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G3 G8.1 G9 V4.2 LF2*
These are the Base models with base textures quick rendered
G9 is kinda growing on me but I'm still mostly using 8.1
LF "to me" seems to rank between V4 and G3. Not Impressive for a new release
There is a topic on this very issue on the DAZ Forums, but as usual people tread very carefully which you shouldn't have to do. If the product is garbage it needs to be called out and rectified.
"...tread very carefully.." @Inversekinematics
When I suggested G9 should have been named "G9 Portrait", as the so-called improvements only benefited close up portraits, my post lasted about 10 minutes. Pointing out the bleeding obvious is strictly verboden.4.6 is outdated, lacking several features that are handy for making morphs. Having 4.6 installed causes some issues with a current install. Even when you install them on totally different drives all DS versions still keep some data on the OS drive in one certain folder. This means that they share settings, and 4.6 missing many newer features causes some settings to reset when you go back to open your newer DS. These are not major issues, but they are annoying as you need to redo these particular settings every time you switch between 4.6 and a newer version. You can avoid some of this by using the beta as your primary DS since the beta branch keeps its settings in a different location (also on the OS drive.) But still, it is annoying.
You also have to prep everything for 4.6, as it does not have Iray shaders. 4.6 can open a file with Iray, but it takes forever as it converts the shader to default DS. So you really don't want to forget converting all your materials to DS default. You basically have to take extra steps for everything because of 4.6 limitations.
So while it is certainly possible to use 4.6 to run the HD importer, I would not say it is exactly convenient. I was hoping when you said "easy", you meant something new.As for G9,
G9 really is just for pretty portraits of headshots and that is about it. The body is an afterthought and abysmal as a result. Anyone who says G9 poses better is lying to themselves. Some people will eat up anything Daz makes and will adjust their thinking accordingly to accommodate it. It is a creepy cult-like mentality.
However these fanatics cannot sustain Daz by themselves. They can only buy 1 of a given product, which is a big reason why Daz pumps out so much low effort content every day.Even G9's UV mapping is dumb. They have it so that there is a skinny little strip of the torso UV sandwiched between the arm and neck UVs. Who thought that was a good idea??? By doing this they have a section of the torso with very few pixels dedicated to it, and if you zoom in enough you can clearly see the difference between them. The arm UV should just go up to the neck in this situation, that would be the logical way to do this. It would also make it easier to paint textures.
The male genital UV is even worse, it is a bad joke. I truly believe they made the male gen mat bad on purpose. That is the only explanation for why it is like this. It is like they forgot what a large portion of their user base is doing with this software.There was nothing wrong with the UV maps they had with 8.1. 8.1 largely fixed the issues of awkward UVs. They redesigned G9 to be as different as possible just for the sake of doing so. They want people to have to buy all their old stuff all over again...now as G9 products. While they allow some PAs to sell converters, they know most people will not use them.
And that type of censorship you had to endure is the reason I gave up posting on DAZ forums a long time ago, not that many of my rants made it past the mods in the first place. I used to enjoy the 'fix your shit' type of posts 🙂
I truly believe they made the male gen mat bad on purpose. That is the only explanation for why it is like this.
The push towards (Code word) ISM is what they aimed for and it (pun not intended) flopped.
They need to stop focusing on creating new Genesis generations and get to work on creating (or outsourcing the creation) of a new and better render engine.
There was nothing wrong with 8.1, 9 increased the texture resolution (wasn't really necessary, but its good for those who do want it, I guess), but thats not really going to make it look any more realistic. But the real problem lies with iRay. No matter how many changes they make to the Genesis generations & textures, they will never look as good or realistic as they would if they get rid of iRay and replace with something better. Some of the textures ive seen, if used as they are now, would look amazing with a modern render engine. That is what is holding DAZ back.
I'd go further to say that if Daz tries to make DS5 backwards compatible with Genesis and current Iray it will fail miserably. If DS5 does eventually get released it will need to be done with a new broom as continuing with these minor updates is just useless for such an old and outdated program.
Those with thousands or tens of thousands worth of content will obviously scream bloody murder but it's either that or extinction.What I would *like* to see in any future DAZ software would be some type of bridge to stable diffusion, such as:
1) ability to create scenes & characters in daz and render for a realistic look in Stable diffusion.
2) ability to easily export a posed character or multiple characters in DAZ into SD, along with also sending the TRUE depth map. Right now in SD, a lot of poses fail because it cannot determine which body parts should be on top when theres some overlapping, especially with 2 or more characters that interact and overlap. SD controlnet's depth map/midas generator can simulate a depth map but it is not accurate because it guesses since it doesnt really know what the correct way is. (there *IS* a convoluted way to do this manually right now, but requires intermediary steps in photoshop). If DAZ could put this in the software, would be super cool
3) ability to create a pose in DAZ based on an image, the same way openpose works now in SD. Then, what I said in #2 would also have a lot more flexibility, you can get characters posed quicker if you dont already have a premade pose file.Studio 5?!
I'm laughing so hard I scared my cat.
There will NEVER be a Studio 5 or any meaningful update to 4.
They have no real programmers anymore.As regards the software medium, it really depends what you are intending to do.
For instance, if you are intending to generate a comic, a series of sequenced renders of fixed characters may be required. DS is pretty good for that, AI isn't yet. It needs a lock on certain characters for repeatability.At the time Iray was introduced, it was a step change in realism over 3DL.
People were seriously impressed in the fora.
Sure, things have now moved on.
Legacy compatibility is very important for those that have extensive libraries with expensive content, however.
Conversions of characters to a preferred base model would be very handy to facilitate this. We already have it for hair & clothing.
I'm talking about from G9 to G8 / G8.1 not the other way around.
Daz seems most reluctant to accomodate this, for predictable reasons.
I am generally totally underwhelmed by G9, and it does not do what can quite quickly, easily & nicely be done with G8.
There are now some half decent assets & characters kicking around, that I would like to see converted from G9 to G8 / 8.1Why would you do that to that poor kitty! 🙂
Completely agree on what you said. Daz lack so much basic feature that it is mostly used as a boot up to then work in Blender nowdays, at least by people that knows basics on 3D
Genesis 9 face has the best skin, eyes, proportion. Especially the eyes are really good. And the face is what conveys emotions to your viewer. The body, in the majority of cases, is covered.
Daz3d has a nice renderer. Iray. Even if you don't like Iray you have Octane. One of the Best.
The problem is that few PAs know how to make proper models and proper shaders.
And even fewer users know how to use light to create a picture. I can understand this, because Daz3d is a program for the amateur, not the professional. But the main reason for a bad render its not the program, its the user who don't know how to use light and perspective. You gonna have the same bad pictures even if you use Blender or 3dsMax or Maya or Cinema4D. OK, these programs has better animation, sculpt, modelling, everything. But Daz its not a program for these jobs.
Personally, I want just one feature from the Daz. USD compatibility.Flatly disagree on most counts.
G9: Horrible and unacceptable bend morphs and geometry at joints. (Some of us do not "cover up" such deficiencies with clothing - a majority of the time.) Only difference in skin is (unnecessary) 8k textures. With good 4k maps the exact same effect can be achieved with G8.1, and even G8, under any closeup scenario. I see no appreciable difference in "eyes", nor do I, personally, find "shapes" or "proportions" to be of any improvement. To the contrary, I find the default G9 body proportions and shape to be lumpy, abruptly square, and unattractive, with female breast geometry to be drastically underdeveloped and unnatural, and nearly impossible to correct without additional morph packages. Most PAs effectively tune out these problems with their offerings. Leg and feet shaping can be dialed differently and specifically to be more desirable (with default feet shape being the only potential improvement), but that shouldn't be the first thing required out of the box of an "upgrade", IMHO.
Summary: G9 = Geometric downgrade with unnecessary bloat.And no DAZ render engine is to blame for that but...
DAZ also happens to have an insufficient, un-updated* Iray render engine, it's a known issue. The DAZ version of Iray can be manipulated into producing somewhat acceptable results, but comparing it to Arnold, or even Cycles, is farcical. And that has absolutely nothing to do with the end user or their abilities or understandings, nor is it the fault of PAs or the quality of their products to scapegoat (you can take any PA asset into Blender to test and prove that fact if in doubt); it truly is a limitation of the platform's utilization of Iray - that's not an opinion, it's objective, demonstrable truth; the best and most capable DAZ artists cop to it, frequently, and turn to real engines for better results without the "DAZ effect" if and when more realism is required. DAZ Iray is badly in need of an update or upgrade (with the latter stoking fears of a newly required shader system if it ever happened, so some balk).
Octane requires a completely different set of shader conversions to work with DS native scenes and materials, and octane renders do not mirror Iray render results for that reason. It is not a viable or practical option for the native structure of the platform because of that heavy conversion factor, with inconsistent and unfaithful results (shared opinion). Octane works great when starting with Octane, but not when converting Iray materials (the typically desired workflow for DAZ users).G9 (and DAZ Iray) get thumbs downs on this side.
*EDIT: The latest public beta (4.22.1.110 as of this note) has Iray ver 2023.1.4. While "updated" feverishly over the past couple of years in fits and spurts, we're still not using recent Iray versions in DAZ Iray renders. (Also have not seen much any difference in comparative test results between current beta and DS versions as far back as 4.15.X.X. And no render time improvement at that, either. So whatever updates are taking place from version to version, they are having little to no effect on how Iray is utilized in DS.)
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