I ask the same question. Aren't all body's using the same base meshes? And if so, can't they be made from morphs alone?

Lastly, the Iray lighting products found throughout. Are they simply presets, like the poses are? 

I ask all of this because there are hundreds upon hundreds of products on here. If they're basically just morphs and presets, then I can skip buying those and focus on buying unique products, like the clothes and/or hair. I appreciate all your replies. Thank you.

Reading all the comments makes me feel like I've dropped into the Twilight Zone. I think she looks stunning!! Really beautiful! 

it is amusing don't you think that usually the complaint is each figure is toooo pretty/perfect not average everday looking or is youngish looking needs to be more mature older looking or toooo skinny and then they give us that or try to and then still complaints saying she's ugly or fat or old or butch the only female figure I've seen relised that everyone raved over was Star. Oh well can't please everyone. I also look at the related  extras you can buy which gives you more an idea of the newer character/s some interesting like the add on clothing textures or poses and so on as sometimes these better display the potential of the new characters and there are a few there that show off both the tough gritty side as well as more softer side of Olympia, Victoria and Gen8 as well as some of the add on characters. Got pro yeah maybe could've just gone for the base but want a few things to get going yeah she and Vicky can use older stuff but still nice to have few of their own things too and I think the archery set is ok too has that action comic suoer hero vibe feel to it would buy some of the extras if could afford 

lol Yeah. Can't please everyone, that's for sure. One thing I think MIGHT be causing (or at least contributing to) the complain-fest is that there is a lot of really negative stuff going on in the world right now, and I think that might be affecting both people's moods as well as making them a LOT more picky about what they spend their money on. (That's just a theory though.)

I absolutely love Olympia 8 and will be getting her as soon as I'm able to get some money coming in. :)

I think you'll like her you know she may make a good starting point for a G8 version of Lady Death

yeah always negative now days in everything just look at anything on facebook even a cute and funny aniaml pic or video enrages people 

some say O looks too manly maybe some she looks like a tough lady but there are plenty in rl do but same time there are a few promo renders that make her look softer and others that make her look like an average don't wanna say plain but as someone that doesn't stand out as for some saying looking like Vicky well looking at the different shots I think even in the base promos some are featuring showing what she looks like with Vicky skin or part of her dialed in but not saying it like others promos have when they've displayed other characters shapes dialed combined or skin textures used

hahah She WOULD make a nice base for Lady Death! :)  I'm still working on trying to find a couple of really good white-haired hair shaders.

She's pretty much perfect for Lady Death. I'm definitely looking forward to getting her!

 

 

I've been experimenting to get white hair; trouble is, it takes on colour very easily from its environment.

There wasn't a suitable greyscale texture in the Liv hair, so I created one and lightened it. Head inset had a tiny bit of yellow in the shader; the main shot had less.

Yep, I knew it. Just getting back online and sure enough, an orange banner for previous owners. I hadn't checked out as I figured that would happen. I did get the 25% but still not going for the Pro Bundle. I've given this some thought all day, and down the rabbit hole again. I thought about the two UV releases, getting those of Victoria 5 and Victoria 6 to work on Genesis 8, just because the facial expressions are SO much better. But that led to - what UVs are actually V5? Am I right that Genesis UVs won't work with Cayman's V5 product?

All I found for Victoria 5, when selecting it in the dropdown (do NOT use search, that's even worse)  and NOT Genesis, are:
Gemma     Isla     Rayne    Meara    Kostia    Olivia    Lora   Emiko   Edit: Found "Gabi for V5" in my list in the studio, so obviously the figure selection route will not work in the gallery shopping page.) 

And I don't own most of them. So Genesis UVs don't work?  And is there a way to see if some of the Genesis just didn't show up in the store dropdown, that do use Victoria 5?  (A way in the studio? I am NOT going character by character and checking UVs. They (the Victoria 5, and the Genesis)  both say "Base UV" so I am confused) 

@Novica - this may  be a few hours too late, but V5 textures were quite widespread on early G2F characters. I was making a list for myself the other day (same reason: is it worth getting the Caymen V5 for V8 product?) and here are the G2F characters using V5 UVs in my content library:
Bambi for Giselle 6, FW Diana, FW Jennie for Belle 6, FW Joanie, FW Lin, FWSA Gingersnap, FWSA Keshi, FWSA Riva, FWSA Wachiwi, FWSA Xiao Mei, LY Sophie, Taylor for Stephanie 6, also Vengeful Spirit (probably only useful for 3Delight renders) - oh, and Skin Builder Pro for G2F.
In addition a whole bunch of characters uses V5 UVs for the skin with some Base Female UV parts (typically eyes, eyelashes,etc):
FW Ashley, FW Caoimhe, FW Cassie, FW Danika, FW Kyra, FW Merfolk, FW Mirella, FW Naida & Nalin, FW Neomi, FW Nikki, FW Nita, FW Sassafrat, FWF Janna & Janna Little Devil, FWF Mayuree and FWF Sumiko.
(Sorry I haven't put links in, but there are so many I don't really have the time.)
So that's about 30 G2F characters in my content library with complete or mostly V5 UVs, vs about 25 that use G2F Base Female UVs which I haven't listed here.

ETA: ah! I just noticed your later post about Cayman's list of characters by UV set  - I'd forgotten all about that list. Actually mine has a couple of entries not on Cayman's list.

It's been interesting seeing everyone's take on Olympia 8. I'm still on the fence, trying hard not to get into Gen8 as yet, which is not too difficult seeing as my store credit is down to 7 dollars at the moment! And yes I used my PC coupons for July. I have an orange banner (because I did buy into Olympias 6 and 7) which says it lasts till August 7th so maybe next month...

Edit to fix some typos.

Just a quick tip for everyone who has this.  If you have gotten the Olympia 8 pro or Beginners pack the character Sharah comes with SSS maps that can be used with this shader with no alteration, and she comes with her make up baked into the SSS maps too so you don't  have to mess with them either.  Plus they all come in Brow and No Brow options.  So it really is as easy as plugging in her SSS maps into the Translucency Channel and perhaps changing the Specular map for her own to have another skin for this shader with no extra work.  You can use it with the original shader EcVh0 has as well.  This example shows the differences you get with Olympia 8's SSS (Face), Sharah's (Torso) and Victoria 8's SSS maps as well (Legs) with the original shader but the arms show how Shara's work with the pale shader too.  Sorry for the crappy render it was just a viewport proof of concept test that I screen captured to save time.  

Thanks again haha! You are doing all the work for me I don't know how to thank you enough for these!

And three skin on one lady is really creative!  I bet she've been doing some weird poses on the beach to get no tan on her arms, some tan on her legs and lots of tan on her body! 

Or the worlds most disastrous spray tan!  LOL  And just to save you a bit more work here is Sharah SSS maps used with the Pale shader all over with no post work.  Literally the only thing changed is putting the unaltered SSS into the translucency channel and swapping out the specular for her own (which probably doesn't even need to be done, it's just me being pernickety!).  Just goes to show that it's always worth checking to see just what is included in a characters maps.  

Just a quick tip for everyone who has this.  If you have gotten the Olympia 8 pro or Beginners pack the character Sharah comes with SSS maps that can be used with this shader with no alteration, and she comes with her make up baked into the SSS maps too so you don't  have to mess with them either.  Plus they all come in Brow and No Brow options.  So it really is as easy as plugging in her SSS maps into the Translucency Chanel and perhaps changing the Specular map for her own to have another skin for this shader with no extra work.  You can use it with the original shader EcVh0 has as well.  This example shows the differences you get with Olympia 8's SSS (Face), Sharah's (Torso) and Victoria 8's SSS maps as well (Legs) with the original shader but the arms show how Shara's work with the pale shader too.  Sorry for the crappy render it was just a viewport proof of concept test that I screen captured to save time.  

Thanks again haha! You are doing all the work for me I don't know how to thank you enough for these!

And three skin on one lady is really creative!  I bet she've been doing some weird poses on the beach to get no tan on her arms, some tan on her legs and lots of tan on her body! 

With my PC coupon and a small amount of store credit I had, I was able to get the base Olympia 8 for only $8.80 so picked her up. I'm ...not impressed, to say the slightest. 

I did comparison renders. Same lights. Same clothing. Same hair. Same pose. Translucency Medium on both. Stopped both renders early as it was just a test, so there is a lot of grain naturally as they didn't complete. But boy. Olympia 8 looks like Victoria 3 next to Olympia 7. Plus due to the error with the eyebrows, she has two massive black slugs on her face. I'm sitting here deciding whether to return her. I'm fairly convinced I will. The difference is incredible, and not in a good way. 

Click ot see larger image. 

 

 

Hm, if nothing else, that REALLY shows me the differences between G3F and G8F. The latter is better sculpted and more realistic. All last gen has going for it is "pretty" (and that is in the eye of the b). O8 is more realistic, and thus, I much prefer her. 

Some good news for people who have this but aren't sure about changing settings or altering skin maps in Photoshop to get different results.  Olympia 8 and Sharah (who comes in the Olympia 8 Pro and Starter bundles) come with SSS maps that work perfectly with this shader.  All you need to do is after you apply the shader is to swap out the transulucency map that is set automatically with Olympia 8's Sub Surface shader for a darker look and Sharah for a lighter one.  Olympia comes with the same type of layered make up as Victoria 8 does and Sharah even comes with her make up baked into the SSS map.  Both even come with or without brows.  So if you invested in this product the Olympia 8 packs give you more options without having to change anything other than the Translucency map (and perhaps the specular map as well).  Here is a quick render of Sharah (I can't help thinking that it's just Sean Connery calling her Sarah.  LOL) using the original shader and the second picture is a very quick viewport render to show some of the varience the different maps give you.  The Face is Olympia 7, the Torso Sharah and the legs are using Victoria 8's SSS to show that you can even use it as well.  The arms are using Sharah's SSS with EcVh0's pale shader to show that you can even use it with that as well without needing to change anything but the maps!  Give them a try and happy rendering!

Thank you very much for the test!! I was about to do it myself but got stuck up with my first ever simple outfit I'm making - when I put my head up to the clock I was like: "Crap is it 2 am already????"  (And that's why I replied so slow XD)

And Yeah the DAZ3D's original figures has the similar skin shading approach, that's why they actually have to add the makeups onto their Translucency map and that makes them 100% compatible with mine!  Simply plug them in and it will work! (Tho I am kind of surprised that you don't need to change anything to get it work completely haha!)

I'm quite happy people who make characters are adapting towards the new skin shading method! it's so good that you can even do the "ear glowing" effect by putting a plane light behind her ears and vola, realistic shine through the ears 

Thanks, Ildanach! I love BOSS and I really love the Oh My Brows on her. They look much better than the promos do. Your renders have convinced me to get her. 

Ah, these are the kind of renders I was hoping to see. I really like the lighting here on her features. What lighting did you use? She looks really good.

Are those the eyebrows she comes with? Because her eyebrows look pretty bad in some of the promos.  

Quick comparison of Victoria 8 and Olympia 8 head shapes.

 

 

Thanks. I used BOSS lighting set up with HDR dome. It's great for doing portraits etc. I should have some body comparisons soon.

Good point about the eyebrows. Olympia 8 comes with materials for eyebrows, but unfortunately there aren't any eyebrows included with her (unlike with Victoria 8). Not sure if this was an oversight or not. So I used OhMyBrows on her instead.

Quick comparison of Victoria 8 and Olympia 8 head shapes.

That should put to rest the part of the discussion about them looking like sisters. May not clear up the "masculinity" claims, but like someone else said, a bunch of women I know would be horrified to find out they were male...

Right?  lol, honestly, I know more womwn who apparently look masculine by far than I know people who look like perfect supermodels.  Ah well, lets face it, this is not reality lol.

Ah, these are the kind of renders I was hoping to see. I really like the lighting here on her features. What lighting did you use? She looks really good.

Are those the eyebrows she comes with? Because her eyebrows look pretty bad in some of the promos.  

Quick comparison of Victoria 8 and Olympia 8 head shapes.

 

Thanks. I used BOSS lighting set up with HDR dome. It's great for doing portraits etc. I should have some body comparisons soon.

Good point about the eyebrows. Olympia 8 comes with materials for eyebrows, but unfortunately there aren't any eyebrows included with her (unlike with Victoria 8). Not sure if this was an oversight or not. So I used OhMyBrows on her instead.

I am surprised there is no additional discount offered to Victoria 8 Pro Bundle buyers.  Heck, I just bought the 2 nerd bundles yesterday + own Victoria 8 Pro bundle - you woulda thunked they'd offer me a sweeter deal for Olympia 8 - who looks so very much like Victoria 8, just better fed and more fitness conscious, I guess.

There seems to be a discount for O7 and/or O6 owners.

There is?? Hmmm...must be other requirements that I haven't met I guess *shrug*

Laurie

I have a 63% discount on the pro bundle when I put it in the cart. I own both O6 and O7, that must be the trigger for the bigger discount, although I haven't seen any official word about it anywhere.

Ah then, there were other requirements: I didn't buy the pro bundle. LOL. I got what I wanted separately ;).

Laurie

Me too.  The sad thing is, I own probably 90% of both of those bundles AND the add on bundle, probably spent more money on them and I don't get a banner.

Ah, these are the kind of renders I was hoping to see. I really like the lighting here on her features. What lighting did you use? She looks really good.

Are those the eyebrows she comes with? Because her eyebrows look pretty bad in some of the promos.  

Quick comparison of Victoria 8 and Olympia 8 head shapes.

does she come with a separate body shape slider, no scaling applied?

Thanks. !!  

i'm waffling cause vicki8 didn't have a shape only option,

Really? That's generally considered a nono, so I can't imagine DAZ has done that on a main character. Can't you just dial the head to zero?

thanks for answering 

it's the scaling i'm worried about.

for Victoria 8, there is no slider for the shape without her height scaling.
the level of effort to make a separate shape slider on my own, eeks
no wanta to do it again  lol 

Quick comparison of Victoria 8 and Olympia 8 head shapes.

That should put to rest the part of the discussion about them looking like sisters. May not clear up the "masculinity" claims, but like someone else said, a bunch of women I know would be horrified to find out they were male...

Quick comparison of Victoria 8 and Olympia 8 head shapes.

Quite nice