Help with the Gen4 stuff in Daz4.x

cybertommy

Thanks in advance for any help in catching me up.

I have tons of Gen4, and what I am asking is if there is a way to get Daz4.5 or .6 to load up the morphs for Vic4 and all so that I can apply them like I did in Daz3.

For instance, I installed Michael4 and then monster head morphs - which don't require Morphs++. I loaded Mike4 with no problem, but the morphs won't apply from content library. I click them and pull them on, and they don't work.

What's my fate with the old stuff? All those morphs of no use - making a lot of the Gen4 stuff not applicable in Daz4? Or is it simply my lack of understanding on how to use the Gen4 stuff in Daz4?

And in general, how do you all work with the Gen4 stuff in Daz4? Tips or tricks? Any help much appreciated.

DZ_jared

Morphs for Gen 4 products work the same in DAZ Studio 4.x as the did in DAZ Studio 3. Remember with Gen 4 products you have to first inject the morph from the Content Library Tab. Injecting the morph doesn't automatically dial the morph in most cases, it just creates the morph channel. Once you've injected the morph you have to go into the Parameters Pane and dial the morph.

Gen 4 morphs are tied to certain regions of the figure instead of the whole figure. This means that if it is a partial body morph you will have to have the joint that the morph is tied to selected before the joint shows up.

jestmart

The same way you used them DS 3, point DS 4's Content Directory Manager to the content / library folder the Gen4 figures are in just like DS 3. Only have Gen4 figures installed in only one content / library folder. If you recently re-installed using DIM then initializing will not auto-run, find the batch files in Runtime/Libraries/!DAZ and run them manually.

cybertommy

THANKS Jared! You have helped me out once again.
(Dunno why I didn't think of that. The morphs are parameter channels, of course. Duh.)

Okay, a recap. I installed Michael4 with the download manager.
Then I installed Michael4 Creature Creator Morphs with the download manager.
Creature Creator only requires the basic Michael4, and not Morphs++ --- which is was I chose it to begin with.

After installation:
In the SMART CONTENT tab on the left under the FIGURES tab, Michael4 shows up as a character to put into the scene.
Note that once you put Mike into the scene he is automatically selected --- and so the tab in the Smart Content no longer shows Mike as an option.
If you deselect Mike in the SCENE tab on the right then his icon reappears in the Smart Content tab --- and you could put him in again, if you wanted to.

Then --- this is the way I did it on my second try, having a little more knowledge of DAZ4:
In the CONTENT LIBRARY tab on the right I chose the PRODUCTS tab in the left-most file category window.
This brought up another file window with LETTERS (A to Z) for the first letter of any content that you have installed.
I then chose M for Michael --- and got three options (for what I had installed so far) --- Magus For Genesis --- Michael 4 --- and, Michael4 Creature Creature Morphs.
I chose the Creature Creater Morphs and the morphs appeared in the window below the file windows.

What I did first was to go to the scene tab and select Michael's head.
I then went back to the Content Library tab and clicked a head morph.
Going to the PARAMETERS tab, I found the head morph (parameter slider) right where it should be.

Ah-hah. Cool. But I thought it might be a daunting task to load all the morphs in their individual body parts.
But then in the selection of morphs window in the Content Library I found the one that was labeled INJ CREATURE M4.
I went back to the scene tab and selected Michael4 (the overall model) then went back to the morphs window and clicked the INJ CREATURE M4 file.
And presto --- apparently this installed ALL THE MORPHS onto Michael in their proper places...
because I scrolled through quite a few and they all seemed to be in place.

Question: am I correct so far?
This appears to be a way to install the morphs for Gen4 characters like Mike, all at once.

And: Jestmart, is this what you were referring to in regard to the batch files?

And Jared: when you said:
Gen 4 morphs are tied to certain regions of the figure instead of the whole figure. This means that if it is a partial body morph you will have to have the joint that the morph is tied to selected before the joint shows up.

Did you mean to say, before the MORPH PARAMETER SLIDER shows up in whatever joint or body part it applies to?
Otherwise I am not sure what you mean.
(But I am glad you mentioned it.)

Bottom line: it appears as if all my older Gen4 stuff will interface and work just fine with DAZ4.
This makes me pretty happy --- due to the fact that I had a computer crash that wiped out all my old DAZ3 and Gen4 installed products.
I was quite sad that I had to go through all that installation again --- and with a new program that I hadn't become familiar with.
Now I know that at least all my old stuff will work, morphs included, in DAZ4.
And to a great degree this makes me a happy camper.

I owe you some gratitude, guys.
Hope this long post helps others in the same way.

Thank you.

jestmart

No, I meant the DzCreateExP batch files, these create the necessary channels for the morphs in the cr2 figure file. When I installed with DIM these were not ran automatically, perhaps it was the early version of DIM or that I don't have CMS running. Glad you got everything working.

cybertommy

Oh, I see. I was unfamiliar with these batch files.
DzCreateExP batch files --- good to know.
Thanks Jest.

fixmypcmike

When you install with DIM it runs the DzCreateExPFiles as well.