Well most designers use templates for ads and banners to save them time. They are created in advance. They can put all the text in and just shift colors of fonts or whatever when the photos arrive. 

If Victoria 8 really is coming out soon though...some pa's would already have the figure to design content for her probably for sometime now as content development takes a while. So Vicky is likely already out just not released for sale.

True, but due to things like NDAs (Non-Dislcosure Agreements), they can't outright say so; and yes, companies do take violation of them very seriously.

So we skip 4,5,6,7? It makes more sense for Genesis 8 to be the basis for Victoria 8, etc. The previous way was too confusing.

Windows 3.11, Windows NT, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10. Did I miss anyone? 
Just sayin'... it isn't like there isn't some sort of precedent for this in the industry. :D 

 

You missed Windows 95, Windows 98(SE) and Windows XP.

So we skip 4,5,6,7? It makes more sense for Genesis 8 to be the basis for Victoria 8, etc. The previous way was too confusing.

Windows 3.11, Windows NT, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10. Did I miss anyone? 
Just sayin'... it isn't like there isn't some sort of precedent for this in the industry. :D 

.

Several vendors whos G3F girls I like (skin wise) are:

 

https://www.daz3d.com/freja

https://www.daz3d.com/p3design

https://www.daz3d.com/raiya

https://www.daz3d.com/ozichick

Some very cool choices but all 4 of them have a massive library of characters... so imagine that you are brand new to the market and you have a budget under a hundred dollars but you want to make the best choice from all that line up... Which characters do you pick out of that huge line up... It's not like I'm a millionaire who can afford the entire collection... help me choose the best of the best.  What do you say?  Thanks in advance.

https://www.daz3d.com/n-g-s-anagenessis-2-revolution

https://www.daz3d.com/skin-builder-3-for-genesis-3-female-s

https://www.daz3d.com/cailin-for-victoria-7

https://www.daz3d.com/chiyo-for-victoria-7

Characters are great; two of my favourites are here, but I also make my own from scratch, as well as altering ones I have.

Sometimes the best characters aren't the ones with the most detail, but ones with less - they are easier to alter.

Well most designers use templates for ads and banners to save them time. They are created in advance. They can put all the text in and just shift colors of fonts or whatever when the photos arrive. 

If Victoria 8 really is coming out soon though...some pa's would already have the figure to design content for her probably for sometime now as content development takes a while. So Vicky is likely already out just not released for sale.

Edited and rephrased - added some general information about UV maps and some example images:

UV maps are used to assing the U and V coordinates on a map (texture) to the corresponding X, Y, Z coordinates of a 3D Model.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UV_mapping

When you have two different body shapes you use two different UV sets to make sure that on each shape there is no distortion when applying maps created specifically with that UV set.

To view the UV maps in DAZ Studio follow this guide:

http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/artzone/pub/software/multiuvs/muv_viewing

Some examples:

If you have purchased multiple shapes with different UV sets for Genesis 3 female you can toggle between them if needed.

If you have objects without any extreme shape morphs then one UV set is enough:

Different skin maps for all Gen 3 characters is dumb

I  would not call this "dumb". It all depends on what you want to achieve.

Genesis

Do you want to create stylized renders with figures that support morphs and switching maps?

-> That is what you get with Genesis.

As long as the skin details are barely visible on the diffuse map you can use any other displacement, bump or normal map to add the details.

-> one shared UV map for this purpose is enough.

You may get distortions when you use the same UV with extremely different shapes.

- - -

Custom purpose built  UV Maps  for custom,  purpose built Shapes

Standalone figures

IF you are interested in high quality and photorealism

THEN the diffuse map and the corresponding maps that add the details need to match up.

-> It is very important to use a specific UV map for the specific character shape.

-> When you work on characters in Zbrush you add color and geometry detail with the same brush.

-> When you scan humans you create both photorealistic textures and the corresponding detail maps

sort of like this limited use 

The general idea of Genesis is great. You can mix and match shapes and textures as you want.

However, the "Limited use" of standalone figures gives you the possiblity to create higher quality content for a one specific character (shape).

-> Why do clothes and characters in games and movies often look very high quality?

There is no autofit and texture swapping. All content was created for one specific standalone figure or a specific shape with a specific UV set.

- - -

What does this mean for DAZ3D and Genesis?

Instead of only products that are created with autofit in mind it would be very interesting to see also clothing and prop products that are designed specifically for shapes that feature their own UV like Victoria 7.

It does not have to be one or the other. DAZ3D could release both types of products in the store.

- - -

PAs pretty much stopped supporting the alternative UVs

There should be careful consideration which figure shapes should feature specific UV sets.

And then of course there needs to be continued support!

It would be important to properly communicate the intended purpose of the product:

-> versatile characters, maps and clothing intended to be interchangeable with autofit and the basic G3 UV set. (G3F, G3M)

-> characters and clothing intended to be used with one specific shape and UV set. (V7, M7 only)

- - -

Sorry...

In any case, regarding Victoria 8, I'm trying to imagine what they could do to make it significantly better than the Genesis 3 characters. I mean the realistic and detailed body shapes, the incredibly realistic skin materials that are available... Compared to the much older V4 and M4 characters it's a world of difference IMO. 

I suppose it would be nice to have some more expressive facial morphs out of the box, because the available morphs seem pretty limited. Even with some of the commercial morphs I find my self wanting more. 

The other thing I'd love to see is a more functional "Point At" for the head, etc. As far as I can tell you need to build a little custom rig to get the face to point at something. But other than that I'm pretty happy with the G3's. 

Now if they could integrate VWD and Light Manager Pro into Studio I'd be thrilled. Especially VWD, which I love. It would be great if it was fully integrated, and you didn't have to export figures into VWD, you could just click a button in the existing scene and do your sim. 

When it does come out, then I hope they do call it Genesis 8, then at least that is in step with the numbers for Michael and Victoria. It also prevents confusion when someone shortens it to Gen 4, as we would not know if they mean Genesis 4 or Generation 4, where as anyone saying Gen 8, it would be clear what they meant.

Edit: I am also really hoping that there is no DS 5 soon, as that would likely break a lot of plug-ins. I would prefer it if this new stuff Steve mentioned is put in a DS 4.10 which means we get new toys, plus all the old ones work as before. I personally see no reason why a new Genesis release needs DS 5.

We've heard rumours of a new Genesis/Victoria 8 for quite a while now, and little birdies had whispered mid-june, so I'm going with this being legit. It's an interesting marketing strategy - to do a public announcement of the new base, very curious. In the 'old days', they used to post previews of upcoming figures in the PC forum, complete with pictures of products PA's were working on. But if I remember correctly, it was previews of the figure add ons - as in, Aiko, Victoria, Stephanie etc - not so much a brand new base. 

Didn't we get a new version of DS when Genesis 2 and Genesis 3 were released? My money's on a new version of DS when Genesis 8/Victoria 8 is released too. If they've 'upgraded' the base with new tech or something, then they've probably upgraded DS to handle it. 

Well the changes to a figure usually require an update, although nothing major for the last couple as this would require a new SDK; Studio 5 seems to be something they want to avoid.

We've heard rumours of a new Genesis/Victoria 8 for quite a while now, and little birdies had whispered mid-june, so I'm going with this being legit. It's an interesting marketing strategy - to do a public announcement of the new base, very curious. In the 'old days', they used to post previews of upcoming figures in the PC forum, complete with pictures of products PA's were working on. But if I remember correctly, it was previews of the figure add ons - as in, Aiko, Victoria, Stephanie etc - not so much a brand new base. 

Didn't we get a new version of DS when Genesis 2 and Genesis 3 were released? My money's on a new version of DS when Genesis 8/Victoria 8 is released too. If they've 'upgraded' the base with new tech or something, then they've probably upgraded DS to handle it. 

No rumours from Daz; lots of speculation from the forums due to previous releases.

Those posts could be accurate, even if fake. I wonder why, though, why hackers would bother.

...just scanning the first page of the store pretty much all of the PA G3 characters I see are priced (list) at between 18 and 20$ (rounding up the 5¢ to an even dollar amount). Yes for a couple weeks they are 30% off but that still puts thm at between 13 - 15$ each (and PC coupons don't apply to new PA releases).  That may not sound like a lot to some but on my budget it is.  Bundles are usually right out for me as I don't have the funds to drop 60$ to 90$ at one shot (hence the large number of Stonemason items on my wishlist for example) and many also have clothing (skimp and/or fantasy wear) I wouldn't use.

Most of the time when I purchase a single DO figure, it has already passed the new release stage, often goes on sale (Daz seems to do a number of DO based and figure themed sales) and I have my PC coupon to take another 6$ off.  A few were also "luck of the orange banner" (including the V7 Pro bundle which I got at a deep discount during  the PC sale last year - the total order along with 8 PC items coming to just over 15$). 

As to converting skins from older characters, I just am not all that savvy with it.  Even with third party utilities, there is cleanup that needs to be done in PS to eliminate seams and other imperfections which I am just not good at doing.

 

A basic rule of shopping at DAZ that I figured out a long time ago - EVERY item goes on sale for at at least 50% off the "list" price within a few months of passing new release status, while DAZ Originals get an even steeper discount  of at least 65% and often 70% off.  If an item is both a DAZ Original AND a P.A. Product, or produced by two P.A. together, there are also usually stacking discounts.  Therefore, unless you absolutely have to have the item the day it comes out or have a pressing need for it for some reason, like a commercial gig, it's a lot more financially sound to just say "yep, I want that" and make a note to buy it when the price drops.  Because it absolutely will drop, often before you even get a chance to use it.  Zev0 is one of the very few vendors that I automatically buy from on Day 1, as his stuff is usually immediately applicable to just about everything I do.

As for converting skins, if you want to convert to G3F or M, Cayman Studio's legacy UV sets are ridiculously easy to use and provide seamless conversion of everything back through Victoria 3 (he's the other vendor who has automatic Day 1 status for me), while Sickleyield's Beautiful SKins or NGS Anagennesis 2 both make converting the textures to Iray a snap.  

..I have it  Was saving the remainder of a GC for a while time to help with the purchase.  Incredible resource, really expands my ability to work with G3F as I don't have to buy a whole slew of characters to build a library of skins.  Well worth the price when you figure most character content goes for around 20$ a pop.

$20.00?  I don't think I've paid that much for just a character since the days of Victoria 3.  I think I might have paid around $15.00 for one of the DAZ G2 or G3 base figures to qualify for a discount, but usally I'll get a bundle where the price is absorbed by all the other items, or I'll wait for a sale of at least 50% off.  I'd say the top price I usually pay for a vanilla male of female character set (no hair, geografts or LAMH presets) is around $10.00 and the average is closer to $6.00... and even cheaper if you count the V4/M4 characters that I get for a few dollars and convert over.  Mind you, none of that changes the fact that SB3 is still an insanely good deal, especially when you factor in that the tan builder, makeup builder, etc. all work on figures besides the SB3 base skins. 

Several vendors whos G3F girls I like (skin wise) are:

 

https://www.daz3d.com/freja

https://www.daz3d.com/p3design

https://www.daz3d.com/raiya

https://www.daz3d.com/ozichick

Some very cool choices but all 4 of them have a massive library of characters... so imagine that you are brand new to the market and you have a budget under a hundred dollars but you want to make the best choice from all that line up... Which characters do you pick out of that huge line up... It's not like I'm a millionaire who can afford the entire collection... help me choose the best of the best.  What do you say?  Thanks in advance.

Personal favorite from each:

https://www.daz3d.com/millie-for-aiko-7

https://www.daz3d.com/p3d-chandra-hd-for-victoria-7

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

https://www.daz3d.com/isa-for-rune-7

What puzzles me is, why would you send out something like that on a Saturday? And Saturday after 6pm in Utah, at that? Wouldn't you want that announcement to go out when you were actually in the office? And why would you make an announcement like that on Twitter and Facebook and not say anything in the forum? Even with Genesis 3, I remember them putting notices here.

That they're using older images doesn't surprise me; they also did that before. That said, one thing they've done consistently with the Genesis generations is to sneak images of the upcoming Victoria into the promos for items up to a couple of weeks beforehand. But I don't remember seeing any Daz Originals clothing, apart from PC Club stuff, and I don't remember them doing that with PC items before.

The whole thing is just a puzzlement.

well that's interesting. I think the Facebook post has disappeared.......hmmmmmm......wonder if this thread will disappear too. 

Well, as of 7:30pm Mountain time, the tweet is still there.

Probably because of the whole "G3" for Genesis 3 being mistaken for G3 Generation 3 (as in V3, M3 etc).  

So we skip 4,5,6,7? It makes more sense for Genesis 8 to be the basis for Victoria 8, etc. The previous way was too confusing.

We've heard rumours of a new Genesis/Victoria 8 for quite a while now, and little birdies had whispered mid-june, so I'm going with this being legit. It's an interesting marketing strategy - to do a public announcement of the new base, very curious. In the 'old days', they used to post previews of upcoming figures in the PC forum, complete with pictures of products PA's were working on. But if I remember correctly, it was previews of the figure add ons - as in, Aiko, Victoria, Stephanie etc - not so much a brand new base. 

Didn't we get a new version of DS when Genesis 2 and Genesis 3 were released? My money's on a new version of DS when Genesis 8/Victoria 8 is released too. If they've 'upgraded' the base with new tech or something, then they've probably upgraded DS to handle it. 

Well the public beta updates for DAZ Studio 4.9 has picked up again so I'm not surprised if their working on something with DAZ Studio.

We've heard rumours of a new Genesis/Victoria 8 for quite a while now, and little birdies had whispered mid-june, so I'm going with this being legit. It's an interesting marketing strategy - to do a public announcement of the new base, very curious. In the 'old days', they used to post previews of upcoming figures in the PC forum, complete with pictures of products PA's were working on. But if I remember correctly, it was previews of the figure add ons - as in, Aiko, Victoria, Stephanie etc - not so much a brand new base. 

Didn't we get a new version of DS when Genesis 2 and Genesis 3 were released? My money's on a new version of DS when Genesis 8/Victoria 8 is released too. If they've 'upgraded' the base with new tech or something, then they've probably upgraded DS to handle it. 

Saw it on FB too.

I'm guessing the Genesis 8 is to line it up with Victoria 8/Michael 8/etc.  (Never mind this will make the previous versions more confusing for newbies, but oh well)
I'm just wondering if we'll get the male and female figures at the same time, since they're both in the picture, or if we'll be waiting 6+ months again for the G8M.  I highly doubt they're going back to a unified figure (though I can hope.)

Dragon Gear for V4 Converted.  This one converted beautifully, although it sometimes has a bit of stretching on the lower skirt part of the tunic.  I have Sickleyields Clothing Smoothers for Genesis 2 Females and I am hoping that will help, with this one and with some of the other longer dresses as those seem to have the most issues with this particular problem. I just picked up the clothing smoothers yesterday so haven't had a chance to try them yet.

I also wanted to point out that a lot of the older clothing loads with the glossiness set 95% which makes things very very shiny.  Great for metal and glass looks, not so much for most clothing.  So if they look shiny (you can see what I mean if you look at the bottom of her dress) check the glossiness channel and turn it down until it looks like the type of cloth it actually is.

Hi,

I've managed to corrupt the way Daz handles the mesh on G2F which is now my most used figure.  I was trying to create a morph and somehow managed to over-write the base shape that G2F loads with.  I have by zero-ing the figure and saving in a number of ways managed to get it to load the default shape again - however checking the parameters the morphs dials are still set to the figure I was trying to create.  Everytime I now try and apply a morph the face "collapses" - the eye region moves forward a by 1 or 2 on the Z axis, the eyelids become arched, pupils mis-shape and the lacrimals distort.  The lips also mishape and become dis-jointed from the chin region and over-lap+poke through. But it also loads it as a scene, over-writing the camera and backdrop settings rather than loading a figure on it's own.  No other figures are effected, so I've obviously just corrupted the figure not the program and this is pretty impressive user error.

I have tried the following steps to resolve this but have been unsuccessful so far - any suggestions? - (I am guessing that it is corruption in the data folder somewhere but lack of experience in that foler and the size of it leaves my a bit stumped as I can't identify which folder needs deleting/removing):

1.  Removed the Genesis 2 Female folders that I have identified from the data folders in the Connect library, the Daz3D library and as DS had created a data folder under my own subfolder from where I had created some new models and been telling it to save to from there too.

2. Also removed the G2F data folders from and folders in these named as DAZ3D, DAZ or DAZ 3D ...

Those steps have improved it slightly but not fixed it (I moved the folders outside of the DS tree incase they needed putting back, nothing has been deleted yet unless it was labelled as the morph I tried to create).  However all of the morphs I'd previously created still exist in the Morphs root parameter folder of the figure so I'm missing something somewhere ....  One other factor here is that the previous morphs were all done by importing from V4 or G1 to G2F ... this new one was trying to create a G2F shape to a G2F morph so was done differently to all the others.

3. Reinstalled all the Genesis 2 Female packages and Victoria 6 packages ... this has made no difference.

There is one other minor user-created complication ... I can't at present uninstall the figure ... As I never thought I'd be removing it I installed it without letting Windows create an uninstaller to keep the Windows registry smaller (although running the install again would obviously create this - but I'm guessing that as I told it to over-write the existing files and the corruption remains, it is something that is feeding in to it rather than the figure itself).  So where does DS store these settings so that I can delete that folder (or files in it) to stop it?  If I have to uninstall and re-install the figure, what happens to the plug-ins such as Shape? Will they need re-installing or will DAZ simply pick them up from their own data folders? 

Thanks in advance.