First Impressions Genesis 9 - A Review
JasmineSkunk
Posts: 1,906
First, I am happy to see that Genesis has returned to it's original vision. When Genesis (1) first hit the scene, the promise had been that it would be an adaptable "universal" tool. Androgeny would allow for the sharing of clothes, shapes and materials like never before and theoretically, be a better investment. To see Genesis 9 embrace that concept once again is very exciting!
I'm also very pleased with all the parameters, shapes, textures and "posability" available right out of the box. Being able to play with the figure and have a positive experience is what makes it possible to fall in love with them. With 6 complete characters (3 male and 3 female) including unique textures, body shapes and a range of skin tones, hair and clothing, and other assests, makes this Generation of Daz3D figures the most versatile base figure to date.
It's important that it be fun to use right away. And (in my opinion) is why Victoria 4 was so loved in her prime. She was simply the best thing anyone had seen to that point. No figure before her (or since, really) had as much support, content (free and purchasable) or devotion as V4. And that's because people fell in love with her. It's what made them WANT to buy stuff for her.
Genesis 9 has similar potential for me. They are, by far, the most realistic figure I have ever seen.
Now, for the cons...
It's very strange to me to see what Genesis 9 is missing. No Iris or lip parameters in the surface tab? Limited adjustability of legs and hips? Why do the thighs seem so long and the shins so short once I start dialing in a character? With no option to scale them independently, I sometimes end up with something that looks, just - off. And with no practical way to fix it, I feel a little less satisiified with the character I'm creating. Is it just me? It just brings me back to that first point of desiring a positive experience and really wanting to fall in love, you know?
For the most part, I really do like Genesis 9. The realism is very impressive and being able to create unique and diverse characters right from the start without needing to invest right away in plus plus shapes or morphs, is certainly going to encourage me to keep creating them. And wanting to create for them.
9/10 stars. 
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Comments
The intention is that this is now addressed on a texture map level, with things like LIE masks; surface zones create a hard transition that is often very apparent, so they weren't great practice anyway.
It also often wasn't uncommon for some assets to use an entire new set of texture maps just for the lips zone, which was horribly inefficient from a texture use perspective.
You can use the actual posing scale controls for this - and these can either be linked into a controller if desired, or baked permanently to a morph via the normal export/Morph Loader workflow.
I'd like to know why the G9 figure is substantially smaller than the G8's.
Hey! Thanks for the feedback!
I agree this way the lips look better, but trying to figure it out as a "newbie" was extremely frustrating. I had lip options available to me that I couldn't figure out how to use.
Who knows? I may end up liking it better in the long run.
The leg thing though... Maybe I'm missing something? I only see a single "Scale" option in the parameters tab, which adjusts the leg's entire scale on all axis. It wasn't very satisfactory for making the adjustment (on the y axis only) where I want to make it. The only other option I found adjusts the legs length in it's entirety and didn't allow me to make proportional adjustments of the thighs and shins independently. Again, if there is a better way, I didn't discover it as a first time user.
Mostly, I really like Genesis 9. I'm looking forward to seeing what becomes of them.
Thanks again for chiming in! I like to hear these things! Helps me learn too.
Wow. The whole short shins thing. I thought it might have been me. It just looks wrong no matter how I created my characters.
Another thing that I'm not quite sure about is the HD-Only nipples. It's relatively difficult to not get poke through with genesis 3 - 8.1 with them relying on HD so much, but Genesis 9's are completely absent. So either a primtive collider somehow or run the simulation at HD? Not a fan.
Those gripes aside, I know that one day I'll fall in love with Genesis 9. Just not today.
Working with G9 everyday, I can say the mesh is much better than any previous generations
Since I'm pretty good in ZBrush changing the shape and even hight of limbs is no big deal for me but if there are not controls to actually shorten/lengthen the legs seems like it should have been included. If you Show Hidden parameters and then select the leg parts and use the Y Scale you can get the length you want.
Essentials (which is free/included) has a series of Proportion shapes; these mix scaling with good adjustments to make them work better. Proportion Leg Length will adjust the legs and move the body down accordingly.
https://www.daz3d.com/genesis-9-body-shapes is a highly recommended product for lots of extra tinker shapes.
And, as always, there's Sickleyield's fun free product:
https://www.deviantart.com/sickleyield/art/SY-Free-Morphs-Merchant-Resource-G9-942186079
Thanks, Oso!
Great tip, RAMWolff Thank you! Good to know!
I would definitely recommend getting https://www.daz3d.com/genesis-9-essential-shapes-bundle if you want to start using G9 a lot and create your own characters. If you don't have it yet, wishlist it and wait for a good sale. The https://www.daz3d.com/genesis-9-starter-essentials-expansion is in that (as well as Oso's recommend pack) and includes a ton of new eyebrows that can really change how your face looks and allows you to customize your character so much!
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/600236/head-games is a fun way to see what kinds of things you can do with faces and if you decide to buy any characters, remember that you can make them the opposite gender with a few dial spins. Keep a look out for characters that have mats for both male and female nipples since they are in different locations - not all do. I've seen quite a few DO character threads showing off the male as female and vice versa. =)
LOL!
I think Richard's been in here. 
Thank you, Shimrian! Much appreciated!
Thanks so much for this RAMWolff!
It took a little bit of sleuthing to find what I needed to understand, but once I did, it worked PERFECTLY!
(here's the thread where I found it:)
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/15149/unhide-a-parameter#:~:text=You have to globally show,turn hidden properties back off).&text=OK%2C%20That%20worked.
Below I've included a picture to help anyone in the future who might want this. (@Dartanbeck)
I know. And then I also bought the Essentials Bundle.
Use the Legs Length control and the shins stay short, the thigh grow longer. So I told myself (before I stopped trying to work with G9 - Temporarily, of course) that I'll just render from the knees up.
Definitely not contesting that.
My biggest hold-back right now is that I need the Genesis 9 market to mature a bit more (certainly not RawArt - you've been really going to town!). While there is a Massive amount available already, it's not the right stuff yet.
I thought Ally 9 was going to do it, but her upper lip... hmmmm.
There's also an issue - it's been a while so I don't remember whether it was rendering, simulation... something. When I'd get to a certain point in my workflow, DS would consistently crash hard. Boom. Out go the lights.
I'm fairly certain it's my computer - but it only happens when I'm working with Genesis 9
...and that might be due to having to run simulations in Viewport Collision mode with the character on HD in order to prevent shirts from having nipple poke through them.
When this animation is done rendering, I may just give Genesis 9 another shot today.