[tutorial] how to "work around" fix the double down export issue of geografity stuffs
Ellessarr
Posts: 1,395
hello guys, i'm making this topic for peoples like me which are tired of a really ugly bug in daz when comes to "export stuffs", if you never experiencied this bug then be happy you are the "choosen one" or maybe i'm just bad lucky or the end of the stick anyways let's go.
first the geografity stuffs are the "addons" which you add to a character which add some new parts the genesis body character, stuffs like wings, centaur horse body, gens, minotaur or reptilian parts, tails those "extra limbs" the majority are geografity stuffs and while they work very well in daz when you try to export then outside daz a really uggly bug can happens and this bug "duplicate the mesh creating a "second/extra geografity mesh" being exported to the character which increas the poly count and also create a ugly extra face to the mesh which would need to be fixed or create a "invisible material or go a extra step to edit the mesh inside others tools like maya to remove this "extra mesh, well after so many time having this issue i've finally was able to find a "work around" or way to temporary fix, while it's not the right way, because the right way would be "not generating the extra mesh" at last it indeed prevent daz from "create the extra mesh
here a picture of the issue:
this happens aswell with gens but for obvious reasons i can't post the pictures, to be fair it's seens which some "geografity in some cases don't have this issue but a lot of then have, if you just export the geografity alone the bug don't happen it don't get duplicated here a image:
let's start the fix, we gonna use the reptilian 6 hd because he is less "problematic to post naked
as we see he have 2 geografity, wich are the legs and the tail, and it get duplicated the leg is more bisible now look in the uper bar of daz and look for the tools
click on it then select geometry editor, then it will change to the geometry edit mode on this mode click on the character main mesh on other side of the daz program or where you placed the scene panel
now with this selected go to main scen where the character is being rendered and right click on any place a menu will appear for selections, you will choose: geometry selection--> select by-->follower auto hidden faces--> then it will appear for you to chosoe either legs or tails then do it for both tail and legs, after that both zones will get highlighted/selected
now you gonna again right click in any zone in the render and ope again this window, but instead of selection this time you will go for: geometry visibility -->hide selected polygons, and click on it, it will make those "extra polygons really disappear and prevent daz from "duplicate the geografity mesh", in some cases really rare cases(centaur) you can need do a extra step which is: go again on the scene panel and you gonna click on the geografity then do the same select process but instead of the option follower auto hidden the option will be rigidity participants then a option will appear where you gonna mark the geografity, in the lizard case it not gonna work and is not needed but in the case of centaur you need to that because the "centaur body is actually a "full body with the human torso not just the horse part then you need to take out the "human part" then it will appear to choose the centaur when you mark it in the render it only gonna mark the "lower body or horse body, the human body will be unselected.
then after that you will again right click but this time in the geometry selection you will be choosen the invert selection(this is when the centaur mesh is being selected in the scene menu) then when you click on it it "unmark the horse body and mark the human body then just "hidden it" in the geometry visibility and only the horse part will be there then you are ready to send to daz the character without the "extra mesh".
a alternative step if you want to furter reduce the number of stuffs being exported, you can instead of "go to the geometry visibility, you can go to the geometry editing and choose delete selected polygons, becarefull sometimes using this option can crash the daz or take a lot of time to process and have a little chance to break any needed morph then take care when using it, then after that you go again to the menu in the top of the daz and in the tools choose joint editor, again this is even more carefull, to delete but it can reduce the number of bones and remove unused bones like the "normal legs" bones which are not being used anymore and are just making the mesh "bigger" or more processing consuming, use it only if you really know what you are doing, then you gonna go one by one deleting each of the bones which are no more being used since the meshes they influenced where deleted, only delete the ones which where being used for the invisible or deleted mesh(yeah it also can be done if you choose just to hidden but again be really carefull when doing that, do go crazy deleting joints if you not sure, to delete joints with the main mesh character selected in the scene menu, o the character render main panel click on the bone/joint you want to delete(i don't know if you can delete more than one bone per time) the right click then choose "delet-->delete bone), it will remove the bone again really attention when doing this step because while it's can be good reduce the number of polygons and bones before export making it more optmized, make it without some level of knowledge can be dangerous then start by practicing in dumy characters then when you feel confindent you can do that on the final character you want to export
here the final character
well it's seens which reptilian have some transition issues which maybe you have to do some extra work but basically this is the best solution so far, it will work with any geografity you add to the character in case you get issue with it, hope it help peoples like me with the same issue.
here a image of when you just use the tool or export the character without do anything:
this is a really crazy issue.
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
thanks for sharing
I just want to point out that you should save a copy of your character before deleting geometry if you go that route. I've found that trying to modify the character after deleting geo doesn't usually work well (at least back when I tried it).
yeah without any doubts, this is why i told which you only do that if you absolut know what you are doing, if you already aware of any issue it can get like you told have a copy just in case and those stuffs, the most pratical stuff is just hidden the mesh and allow the transfer do that, normally it don't get any issue, the only problem on that is which "any bones" which where connected to that mesh part for exemple legs will remains as "extra", then for "perfomance and optimization the ideal would be remove those "extra bones", but again you only do that if you really know what you are doing and they not gonna mess wit anything otherwise leave then as they are if have some "extra bones" is not that really a issue for your project.
the real issue without any doubts still the bug which looks like can't be really fixed.
ok after make some more tests i find out which this work around only "works/fix" sometimes can't work if you are not in the geometry editor mode when exportin the character to unreal, others time it can go opposite like you need to leave the geometry editor mode like clicking in one of the icons above the render scene like the translation or rotation or selection mode icons/arrows, it can be tricking sometimes some geografity need you be in geometry editor to maki this workaround "works" another you need to leave it.
Another thing to take in account is which when you do that in some geografity elements it leave some "gaps" between the geografity and the character mesh, then some "zooms on those zone can make you see some "holes" around those places then maybe at the end you would need to do some adjusts to the mesh or to the geografity to fix those "gaps".
we really need a real fix for this issue.
Agreed. My current method is to import the character to UE, then import the updated FBX to 3ds Max and delete the surplus meshes. Obviously this makes it quite messy if you need to make changes to your character afterwards, so yeah a real solution would be awesome.
The geografts don't match the geometry exactly (as far as I know). In the tutorial for hiding the faces you need to do the shrink selection step to leave some overlap.
https://davidvodhanel.com/daz-to-unreal-hiding-figure-geometry/
indeed but the weird part is which if you do nothing and just "hidden the extra mesh" with a hidden material in unreal and on the torso material for exemple click on isolate, you will see which indeed the "hidden part" was proper deleted and the "non extra bordy part in my case the gen it's full covering the area right, it's make me feel which something really weird happen during the process which create 2 meshes the first mesh firt perfect without any gap, however the second one actually which is the "bugged" is the one with "gaps", if you try to fix by my or your tutorial then it's generate only the "bugged" one, which leaves gap.
just make some tests and you see, add a gen to a g8 character can be without skin just the base body and add the base gen, without any material then export to unreal(to make it more fast) then inside unreal in the "bugged extra mesh" create a hidden material (just create a new material and for base color press 3 it generete a black texture then plug it the the base color and change the material setting from opaque to masked it will enable a opacity mask then click the same black color to the opacity mask it will turn this material invisible or not being rendered then to the bugged mesh add this hidden material and you will see the "remain gen fiting perfect without any gap, it's really some crazy bug happening.
This bug still has not been fixed after recent update DazToUnreal v2022.2.18. It's better using Diffeomorphic and then export to UE5 from Blender.