I am about to go Unreal on you all!

RexRed

Yup, I am planning in the next few days to lay down a huge chunk of cash, close to $2000 on a big Reallusion bundle and other software of theirs.

All this so I can bring my 10,000+ daz models into Unreal and play around with some animation there...

Just wondering what your thoughts are.

This is all related to using iClone 8 + Character Creator 4 + Headshot Plug-in 2 for Character Creator 4 + iPhone LIVE FACE Profile for Motion LIVE Plug-in (iClone 8) as a go between for Daz Studio and Unreal engine.

Also Unreal Live Link Plug-in for iClone 8 

...and SkinGen Premium Plug-in 4-in-1 Bundle

 ...and Hair & Beard Builder Combo (Extended License)

...and Digital Human Essential 3-in-1 + Wrinkle Essentials (Extended License)

...and AccuFace Profile for Motion LIVE Plug-in (iClone 8)

Anything I forgot or would need instead of what I have currently in my cart?

I am just starting out with this stuff, but I think I can learn all these new programs really fast, they all seem to be the same setup but do different things.

Am I going to go down this road to later wish I swapped out one of these programs for another one?

 I would like to do mojo stuff with Lidar, and animation stuff in unreal with Daz figures hair scenes and clothing.

I would like to try the Reallusion tools to improve on mostly skin and see if I can achieve a bit of realism that way.

Their hair offerings seem interesting as well. I am mostly curious how Daz fiber body hair will export to these programs. And what about body suits?

And I don't expect geographs to work at all.

Any cautionary tales to prepare me for this new and exciting experience?

I can't wait to see my Daz assets in Unreal... It would be nice to load some Daz scenes and learn how to set them up with Unreal features.

I will make tutorials documenting this journey on my YouTube @ez3dtv channel.

I hope to achieve some hyperrealism and maybe even edit some figures in Reallusion and then bringing them back to Daz Studio and see what kind of renders I can achieve.

I suspect the bridges are kind of barely in service.

And what about bringing Genesis 8 and 9 into Reallusion? 

I have seen videos of Genesis 3 brought in to Reallusion exported as a .FBX but what about 8 and 9?

And on a side note, thank you Daz for ditching the metadata on my assets! That really sped up parsing my library in a hugely noticeable way! Kudos for that great new feature!

Little bits of time no longer subtracted from my existence. 

Please check out the items in my cart and let me know if you think I missed a vital application I might need. Thanks!

WendyLuvsCatz

geografts work for me in iClone 6 and subsquently FBX export from 3DX6 to Unreal but I do do it all manually no live links and use my own bone not morph based retargetting profiles

RexRed

WendyLuvsCatz said:

geografts work for me in iClone 6 and subsquently FBX export from 3DX6 to Unreal but I do do it all manually no live links and use my own bone not morph based retargetting profiles

Thanks you very kindly for your help WendyLuvsCatz! 

It is nice to hear that geographs work for you in Iclone 6! Hopeful! As for 3DX6 is that specifically for Genesis 2 characters or is it used to convert all Genesis characters? In other words, if I plan to bring in mostly Genesis 8 and 9 characters to Iclone 8 and Character Creator 4 do I need to buy this? And will I be able to apply Character creator skins and modifications to these imported characters? 

..and, if I need to buy these to convert Gen8 and 9, do I need the full 3DXchange 6 Pipeline version or can I do the same with 3DXchange 6 PRO?  

Now I am noticing a 3DX7 as well and something about it being discontinued and added directly into Iclone 8.

I am hoping if I wait on buying 3DX7(6) I will not regret it.

Also a question, Reallusion has a 50% off sale right now.

Anyone know if the sale may get any better than that on black Friday? (I am poor, and this endeavor is putting me into huge debt.)

RexRed

Thank you to Daz for reinstating my thread here. I apologize for posting so many links. I should have thought that through a bit more.

I am settling on the items I want to purchase to augment using my many Daz assets "possibly" in Unreal.

I have decided to hold off on motion capture side of things and go more towards basic function and import.

I am soul searching; do I want to make mostly stills/scenes or animations? I really like making still scenes. I am not much of a portrait kind of artist.

I would like to do both scenes and animations, but rendering in Unreal I am so used to setting up my scenes in Daz and I really like how Daz makes my renders look.

For stills and scenes maybe I can just export my Reallusion figures into Daz already posed? And I need sculpting tools... 

How will the skins export/import?

Well, I will have more options. As time goes by, I believe the lines will blur between these 3d programs, meaning, more interexchange.

Whole scenes and universal figures and clothing... Standards. 

And then there is Zbrush, I think they make that program hard on purpose. 

For now I am not getting the AccuFace Profile for Motion LIVE Plug-in (iClone 8)

or the, + Headshot Plug-in 2 for Character Creator 4 + iPhone LIVE FACE Profile for Motion LIVE Plug-in (iClone 8)

I have decided instead to get the ZBrush Face Tools Plug-in for Character Creator 4

Considering I have 10,000 assets native to Daz Studio, importing figures to Daz might be the way to go for stills.

and doing animations in Unreal could be another possibility.

The Unreal bridge will sure comes in handy.

We will see how the FBX export from Unreal holds up as well.

Lots of considerations.

I exported a Daz figure to Unreal and he looks like he has 1k skin, not pretty at all, something went horribly wrong along the way or the Unreal lighting is terrible.

And I need an atlas to figure out how to render in Unreal.

FrankTheTank

I want to start using Unreal Engine with Daz, but I see the Daz Bridge says its only compatible up to UE 4.25, and on the Epic/Unreal site I can only install UE 5.2 or 5.3, I don't see any way to install older versions of UE like 4.25. Does anyone know if there is an archive of older UE installers?

Nevermind, since I posted the above, I realized that "official" information was old news, seems the new plugin supposedly works with UE 5.3. There is so much scattered info on Daz to Unreal that its hard to know where to begin. Do i go to davidvodhanel's site? some random thread here? daz youtube channel, lol. no organization whatsoever... they all have different info which tends to conflict with one another. I guess I'lll just play around until I figure something out or give up. 

WendyLuvsCatz

RexRed said:

WendyLuvsCatz said:

geografts work for me in iClone 6 and subsquently FBX export from 3DX6 to Unreal but I do do it all manually no live links and use my own bone not morph based retargetting profiles

Thanks you very kindly for your help WendyLuvsCatz! 

It is nice to hear that geographs work for you in Iclone 6! Hopeful! As for 3DX6 is that specifically for Genesis 2 characters or is it used to convert all Genesis characters? In other words, if I plan to bring in mostly Genesis 8 and 9 characters to Iclone 8 and Character Creator 4 do I need to buy this? And will I be able to apply Character creator skins and modifications to these imported characters? 

..and, if I need to buy these to convert Gen8 and 9, do I need the full 3DXchange 6 Pipeline version or can I do the same with 3DXchange 6 PRO?  

Now I am noticing a 3DX7 as well and something about it being discontinued and added directly into Iclone 8.

I am hoping if I wait on buying 3DX7(6) I will not regret it.

Also a question, Reallusion has a 50% off sale right now.

Anyone know if the sale may get any better than that on black Friday? (I am poor, and this endeavor is putting me into huge debt.)

completely different to CC4 which I don't have or iC7 or 8

they use their own mesh and convert stuff to it which is no doubt why geografts don't work

I do believe ther 3DX8? pipeline can still import FBX though and do manual retargetting but I really don't know 

I cannot afford Reallusion stuff hence being 2 whole versions behind 

wolf359

HI
 I would warn you to carefully consider your long term goals before going $2000 into debt to buy into the Reallusion ecosystem

first there is no more 3DXchange app as its functions have been split between Iclone 8 and CC4.
 
second there actually is no such thing as importing an actual genesis 8-9 into Iclone but you get a decent Reallusion doppleganger with your daz character shape projected onto a native Reallusion base figure
this means No Daz JCM’s and NO Daz HD morphs.

Iclone has a complex pipeline to export it’s scenes to UE5
but I strongly suggest you visit the ofiical reallusion forums and clearly explain your goals & expectations before making this purchase.