8.1 and Expressions...
gniiial
Posts: 211
I don't really know what's the deal here, but I think we should talk about something. The expressions are in fact a very important part of the character creating work. But I wonder why the expressions of G8 won't work on G8.1. Or that we get at least some sort oft automatic transfer tool, that may does the job not in full, but at least would help to not waste any time. And i mean for free here!
The thing is that Cayman Studios Expression Randomizer for G3 WORKS! But why?! (...I did not try other ones!)
I am lucky to have this thing, but I am wondering why so many things had to break or had to become such a pain... (...I don't start with skinning/shading because this is (and was in the beginning) also a rediculous situation)
And NO, this is not a topic about any financial aspect. I just ask myself over and over again why DAZ3d does not think of anything that actually helps to use all the assets, expressions, poses or textures we have for next generations of the Genesis model. I mean for real... creating good or better "natural" looking expressions or poses can take days. Some products of the G8 were pretty good! And every time it feels just like something is lost, like the money someone has spend on older stuff...
I hope in the future things will change in a better direction for these kind of things.
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Comments
Making the G8 base expressions (and any expressions that are using them) work on G8.1 requires removing dummy/placeholder expressions that are installed to G8.1 morph folders - These dummy/placeholder expression files have no other function than to prevent the base G8 expressions from loading.
The dummy/placeholder files are located in;
...\Data\DAZ 3D\Genesis 8\Female 8_1\Morphs\Daz 3D\Base Pose Head\ (255 files, can be more if you have additional DAZ expression packs)
...\Data\DAZ 3D\Genesis 8\Female 8_1\Morphs\Daz 3D\Expressions\ (24 files, can be more if you have additional DAZ expression packs)
...\Data\DAZ 3D\Genesis 8\Male 8_1\Morphs\Daz 3D\Base Pose Head\ (255 files, can be more if you have additional DAZ expression packs)
...\Data\DAZ 3D\Genesis 8\Male 8_1\Morphs\Daz 3D\Expressions\ (24 files, can be more if you have additional DAZ expression packs)
Please make sure you are removing the files from G8.1 morph folders and not G8 morph folders.
Note 1; If you are logging in to DS and letting DAZ Connect (within DS) to install/update your content, you may have these also in an other location that has "\Data\Cloud\" in it's path
Note 2; Do not remove any files from "FACS" or "FACSExpressions" folders
The only side effect of removing those files is, that there were two expressions that had the same label for G8 and G8.1 versions, but changing the label on one of them is one way to fix it, another way is to uncheck... was it combine parameters - At work without DS at the moment, so can't check.
The files have to be removed after each update of the Genesis 8 Starter Essentials, as that is where the dummy files come from.
Renaming should be enough I guess. I put _CANCELED behind the folders, so no link to these files should be possible. I'll try if this works and let you know here. Thank's for this hopefully possible soulution
Thanks A LOT! for this soulution! Your a life(time) saver!
Funny thing is, even the shape of "the real" Michael 8.1 was broken and not shown before this "quick n dirty fix". Hilarious I think... But in general it cannot be the way to do things. Daz3D could fix things up or give the users and buyers the tools to use everything in an appropriate way.
The problem is that DS reads all the files it finds in the base figure's morph folders, changing the folder name does not take those files out of the path DS reads.
You can zip them up for safe keeping and the delete the originals if you are worried of something bad happening, but this has been done by countless of users since January 2021 and the only ones that had problems, were not following the advice or did something not adviced.
Okay, thanks for the reminder...
I've done this and there are no problems with it as far as I can tell, but you have to do it every time you upgrade. I cannot help but think there is a better solution ti this problem as I'm pretty sure if you asked 100 users:
"Do you want your Genesis 8 expressions to work, even with some limitations on an 8.1 character without having to faff about deleting files every time you upgrade" then 100 of them would answer "yes". I think?
Sure it messes up the folder structure in the pose tree, but that feels like something that could have been solved, although it may be too late for that now.
So if anyone would answer "no" to that question, it would be interesting to know why, as I fully appreciate I might be missing something.
DAZ has not told us, why those dummy files were created - Maybe there was a valid reason, but someone forgot that quite a lot of PA made expression packs expected to find those G8 base morphs for their use and as the base morphs could not be found, the PA made expressions did create the dials for the expressions but the dials did nothing.
Another side-effect of those dummy files is that you do not get the same functionality in Power Pose for G8.1 as you do for G8, since the Power Pose uses the G8 facial morphs, which cannot be found on G8.1 without deleting the dummy files.
Just move those files to another folder then and label the folder where you got them from so if you feel something broke, you can put them back. It's going to work just fine, I've deleted those on both of my computers and I can use all the expressions and power pose tools again.
Also, don't let smart content install either or else you might have to go back in and re-delete these. I accidentally clicked install when I bought Kento and it showed up as a prompt when I opened a scene in Daz on my second computer that I hadn't installed him on yet. After smart content installed the character, I had to go back in and re-delete these files as they were re-installed by smart content.
Yes, they will keep coming back. I tend to run offline specifically to minimise the number of times I have to do this, but things need to be updated at some point.
You don't need to log in with DS to update assets, you can use DIM
I use DC, but I have auto updates turned off. I guess, what I was meaning is that while most software I keep up to date, I hate updating Daz because I know it will break my expressions and I'll have to mess about making it work. The situation is not great!
DC as in DAZ Central or DAZ Connect?
If you are using DAZ Connect for installing products and updating them, there is no point in installing products with DAZ Central, DIM or manually as the products will be installed to two separate locations => One ends up having 'everything' installed twice, taking twice the storage space and causing all sort of havoc when users think it's all the same, whether you do it with DAZ Central/DIM or DAZ Connect within DS.
Sorry, Daz Central. I only use that.
If you are logging in to DS to allow "updates", you are also using DAZ Connect with all the side-effects
I don't think I am....? I don't have DS set to log in. Once, it complained that G8 Starter Essentials had missing components, so I logged in then, and that was a mistake! I ended up uninstalling them from DS and Daz Connect, then reinstalling from Daz Connect to make it work again. That's not a mistake I intend to repeat!
DAZ Connect is the one within DS, DAZ Central is the 'simplified' DIM.
Thanks, that makes sense! Technically I do use DIM because I couldn't find courses in Daz Central, but now I think I could probably download them from the site. But not connect.
I am a little confused as to which files you need to delete. PerttiA said that there are 255 files in the Base Pose Head folders and that lines up with what I have. However he says that there are 24 files in the Expressions folder but I have 120. Which ones am I to remove?
The number I have said comes with the Genesis 8 Starter Essentials, if you have more, you have additional DAZ expression packs installed - You can remove all of them in that folder.
If I remove the extra files won't the expression packs stop working? I assume they are for G8.1.
The G8.1 expression files are not placed there, if in doubt, zip them up and then remove the originals.