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Yes, qouting myself here.
And then I got this, making my life with DAZ stuff so much easier.
MMX Genesis 9 Clones for All | Daz 3D
I considered getting the character converter for G8/8.1M to G9, but I don't think that's going to really have value to me. I've tried mixing the G8M clone shape with G9M shapes, but G9 being a female-focused shape throws off the compatibility too much in the chest area.
With all the new characters coming out I wonder whether or not there will be a MetaMixer Toolkit for G9 ???
I've been wondering the same thing recently. MetaMixer is a good concept and how blending character morphs should work, imo. The problem with G8 version was needing to buy add-ons for each character and the low number of characters available. A MetaMixer Toolkit where you could create your own character plugins from those you own - or just use the characters out of the box - would be excellent. I think locking the character plugins to the store was a massive mistake that hampers an excellent tool.
I've been doing something similar to MetaMixer recently that's horribly manual, creating dFormer masks and using those to blend in a nose from this character, jaw shape from another etc. That's fraught with frustration and, often, the need to bring the models into Blender for tweaks, but I suspect MetaMixer is largely similar under the hood and it's just so much easier to use. I wish they'd unlock it so we can use it to its potential.
I have never understood why people use metamixer when there are other tools that mix morphs to create unque characters much easier (and cheaper). For G9 check out the Simtemero rendomizers and Zevos Shape Gen plus
I have both of those and - just my opinion - they're completely different to the concept of mixing parts of characters together. The morphs in partial packs, while good for meticulous work, suffer from a lack of distinctive options at the feature level (you can have an eagle nose or a Roman nose or an upturned nose to varying degrees, but it's fiddly to bring variety within those feature areas). The randomiser just randomises your morphs, and while I've used it to create some great characters, it doesn't exactly allow you to create a character towards your vision.
Characters, on the other hand, tend to be where the greatest variety within a specific facial feature can be found, but the way morphs work in Daz Studio makes them a hassle to blend. MetaMixer addresses that (to an extent - you may have to do some work to blend out features you don't want after you've created your morph). But it's quick and I like it as a tool alongside those others.
The add-ons have the characters head morph divided into some 56 additional partial morphs, that is why one can choose different parts of different characters to use.
A G9 to G8 downconverter (is there such a thing) is a good idea. I think one issue with the G9 train is the ecosystem will take year(s) to fill out the morphs, tools, poses, expressions, and other stuff the G3/8/8.1 ecosystem offers. A downconverter would be useful while we wait.
I haven't jumped G9 train.... at least yet. Maybe if G9 ends up running as long as G8, I might some day try it more seriously. It's not because I don't like G9, in fact I think V9 was a really nice flagship for G9, and a perfect candidate to start selling this new line of figures, but somehow increased prices and the hassle to get all the "must have" bend controls and morph packs made me hesitant at first and I decided to wait. As the time has been going on, and I read problems with bending, nipples and makeups and what-not, I'm even more firmly staying at the station and avoiding the train.
I do like some parts of G9, but it seems there's always a negative for every positive. For example I like higher density mesh, since I think it would be much easier to paint when using push modifier etc. but the changes to topology and removal of anatomy elements from mesh like nipples or navel will cause so much problems ( one PA even commented that they are just eyeballing the position of nipples when they are making maps etc. ), so I thought that's too much hassle if I can only use textures/HD morphs for the one character they were designed for. Same with textures/shaders ( I don't really consider this a "new" stuff, since they could've done 8k maps for G8 figures also ), it's looking good but problems for example with makeup for end customers. I'm sure some users have lots of use for gender neutral mesh, but if G9 ends up running as long as G8, then all those morphs in the same figure will slow down even the mightiest of systems to crawl ( think G8 loading times and double it, since it's now all in the one figure ).
So in conclusion, at least currently I feel that G9 is not for me. If/when Daz some day releases new Studio and there's something amazing coming for G9, I might change my mind. Personally I have nothing against the figure, and I'm happy that some other users find it amazing. That doesn't really take anything away from me, because I still have my G3-8 library, and everything I own still works nicely with Daz Studio. Also luckily there's other stores that still sell G8 content, so I still can get some new stuff for my boys and girls every now and then. Heh, as a side note, as I moved my business to that other store ( I'm not even remotely as active there as I was with Daz store, and just buying what I actually need ), it's quite amazing nowadays to just casually check Daz offers and realize that 90% is G9 so I can just happily skip it. I used to spend about $100 per month for Daz, and now I have already saved enough for a holiday trip, so that's definitely the best part of G9 for me. It actually took me several months of being "sober" to realize that I really am a "Dazaholic" and I assume still recovering
Masterstroke I'm right there with you. I have been having some luck over at Ren with characters and some clothing. But for the most part I will purchase some clothing and footwear here if the product has G8F included along with 9 and 8.1. But even that has become hard to do. So I've been buying rooms, buildings, transportation, shaders, plants,etc. I was almost going to jump on G9 only because of the older female figures that have been released (Cause I'm old LOL), But if all the content I have collected for G8 will not work well it pretty much killed that dream. Spending less is making it easier to update my graphics card LOL.
P.S. I I enjoy the morph for G8F to straighten her back.
How did I miss this? Can it be used to project G9 morphs on earlier generations the same way the official clones can be used to project earlier generation's morphs onto G9?
I have no intent converting characters between G8 and G9, thus no interest in any converters. Daz killed my interest in conversions early in the G8 stage by making HD morphs impossible to convert. Between G3 and G8 there still was benefit of converting all those characters that did not rely on HD morphs much, but G9 is all about HD morphs.
Since I had to use G3 and G8+ in same scenes when characters could not be converted but absolutely needed their HD morphs (i.e. Anneka, Damien, etc), I don't care what generation a character is as long as they look ok next to another. I'm not getting Satine 8 or Ophelia 8 anyway and they are rugged enough to need their HD details.
This means MMX G9 Clones and clothing converter are very much only such products I have use for.
Even if for whatever reason I need to convert textures this is better to be done with either Ultimate Unwrap or Blender with Share CG developer kit for G8. Takes more time, but beats having to use extra parts like overlay suits and geografts.
With this, you can make G9 clothes and hair fit to G8.
For the audience who aren't familiar with the ins and outs, this is not true. G9 doesn't require HD morphs any more than previous generations did.
It IS true that if you are interested in HD figures from pre-G9, it will limit conversion. Characters with really dramatic fine details (like horns or ridges or deep scars), those details will be muted.
One option, if the details aren't super extreme, is to bake the HD details as normals, and use the G8 skin with extra Normals detail for it. This is somewhat of a mid to high level user approach, but there are a number of applications that can do this.
X-Normal can bake any HD to normals even as extremely heavy as lvl 5 or 6 within a few minutes if the user knows how to turn a figure into a single UV. But if you want an actual navel then you do need HD morphs on G9 as there isn't even base geometry for the body part. Normalmaps on a flat grid will only take you so far. Or you can go through hoops and bake displacement maps from exported HD .obj, but that's extra step because G9 forced onto another base is more effort than it's worth.
There's no real money value in purchasing a g9 character converter and then having to do all extra legwork anyway. One might as well do it for slightly more time, but zero money spent.
Ah, so not clones as the term is used by Daz but closer in meaning to auto-fit?
Yes, they are autofit clones for clothing and hair.
I agree with that. By the time you get through with all the extra parts it's not even fun anymore.
Jan
I try to bake displacement maps in Blender, as I started using Blender more often. Of course for more distant renders, a normal map will suffice.
Getting the G8 stuff to Blender has certain challenges, but also provides great options. To start with G9 is another challenge that I don't need at the moment.
I do not like geocrafts, but I have a nice tool from the past (Texture Transformer Version 2) that recalculates V4/M4 and G1/2/3 maps to G8 by manipulating the texture files. So, I can use them natively and even mix them on G8 characters by using the native G8 UVs. Another reason to stay with G8 for now.
This is Torian 8 on Genesis 9. It's a manual conversion and was quite a bit of work and the eyes were a nightmare, mostly because I'm not clear on how to slave the morph for the eyes to the character slider. The textures are not the original 8 ones, but Genesis 9 textures and he's borrowing HD morphs from Michael 9 and Nikolai 9 ;) I'll try to bring over some of my favorite Genesis 8 characters manually, but it will take forever...lol. But the result is so much superior than a converter.
Laurie
Just noticed that the G9 figure does not have default clones for converting M4 and V4 clothing to G9. Nor did I see a clothing converter product on Riversoft Art page. Nor does the 'Clones for All' product by Mattymanx. Short of trying to make my own clone, is there a product for sale or a freebie for converting legacy M4 and V4 clothes to G9? https://www.daz3d.com/mmx-genesis-9-clones-for-all
However there is a tutorial on how to make clones yourself...
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/599231/making-clones-of-g9-tutorial#latest
Health warning - I've not done it for myself though.
Regards,
Richard
The only base figure in the genesis line which included V4/M4 clones was Genesis 1, for later ones the V4/M4 clones were always an additional product.
AFAIK no V4/M4 clones for G9 have been made available yet. MMX clones are for converting back from G9 to earlier genesis figures, so it wouldn't have helped anyway.
Assuming you have V4/M4 clones or a converter to fit their items to one of the earlier genesis figures, an option would be to convert items in 2 steps: autofit/convert the V4/M4 item to that figure (and save the result as a new asset if using autofit), then autofit the resulting item to G9
Thank you, @Leana and @richardandtracy
Do G8F clothing fit well on G9?
I've only just started using G9 for my characters. While the transition works fine for the most part, I find the face looks a bit strange when trying to create a male character. It still looks very feminine despite morphing the body and head base. I'm hoping to purchase the G9 face morph kit in the near future to compensate for that ...