Returning to 3D after a decade - sorting it all out. Some basic Daz3D questions
I've been out of this scene since 2006 or so.
But I'm looking to get back into things.
Last night I re-installed my old copy of Poser 7, and then got the latest version of Daz3D, as well as found my info for Bryce and Vue (I left these at Bryce 7pro and Vue 6i it appears).
I have been completely out of 3D Art all of this time, not even following the artists I used to follow or any of the news.
A little unsure where to go to get back into things, but it looks like Daz3D is the ideal choice now.
Am I asking this stuff in the right place?
What are my best tutorials / info on getting into Daz, especially if coming from Poser?
I have a massive library of old content in assorted runtimes that is sitting on an old storage external drive... Can I use it directly from an external drive with Daz3D?
- Can I keep my entire 'runtime' or whatever that is called in the Daz3D world, on an external drive? I've got a nice shiny new 3TB external sitting beside the old one that at present more or less has... a few random zip files and a copy of my iTunes music... as in: unused...
- Is there a good guide somewhere to doing this? I'd love to dedicate that drive to the purpose.
If I get something like the Aiko Pro Bundle, can the items in it be used with any other Genesis 2 model? Are they are more inter-compatible now than they used to be? They were just starting to work together better when I left.
Does Daz3D work well with current versions of Bryce and/or Vue? Do I even need to care, as in; has the Daz rendering engine become so good that I wouldn't care about the other apps for many projects?
Is there any specific important something I should really get aware of, that I'm missing calling out here?
Having been out of the scene so long... I'm not fully sure if I'm even asking the right questions. All I know is I stared at my newly installed copy of Daz for about an hour last night, looked at my old drive, and dreamed of doing art again... I've changed a lot in the intervening years... But I'm not really sure where to start.
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
Lots of questions, I'll see if I can answer a few.
Firstly, with regards to external drives and Daz Studio. All you need to do is set Daz Studio to look for the files on the drive. When you hook up the drive it should have a drive name, enter the path into Daz's Content Directory Manager under Preferences (F2) and it will find it.
Aiko 6 is compatible with everything Genesis 2, because she is using the Genesis 2 base mesh. Aiko 5 uses the Genesis 1 mesh and, with additional purchases, is compatible with Genesis 2 items.
The Daz render engine is plenty powerful, but as with all things getting the best out of it will take some trial and error. I'd say the learning curve is fairly smooth though, especially as there are tons of powerful shader options available in the store.
If you elaboration on any of the above, feel free to ask.
Welcome here.
You might feel a little lost but you have the basic knowledge and that is a lot. Took me a long time to understand what people are talking about starting with the vertex...
So you should look in daz store for the free tutorials nothing fantastic but a good way to see how things works. For more tuto look in the forum they are amazing things here.
you'll see we all try to help, maybe it's the good thing with the lack of documentation we all cry about. That, at least makes us trying to share knowledge and help each others.
Like HeraldOfFire said, be more specific and i am sure you'll have answers.
I will try to answer some of these.
I assume you are talking about Aiko 6. Aiko 6 is a morph of the Genesis 2 Female base character. Clothes designed for Akio 6 is really designed for the Genesis 2 Female, but the appearance may have been optimized for Aiko 6. In my experience it works fine on most other G2F characters, although it might look funny on an extreme shape, like the creature creator morphs.
You can send scenes to Bryce. I own a Bryce license but have never installed it. Currently there is no 64 bit version of Bryce.
The rendering has improved greatly in DAZ in the last several years. I have had some other 3D artist comment that they thought some of my scenes must have been rendered in Vue. I'm not sure how well Genesis 1/2 figures work in tools like Vue and I expect they would not support things like the HD morph technology. It all depends on what kind work you want to do. I have seen some great landscapes done in Bryce and Vue.
DAZ 3D is the Company DAZ Studio is the program :coolsmile:
There is actually a built in bridge from DAZ Studio to Bryce.
The idea is to set up the characters and props etc in DS and then use the bridge to add them to a Bryce environment.
There are some limitations as to what will transfer over, the most important one being that Bryce does not cope well with jpg textures which are too large in kb size or if there are too many of them,
The latest version of Bryce is Bryce_7.1.0.109.
If you want to get caught up on the various figures that DAZ 3D has released since 2006, this might come in handy: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/24257/
Thank you everyone for the advice thus far.
Bryce/Vue:
I'm looking at Bryce and Vue due to outdoor scenes and the ability to add atmosphere / fog / etc. Unless that's been added as a plugin somewhere for Daz Studio (so far all my test renders have the default light blue background...).
I noticed the send to Bryce button last night, and downloaded the current version of Bryce.
Runtimes:
Haven't set up the multiple runtimes yet - but I got all my old files copied onto my newer external, save for things that were "backed up" to CD-R back in the day on CD-R's that did not last like they claimed they would... (but I've known about that for years now, and stopped buying writable DVD / CD's even before I left the 3D world).
Auto-Fit:
I figured out 'fitting to' for items from Vicky / Aiko 4 to Genesis 2. I'll tackle Michael later... There's no equivalent I gather for the Vicky3 / Aiko3 generation? - That's where the bulk of my old content lies.
Thanks for the figure catchup link.
Aiko / Genesis 2:
I'm looking at the Aiko Pro bundle for the dual reasons of cheaper than the Vikcy Pro one, and having outfits that I like more. But I'm on the fence about which actual figure I like more, and am likely to end up morphing out some figure of my own or buying some characters for genesis 2 once I get 'back on my feet'. The pro bundles also appear to be the only places to get a 'genital morph' that is not "extreme". O.o Something that could work for a more artistic work if I went that way (and I'd hate to lock myself out of the possibility by buying pieces of a pro bundle over time and then never being able to get that last part).
And I'm going through some tutorials that will hopefully get me sorted out again soon.
If you purchase Gen 3 Iconic Shapes for Genesis it is possible to auto fit V3/A3 clothes to Genesis 1. You can then save the clothing item as a support asset. The Genesis 1 clothing item can then be auto fitted to G2F. I don't own any V3/A3 clothes and I'm not sure how well those clothing items will look after going through auto fit twice.
Auto fit is not perfect. There are various products in the store to improve how auto fit works. Genesis 1: Sickle Rigging and Morphing System, Genesis 2F: Sickle Dress Rig Genesis 2 Female. I have both of those and they do improve the results with long dresses. There are, however, limitations to what auto fit can do. I sometimes send the clothes to Hexagon to try to fix up some of the defects with auto fit.
Very handy, thanks!