Michael 8.1

nemesis10 · February 2021

People are already techy about any communication between Daz Studio and Daz3d. An automatic version check would create an avalanche of "why are you forcing a new version on me". Of course, new versions bring new functionality and ideally the removal of flaws (4.15 is full of things that make bridges to other software and a new shader). It is that new shader that is causes problems with 8.1 skin.Make sure you grab the genesis 8 essentials if you haven't and the body hair.

Knittingmommy · February 2021

nemesis10 said:

People are already techy about any communication between Daz Studio and Daz3d. An automatic version check would create an avalanche of "why are you forcing a new version on me". Of course, new versions bring new functionality and ideally the removal of flaws (4.15 is full of things that make bridges to other software and a new shader). It is that new shader that is causes problems with 8.1 skin.Make sure you grab the genesis 8 essentials if you haven't and the body hair.

I'm not saying they need to force an update but a notice wouldn't go amiss. I had already downloaded the hair and updated all the 8.1 essential stuff before updating to 4.15. As I said, the base surfaces for G8.1 seem to work with 4.14, so I'm not sure what about the shader for Michael is so different. If the base figures appeared to work under 4.14, why wouldn't Michael work under the same conditions? That's what confuses me. The shaders have to be different between base G 8.1 figures and Michael 8.1 in which case, experimenting with the base figures in 4.14 doesn't really give a proper representation of what to expect with the new shaders which is disappointing.

That also means I know have to redo my test renders of the base G 8.1 figures in 4.15 to see if there is in fact a difference in the skin between the versions of DS.

Daventaki · February 2021

The base G8.1 still use the old G8 materials. Victoria 8.1 is what used the new PBR shader. You do get the PBR default shader with G8.1 but you have to apply it.

AllenArt · February 2021

Knittingmommy said:

nemesis10 said:

People are already techy about any communication between Daz Studio and Daz3d. An automatic version check would create an avalanche of "why are you forcing a new version on me". Of course, new versions bring new functionality and ideally the removal of flaws (4.15 is full of things that make bridges to other software and a new shader). It is that new shader that is causes problems with 8.1 skin.Make sure you grab the genesis 8 essentials if you haven't and the body hair.

I'm not saying they need to force an update but a notice wouldn't go amiss. I had already downloaded the hair and updated all the 8.1 essential stuff before updating to 4.15. As I said, the base surfaces for G8.1 seem to work with 4.14, so I'm not sure what about the shader for Michael is so different. If the base figures appeared to work under 4.14, why wouldn't Michael work under the same conditions? That's what confuses me. The shaders have to be different between base G 8.1 figures and Michael 8.1 in which case, experimenting with the base figures in 4.14 doesn't really give a proper representation of what to expect with the new shaders which is disappointing.

That also means I know have to redo my test renders of the base G 8.1 figures in 4.15 to see if there is in fact a difference in the skin between the versions of DS.

The uvs that 8.1 uses are different than those of 8 and only 4.15 and up supports the new UVs :)

MeneerWolfman · February 2021

That also means I know have to redo my test renders of the base G 8.1 figures in 4.15 to see if there is in fact a difference in the skin between the versions of DS.

The uvs that 8.1 uses are different than those of 8 and only 4.15 and up supports the new UVs :)

4.15 isn't needed for the new uv's, nor is even 8.1 needed. Just drop the new uv into the genesis 8 male uv folder. You'll need to go into geometry editor and select the "Torso" surface and then deselect the left/right thigh, hip, upper/lower abdomen, upper/lower chest, left/right collar, and left/right pectoral face group. Take what remains and make a new "Head" surface from it and rename the torso surface to "Body". You'll need to add a ring of polys to the "Head" surface, but that's easy to spot once you load the materials onto the g8m figure. I did this in 4.12 Pro.

In all candor, I don't see the point of this new figure. Since Daz 4.15 has known issues with opacity maps and none of the betas since have fixed this and only seem to have made new issues (look at the beta thread in the daz software forum) I held off on all things G8.1M. However, I was curious about Torment 8.1 and decided to see if I could make it work on G8M since it's the same mesh, and low and behold I did. Torment 8.1's file were unencrypted, so that was even easier. Just create a new vendor and product folder under the g8m morphs folder and copy the files over. Then go into the dsf files, leave the id the same but change the other instances of "genesis%208_1" to "genesis%208" and voila now it's a g8m character.

I'm including two snapshots. One of both g8.1m and g8m with torment8.1 and its hd morphs dialed in. JCM's work too. There is no difference between the two base figures. The second snapshot is the simple find/replace edits I did.

I don't get the hoopla with this new "base" generation.

Richard Haseltine · February 2021

DS 4.15 is needed for the new shader to work and 4.15 r possibly a late 4.14 for the behind-the-scenes pick up of Genesis 8 assets (morphs etc.) when loading Genesis 8.1

Richard Haseltine · February 2021

MeneerWolfman said:

That also means I know have to redo my test renders of the base G 8.1 figures in 4.15 to see if there is in fact a difference in the skin between the versions of DS.

The uvs that 8.1 uses are different than those of 8 and only 4.15 and up supports the new UVs :)

4.15 isn't needed for the new uv's, nor is even 8.1 needed. Just drop the new uv into the genesis 8 male uv folder. You'll need to go into geometry editor and select the "Torso" surface and then deselect the left/right thigh, hip, upper/lower abdomen, upper/lower chest, left/right collar, and left/right pectoral face group. Take what remains and make a new "Head" surface from it and rename the torso surface to "Body". You'll need to add a ring of polys to the "Head" surface, but that's easy to spot once you load the materials onto the g8m figure. I did this in 4.12 Pro.

In all candor, I don't see the point of this new figure. Since Daz 4.15 has known issues with opacity maps and none of the betas since have fixed this and only seem to have made new issues (look at the beta thread in the daz software forum) I held off on all things G8.1M. However, I was curious about Torment 8.1 and decided to see if I could make it work on G8M since it's the same mesh, and low and behold I did. Torment 8.1's file were unencrypted, so that was even easier. Just create a new vendor and product folder under the g8m morphs folder and copy the files over. Then go into the dsf files, leave the id the same but change the other instances of "genesis%208_1" to "genesis%208" and voila now it's a g8m character.

I'm including two snapshots. One of both g8.1m and g8m with torment8.1 and its hd morphs dialed in. JCM's work too. There is no difference between the two base figures. The second snapshot is the simple find/replace edits I did.

I don't get the hoopla with this new "base" generation.

The transparency issue is an Iray thing, it needs nVidia to fix it.

MeneerWolfman · February 2021

Richard Haseltine said:

MeneerWolfman said:

That also means I know have to redo my test renders of the base G 8.1 figures in 4.15 to see if there is in fact a difference in the skin between the versions of DS.

The uvs that 8.1 uses are different than those of 8 and only 4.15 and up supports the new UVs :)

4.15 isn't needed for the new uv's, nor is even 8.1 needed. Just drop the new uv into the genesis 8 male uv folder. You'll need to go into geometry editor and select the "Torso" surface and then deselect the left/right thigh, hip, upper/lower abdomen, upper/lower chest, left/right collar, and left/right pectoral face group. Take what remains and make a new "Head" surface from it and rename the torso surface to "Body". You'll need to add a ring of polys to the "Head" surface, but that's easy to spot once you load the materials onto the g8m figure. I did this in 4.12 Pro.

In all candor, I don't see the point of this new figure. Since Daz 4.15 has known issues with opacity maps and none of the betas since have fixed this and only seem to have made new issues (look at the beta thread in the daz software forum) I held off on all things G8.1M. However, I was curious about Torment 8.1 and decided to see if I could make it work on G8M since it's the same mesh, and low and behold I did. Torment 8.1's file were unencrypted, so that was even easier. Just create a new vendor and product folder under the g8m morphs folder and copy the files over. Then go into the dsf files, leave the id the same but change the other instances of "genesis%208_1" to "genesis%208" and voila now it's a g8m character.

I'm including two snapshots. One of both g8.1m and g8m with torment8.1 and its hd morphs dialed in. JCM's work too. There is no difference between the two base figures. The second snapshot is the simple find/replace edits I did.

I don't get the hoopla with this new "base" generation.

The transparency issue is an Iray thing, it needs nVidia to fix it.

Is there any word from Nvidia when this might get "fixed back". The majority of hair and more than a few clothing props require opacity maps to render properly. I don't see how we can be expected to upgrade knowing that it will break so many products.