V 6 or Gia 6.... Which one to buy...... opinions please?
Bendinggrass
Posts: 1,371
Hi Folks.
I am having a tough time making a decision. I would get both but that is not possible due to money woes.
Which one is the best to get in terms of versatility and usefulness if only one is possible.
I would appreciate your opinions and reasons on this.
Thanks.
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Hi, well as you've seen, V6 is a little more fashion model, Gia is a little more tough woman.
I have both, and if it were me going back, and I had to choose only one, I would choose Gia probably. She has versatility where she can still look like a model with less than 100% of her morph applied, or dialed fully to look like more of a fighter or hero. Also I like Gia's slightly darker default skin, which appeals to me personally, though both of these models have very nice included skin textures. Both also have charming faces, in my opinion.
V6 comes with a bunch of breast morphs, Gia does not, so that could be a factor. Another factor to consider is the UV sets. V6 is the only way to get the V6 UVs, and there may potentially be more characters made for that UV set, though at this point of course it's impossible to say. Maybe more 3rd party characters will use the default G2F UVs. That's kind of a gamble, but those factors weigh in V6s favor. All on her own, I think Gia wins, in the wider world, it's hard to avoid seeing good logic for V6.
Those are my thoughts. You should go with whichever one you find to be more inspiring to the kind of art you want to make.
If I had to choose only one, I would choose V6, mainly for the addtional morphs that she has. Coupled with the Body Morphs for Genesis 2 Female, she can be made to look muscular like Gia, but it Gia doesn't soften with morphs (except, as previously stated, by dialing her morph to less than 100%). And Storypilot's advice concerning V6 UV's is probably right on the mark. I imagine most content creators are going to create for V6, more than for Gia. Again, not for sure, but that's how I see it.
Yeah, the UV thing may be the most important question in the end.
Here's something, maybe someone can correct me if I'm wrong. I just tried to verify what I said about the breast morphs, and it actually looks like the Breast Shapes 01-08 are part of Body Morphs for G2F, and not V6 as I first thought. So in that case V6 does not inherently have the upper hand for what's included in the base product, simply the more likely chance of her UVs being used by others since she's carrying the Victoria legacy so to speak.
So in terms of versatility and usefulness, hopefully you've already gotten the morph bundle for G2F.
One interesting further thought, since I've been comparing the UV sets a bit anyway - the default UVs of G2F are a very good base, well-tailored to a general female shape. Both V6 and Gia use UV sets that are similar but very subtly optimized for their specific shapes to minimize any stretching (except for Gia having the right arm in the Limb map completely repositioned, the seams and major feature locations are similar). Therefore one might hope that PAs would use G2F UVs most often for broadest compatibility and versatility and limited stretching with the widest variety of characters, and use Gia and V6 UVs only when their characters are actually making use of some portion of those shapes in their custom morphs to take advantage of the optimizations. I do not know if this is a realistic hope, and still suspect V6 has a strong advantage in this regard. Daz has at least laid the groundwork for us not needing Victoria in the same way we have in the past. Whether the content creators take that trail is up to them, V6 for now still appears like the "safer" choice.
Yeah, a bit early to call it, but I'd also 'guesstimate' that more textures will ultimately use V6 UV instead of Gia's one.
V6 for the shape adjustors - Gia is a great shape, but I'd say more shape options are a higher priority than a single body & head, but i customise my character shapes all the time, so that's a priority for me. Gia would still be worth putting on your wishlist if you do decide on V6.
I really like GIA. But to me, V6 is the base figure, and so thus essential. If I had to choose v6.
This is an interesting discussion as I begin to think a bit about it.
Well, this is where I question what is even my own conventional wisdom here. I don't think V6 has anything extra.
This is V6's file list: http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/read_me/index/16281/file_list
This is Gia 6's file list: http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/read_me/index/16376/file_list
Both have head, body, poses, material, expression adjustments. Gia has some additional corrections, and also "Gia Smooth" which I have to look at to see what that is, seems like maybe a "less muscley" option, but I didn't notice it before. But no extra morph options I see in V6.
I am sort of playing devil's advocate in order to adjust myself a bit to what might be the new paradigm here. Really, G2F is the base. The morph pack is for G2F. So far, Victoria has some characters, Gia has some characters. The Girl 6, arriving in no time flat, is going to have her own characters, and a shape that's totally going to need her own UVs too, not that we aren't already accustomed to every DAZ original character having their own UVs at this point.
Not disagreeing that V6 isn't the clearest choice, necessarily, just basically wondering aloud that things might be less clear than they once were. There is at least the possibility now that people just buy whichever characters they like the most, without a hierarchy, even potentially ignoring Victoria altogether if she's not one's cup of tea. If this is the paradigm we could be in, I might not mind that, is all I'm saying.
yeah. It is a toughee. I just see v6 as base, since I rarely use g2f without a whole lot of Vicky added. =-) So to me v6 is the base.
er... "all your base are belong to us."
Oh dear, I must be imagining stuff from the morph pack that I thought was part of V6 :red:
Interesting conversation! I myself bought V6 mainly because I figured I'd need her UV's. I haven't used her at all yet. LOL G2F looks great all by herself and with her morphs she has nice variety. Now Gia... she's just super! Probably one of the best characters I've seen. I can't wait to mix her with The Girl and see how that works. :)
For Bendinggrass... it depends on what kind of art you do, really. You have the advantage of seeing both up front. But if I had the choice now I would have gone for Gia and waited til the next big sale and then picked V6 up. :)
Hopefully any new textures coming out make it clear which UV it's using!
V6 is going to be more versatile. There will be more morphs, characters, and skin textures made from V6 than Gia (most likely). The clothes should be interchangeable, so that's not an issue.
It's a shame you can only choose 1, since Gia is a very nice addition to G2F. But, unless you are specifically looking for action women figures, than you're better off going with V6.
I would skip both V6 and Gia if you are on limited funds, and get the G2F head and body bundle instead. FAR more versatility with that, as you'll be able to dial in your own characters. And G2F comes with the V5 Bree skin, which is a good skin. Then when V6 and Gia eventually show up in Fast Grab or other deep discount (as they always do), pick them up then. V6 this go around is JUST a character preset with her own UV map. Given past history, I suspect we will see most third party skins using the V5 UV mapping, since that is what G2Fbase uses and is also available for Genesis, so is cross-product compatible making for a larger potential market. Unfortunately, DAZ is very bad about listing which UV mapping a skin texture product uses, so it will be hard to know if you need either V6 or Gia until after you've purchased an add-on skin. But I think the chances will be rare; as history goes, Gia will have zero add-on skins using her texture outside of the launch batch, and V6 might get a small handful.
Since V6 and Gia are both nothing more than a character preset with custom UV (no extra morphs, like V5 brought to Genesis), buy them when you can if you like their look. But they are hardly necessary, like the Vs of yesteryear.
That would be interesting to know if it were true, but I think you may be wrong about that. There are definitely morph dials in the shaping tab for both V6 and Gia, and Daz_Jared (I think it was him) stated that you couldn't get the full Gia shape from V6+morphs alone.
Something that's been bothering me lately is the lack of disclosure in recent product descriptions about what comes with a morph, and what is simply a preset. I bought a character shape recently (for Gen1) that said it had "custom morphS" but it turned out only the head was a custom morph. The body was an injection preset comprised of 3 dials.
really?
3 dials? And you are calling that a morph? At least give us some disclosure like you used to in the descriptions list.
When I say character preset, maybe that's a bad choice of words, as to some it means only dialspun. I include the custom shape morphs under that, personally. Hence the confusion. Yeah, you can't get the exact look of Gia via dialspinning alone. But you can get a muscular women, and several different versions of one using the head and body morphs.
Again, IF you like the look of the figure, get it. But Gia is by no means necessary to get a muscular woman. She is just *A* muscular woman.
As far as skins are concerned, both Gia and Victoria 6 come with a fantastic set complete with normals and good out-of-the-box settings. My personal preference still lies with Victoria 6's skins, but both are easily two of the best skins I've used on a figure to date. Morphs wise I like both, but tend to lean towards Victoria 6 mixed with some of the body morphs for a more down to earth human figure as opposed to an Amazonian warrior or a supermodel. I do admit I'm slightly biased though, as I don't often use very muscular men or women in my renders.
I'd argue that you're going to want both at some point, but Victoria 6 may prove the better investment down the line given that she'll be seen as a 'standard' and future texture packs may use her UV's as a base. If you're into the muscle-bound heroic look then look at getting Gia, as no doubt products based on her UVs will follow a similar idea.
Yeah, I think I misspoke when I mentioned the morphs and V6. I bought the head and body morphs at the same time and forgot that they were not part of V6. H&B are a must have, IMO, regardless of which additional character you get
Thank you, everyone.
This is a great discussion.
All of you are much more informed than me, and reading your posts is a great big help in deciding which way to go.
I realize now that it is especially useful to get the head and body "morphs" for the basic G2 female that comes with DS 4.6.
That gives versatility from the beginning.
Again, sincere thanks.
R
That would be interesting to know if it were true, but I think you may be wrong about that. There are definitely morph dials in the shaping tab for both V6 and Gia, and Daz_Jared (I think it was him) stated that you couldn't get the full Gia shape from V6+morphs alone.
Something that's been bothering me lately is the lack of disclosure in recent product descriptions about what comes with a morph, and what is simply a preset. I bought a character shape recently (for Gen1) that said it had "custom morphS" but it turned out only the head was a custom morph. The body was an injection preset comprised of 3 dials.
really?
3 dials? And you are calling that a morph? At least give us some disclosure like you used to in the descriptions list.
Hmmm... I don't remember saying that, though it is true. It may have been another DAZ employee. Gia was custom sculpted and isn't the result of anyone spinning dials from the G2F morph pack. So to get the Gia shape you would need to purchase Gia. The same is true for V6.
You bring up an interesting point about the product descriptions and "what's included and features." I just recently moved from QA and one of my responsibilities was to create the product page for whatever I was testing. I loved testing products, but it seemed like whenever it came time to create a product page I was questioning the life choices I had made that had brought me to that point. The point it, it was very difficult to accurately represent the entirety of a product with just a feature list. I tried my best, because it was/is important to me for customers to know exactly what they are getting up front. I'm sure there is room for improvement though. This is another thing that may be worth bringing up in my next meeting.
*edited to add more information*
Hmmm... I don't remember saying that, though it is true. It may have been another DAZ employee. Gia was custom sculpted and isn't the result of anyone spinning dials from the G2F morph pack. So to get the Gia shape you would need to purchase Gia. The same is true for V6.
You bring up an interesting point about the product descriptions and "what's included and features." I just recently moved from QA and one of my responsibilities was to create the product page for whatever I was testing. I loved testing products, but it seemed like whenever it came time to create a product page I was questioning the life choices I had made that had brought me to that point. The point it, it was very difficult to accurately represent the entirety of a product with just a feature list. I tried my best, because it was/is important to me for customers to know exactly what they are getting up front. I'm sure there is room for improvement though. This is another thing that may be worth bringing up in my next meeting.
*edited to add more information*
Sadly, I feel like I got wined and dined. But, when I woke up the next morning, there was no body there... just 3 dials and a note. Cest la vie.
But seriously, I think you simply need to list what is a custom morph and what is a preset. I remember buying products in the past that listed both clearly, so I knew what I was buying. Sometimes I choose NOT to buy something based on that info and sometimes I choose TO buy something, but the decision was mine, and it gave me confidence in the DAZ store. It almost seems that whoever wrote the description was trying to sell it a little too hard, by generalizing the specifics. I would like to know what is a custom shape and what is a preset so I can determine if I can use it or not.
On a side note, the V4 version of that product gave an error that said I needed Aiko4 to inject the shape on V4. Aiko4 was never listed as required- just 4.2++ which I do have. I don't know if that was the PA's error or Daz's, but it seems like the whole thing just got a little sloppy.
I hope Daz isn't going in a direction where they try to sell applied presets as "morphs" without any new shapes involved.
One of the things the store pages desperately need is to link directly to the product readme in the documentation wiki. From there, you click on the file list link and you can see exactly what morphs/etc are included. As it is now, I suspect most people don't even know that info exists when they are trying to decide if they should buy something or not.
But looking at the file list won't tell you what UV mapping a skin set is for. That really has to be listed explicitly on the product page.
Remember, this used to be pretty much required in pre-Genesis figures if you wanted more clothes to fit them without a lot of tweaking. Using only a few standard body morphs that most people could be assumed to have meant the clothes didn't need to have extra non-standard morphs built into them or added manually. It isn't as necessary to do this any more for Genesis characters — it's a habit, but some habits are hard to break if they're not recognised as no longer necessary.
Right on! :)
Just get V6 and the shape shift package. You can easily recreate a shape that is _very_ close to how Gia looks. I did this in 20 minutes of dialing while having Gia and V6 overlaid ontop of each other, and apart from some details the resulting shape looked almost identical.
That's...actually a pretty good suggestion imho, and it shouldn't be too hard to implement.