what figures to use?

Drekkan

I am confused there seems to be so many different types of figures to use for male and female I mean there is Genesis, Genesis 2, Victoria 4 5 and 6 and Michael 4 5 and 6 and others like what one is the best to use? is genesis generally better than the Michael/Victoria latest models? I just trying to get info on what the best figures are to use and what would be the ones with the best textures? and what is the primary diffrences between the genesis models and the regular Michael/Victoria 4 5 and 6? thx

Richard Haseltine

Victoria 5 and Michael 5 are shapes for Genesis, Victoria 6 and Michael 6 are shapes for Genesis 2 Female and Male respectively. Which is better between Geensis and Genesis 2 will depend to an extent on your goals, though 2 is generally better than the original Genesis where they are directly comparable (but Genesis 1 has more shapes, and can mix between male and female shapes). The fourth generation figures and older are generally not as flexible, and do not bend as well, as the newer figures which use a different system. They also tend to use more memory as they are higher resolution meshes, though that did (until the advent of HD morphs with the G2F Creature Morphs) allow morph makers a bit more flexibility (not generally more detail, as the figures didn't get smoothing applied and so the extra resolution tended to be needed for smoothing the morphs in their raw state). To a large extent, possibly with additional accessories, content for the older figures can be used on the newer figures.

mark128

Genesis, Genesis 2, Victoria 4 and Michael 4 are all base figures. Character morphs that change the face and body features are applied to the base figure to create characters. Victoria 5 and Michael 5 are not base figures, but are character morphs for the Genesis base figure. Victoria 6 is a morph of the Genesis 2 Female base figure. DAZ presumably has the Genesis 2 Male base figure and Michael 6 locked in a closet somewhere in Utah. Perhaps Richard has seen him, but us ordinary users have only seen hints (products that claim to be compatible with Genesis 2 Male).

In Generation 4 there were separate male and female base figures (Victoria 4 and Michael 4). In Generation 5 Genesis only had on base figure that could morph to either male or female. There were also several technology innovations that Genesis to have a lower polygon count, and at the same time have much smoother bending of arms and knees. Some people complained that Victoria 4 could do better expression because of the higher polygon count. With Genesis 2 DAZ went back to separate male and female base figures and they slightly increased the polygon count in critical areas. This is suppose to allow Genesis 2 Female to have better expression and better bending in some areas. DAZ has also just introduced the HD morphs that allow morphs to be more detailed, although as far as I know only non-human shapes are available that use HD morphs. I expect there will be HD human characters in the future.

Another big difference between Gen 4 and Genesis, is clothing fits better on Genesis 1 or 2, not that it always fits perfectly.

Gen 4 is probably going to continue to be around for some time, although most of the new products may be at other stores. Right now most Poser users are still using Gen 4 and many of the independent artists that make clothing and other products are Poser users. Genesis 1/2 does work in Poser through DSON, but Poser users complain it is buggy. According to a friend that uses Carrara, Genesis did not work in Carrara until the recent 8.5 release and Carrara is a DAZ product.

While Genesis has better limb bending than Gen 4, many Gen 4 users have purchased products which smooth out some of those problems with Gen 4 figures. In actual use with experienced users, the differences are small.

The big thing is the Genesis 1 and 2 base figures and DAZ Studio are all free. You download them and experiment with them for yourself. There is a growing amount of free contest that supports Genesis available at ShareCG and other sites.