Texture (UV) and morph compatibility: DAZ Gen(eration) 1 to 4; Gen(esis) 1, 2, 3, 8 and (beyond ?)

3dcheapskate

I've always been confused about which figures within a particular generation can use each others textures and/or morphs straight out of the box, i.e. without the need for any conversion utility.

I'm currently reinstalling all my DAZ and Poser content, so now seems an ideal time to get to the bottom of this.

I plan to be editing the following posts, one for each generation, on and off for quite a while. Initially there'll be lots of empty space, some questions, and lots of statements about my understanding of this, much of which may be incorrect. But I hope that it'll gradually become more accurate.

Thanks to Lissa_xyz for the link to the official DAZ Compatibility Matrix: What Works With What . It only covers generations 4, 5 and 6, and the formatting appears to be screwed up (it's just a huge scrolly list at present). 

Links to the posts below for specific generations:

• Generation 1
• Generation 2: Victoria 2, etc
• Generation 3: Victoria 3, etc
• Generation 4: Victoria 4, etc
• Generation 5: Genesis
• Generation 6: Genesis 2
• Generation 7: Genesis 3
• Generation 8: Genesis 8 (the genesis suffix being set to match the generation)

Further posts on specific things:

• Reinstalling Generation 1-4 for use in Poser 11

 

3dcheapskate

Generation 1: Victoria, Michael, (Stephanie?), (Aiko?), (Millennium Boy?), (Millenium Girl?), (Millenium Baby?)

I've taken the liberty of posting screenshots of the details pages from my product library for the generation 1 characters that I have (mostly from my other account) Victoria, Stephanie, and Aiko.

The product pages for these three lassies no longer seem to exist.

I'm not actually sure whether Stephanie, Aiko, Millenium Boy/Girl/Baby belong to generation 1 or 2.

Aiko doesn't have a distinct geometry - she uses the same OBJ as Stephanie. (discovered this while looking through my newly re- installed files)

 

3dcheapskate

Generation 2: Victoria 2, Michael 2, (Stephanie?), (Aiko?), (Millennium Boy?), (Millenium Girl?), (Millenium Baby?)

The only explicitly labelled generation 2 figures that I have are Victoria 2 and Michael 2.

I recall that V2 and M2 are identical to V1 and M1, ecept that they have additional morphs.

As mentioned in the previous (generation 1) post I'm not sure whether Stephanie, Aiko, and the Millenium Boy/Girl/Baby were generation 1 or 2.

 

3dcheapskate

Generation 3: Victoria 3 (V3), Michael 3 (M3), Aiko 3 (A3), Hiro 3 (H3), Stephanie Petite (SP or SP3), David, The FREAK, The Girl*, Millennium Kids Preschoolers Matt + Madison), Millennium Kids Young Teens (Luke + Laura), Millennium Baby 3.0

This generation saw the introduction of the Unimesh (according to the product library/store pages for several generation 3 figures)

I got the impression that this meant that all the generation 3 figures used exactly the same base mesh, just sculpted differently. 

Did they all have the same UV mapping? Looking at the details for the base figures in my product library pages the phrase "Compatible with unimesh based DAZ figures" appears on some. On others it's more specific.

 

*I think that The Girl was generation 3, but her default UV mapping was different, although she also had a V3 compatible UV set.

 

Here's what my product library pages say about the generation 3 lads: Michael 3, Hiro 3, David, and The Freak

3dcheapskate

Generation 4:

Victoria 4 and Michael 4 were the two base figures (there was also the Kids 4). All the other characters, Aiko 4, Hiro 4, etc were morphs of these base figures.

The official DAZ Compatibility Matrix includes all the generation 4 characters (I think), but the layout's currently a bit messed up

 

Using male generation 4 textures on female generation 4 figures and vice versa (this may be Poser specific)

I can't recall where they originally came from, but I've had several 'M4withV4UVs.cr2' type files since as far back as I can remember.

For example, to use V4 UVs on M4 I use a version of the 'blMilMan_m4b.obj' but with V4 UVs (mine is '!blMilMan_m4b+V4UV.obj'). You then simply need to change the two 'figureResFile' lines in the CR2 to use this alternate OBJ (and save it as a new file with a different name of course!).

I may have just replaced the UVs from a standard M4 CR2 with those from a standard V4 CR2

 

Using M4 and V4 morphs on the Kids 4

I used araneldon's ShareCG freebie  Mix K4M4V4 morphs , which is basically a very small CR2 file as follows. It's the 'M4/V4channels.pz2' that's the important/clever/tedious stuff.

number 6
}
readScript ":Runtime:Libraries:Character:DAZ People:The Kids 4.cr2"
readScript ":Runtime:Libraries:Morphs:araneldon:M4channels.pz2"
readScript ":Runtime:Libraries:Morphs:araneldon:V4channels.pz2"
}

 

I also used the same approach to create M4 CR2s with V4 morphs and vice versa. I'm not sure if you can just inject V4 morphs into M4 and vice versa, because of that DzCreateExpFiles thingy you need to run after installing a generation 4 addon figure for M4, V4 or K4.

3dcheapskate

Genesis (Generation 5):

The official DAZ Compatibility Matrix includes a fair number of  generation 5 characters, but the layout's currently a bit messed up

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Genesis 2 (Generation 6):

​The official DAZ Compatibility Matrix includes a fair number of  generation 5 characters, but the layout's currently a bit messed up

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Genesis 3 (Generation 7):

 

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Thanks to vwrangler for pointing out that Genesises 4, 5, 6, and 7 never existed.  After generation 7 (Genesis 3) DAZ decided to realign the Genesis suffix with the generation number.

Genesis 8 (Generation 8):

 

3dcheapskate

Reinstalling Generation 1-4 for use in Poser 11

(This post is mainly to remind myself of what I'm doing)

Start off with generation 1/2 because I've got very little of that.

1) Download the manual installation zip files afresh from my product library. Since I only have a small amount of gen 1 content I'll put it all in a single runtime.

2) Unzip them all to a new external '/DAZ/Gen 1,2/' runtime

• Delete all 'Weblinks' folders
• Delete all 'DS_Store' files
• Convert all RSRs to PNGs using Dizzi's converter 1.0.0.2 from Renderosity freestuff
• Delete all RSRs

3) Make some minor edits to the CR2s (I don't like figures loading with Hip selected and the figure name just Figure)

• Chage defaultPick to BODY if it exists (leave the :1 or whatever suffix as it is). It's usually set to Hip, which I find annoying. If defaultPick doesn't exist then the figure won't be selected after loading, so I want to add it. defaultPick goes in the figure section after any addChild and/or inkyChain but before any weld, immediately before the displayOn
• Change internal name to same as CR2 - 2 places
  •    in second 'actor BODY' statement, 'name' - this is what will appear on the Body Part drop-downs above the preview and parameter panes when Body is selected. The default 'GetStringRes(1024,1)' gives the annoying 'Figure 1'
  •    in 'figure' statement, 'name' - this is what will appear on the Figure drop-down above the preview window.
• Note: for step 3 I use Notepad++, search for 'name' to get the name in the BODY actor, then search for 'defaultPick', and finally search backwards for 'figure'.
• The generation 2 figures (Michael/Victoria 2, their reduced resolution counterparts, and the P4-compatible counterparts of those 4) are already set up as I want

4) Reorganize the subfolders.

The pose library usually ends up containing a mixture of skin texture poses, morph poses, and physical poses (stances) for each base figure, plus clothing-specific and hair-specific material and adjustment poses. There's also quite often some utility (e.g. hide/show) poses.

3dcheapskate

reserved for stuff

 

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reserved for stuff

 

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reserved for stuff

 

3dcheapskate

Okay, that's all the placeholders done. Thread now open for responses. I'll try to update the posts above as things become clear to me.

vwrangler

Genesis 4-5-6-7 do not and never did exist. Daz jumped from 3 to 8 to avoid having Michael/Victoria 4 for Generation 4, and Michael/Victoria 8 for Genesis 4, which would have been massively confusing. It just made sense to make the character and generation numbers agree.

Lissa_xyz

There's this. The layout used to be better. I can't make heads or tails of the way it looks now. I don't know if it's missing the CSS to style it or what.

https://www.daz3d.com/compatibility-matrix

3dcheapskate

vwrangler said:

Genesis 4-5-6-7 do not and never did exist. Daz jumped from 3 to 8 to avoid having Michael/Victoria 4 for Generation 4, and Michael/Victoria 8 for Genesis 4, which would have been massively confusing. It just made sense to make the character and generation numbers agree.

 

: FACEPALM : !

I knew that ! My brain just forgot to remind me...

I even recall posting to a thread about it a few years back suggesting (retrospectively) that DAZ should have called the character 'Regenesis'  to avoid the confusion about Gens*. 

Of course I knew that {InsertArbitraryNameHere} 5 is for Genesis, 6 is for Genesis 2, 7 is for Genesis 3, and 8 is for the current version of Genesis.

 

*And that's before anyone starts thinking about toast !

Ascania

3dcheapskate said:

Gen(eration) 3: Victoria 3 (V3), Michael 3 (M3), Aiko 3 (A3), Hiro 3 (H3), Stephanie Petite (SP or SP3), The FREAK, The Girl*

This generation saw the introduction of the Unimesh.

Unimesh was Generation 4.

Also, Millennium Girls and Boys were Gen 1/2, Millennium Kids YT/PS were Gen 3 too.

3dcheapskate

Lissa_xyz said:

There's this. The layout used to be better. I can't make heads or tails of the way it looks now. I don't know if it's missing the CSS to style it or what.

https://www.daz3d.com/compatibility-matrix

 

That's the sort of thing ! I've added a link at the start of the OP.

It's a shame that it only covers Generations 4, 5 and 6.

The formatting problem's probably a side-effect of the website rework ? Hopefully they'll get that fixed if somebody reports it.

3dcheapskate

Ascania said:

3dcheapskate said:

Gen(eration) 3: ...

This generation saw the introduction of the Unimesh.

Unimesh was Generation 4.

...

 

That's what I thought until I re-downloaded all the generation 3 stuff a few days ago and re-read what it says on the product and store pages.

E.g. on the Hiro 3.0 store page... it clearly states "Advanced Unwrapped UV Mapping Co,mpatible with Unimesh-Based DAZ Figures."...

 

 

I'm currently adding product library page screenshots to the Generation 3 post earlier, and some of them mention unimesh.

• M3 explicitly mentions unimesh
• H3 explicitly mentions unimesh
• David specifies textures are compatible with V3/M3
• The Freak specifies textures are compatible with V3/M3

 

 

Ascania said:

Also, Millennium Girls and Boys were Gen 1/2, Millennium Kids YT/PS were Gen 3 too.

Yes, that's what I've got noted down - I hadn't added those yet.

Not forgetting the Millenium Baby (Gen 1/2) and Millennium Baby 3.0 (Gen 3)

 

Ascania

3dcheapskate said:

Ascania said:

3dcheapskate said:

Gen(eration) 3: ...

This generation saw the introduction of the Unimesh.

Unimesh was Generation 4.

...

 

That's what I thought until I re-downloaded all the generation 3 stuff a few days ago and re-read what it says on the product and store pages.

E.g. on the Hiro 3.0 store page... it clearly states "Advanced Unwrapped UV Mapping Co,mpatible with Unimesh-Based DAZ Figures."...

I think that was actually added to the description after Gen4 came out. And I think I know where the issue stems from - with Gen 3 DAZ started experiemnting with basing all their figures on a single common mesh, though they cut it up and rigged it differently for the various figures. But the branding "Unimesh" they only came up with for Gen4.