Novica & Forum Members Tips & Product Reviews Pt 13
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Everyone that buys Interactive licenses - there is a sale today on them $10 each for all PA Interactive Licenses. That means for most PA items you can buy interactive licenses for most of them cheaper than they've ever been available. To be sure if that's the cheapest price ever though you need the Pricing History chart that is made availble via the DAZ Deals browser plugin. Some I saw, mainly licenses that cost less than $50 to begin with, have been availble cheaper in other sales less than $10 than the $10 they are today. I just bought 6 Interactive Licenses for 6 urban sets (Favreal, Aurelio, Stonemason). Well worth the $240 saving that haven't been available before. Who knows though, maybe they will make these prices a regular feature now, the $5 DAZ Originals sales have been going on for weeks now. Just a heads up in case it's just a short sale.
Well, Sally is about to be named, is at Miami at the moment and headed into the Gulf of Mexico. Going into Louisiana / Mississippi area, but for those who aren't aware, predicted to be a Category 1 or even a Category 2, according to the update just now. Many models are showing Cat 2. We're going to get about 3-8" of rain, but I've been through this before. When Nate was a threat of that same magnitude with rain, it barely drizzled here. (Nate went west of this area too.) With Hurricane Laura a few weeks ago, it was nice and balmy with the breezes, we did get 4" of rain but we NEED IT. Unfortunately Sally is going to slow down as she approaches the coast and that was how Michael became a Cat 5 (and totally NOT predicted to even be a 3 until the last minute, then barreled up to a 4, then 5.)
This is interesting from the ReadMe for the Character Converter from Genesis 3 Female to Genesis 8 Female
2020-06-16
Added G2-G8 2020 Conversion Method (non-merchant resource method)
I own the competing product from another PA but if this PA's 2 G3F to G8F / G3M to G8M products are expanded to include G2 to G8 than it's well worth the price if they do a good job and are easy to use.
Have you this product? Is it easy to use? Do you like the results?
@nonesuch I just watched the video and took notes, I want to take a break from doing folders, files, photos, so may take it for a spin. I'll let you know if I do (and share my notes. I jotted down the main ideas/steps from the video, I'll see if it's enough to putz with it.) Do watch the video on the product page, to get a feel for it. I like that he covers what to do if you get a "no new files found" statement. Some of the metadata may be messed up (not by him) and he shows a way to get around it. :) My plan is to test Shania
I find it difficult to believe that Riversoft would have just folded the G2-G8 conversion into the G3-G8 converters, given that he sells G2-G8 converters already.
Well, right now I frankly don't like my success with this product. I went step by step, of course got the no new files, did the unchecking of the "Check Content Type When Adding Files" and then that didn't work, so then did the force convert thing, still wouldn't work, etc. And this is starting to ring an unfortunate bell for me- I do believe strongly I HAVE tried this before. I wrote down meticulous step by step notes, and watched the video again and did the step by step, and still won't work. The commercial thread also has people who had trouble (I didn't read the entire thread, some folks gave up, probably some got it solved. The vendor is very helpful.) I also tried the scene converter gizmo in this product, that worked fine for the morphs, no materials, but I couldn't find any sliders/where it went. NOTHING in the shaping pane, no matter where I looked. I broke all of it down and looked at every section in the shaping pane.
I don't have time for this right now so I'm giving it a thumbs down for NOW, it is not simple to me (I own this is my trying it), but if someone like me who writes tutorials can't follow a video AND my precise notes and get a desired outcome then I can't in good faith agree this a simple to use product. The character I tried is NOT complicated.
I even shut down the studio and reopened, and can't find the character preset (when doing it the first way, the second one supposedly does sliders for the morphs in shaping pane doing the second way. No luck there either.)
I created a !G3 Conversions folder in the Content Library>People>Genesis 8 Female> Characters and the folder remains empty (after using the first option and doing a force conversion, but no surprise there as the error button just kept coming up after the force was executed.
Again, I had already gone to the options and turned off "Check Content Type When Adding Files" even before I tried the force conversion. Right now I think this is a no-go on recommending it. (I am not giving up. Going to start from scratch and do the video step by step again.)
Maybe it's because it's for the non-commercial aspect? Can't be used as a merchant resource?
Thanks for your effort!
@nonesuch00
Here's Shania, just using the second option which is to do the "scene." You load a G8 and the G3 character and select both in Scene. The eye materials don't transfer right though, you lose some of that wonderful detail. Anyone tried this and have a fix for the eyes? Shania original is on our right. The morphs look good though.
So after I created her using the scene method, there's no sliders, no nada in Content Library (remember I don't have much loaded in my studio, so it's easy to find.) There's no morphs main category, no morphs under Genesis 8 Female, nothing. There's no character preset, and the vendor said there wouldn't be so that's not an error. But here's the thing- when I select the G8F with those morphs now on her, I can't save as a Character preset (which when doing a Google search, I should be able to do.) It says I must save as a Support Asset first. Not sure where THAT shows up, and how I use THAT to go to a Character Preset.
UGH.
I found this thread, but you know what, forget all that. I think I'll just save her as a scene subset and put a folder under that which says G3F to G8F. I can load her in any scene I want then. Any reason that wouldn't work?
Edit- works like a charm. And she loads in the scene quickly. Good enough for me, I'll know my converted characters are scene subsets. I've had enough with fiddling with this program other than using that convert scene option. It works fast, other than the eyes not being exact it's good at what it does.
Original LY Wilder is on the LEFT.
It takes about a minute and a half to use the convert in scene option, LY's Wilder definitely has the eyebrows changed when converted. So did the eyes- one almost looks like liner.
What happens for those who haven't done this converter- you click the button, it does the morphs. Then since most the G3 characters share the same UV as with G8, you simply go to the G3 character you did and apply the materials to the G8 gal. (select G8 in Scene) If you have custom characters based on say, Aiko 8 or any of the other named gals, you'd use the Genesis 3 Character UVs product to handle the seams. (Click and done.)
TIP: A few things- do NOT move your figures (you must load the G8 and G3 character) at all, and leave them in the zero pose. CTRL to select the second one in Scene pane, NOT SHIFT. Shift and it won't work, you'll get a popup continuously saying to select the characters (either G3 or G8.) You MUST CTRL to select the second one.
One last one, this is EJ Casiopea. Original is on the left, Genesis 8 is on the right. Getting some sleep so going offline now. If anyone else has played with the converter, feel free to post your results. :)
I have the male G2M-G8M version, and I'm surprised that saving as a scene subset works. Studio must somehow save the morph as part of the scene, the way it can do with Fit Control. Otherwise, without the morph being saved as a support asset, it wouldn't be there to be found when you reload the scene.
I do find XTransfer a bit easier to use than Character Converter. That said, Riversoft Art provides excellent service. (Zev0 generally does as well, but I haven't had to work with him as intensively as I wound up working with RA.) He worked with me on a transfer that was very very painful. The one thing he did note, as we worked through it, is that characters from Renderosity may need special handling, because Character Converter relies in part on metadata, and characters from Rendo frequently don't have much.(The main slider for the character I transfered was originally transferred as "Unknown Genesis 2 Male" and had to be redone. Because of that, he said that "for renderosity characters, I would use the Custom Character conversion script.")
XTransfer is better (and easier) at eyes, I've found, while Character Converter is better at handling bodies that may be slightly wonky. If needed, I'd probably use XTransfer first with Character Converter as the backup for a failed XTransfer. (which is what I did, in fact.)
You can't save as a Character Preset without saving as a Support Asset first because in that case, Studio doesn't save the morph at all, either as an asset or as part of the scene. It's just stuck in the temp directory somewhere, and when you close the scene, it disappears. If you then try to use the Character preset, Studio will start throwing missing files messages -- and the file will actually be missing, because it's no longer in the temp directory.
To save as a support asset: File menu - Support Asset (at the bottom of the menu) - Morph Assets - then scroll through, find, select the specific morph you need to save. That said, I'm not sure how that would work if there's no slider for the character visible in the Currently Used part after you transfer the character to G8. I don't remember if I used the Scene method or not -- I'm not entirely sure what you mean there.
Ahem:
https://www.daz3d.com/character-converter-from-genesis-2-male-to-genesis-8-male-
https://www.daz3d.com/character-converter-from-genesis-2-female-to-genesis-8-female-
As I say, XTransfer struck me as easier to use, but then, I specifically picked up Character Converter to deal with a GenX G2-G3-G8 transfer that went south on me, on the principle that a direct G2-G8 transfer ought to work better (GenX G2-G3 had a problem with the mouth area that XTransfer made worse, but XTransfer had no problem with the rest of the body or the eyes. Character Converter handled the worst issues with the mouth and made it easy to deal with the rest, but the eyes went impressively weird.)
No, I do that for characters I dial in & make a mish-mash of different shader settings even using four to six different material sets for a character's skin. E.G.: one material set for diffuse, one material set for normals, bumps, displacements, one material set for glossy/specularity, one material set for transparent color, one material set for eyes, one material set for teeth and mouth. Likewise mixing morphs from different products. That's a lot of work so then I save that all as a scene subset because it saves the hair, clothing, pose, expression and props parented to the character that I check. I uncheck the sets, lights, and cameras although that's not strictly required if keeps the subset to the character (I consider hair & clothing essential to a character).
Yep, Scene Subset works very well. I just made a G3F to G8F folder and there they go! No messing with support assets or any additional steps required. @vwrangler- Thanks, appreciate the input. I'll get around to trying the other product one of these days :) I'm done experimenting at the moment. If I want to do the characters with different makeup, eye, or lip colors, I'd just make individual folders for them, just like in the Characters section. (Unless they're just the basic G3/G8 materials, those can just be easily applied. The custom gals are the ones with seam problems.)
Going to get some sleep, but thought you'd like to see the weather for here tomorrow: (day only, night has more rain)
Tropical storm in the morning; hurricane conditions; flooding and isolated tornadoes are possible
Winds 45 mph Wind Gusts 64 mph
Probability of Precipitation 84% Probability of Thunderstorms 53% Precipitation 1.50 in
Rain 1.50 in Hours of Precipitation 11
Just saw the weather update for your storm. Not sure exactly if heading directly for you as the graphics were getting mixed up, but looks like a slow moving rain-maker and no matter where in path, areas going to get soaked or flooded. I hope your neighborhood safe, along with the stables, and your mother's home.
Sally has slowed a lot and may strenghten to a strong catagory 2. While the track is still to the west of you the storm is so broad that it looks like you may get a lot of rain and tropical storm force winds for a long time. I hope you all do well and come out OK with no injuries or damage.
The barn owner kept all the horses in today (I wouldn't have, it didn't even hardly rain and was actually a nice day overall.) So I went out at 3pm and put Stetson in his pasture for an hour. First thing he did was ROLL in the dirt. But hey, he was happy. I brushed him off when I brought him back in. The barn cat went around with me as I was photographing. It was a nice, balmy 15mph breeze, quite lovely, and only started sprinkling about 4:15p as I was leaving. The entire barn got carrots.
Here's the summary of what is going on- Levi Cowen, of TropicalTidbits.com, said yesterday if this storm got stronger, it would move East. So this morning, I expected it to do that when they jumped the winds from 60 to 90. Sure enough. Levi is SO good. It seemed ass-backward to me, he said the stronger the storm, the more it WOULD get picked up by the front that's to the west. I would think the stronger, the more it could push back. You can watch the video from yesterday (or maybe it was the day before) over on his site.
Now they're actually talking about a low end Category 3 (110 is predicted right now, but 111 is Category 3) but it's the fact this stupid thing is going to only crawl at a snail's pace. Don't worry about me, we got 17" of rain in an HOUR AND A HALF about 5 years ago, my house is on the side of the street which is elevated with a yard gently sloping down to the street. I will not flood. Mom will have storm shutters put up if the cone switches over even more, and their patios are covered so water won't be pouring down right by their doors. The patios all face a huge yard, not concrete, so that helps. I'll keep you posted. We may lose power, I do have an entire house generator, but not sure about keeping internet connection if cell towers, etc go down.
So if you don't hear from me, don't worry :) Do worry about that storm coming off the coast of Africa, at 50% already and supposed to come straight across and into the Caribbean over a week from now. Here we go again.
Edit- right now, gusts are 25mph. Tomorrow at 2pm, supposed to be steady at 55 mph and gusts to 73 mph.
Beautiful area and animals! Hope the storm is gentle.
Thanks for the update! Love the pictures. The cat, wow is that the model for DAZ House Cat?
Stay safe! you treat the horses so nicely (carrots and all)
Well, update. The Weather Channel reports 30 mph winds with higher gusts, and I'd say that's about right but that would be for the gusts, not the steady wind. Even the gusts aren't going to 30 at this point. I'm probably only 35 minutes driving time to the beach, too. The barn is about 20 minutes away. It's been raining, but just lightly, no downpours. I'll be going out to take Stetson out of his stall again later today unless it gets worse. Sally has slowed to 2 mph, which no one predicted- they said 5 mph. We walk at about 3 mph, if that puts it in perspective- we could all out WALK this storm moving forward. They've dropped the max winds now down to 85 mph, so flooding is going to be the main thing, not the wind, until this thing MOVES. (Looking out the window right now it's just nice and balmy.)
Anyway, going through my products and still pointing out little odds and ends. Maria's Dressing Room has adorable knick-knacks. Look at the little white kitty ring holder!
Oh wow, and that is a product I somehow completely overlooked. The little kitty is adorable, but I'm just as impressed by the dressmaker's dummy. Not something you see a lot in 3D world...
:) Agree! It also has poses, all drawers open and close. It's a set which definitely deserves consideration, as the props can be used in other sets too. I often buy products without giving them a thorough going-over, particularly if the price is good/ really low. I don't remember seeing this one before LOL!
I've recently finished reorganising my zip/back-up directories (at least the DAZ ones - still have the other stores to do, and don't even mention freebies....), and I've started going through installed items as well. It's surprising the treasures hiding in plain sight (and embarrassing how many things I've never even rendered). And I've wishlisted that set.
Fun story
Beaver Doesn't Give a 'Dam' as It Gets Police Escort in Germany
https://www.yahoo.com/news/beaver-doesnt-dam-gets-police-140253848.html
Here's a Facebook video for you, showing the current conditions. We have a tornado warning for an area 5 minutes from here driving time (not moving my way) and as you all probably know, the stupid hurricane has shifted east and I will be in the eyewall without relief from the eye, for most the night through possibly noon tomorrow. So getting off the forums and monitoring things as I'm sure there will be more tornadoes. Don't worry, I have a NOAA weather radio and it's working, believe me LOL. I do really like the one I've got, it doesn't keep going off obnoxiously. Once you answer it / listen to it, the warning button keeps flashing but you don't get every little update. It's like it knows you are not an idiot needing to hear it every five minutes.
Gotta go but this will give you an idea of my front yard 45 minutes ago at 11pm Central.