Low Rez Figure Creation
Superdog
Posts: 765
I was wondering whether it's better to decimate Michael 2 or Genesis to create low rez background figures. When I try to decimate Genesis it quickly loses its features but M2 still looks ok at lower resolutions (up to about 30%.) Also, I found out that M2 actually has more polygons than Genesis so does that mean it's more CPU intensive to render in scenes?
I'm trying to understand how to create the best low rez figures for crowd and background scenes. I know that Predatron has LoRez figures but I wondered if it's possible to create the same thing using M2 or Genesis?
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2025 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
Michael 2 has roughly four times as many polygons as Genesis, so yes it does use more CPU power. Genesis is relatively modest, if you are trying to save resources you might want to look at your texture sizes (though 3Delight does use a process called MipMapping that means it shouldn't use a larger image file than it needs).
Ok thanks! With Genesis does the hair, clothing and skin take longer to render than M2 versions? If they are higher resolution than the M2 accessories will they slow down the render? I'm trying to work out on balance which version of DAZ models including hair, skin, clothing etc. render quicker - especially if I decimate them. Genesis doesn't seem to decimate as well as M2 which I can reduce a lot more without the features becoming too distorted.
That would depend on the clothes. In general, creators have become more ambitious over the years so other things being equal a newer product is likely to be more taxing than an old - however, the introduction of SubD in DS means that there's a chance that items for Genesis will have lowered the resource usage, depending on the modeller. I would suggest, rather than going with a "use figure X for backgrounds", that you go on a case-by-case basis as some looks may be more efficient with newer content and some with older. Also, remember that one of the big slow-downs in DS is with transparency and ray tracing or occlusion - have a look at using uberSurface instead of the default shader and turning one or both of those off, and also check the discussions on using a geometry shell as a proxy for generating occlusion and shadows with a lower overhead.
I have Loretta and Lorenzo Lowrez on my wishlist... part of me hopes predatron updates them with TriAx...
Thanks! I'll look into what to advise. Is it possible to workout how render hungry a figure and clothing is? I've looked at the 'Scene Info' tab which reports the number of polygons but wondered if there's a way to measure which combinations of figure/clothing takes less render time. Maybe it's just a case of trial and error?
What is TriAx? Also, they would be great if they had more clothing available to them. There are a few period garments available on ShareCG which are pretty good but if they could use Michael/Victoria clothing that would be great. The problem with these LoRez figures is that with certain poses and animations they poke through the clothing which I couldn't find a way to fix. Which is why I've reverted to decimated DAZ figures.
Total number of polygons will be a guide, other things being equal. However, if one item has more transparency-mapped areas than another and you are using ray-traced shadows I would expect that will trump polygons in its effect (except in the most extreme cases).
What is TriAx? Also, they would be great if they had more clothing available to them. There are a few period garments available on ShareCG which are pretty good but if they could use Michael/Victoria clothing that would be great. The problem with these LoRez figures is that with certain poses and animations they poke through the clothing which I couldn't find a way to fix. Which is why I've reverted to decimated DAZ figures.
TriAx is the new rigging system used by Genesis, the DAZ Horse 2 and other new items.
I decided to work on my own figure... I'm basically wrapping the geometries around Genesis and I'll just use the Transfer Util to rig it...
Just as a reminder for readers, if you use the Genesis mesh as a mannequin to create a new figure you can't share it unless you encode it against a base Genesis file. Using it in renders of your own would be fine, of course.
Richard, that is an extremely hard sell. These are completely new geometries, and all I'm using Genesis for is proportions.
And maybe if you asked DAZ would OK it, but the EULA is clear - if you use content from DAZ, such as Genessi, to help you create add-on content (clothes, hair, geografted body parts) then that's fine but you can't use it to help create a stand-alone item unless it's somehow made dependent on having the original content (such as RTEncoing it)
That's fine... I'll ask if I ever decide to distribute it. I still think that's a bit... ridiculous...
I thought Geografted body parts were still a problem, by the way... Did DAZ change policy on that?
by the way... why is this not a problem? http://www.sharecg.com/v/66007/gallery/5/3D-Model/Low-Polygon-MakeHuman-Proxies-in-Genesis-Pose
Because those are the 'make human' meshes which are free to use, simply put into the same pose as the Genesis base, not the shape. You can't copyright a pose. The rigging has to be done by the end user which would require them to possess Genesis.
BTW the DAZ license was updated when they introduced the DIM. There were a few threads about it.
The rig is copyright to DAZ. I wasn't talking about the rig.
If people can decimate Genesis then why won't DAZ offer a lower poly version for crowd and background scenes? They would make money out of it and it would save us all trying to create our own lower poly versions of Genesis (with varying results.) The reason I want a lower poly figure is to populate scenes with non-essential figures that don't use up too many resources.
It's not like I (and I assume others) are trying to make low poly versions for commercial reasons so I don't understand the license restrictions. I just want to get on with creating 3D animations and low poly DAZ figures would help me do that. So come on DAZ sell us a low poly versions! I'm sure there'd be lots of interest.
There's an idea.. maybe I'll just do that with this figure when I'm done with it... assuming DAZ doesn't reject it :)