I was just working with Mal3Imagery's Two-Piece Business Suit, and I felt so grateful that he persevered until he got this versatile, much-needed essential to us. Then I thought about the complementary Gentleman Suit that was released shortly thereafter by debut vendor Jason Fang, and I could see that the Genesis 8 line---along with being able to autofit & Fit Control (Thanks Zev0 for making our lives better!) Generation 3 (Thanks Shay), 4, Genesis 1-3 items---is almost comprehensive in its scope.

All of the character types that are available, the smorgasbord of Core Figures from both versions, and the abundant variety of morph packs bring Genesis 8 far beyond the hopes I had for it 5 years ago when we were making threads about what we needed. Just about everything I needed to make stories visible is available for Genesis 8.

And I wanted to say congratulations for a job well done, and THANK YOU ALL for your dedication and hard work! Thanks.

I'm sure when Genesis 9 is released there will be mortal-priced, non merchnat resource versions of the packs - though I am not sure if they ar the exact equivalent of the standard haad/body morph packs.

The problem is to do with the internal asset ID that you find in every single DSF file, that ID has to be unique to the figure and not just to one content maker, but to the whole ****in' world, no body else can use it for the same base figure.

"FBM_Bejaymac_G8F_Samay_001"

^^^^^ That is the sort of naming convention I'd like to see adopted by everybody for G9, and that has to be done in Morph Loader, can be done with the OBJ if you are making an all in one full figure morph.

AllenArt said:

MAC-X said:

I'm in love with the male character they are mainly using in the Zenty Cool Hairstyle promos. Does anyone know what the chacters name is and if he's available here? Thanks!

It's a custom morph of the PA who made the hair and isn't available.

I was figuring as much cause I  thought maybe possibly used metamixer or something. Maybe they will release him at some point. Thanks for the info.

Yes, you don't transfer from bones to shapekeys, but from morphs (driving bones) to shapekeys. This works fine but there are a lot of tracks to copy and paste by hand, one for every shapekey.

update. The new commit by Thomas can trasfer mimic, facecap and livelink facial animations to shapekeys and load them to custom rigs, so you can use any commercial rig not only mhx/rigify.

The option provided by Diffeomorphic to transfer face rig controls to shape keys is very useful, it's essential to make interactive expressions for G8 characters in Unreal games.

It would be desirable to transfer pre made facial rig based animations to pure shape key animations, if for some reason the G8 skeleton needs to be replaced.

I like to keep G8 original deform bones in game and retarget other animations including those made with AutoRig to original G8 deform bones, and bake the facial animations before importing to UE5. These animations can be used as animation layers for different bone groups in UE5.

1. load the daz animation on the genesis figure
2. convert morphs to shape keys
3. cut and paste the timeline from the morphs to the shapekeys
4. delete or disable the original rig

Transferring rig animations to shape key animations would be very complex if possible, and doubt that transferring keyframes from bone channels to shape key channels would be enough to transfer different types of animations. Baking animations should work for shape keys but the purpose is to keep the keyframes.

Found that you already test this on Bitbucket, so transferring tracks actually works and that it's possible to be automated.

WendyLuvsCatz said:

UnifiedBrain said:

Wendy, thanks for the response.  Since I have never used Zbrush, I don't know what I don't know.  It would be "logical" to assume that the plugin has features which allow a more complete transfer of infermation between the two programs - more than a simple OBJ import/export.

Is that incorrect?

For sure, it is a challenge to find someone who actually uses the plugin.

well the DAZ studio one is worse than an obj as it loses the UV mapping especially UDIM

No, but it does lose all grouping which makes it harder to work with (you essentially need to regroup in Zbrush - there is a one-click tool but that will give each UV island its own surface group, so each nail and tooth for example, which can be undesirable)

I don't have the Carrara one so cannot speak for that

it might have more funtionality but since the D|S one doesn't that did not encourage me to spend money finding out

UnifiedBrain said:

Wendy, thanks for the response.  Since I have never used Zbrush, I don't know what I don't know.  It would be "logical" to assume that the plugin has features which allow a more complete transfer of infermation between the two programs - more than a simple OBJ import/export.

Is that incorrect?

For sure, it is a challenge to find someone who actually uses the plugin.

well the DAZ studio one is worse than an obj as it loses the UV mapping especially UDIM

I don't have the Carrara one so cannot speak for that

it might have more funtionality but since the D|S one doesn't that did not encourage me to spend money finding out

I think he's going to probably work best with his own head HD and almost anyone else's body HD. (Well ... Maybe not, say, Wolfgang's HD. But you know what I mean.)

I'm mildly surprised that nobody thought that with a character that's relatively muscular, his HD wouldn't need some additional definition and veins in his body.

Anyway, I tried him with his own head's HD, Torment's body HD, and pretty much everybody's veins HD -- Brute, Torment, Dain, Juan Carlos, Kwan. Might be just a touch of overkill, but otherwise, Torment's body HD seems to work OK for him. The trick is going to be that his normals don't support whichever HD is being used, and I don't know that using his head normals and someone else's body normals (never mind everybody else's body normals) will necessarily work as well. You'd also need to do a map transfer to get the 8.0 normals to work properly.

barbult said:

paulawp (marahzen) said:

This is probably the best of my "US-stuff through the window" renders. This one uses USC/USXT. I've been dabbling with Daz for a little over a year now, and was lucky enough that I could grant myself the luxury of getting my art computer (with a 3060 and 32GB RAM) a few weeks into learning.

That is a super render!!!!

Aw, thanks! That one was from a couple of months ago when the Western Trains first came out. I had it in my gallery, but I don't think I posted it anywhere on the USC/USXT threads. I humbly think it was the best of my USC/USXT "Sun-Sky on the outside"/Indoor lighting hybrids, and - although off-topic here - also one of my best Face Transfer characters

Wendy, thanks for the response.  Since I have never used Zbrush, I don't know what I don't know.  It would be "logical" to assume that the plugin has features which allow a more complete transfer of infermation between the two programs - more than a simple OBJ import/export.

Is that incorrect?

For sure, it is a challenge to find someone who actually uses the plugin.

I watched the announcement video.  Some of the major points include -

- base mesh has roughly twice as many polygons, which is good for detailed morphers, less good when LoRenzo and LoRetta are fine

- texture maps are increasing in size, up to 8.  Again, great for people looking for extreme detail, not so great for hardware constrained

- for textures, if less detail is fine, then ways to reduce resolution of image while keeping overall map

- base skeleton change includes more spine bones so backward compatibility requires extra steps - am sure script converter for sale soon

- return to Genesis 1 unigender base mesh, with a derived male and female mesh.  Modeling to the unigender mesh as a dummy probably won't get very satisfying results for either gender, so creators expect to brush up on substituting OBJs in the full body morph data list.

- no mention of Carrara during the announcement, of course.

Leana said:

nonesuch00 said:

For the giant $50 extra on the Victoria 9 Pro Bundle I would totally expect the typical introductory Genesis 9 Female Head Morphs, Genesis 9 Female Body Morphs, and Genesis 9 Female Expressions to be included in that Victoria 9 HD Pro Bundle. 

The base morph packs have not been part of the Victoria and Michael bundles since Genesis 1, so I highly doubt it.

Their perogative as they have the sales data. I'm not paying $50 extra unless the others items are extremely excellent and not so typical. So then I buy the base figure and wait for a bundle that has items I like if it's not to my liking.

nonesuch00 said:

For the giant $50 extra on the Victoria 9 Pro Bundle I would totally expect the typical introductory Genesis 9 Female Head Morphs, Genesis 9 Female Body Morphs, and Genesis 9 Female Expressions to be included in that Victoria 9 HD Pro Bundle. 

The base morph packs have not been part of the Victoria and Michael bundles since Genesis 1, so I highly doubt it.

PerttiA said:

If you have updated the PowerPose templates, you need to remove the dummy files that are installed with Genesis 8 Starter Essentials to get the same functionality in PowerPose for G8.1 as you have for the G8

Making the G8 base expressions (and any expressions that are using them) work on G8.1 requires removing dummy/placeholder expressions that are installed to G8.1 morph folders - These dummy/placeholder expression files have no other function than to prevent the base G8 expressions from loading. 

The dummy/placeholder files are located in;

...\Data\DAZ 3D\Genesis 8\Female 8_1\Morphs\Daz 3D\Base Pose Head\ (255 files, can be more if you have additional DAZ expression packs)
...\Data\DAZ 3D\Genesis 8\Female 8_1\Morphs\Daz 3D\Expressions\ (24 files, can be more if you have additional DAZ expression packs)
...\Data\DAZ 3D\Genesis 8\Male 8_1\Morphs\Daz 3D\Base Pose Head\ (255 files, can be more if you have additional DAZ expression packs)
...\Data\DAZ 3D\Genesis 8\Male 8_1\Morphs\Daz 3D\Expressions\ (24 files, can be more if you have additional DAZ expression packs)

Please make sure you are removing the files from G8.1 morph folders and not G8 morph folders.

Note 1; If you are logging in to DS and letting DAZ Connect (within DS) to install/update your content, you may have these also in an other location that has "\Data\Cloud\" in it's path
Note 2; Do not remove any files from "FACS" or "FACSExpressions" folders

You are my savior!
I wish you happiness and wealth!
Thank you

mogaremolby said:

Artini said:

nonesuch00 said:

I'm looking forward to this Victoria 9 & company. The expressions are so extremely improved and the way fat looks too.

Yes, I am looking forward to Victoria 9 and Genesis 9 items, too.

I like expressions a lot, especially animated.

It is a pity, that Daz is not willing to reveal a details of the V9 bundle.

I also wonder, how and if Victoria 9 will transfer to Unity using Daz to Unity bridge.

Anyhow, great work on this new generation of the figures - well done.

 

You mean unreal engine? Daz3d figures since G2 have always work will with unity even without A bridge. True you had to put some work in to fix it. But their were tiny problem. And usually take a minute or two to fix baby less. but unreal engine was a complete nightmare to bring a Genesis figure into unreal. Even with the Unreal bridge it still a pain.

Yes, I hope that it will happen, because I use mostly Unity besides Daz Studio.

I have seen a similar quality and animated smiling character in Unity store, that costs over $200.

With Genesis 9 in Unity, I hope to have a similar quality characters to work with.

MAC-X said:

I'm in love with the male character they are mainly using in the Zenty Cool Hairstyle promos. Does anyone know what the chacters name is and if he's available here? Thanks!

It's a custom morph of the PA who made the hair and isn't available.

catmaster said:

Oversimplifying = Uglification. There are already unisex mannequins and lots of free base models available online, without detailed customization support and the differences between opposite sexes, those models would not be attractive and have no advantages over other competitors. Evolution of species has favoured opposite sexes over unisex, that's something worth learning from the nature mechanisms.

This is a fundamentally invalid argument on multiple levels. 3D models are not subject to the laws of nature, and those mechanisms are only useful when they apply. You can use a single slider to make default G8F look indistinguishable from default G8M, same with previous generations; the original Genesis was unisex, and do you think that Victoria 5 doesn't look like a woman and Michael 5 like a man? 

A base figure is exactly that: a BASE upon which to build morphs, and G9 was made to facilitate morph creation. G9 DOES have detailed customization support. If default G9 isn't attractive to you, there's nothing stopping you from making it look exactly the way you want it to, and in fact it would be easier to do with G9 than previous generations.

Even making Daz to paid software would be far better than pushing such unexciting G9 for quick money, if Daz really needs more money there are always options to switch to subscriptions for more professional features, as ditching G8 for G9 would be technically moving backwards and become less attractive to MetaHuman or other alternatives, unless G9 comes with more exciting features which I haven't found from the disclosure.

Why do you keep assuming that Daz is only releasing G9 to make money? You have your own reasons for wanting to stay with G8? Go ahead and do that, but you not wanting G9 doesn't invalidate the advances that G9 offers. What are you basing the latter part of that quote on? How is it "moving backwards"? Why would G9 be "less attractive to MetaHuman"?

G8 system still has lots of potential and needs improvements. The current official bridges can't even handle geografts, and consider integrating this feature that'd be much desired for Unreal users: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/590086/showcase-bringing-daz-figures-to-life-in-ue5#latest

Moving from G8 to G9 does not implicate anything about the bridges, and ironically, geografts are one of the big benefits of a unisex mesh because now you'll be able to put any geograft on any figure.

catmaster said:

Oversimplifying = Uglification. There are already unisex mannequins and lots of free base models available online, without detailed customization support and the differences between opposite sexes, those models would not be attractive and have no advantages over other competitors. Evolution of species has favoured opposite sexes over unisex, that's something worth learning from the nature mechanisms.

There's another reason I prefer improving the G8 system rather than switching to G9 system, because I've invested a lot into the G8 ecosystem, custom morphs, geografts, face generating plugins, 3D body scan plugins, material generating plugins, rigging plugins, lots of very useful plugins from Zev0, and those bridges for other software which support G8 / G8.1. Because of the ecosystem Genesis 8 characters have grown to be widely used beyond image rendering purpose.

Even making Daz to paid software would be far better than pushing such unexciting G9 for quick money, if Daz really needs more money there are always options to switch to subscriptions for more professional features, as ditching G8 for G9 would be technically moving backwards and become less attractive to MetaHuman or other alternatives, unless G9 comes with more exciting features which I haven't found from the disclosure.

G8 system still has lots of potential and needs improvements. The current official bridges can't even handle geografts, and consider integrating this feature that'd be much desired for Unreal users: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/590086/showcase-bringing-daz-figures-to-life-in-ue5#latest

I feel as though you misunderstood what I said. As in "oversimplification" was what I did to the technical explanation, and has exactly nothing to do with the coming figure.
Further, it's fairly trivial to say that your statements about unisex meshes are not true. PIXAR developed that kind of tech years ago. They put out a scientific paper on it.
As for the bridges: That's a different thing altogether. As in, it's a thing they give away for free. Daz has long been known for putting the money maker first, all the time, every time. There are other tools that can do those kinds of things, easily. Professional tools. Daz already has a nice niche user base of hobbyists. The changes to G9 seem to be about INDUSTRY standards. And the industry doesn't need the bridges. I'm NOT a pro, and I don't really need the bridges. I know how my tools work. Even in light of the limits in the bridge, I wouldn't have issues with the geograft thing. If I were attempting to port G8 to Unreal, it wouldn't be a problem. What they don't already automate, I could write a script to handle, most likely. I'm pretty sure pros who actually know programming and the like wouldn't have a problem.
I need to underline, here, that you are comparing what the industry does now to Genesis, an 11 year old product. How old is that in Computer? Windows XP was the world dominant OS. It was only that year that Windows 7 took the crown. Top GPUs had a massive 1.5ish GB of VRAM. No one would believe you if you told them what was going to happen starting in about December of 2018. I hadn't turned 40, yet. 11 years is a looooooong time in computer tech.
Also: Most game devs don't need the whole model, all naked and stuff. They use clothing. The stuff under gets deleted. I'm not saying that there aren't... er, use cases... out there. But geografts aren't really an industry issue with most of the seams being hidden and all.
My point in all of this is not to "win." I'm just making a point about how things actually are. Art is art. Tools are tools. V4 is still huge, and that's great for art. If you want to make games on G8, it's not gonna be an issue (if you're willing to learn how to use all the tools). Gaming PC speed will make up for much of the losses. G9 is going to be better suited to the bleeding edge, where superior performance is a must have, not the indie scene. Of course, it shouldn't be harder to use for indie devs, but it won't break games if they skip it.
You not buying in isn't going to break Daz. Everyone always announces they aren't getting on the change wagon with each new generation. Then all the cool stuff is on the new figures and people get over it. So I'm not trying sell to you. I'm just trying to be informative. If I just had an opinion, I'd say nothing, and just watch the drama. But the idea that the geometry is the bottom line has been dead for a long time. Daz's own Multiresolution tech demonstrates that. Genesis 3 showed that by having a lower poly count. If the new mesh is a technical failure it will because Daz dropped the ball, not the concept. I might offer any number of complaints about how they do technical things over there, but I haven't seen them drop the ball on a figure since ever. They haven't pleased most of the people all of the time, sure. But the very reason people know about the technical side drawbacks of Genesis is because a lot of users, I was one of them, liked the cross type nature of Genesis.
They had to explain to people like us why G2 was split up. And we didn't like that. We went on to demonstrate that the fundamental structure of G2,3, and 8 are the same across the sexes, with only minor differences in the chesticle region. My strangely popular morph transfer fiasco was based on that fact at the start. The differences are largely invisble at present. I did write that script. I could prove, with relative ease, that know could tell the difference between G8F and G8M without access to the wireframe.
 

The papagayo animations rely on morph names and should work both on G1 G2 with facial shapekeys and G3 G8 with facial bones. So if you convert the bones to shapekeys I guess you should be able to import papagayo on shapekeys, if you use the same names.

I am not using papgayo which only exports. “MOHO” .dat files( like lipsyncontizer)

I am talking about effecively importing animated pose files base soley based on morphs as was done with G1,G2 and the ,millenials of the past

before  face bone rigs came with G3

Here is an example of a G8 male re-rigged with Auto rig pro

Except his face mesh contains ALL of the Daz phonemes and expressions as blend shapes.

I have even assigned Drivers to them.

They could be manually hand keyed

However I as hoping for a way to just import a pre animated.duf file, exported from Daz studio ,that was created with mimic basic or Anilip 2.