Tutorial: Making TriAx Figures from Old Parametric Characters

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Comments

  • A_C_C said:

    If needs to, I can make a mini-tutorial to show how it is done.

    Could well be useful if you did - I really like anything that can continue the useful life of these older characters. Regards, Richard.

  • SquishySquishy Posts: 460

    Hey R&T, tangentially related to this, do you have any way to separate skeleton/weight mapping from a copyrighted mesh into a form that is redistributatable? E.g. if you went through the work of doing this conversion and wanted to give it away (not that I'm doing that exactly but it's the same principle)

  • richardandtracyrichardandtracy Posts: 5,727
    edited November 2023

    Hmm.

    The place I'd look to do it is in the .dsf files attached to the figure's data folder and then look for the morph related to the shape you want, but to be honest, I have no idea which ones to look for. They'd have to be the weight mapping ones, so a list of vertex numbers and a weighting 0 to 1. Beyond that, I've not looked at that sort of thing yet. You're sort-of wanting a character distribution pack, just less the mesh deltas. It may be worth looking up some of the body shape morphs distributed at Rendo that only add a single shape morph, then see if you can find which are the rigging/weight map files in that pack as opposed to the morph deltas. The files are supposed to be in ascii, so should be readable, but if the content creator compressed the files, they'll be zipped up inside, which isn't helpful.

    Sorry to be so little help

    Regards,

    Richard

     

    Post edited by richardandtracy on
  • SquishySquishy Posts: 460

    Yeah it saves it all into a single file, mesh and skeleton and weights (morphs are separate files, that's not the hard part). What I've got is an extended skeleton and weighting for the new bones - I asked in the Nuts&Bolts forum, thanks for replying anyhow.

  • Sorry, I just don't know enough about it at the moment (or maybe 'ever').

    Regards,

    Richard

  • SquishySquishy Posts: 460

    thanks anyhow, I'll let the Nuts and Bolts post percolate for a while and see if anyone has any info

  • LeanaLeana Posts: 11,778

    Squishy said:

    Hey R&T, tangentially related to this, do you have any way to separate skeleton/weight mapping from a copyrighted mesh into a form that is redistributatable? E.g. if you went through the work of doing this conversion and wanted to give it away (not that I'm doing that exactly but it's the same principle)

    Both the rigging data and geometry data for DS figure seem to be in the same .dsf file, so I'm not sure if you could separate them.

     

    Regarding TriAx conversions, you would need to distribute derivatives of both the geometry (as original is in obj format) and rigging (since you used the original as starting point for the conversion). which wouldn't be allowed by the EULA.

     

    Maybe it would be allowed if you used something like RTE Encoder (does that still exist?) to encode it against the original figure/mesh, which means you would need to own the original to use the new file. But even if that still exists you would need to check with Daz.

  • One of the reasons for going into such a step-by-step with the tutorial was because I realised everyone would have to be creating it from scratch themselves if they want a TriAx version of the Generation 3 figures. And, knowing that an 'Autofit Clone' is actually a copy of the mesh, I have included poses to get M3 & V3 close to the shape of the Autofit target (M4, V4, G3M/F & G8F/M) so that that possible copyright infringement route is avoided.

    I haven't seen copies of the old Objaction Mover for years - I wonder if it would even work on Win7 or above.

    Regards,

    Richard

  • SquishySquishy Posts: 460

    Maybe it would be allowed if you used something like RTE Encoder (does that still exist?) to encode it against the original figure/mesh, which means you would need to own the original to use the new file. But even if that still exists you would need to check with Daz.

    well that's probably past the point where I'd just remodel the object from scratch myself, it's pretty well within my capabilities. thanks for the reply though

  • DollyGirlDollyGirl Posts: 2,656

    richardandtracy said:

    One of the reasons for going into such a step-by-step with the tutorial was because I realised everyone would have to be creating it from scratch themselves if they want a TriAx version of the Generation 3 figures. And, knowing that an 'Autofit Clone' is actually a copy of the mesh, I have included poses to get M3 & V3 close to the shape of the Autofit target (M4, V4, G3M/F & G8F/M) so that that possible copyright infringement route is avoided.

    I haven't seen copies of the old Objaction Mover for years - I wonder if it would even work on Win7 or above.

    Regards,

    Richard

    Objaction Mover 1.01 - Poser and Daz Studio Free Resources Wiki (miraheze.org) 

  • Why didn't I guess wink.

    Regards,

    Richard

  • DollyGirlDollyGirl Posts: 2,656

    Cause you are an engineer experiencing a wild risk taking moment and thought better of it.  surprise. So here is the other software that can do the same thing only different. 

    RTEncoder - Poser and Daz Studio Free Resources Wiki (miraheze.org)

  • I can confirm Objaction Mover, RTE Encoder and Morph Manager all work fine on Windows 10, at least on older files. I used all of them recently without issues. I was away from anything 3D for the better part of a decade and lost some files in the interim. I had to redownload them and go through the process of making them usable again.

  • DollyGirl said:

    Cause you are an engineer experiencing a wild risk taking moment and thought better of it.  surprise. So here is the other software that can do the same thing only different. 

    RTEncoder - Poser and Daz Studio Free Resources Wiki (miraheze.org)

    Thanks Dolly Girl, I thought it was impossible to get this anymore. 

  • A_C_CA_C_C Posts: 21

    Tutorial about using Group Morph Dials by Dimension 3D

     

    Recently RichardandTracy have published a tutorial about updating the classic Generation 3 parametric characters to use as Triax weight-mapped characters based on fan-favourite Aiko 3.

    Unfortunately their way to bring the classic Aiko 3 morphs was tedious as hell. As an old grognard of Daz Studio, having started all the way back to one of the last Beta versions, I remembered an old Poser freebie that could help with the process.

    https://www.renderosity.com/freestuff/items/31148/group-morph-dials-2

    image

    Dimension3d Group Morph Dial 2, does exactly what it says, grouping the morph dials into groups similar to the ones in Victoria 4.

    But let’s go step by step.

    1. Download the zip file from R-osity.

    2. Unzip it in a Poser directory, preferably in the one where you have Aiko 3 installed.

    3. Run Daz Studio

    4. Load Aiko 3

    5. Zero the figure as seen in Richardandtracy tutorial

    6. Go to parameters and highlight the Aiko 3 part of the figure. For some reason, that’s where the Aiko Morphs ended when we loaded the figure, it’s just to illustrate the mess we’re dealing with.

    7. Now, go toward where the poses are installed, runtime/pose/Morph Dial Groups/. You should see something like this, just with less icons (I have installed the other Morph Dial Groups freebie, you don’t need that).

    image

    8)Keeping Aiko selected use A3 Morph groups on her, you should see that now the morphs are neatly grouped.

    image

    9)Now follow Richardandtracy tutorial for converting it to Triax, and the morphs should work now.

    And this is the tutorial. If you have any problem understanding it, I’ll modify it or add further images.
     

  • SquishySquishy Posts: 460
    edited November 2023

    DollyGirl said:

    Cause you are an engineer experiencing a wild risk taking moment and thought better of it.  surprise. So here is the other software that can do the same thing only different. 

    RTEncoder - Poser and Daz Studio Free Resources Wiki (miraheze.org)

    thanks for posting this btw, looks like I'm going to go this route for various reasons.

    e: or maybe not, requires a license to work / java version is dead

    e: https://www.renderosity.com/freestuff/items/31986 apparently

    e: lol all variations on that link are dead. this hurts my feelings

    e: This link works and is not shady (posted by the author of RTEJava )

    https://www.geocities.ws/RTEJava/beta/

    Post edited by Squishy on
  • SquishySquishy Posts: 460

    Yeah you can download RTEncoder but it requires a license file, and I don't have one/don't want to encourage anyone to do anything wierd when there's a free alternative (RTEJava).

  • I just realized I've never used it to encode, so I haven't needed a license.

  • DollyGirlDollyGirl Posts: 2,656

    Squishy said:

    DollyGirl said:

    Cause you are an engineer experiencing a wild risk taking moment and thought better of it.  surprise. So here is the other software that can do the same thing only different. 

    RTEncoder - Poser and Daz Studio Free Resources Wiki (miraheze.org)

    thanks for posting this btw, looks like I'm going to go this route for various reasons.

    e: or maybe not, requires a license to work / java version is dead

    e: https://www.renderosity.com/freestuff/items/31986 apparently

    e: lol all variations on that link are dead. this hurts my feelings

    e: This link works and is not shady (posted by the author of RTEJava )

    https://www.geocities.ws/RTEJava/beta/

    I have updated the page. I found the zip for the Wayback Machine link for 2.0 version of the RTE but that will only decode. I think you need to go through the geocities link to get the license to encode. If I understand your post. Thanks for taking the time to provide the current information. 

  • SquishySquishy Posts: 460

    Well not quite, the Geocities page provides a completely free (no license required) RTEJava, from the original author, and from what has been reported to me it works OK.

  • DollyGirlDollyGirl Posts: 2,656

    Okay, looked over the wording on the page and I believe it indicates that the free version on geocites can encode and decode for free while the version from Wayback Machine only provides a free decoder. I also noticed that you made a recommendation for the need for Java Runtime Environment and where to get it if you don't have it. So my question would be what do I need to do to make it more understandable. Because of how you responded, I must not be understanding completely what you are trying to tell me. 

  • SquishySquishy Posts: 460
    edited November 2023

    No I just meant that these are actually two different programs written by different people, the original (RTEncoder) requires a license and the one that came later (RTEJava) doesn't, that's all. It's not exactly a versioning thing, they're not the same program.

    Post edited by Squishy on
  • Thanks you very much for making this readable tutorial.

  • My pleasure.

    I just hope it's both useful and used. I've learnt a lot doing it, and now I seem to have a new lease of life for an old & much appreciated character. If that same benefit can be given to others, then that's a huge and welcome bonus.

    Regards,

    Richard

  • A_C_CA_C_C Posts: 21
    edited November 2023

    Just a bit of experimenting, Aiko with Realistic morpth at 50%, Ariane texture by Creathena (a really old freebie that I used a lot back in the day), Excessive hair for G8F, MFD for G8F with the ancient Trekish texture for MFD (so ancient that I think predates V4), and Amyaimei Trek Boots for G8F.

    Post edited by Richard Haseltine on
  • That's just so good to see. Brilliant. Regards, Richard.
  • I think it may be worth asking if people who use this tutorial to breathe life back into a Generation 3 character could show their sucesses (or otherwise) in the 'Older Generation V2/3  and M2/3 and their children' thread.

    One more NVITWAS reminiscent image using the Millenium Dragon and TriAx GV3 with some modern HDRI's and volumetric fire:

    Regards,

    Richard

     

  • Andrew_CAndrew_C Posts: 105
    edited November 2023

    Ooh thanks for this, sometimes I get the hankering to use one of the old figures & while I know that they can be converted to triax, the manual seems to be missing about 15 steps. 

    Post edited by Andrew_C on
  • richardandtracyrichardandtracy Posts: 5,727
    edited November 2023

    There's a Manual?!?! I feel DS is one of the least adequately documented programs I've come across. There is so much it can do, and so much extra users would try to do if adequately documented. It's a shame.

    Regards,

    Richard.

     

    Post edited by richardandtracy on
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