I have a character based on Gen2 Cara HD.

Is she compatable with the new Victoria 8?

To be honest, I'm not sure yet. I see pros and cons. TL;DR: I don't think G8 was necessary at this time.
Backwards compatibility:
That one is the most important for me, because I hate to lose my beloved characters. They never migrate 1:1 and I lost quite some because I just could not figure out how to convert flawlessly.
That said:

• Skins with a "Base" UV Map do transfer pretty much perfect - any other UV map, even Victoria, does not.
• Clones do exist for G2/G3 M/F, but they seem to be lacking in terms of options and quality.
• Poses can be edited manualy to work for G8, there is no auto-conversion. Also, while I'm not 100% sure on this, not every converted Pose works out of the box. Shoulders twist and bend may need to be adjusted.
• Expressions don't seem to convert well, if at all.
• Animation: don't know, I expect it to be broken as it has been for G3. Never manage to import a BVH into DAZ and get it to work, whereas they import without problems in any other tool I have (Blender, Unreal Editor, Unity, my own Engine).
• Morphs: I converted some, using various techniques, but there are problems with most of them, especially when you go "extreme" (anything over like 50-60%) or mix them. And be it that clothing does not fit anymore, when I applied a converted FBM morph to bring back one of my G3 characters.

But, all in all, I'm happy that there is way more compatibility for G3->G8 than there has been for G2->G3 (which isn't hard to be honest, because G3 pretty much broke everything) - otherwise I'd be out of this game until G9, for sure.

Muscle flexing:
Looks good most of the time and then it is impressive indeed, but I had some poses where the flexing of the breasts looked pretty awkward. Like one arm behind the head. But then, I don't have boobs, it's hard to verify. :D
Better bending:
I'm not certain yet, but I think there is a problem with the back part of the shoulder->upper arm transition. From the front it looks nice (most of the time), from the back I can often see some very strange bends. which don't look good at all. Not 100% yet if its because of using G3 poses (though I'm sure I saw that at least once on a G8 pose). Time will tell. But I think that is the weak spot of G8 - while the A-Pose seemed to have improved some things, it broke others. That's my personal impression so far. I can provide a screenshot, for those curious, if that helps.
A-Pose:
Causes nothing but troubles for me. Not sure what this was needed for. I actually never saw a tool working with an A-Pose, but what do I know.
Better skin:
That did not require a new generation at all, did it?
Facial expression:
The expression morphs for G8 (non-PA) are all HD now, which is a major step backwards, if you want to export them. Might be that the face rig is now better, but it took me very long to find two good versatile expression packs for G3, very sad that they don't work anymore. The default expressions look very bad on younger characters, like Blaire, but then you can dial in what suits, like in the past. Gotta play around with this in detail.
Render times:
Not sure if it's just me, but render times increased a lot?
Eyes:
Did not have a close look at them yet, but I read the geometry has been simplified. While on hand it is good - setting up the materials and render order for the various eye parts never has been easy (outside DAZ) - I fear it will make the eyes more dead. All geometry that existed for G3 has been there for a reason - it replicated the layers of a real human eye. Combining parts inevitably means that it is not a replica of a real eye anymore, so it is very possible that the eyes look more dead now in detail. But I did not get to create a close-up render yet.
I find it difficult too, that the EyeMoisture is now part of the Eyelashes.
Eyelashes:
Cause me problems for Characters I applied G3 morphs on, which "shrink" the character - the Eyebrows are out of place then and there seems no way to correct their offset in an easy way, like "move 30cm down". But in general they're a good idea.
After all, I don't think G8 was really necessary. The improvements are mostly subtle in my eyes, and, if my observations are correct, sometimes even worse in comparison to G3.
It will cost dozends of hours (it already did and that's just the beginning), probably hundreds of bucks, to convert the old stuff, whereas most of these tools could and should have been integrated into DAZ. Like auto convert a pose from T to A pose - was it really that difficult?
Gotta see some more variation in characters and make some more tests ( was too busy trying to convert stuff ) to make my final judgement.

Thank you so much! I will make a character for Victoria 8 in the near future : )

As for the lights, i can't make a commercial pack because sometimes i use HDRs from this site http://www.hdrlabs.com/sibl/archive.html ( i really like the HS Gold Room/Mt-Washington-Gold-Room_Ref.hdr) other times i use DimensionTheory HDR lights.

Isabelle

That would be great - keep us posted!  A Lydia 8 would be fantastic and I'd probably get anything else you made.

I have just one question. Ok, so model generation 8 it is then but.... why it is also being called Genesis 8 because if I count it right Genesis generation is at 3rd generation. So next Genesis should be 4, right? Is Daz following Msoft's footprints with marketing? ( in case you don't know msoft jumped from win 8 to win 10, without never bringing out win 9. ) This makes it confusing to keep track of anykind really.

People were talking about Victoria4, Michael4, Kids4 as the Generation 4 or in short Gen4

You may see where discussions would end if DAZ named the 4th generation of Genesis "Genesis 4" or in short Gen4 .....

So it is Genesis 8 and Victoria 8 now.

@divamakeup - thanks for posting the pics.  You have done a great job.  Very quick turnaround considering how recently the new figure came out. 

@Ukuotus - the numbering was going to be confusing to some people no matter what.  In the past, Genesis 1 with Victoria 5 followed the fourth generation figures, which included Victoria 4.  Given that history, Daz had the choice of (a) confusing people with a "fourth generation figure" that included Victoria 8 at the same time that a "fourth generation figure" included Victoria 4, or (b) confusing people by issuing a genesis 8 with Victoria 8 without ever having issued genesis 5, 6, or 7.    Because Victoria 5 accompanied Genesis 1, the issue became a pick-your-poison choice.  By choosing to skip Genesis 5, 6, and 7 in order to match Genesis numbering with Victoria numbering, at least Genesis 9, 10, 11 can be accompanied by Victoria 9, 10, and 11 going forward.  Not perfect, but no perfect choice was available.

Thank you so much! I will make a character for Victoria 8 in the near future : )

As for the lights, i can't make a commercial pack because sometimes i use HDRs from this site http://www.hdrlabs.com/sibl/archive.html ( i really like the HS Gold Room/Mt-Washington-Gold-Room_Ref.hdr) other times i use DimensionTheory HDR lights.

Isabelle

Sorry for the bump, but I had the same problem with an update of V7.

Try checking if Victoria 7 file in installation files isn't set to read only. Mine was, and it was preventing the install manager from deleting the older file to replace it with the new one (found this downloading the file outside of install manager and saving it in the install manager folder itself).

Ach, für Vicky8 haben sie einen Schritt in die richtige Richtung getan?
Bei der G8F hat mich gerade das häßliche rot mit (dunkel)grauer SSS-Map noch zu einer herben Kritik in einem anderen Thread veranlaßt.
Vor allem bei der Angeberei auf dieser Seite: all about gen 8 here https://www.daz3d.com/genesis8

Nein... ich schrieb: "Bei DAZ scheint man auf dem richtigen Weg zu sein." Sprich, sich mehr und mehr gemessener Werte zu bedienen, anstatt "über den Daumen zu peilen". Abgesehen von den 10-fach überhöhten Absorptionskoeffizienten für den grünen und blauen Wellenlängenbereich (12,8 / 18,3 gegenüber 1,26 / 1,86) liegt der beim roten ziemlich nah (0,42 gegenüber 0,48). Ein Rechenfehler?

Für die von DAZ verwendeten Measurement Distance von 0.125 bzw. 0.015 sähen die Farbwerte für gemessene Koeffizienten allerdings eher so aus wie bei dem angehängten "Measured_SSS" Bild.

Der Wert von Specular Lobe 1 Roughness bei dem für Victoria 8 verwendeten Dual Lobe Specular Layer anstelle eines Base/Glossy und Top Coat Layers beträgt 0.547723, der Quadratwurzel von 0.30. Lustigerweise exakt der Wert, den ich schon seit langem für Glossy Roughness empfehle.

Dass Genesis 8 weiterhin DAZ "Standardlösung" verwendet, wird wohl daran liegen, dass der auch mit den Vorgängerversionen von DAZ Studio kompatibel sein soll, da diese über den Dual Lobe Specular Layer und "Chromatic" SSS ja nicht verfügen. Da wird der Werbetexter wohl fälschlicherweise Victoria 8 mit Genesis 8 verwechselt/gleichgesetzt haben.

She's not exactly a looker, eh?

Also, can someone explain in simple terms what's the appeal of the new G8/V8 generation? As far as I can tell it's just the same as G3?

She can look like anything you want. I just brought over 35+ of my favorite morphs from G3F, including Toon Generations, Legacy Shapes for G3F (the main G2Fs) and various characters (Lilith 7, Olympia 7, V7, etc.) I also brought over Xameva's fantasy shapes from Renderosity (the elf and dwarf ones), which look really good. The ears dial in right on those.

Will be posting test renders of things as I can. If someone wants to see what a particular character looks like on G8 or mixed with V8, let me know. If I have it, I'll move it over and render it. You can also use Redz method to move over items you've ported in to G3 from GenX2 or created with FaceGen. I'm not even sure you need any body or head morphs for these, the morphs are ported over via Morph Loader Pro and dialed straight in. (But I have those packs installed, so I can't verify that.)

The posing and facial rigging are huge steps forward in realism. The autofits work pretty decently. Sometimes Studio has to think a bit if you load entire outfits with lots of items. I'd recommend doing those one piece at a time. Being able to use the skins from G3F is a huge advantage. I managed to get a G3M skin on G8 as well, though there are a few seams. Haven't tried tranferring any G3M morphs over yet. Did try the Centaur for kicks and it didn't work, but I didn't expect it to. Might have to make a V8 centaur the way people were making V7 ones before the female centaur came out. 

The possibiities with G8 are pretty endless and you don't have to spend much or anything to enjoy the benefits, just a little time and patience.

Can you test Gwinneli

https://www.daz3d.com/gwennili-hd-for-victoria-7

I transfered Gwennili to G8F via Redz morph transfer tutorial. She loses her HD morphs but one can almost make up for it by bumping up her Normal maps and her Bump maps to 2. Still, it's sad to lose here lovely HD details. Here is Gwennili transfered to G8F (with my own skin shader settings):

She still has a lot of detail due to me increasing her Normal maps and Bump maps to 2. But it would be nice to be able to have the HD parts as well. 

It feels petty complaining about long rendering times, with all the disasters (be they natural or man made) happening all the time out in the world. Just this night London had another vehicle run into a crowd of people.

But, here's me complaining about long render times. My first G8F render finally finished after 2 days 17 hours. Or, it actually didn't finish. I cancelled the rendering at a bit over 95% converged, deeming it good enough. So here she is. FW Rebekah, that I don't think anyone showed here yet, wearing the Sci-Fi Samurai outfit and Perrin Hair. Also used, is SY's Fast Fog Iray and (of course) Khory's Scintillant Portrait Lights

I'm not going to point out the hair going into the shoulder, in hopes no one will notice that. 2 days 17 hours that definitely could have been spent on something better. Oh well, at least I'm alive.

Non l'ho ancora visto, ho il cofanetto ma non il tempo!
Comunque non stupirti troppo, hanno usato DAZ Studio per fare Thor e anche Iron Man...
E continuando l'OT, se qualcuno ha visto Pulp Fiction capirà molto sulla nuova promozione di Victoria...

Is there a reason why Victoria 8's eyebrows are not visible when running the editor in Texture Shaded preview mode? The only way to see it is in NVIDIA Iray preview or doing an actual render. Not that its a critical issue but it would sure be nice to see the eyebrows.

It's a function of the shader. I don't know exactly why, but anything in the Diffuse Overlay channel won't show except in iray preview or a render. For V8 this includes her painted eyebrows and makeup options. The eyebrows that you load in are fibermesh ones that you can use instead of the painted ones, which is why she has 2 options for each of her makeup styles-- one with and one without painted eyebrows.

I dont know if its just me...but any way.

 So finally the newst edition to the Genesis family was aded...Victoria 8. ( i was waiting with anticipation for a long time btw)

When i first saw her at the Daz store at first i thaught that she was just another character for Victoria 7 (Gen. 3)...but no wait...its really a whole new Victoria 8!...

And now follow my thaughts and first impressions...to be perfectly honest i was expecting after all these years that the newest additon to the Genesis family would be an incredibly realistic new character, almost to the point where you would have to ask yourself if it was really a 3d model or a real person!...but in all honesty that was far from the impression that i got when i saw Victoria 8.  I mean...one would assume that after all these years and the different versions of Victoria since the very beginning up to the present day...that the latest Victoria would look so incredibly realistic that it would be literally jaw dropping...again, not the feeling i get with Victoria 8.  When Victoria 7 first came out...i did have that WOW feeling...i was impressed at the improvement over previous versions (Victoria 4, Gen.2, Gen.3)

But with Victoria 8 i dont have that WOW feeling (at least not from what i have seen so far...it still remains to be seen what content creators will do...because after all, V8 is till a base figure...but like i said...i was, and still am impressed with even V7 base figure!)

I would love to hear different opinions about this:

Let me know your thaughts and first impressions...was i wrong to expect a real novelty?...and incredibly realistic almost photorealistic 3d figure?...i mean is Daz3d not far enaugh in the game to be able to produce such a 3d figure by now?...i feel like Daz is going steps behind instead of forward.

Any way...those are my thaughts...any one feel free to correct me.

Have a nice day.

Thank you @nonesuch00 and @Havos ... you have given me some information to consider. I know G8 is free but I was wavering about committing to the morphs, etc., so I just wanted some impressions from those who have already used the new figure. 

So it kind of boils down to natural looking bends, muscles and expressions - all welcome but I need to decide whether they are worth trying to adapt my G3F characters/clothing, etc. If I follow my usual habits I'll probably pick up all the morphs and Zev0 Add-ons gradually over a long time. To jump to the defence of the dissenters - this is the reason people feel frustrated: it takes a long time (if you have restricted funds) to build up a decent catalogue of content for any particular figure and, just when you feel you are getting there - Bang - there's a new kid on the block. Not that I would want to deny those who want the latest and greatest - I'm just questioning whether it is worthwhile for me to jump in early for a change.

I recommend playing around with the base G8F figure and seeing how you like her before deciding. I've not purchased a thing yet for G8F (though am definitely going to be getting Victoria 8) and have managed to create a few lovely characters with Redz's G3F to G8F morph tutorial. At least I think they're lovely:

 

 

 

...  So far I'm more than happy with the figure and am looking forward to purchasing some G8F content - particularly V8 and some other recently released goodies! :)

I have to say that I actually like the look of G8. She seems more natural to me than the glamour models of the past. I will experiment but, from what I've read, the backwards compatibility only works to a point. Then I would have to start with morph transfers and pose adjustments, etc., in order to use my stock of content for G2/G3. I'm not really concerned about V8 if I can get some of my favourites transferred - Cridwen, Gwenelli and Georgia being some of those favourites. I also dial-in a lot of older characters using Zev0's aging morphs and I'm not sure they will transfer, being mostly HD.

You an use your G3F poses - you just need this: http://www.sharecg.com/v/88560/browse/21/DAZ-Studio/G3F-G8F-pose-adjust-scripts-Legs-Arms-and-Full

I did manage to transfer Gwenelli via Redz morph transfer tutorial:

I miss her HD bits. But I managed to get around that sort of by bumping up her Normal maps and Bump maps to 2.

It's still a little bit of work to transfer morphs though, so I understand if you wouldn't want to jump on the G8F train yet. :)

Thank you @nonesuch00 and @Havos ... you have given me some information to consider. I know G8 is free but I was wavering about committing to the morphs, etc., so I just wanted some impressions from those who have already used the new figure. 

So it kind of boils down to natural looking bends, muscles and expressions - all welcome but I need to decide whether they are worth trying to adapt my G3F characters/clothing, etc. If I follow my usual habits I'll probably pick up all the morphs and Zev0 Add-ons gradually over a long time. To jump to the defence of the dissenters - this is the reason people feel frustrated: it takes a long time (if you have restricted funds) to build up a decent catalogue of content for any particular figure and, just when you feel you are getting there - Bang - there's a new kid on the block. Not that I would want to deny those who want the latest and greatest - I'm just questioning whether it is worthwhile for me to jump in early for a change.

I recommend playing around with the base G8F figure and seeing how you like her before deciding. I've not purchased a thing yet for G8F (though am definitely going to be getting Victoria 8) and have managed to create a few lovely characters with Redz's G3F to G8F morph tutorial. At least I think they're lovely:

 

 

 

...  So far I'm more than happy with the figure and am looking forward to purchasing some G8F content - particularly V8 and some other recently released goodies! :)

I have to say that I actually like the look of G8. She seems more natural to me than the glamour models of the past. I will experiment but, from what I've read, the backwards compatibility only works to a point. Then I would have to start with morph transfers and pose adjustments, etc., in order to use my stock of content for G2/G3. I'm not really concerned about V8 if I can get some of my favourites transferred - Cridwen, Gwenelli and Georgia being some of those favourites. I also dial-in a lot of older characters using Zev0's aging morphs and I'm not sure they will transfer, being mostly HD.

We are in the process of converting all our original Genesis 3 morph resource kits to Genesis 8, including the hard to transfer bits like the eyes and lashes  These work on Genesis 8 directly and are set up in separate folders in the same way as the G3 versions. The original Genesis 3 versions were merchant resources for Genesis 3 only, but we will be offering the Genesis 8 versions soon in the store as merchant resources with major discounts for those who already have the Genesis 3 versions.

Beauty mate @Thorne! Please make it an escalating discount where the percentage is multiplied the more you have (like the V8 orange banner Victoria Pro Bundle escalating discounts). I own ALL of your morph kits for G3F & M, and I do not relish the prospect of repurchasing them, even at a percentage.

I'll talk to marketing, sounds like a good idea :)

Yes! That would be amazing! I own all your morphs for every character! 

Thank you @nonesuch00 and @Havos ... you have given me some information to consider. I know G8 is free but I was wavering about committing to the morphs, etc., so I just wanted some impressions from those who have already used the new figure. 

So it kind of boils down to natural looking bends, muscles and expressions - all welcome but I need to decide whether they are worth trying to adapt my G3F characters/clothing, etc. If I follow my usual habits I'll probably pick up all the morphs and Zev0 Add-ons gradually over a long time. To jump to the defence of the dissenters - this is the reason people feel frustrated: it takes a long time (if you have restricted funds) to build up a decent catalogue of content for any particular figure and, just when you feel you are getting there - Bang - there's a new kid on the block. Not that I would want to deny those who want the latest and greatest - I'm just questioning whether it is worthwhile for me to jump in early for a change.

I recommend playing around with the base G8F figure and seeing how you like her before deciding. I've not purchased a thing yet for G8F (though am definitely going to be getting Victoria 8) and have managed to create a few lovely characters with Redz's G3F to G8F morph tutorial. At least I think they're lovely:

I recommend playing around with G8F first and seeing how you like it. So far I'm more than happy with the figure and am looking forward to purchasing some G8F content - particularly V8 and some other recently released goodies! :)

If you want to learn how to make figures in DAZ Studio grab the latest free one - Genesis 8 Female. Then read docs about DSON file format and look into .DSF files in /data/DAZ 3D/Genesis 8/ - they're rather easy to understand. I would not recomment to start from V8 `cause she will add more dependencies and confusion to figure structure. Then make FBM for your girl in say Hexagon, import it via Morph Loader, adjust bone positions, make custom corrective JCMs etc :)

But if you just want to make a character, then simply look in the store for Genesis 3 girls, find the most fitting one and start from her :)

Hello!
Sorry to asking, but Like Klendathu,
I'm also interested to know how creating a new G8 figure (I waited a new figure to start of, because starting on a old figure would be a non-sense for evolution purpose!).
I have Hexagon. But it's not possible to use Blender instead (if yes, how? A great tutorial to learn of?) ?
I have already purchased (before reading that forum post): Victoria 8, Genesis 8 Female Body Morphs, Genesis 8 Female Head Morphs.
Can you explain what mean: FBM ?
Can you explain what mean: JCM ?
Can you explain where is: Morph Loader
Can you explain where I can find a valid recent documentations on DSON manipulation (and which software using for create DSON files?)
** I already made this at ShareCG (it was a test in Hexagon, but it's a bit a parkour as it's unstable on Windows 10 !): https://www.sharecg.com/v/85978/view/21/DAZ-Studio/ChrisKBS-MoonBlade-prop-weapon
Can you explain how adjusts bones (I want know... you mean in DAZStudio or in Hexagon/Blender?)
For all theses 5 points did you have a solid recent tutorial for EXTREME beginners (or at least for BEGINNERS?)
THANKS A LOT FOR ALL ANSWERS !
EDIT: fixed mispelling

I've been busy but I did have a chance to play with the new Victoria 8.  I really like her.  Here is my first render using her with Voss Hair and Lingerie Robe Set.  I didn't do any messing around with the settings so this is a straight up render with just a little bit of post in Gimp.  I love her hand and feet and how detailed the neck area is.  I think whoever modeled her did a stellar job.  I played around with the new template for the expressions in Power Pose and I have to say that I like how it works.  It did a great job and this is the best expression I've ever managed to get on my own.  The rigging on her face is fantastic.

Vicky 8

So here is my first real render with a g8 figure, its https://www.daz3d.com/fwsa-elizabeth-hd-for-victoria-8, and I used the Epic godrays from ThePhilosopher https://www.daz3d.com/epic-props-godrays-volumetric-light-for-iray here which are ... pretty close to a guarantee for an epic render, so very awesome!

Amazing.

Are those weapons in her hands?