[SOLVED] Subtle Distortion of Genesis 8 and 8.1 Female Figures
I recently set up Daz on a new PC. At first, everything was going smoothly with my projects, but then I noticed something odd about the face of one of the G8.1 F models I have used often on my older PC. Her lips were parted in the center, even though no poses had been applied. At first I thought I was imagining it, so I did several test renders on my old and new PCs, and confirmed that there is a subtle distortion of G8 and G8.1 F models on my new PC.
It looks as if the figure's entire body has shrunk inward by a very small margin. If you switch between the two attached images, you can see the subtle shift from one to the next.
After extensive testing, I have confirmed that this issue is only affecting Gen 8 and 8.1 female figures. The male Gen 8 figures are not affected, nor are Gen 3 or Gen 9. My first suspicion was that a Gen 8 figure I bought recently had been mistakenly distributed with a non-zero default value. I have not installed my recent purchases on the older PC yet, and I have encountered that issue before so it seemed a likely suspect.
However, even with hidden properties revealed on the parameters tab, I do not see anything under 'currently used' on the Gen 8.1 base figure that should not be there. Even though I saw nothing irregular, I went ahead and tried zeroing the values on the default Gen 8.1, but that had no affect.
Does anyone have any other ideas about what could be causing this?
Comments
Currently Used shows properties with non-default values, not non-zero (I would like to have an option to show all non-zero - I thought it was possible at one time).
Load the Genesis 8.1 Female Dev Build figure. Edit>Figure>Zero>Zero Figure Shape. Edit>Memorise>Memorise Figure Shape. File>Save As>Support Assets>Save Modified Assets - if you install through Install manager, Daz Central, or manually let that complete; if you install through Daz Studio itself note the problem products and uninstall them or save a Character preset and use that to load the figure.
Thank you for responding! I understand the step-by-step instructions for zeroing the figure and saving the modified assets, if I assume correctly that you are referring to the Dev Build figure that I circled in the attached image.
However, I am not sure what you are telling me to do in the part after that. What is it that I am supposed to 'let complete' at that point?
If you installed through Daz Studio itself then Save Modified Assets will not, as far as I know/recall, help as it writes its files to a different location and DS will still see the original, unmodified versions. You can work around that with a manual ,ove of the updated files, if you like (you need to find them in the main /data/daz 3d/genesis 8_1/female/morphs folder and copy them to the /data/cloud/1_SKU/ equivalent - for products from Daz only, other stores and freebie content cannot be isntalled this way so it isn't an issue).
I use Install Manager for all of my Daz content. I followed all of the steps you indicated, but the distortion is still present when I load characters into a scene. The path to the folder where Daz saved the modified file is slightly different (see attached) but I don't know if that matters. Is there any way to identify what the problem content might be? Or is it possible that something other than an installed figure is the problem?
What hapens if you do the same steps again - does it still list the same morphs as changed and needing to be saved?
@Escribano That's a tell-tale sign of a higher subdivision level. Are you sure they're the same for both models?
Mesh resolution was one of the things I checked during my troubleshooting. The subdivision level is at the default 2 on both PCs. Lowering the level does have a slight effect, but doesn't remove the distortion I am seeing.
When I run through the steps again, this time the save modified assets dialog only lists Genesis8_1Female.dsf.
Mesh resolution was one of the things I checked during my troubleshooting. The subdivision level is at the default 2 on both PCs. Lowering the level does have a slight effect, but doesn't remove the distortion I am seeing.
OK, so that certainly looks as if it has correctly saved any problem morphs.
The distortion is still there, so it must be something other than a morph. I am not sure where to look at this point.
Nope, the culprit is a morph, but which one and where is the problem. You may have several versions of that morph installed and when doing the procedure Richard explained, DS may not be updating the correct one.
What makes finding the problem morph/file more difficult, is that it may also be something a creator has included in error, like including the base mesh of G8.1 in ones product when it should never be included.
Okay, in that case, I am just going to have to do this the hard way.
The distortion is not happening on my old PC, so whatever has the morph, I haven't installed it there. I will go through the list of all the products in the DIM queue on that PC, one by one, and see if uninstalling them on the the new PC removes the distortion.
Before doing it the hard way, you could try loading the "Genesis 8.1 Female Dev Load" into an empty scene, Zero the Figure and check the "Currently Used" list, the list should now show the dials that have their current value not at their default value (value of the dial is shown in white) - One of them should be the culprit.
The only items listed under currently used are the ones shown in the attached image, which were included in the dialog when I saved the modified assets as Richard suggested.
However, when I compared this to the Genesis 8.1 Female Dev Load on my old PC, I noticed a discrepancy; the morph "3DU London Age (in years)" does not appear under Currently Used for the dev figure on my old PC. I found that morph in the parameters via search. It is listed there with a value of 9.00 as well, however, the number is gray instead of white.
The fact that it shows up under Currently Used only on the new PC is confusing. Is that significant, or just a red herring?
When the value of a dial is gray, that means the value is at default value. When the value shows in white, it's something else than default.
It should not have an effect, but you could use the gogwheel above the dials to open up their properties and uncheck "Use limits" and set the value of those dials to zero - Any changes?
Oh... Completely forgot... When you have Zeroed the Figure and are looking at "Currently Used", make sure you have "Show Hidden Properties" enabled - The problem morph may as well be a hidden one.
I zeroed out that morph and saved the modified assets again, but it did not correct the issue, sadly.
Oh, and did have Hidden Properties revealed :)
Aside from the Mesh Resolution section under parameters, is there any other area with settings that might impact subdivision level?
I am still investigating what is causing a subtle distortion of G8F and G8.1F figures that I reported in an earlier forum post (https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/618376/subtle-distortion-of-genesis-8-and-8-1-female-figures). Someone over at DeviantArt suggested the issue might be outside of Daz, and related to the machines I am running it on.
My old PC is using Windows 10, and my new PC uses Windows 11. That made me wonder if that difference is the source of my problem. I also wonder if there are other issues that I should keep an eye out for as I move forward using this new PC as my main workhorse.
Has anyone who is running Daz on a Windows 11 machine encountered any issues either in rendering scenes, or in viewing scenes within the Daz interface? Were there any workarounds that you had to apply to get Daz to function optimally on Windows 11, or did it work fine "out of the box" for you?
No issues on Windows 11 here.
Please don't start a new thread when you alerady have one open.
The purpose of the new thread was a general question regarding performance optimization issues related to Windows 11, not about the specific issue that I am having. Based on a conversation I had with some other Daz users over at DeviantArt, I began to wonder if there were any issues or system settings specific to Windows 11 that I should address to optimize my Daz performance on that OS.
Since you merged that thread under the thread about my issue, you have effectively blocked my ability to gain feedback from other users with respect to that question.
I had a similar issue last night after updating a product from a third-party site where the PA thought it would be cool to set the default for his character morph to 1 and so it was applied to all G8F figures automatically. In my case the character was a "teen" and thus the considerable height and weight shift was quite noticable. The previously listed steps by other users did enable me to fix this issue - in my case the "Save Modified Assets" dialog listed the rogue third-party morph as one of the files to be amended which I guess was a sign that the process worked.
However, like you I did have a "currently used" value for a "3DU Age in years" parameter that I couldn't shift. Mine was set to 1 but it did not appear to be messing anything up so I left it. Your value of 9 may be having more of an effect?
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/525081/windows-11-and-daz-studio/p1
My first suspicion was a character morph being applied universally as you described. However, I was not able to find any sign of that being the case. I was suspicious of that "3DU Age in Years" parameter, but it is applied to the figures on the old PC as well. I tinkered with it a bit, and even uninstalled the 3DU product it is associated with, but that did not fix the distortion.
This may be a stupid suggestion, but what about if you did the following:
I just did this on both my Mac and PC and they were identical (other than the asset_id/filename but that is irrelevant). In my case they are pulling from the same shared drive and so should be identical but perhaps if you did this then it may show some differences which could help point to what is causing it?
I then applied a morph to the figure and exported a third time and then when comparing the files I did get a bunch of changed values which were not overly helpful (other than a confirmation that there was an actual difference) but at the end there was a record of the morph and the degree to which it was applied to the figure.
Therefore, if you do the first part this may flag up some morphs that are being applied on one machine and not the other, or if they are the same it would perhaps point to perhaps the application just displaying the figure slightly differently.
Also, have you don the whole "show hidden and zero figure" on BOTH machines? It sounds like you did this on the 2nd with no difference to account for the figure being a little smaller but perhaps that is because the first machine that you assumed was the "correct" version actually has a default morph making things a little bigger and it is infact the second machine that is correct?
I wrote a script to find rogue morphs. Rogue morphs don't show up under Currently Used list, because of the way their values are set. The script works for any Genesis character. Give it a try.
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/593731/finding-rogue-morphs
I downloaded the script and tried to use it, but nothing seemed to happen. Maybe I am not using it correctly. What exactly should happen after you select the figure and run the script?