Why don't 80% PAs update their gen8.0 geoshell products for 8.1?
So I was testing skin effect by Aeon Soul on one of the gen8.1 female I created (little reason to use 8.0 when 8.1 is available) I got this weird white shell on her torso that I had hard time to get rid of, at first I thought it was a bug or compatible issue to the mat I’m using, so I disabled body shell to make it semi workable since I can still display the effects on arms and legs.
But then after watched a youtube videos, I found out this product worked perfectly on 8.0 but NOT on 8.1! I understand they have different UV maps, different property wording etc. But since everyone moved on to 8.1 from 8.0 why didn’t these guys update their products???? most DAZ originals did, geoshell & expression are 2 things that aren't backward compatible. They can reach so many more audience if they just updated their 8.0 geoshell to 8.1
I think skin effect is a great product, it’d be a shame if I have to refund it for backward compatibility issue
Comments
Did the Youtube videos mention that you can change the UVs of a geoshell?
It did, but it requires tons of intense labor, it'd be much more user friendly to just let us use it by one click as intended
Changing UVs only requires a couple clicks as well. Select the geoshell, open up the Surfaces pane, click on the top level item ("Genesis * Shell"), scroll down to the UV selection and change it from Base 8.1 Male/Female to Base Male/Female.
the only way I know is load a G8 and a G8.1 character, change the UV on the latter and copy and paste surfaces then save a preset off it
it requires more than that, I believe 8.1 and 8.0's property placement are completely different, just change uv map won't make these custom geoshell work. for example, gen8's torso is 8.1's body etc
"Work around" introduced by the video
create a 8.0 reference figure > apply the same skin mat > copy 8.0 reference figure's troso and face surface file > get to 8.1's figure find matching property i.e body & head instead of torso & face > get to preset > convert both section to iray uber base > go back to body & head and paste the 8.0 surface file.
It's more trouble then I'd like to get involve just for a simple effect on the skin.
yea, but if I do a different figure with different skin mat, I will have to do this whole thing again
Even tho there's a work around, it'd be much more useful if the author of these product just do a 8.0 > 8.1 update?
Better yet, I'd even willing to pay for a script that converts 8.0 > 8.1 geoshell lol!
No you won't. You apply the skin mat to the figure, and the geoshell material to the geoshell.
probably not enough of them to bother
but this is the whole reason why I'd save it as a material preset on the 8.1, so I can reuse it
I don't do hierachial presets either so I can apply it to just the geoshell if needed
I have mostly done this with the lacy bodysuits that are geoshells
Because, ultimately, the problem was always something that Daz should have fixed.
A new feature in the program to let geoshells reference the surface selection sets of their parent object would have immediately made all G8.0 geoshells compatible with G8.1 rather than every vendor having to individually update however many presets over all their products.
At this point, G8.0 is more than three years gone; the new audience for products that old is extremely small - half the sales of a product are probably in the first two weeks. After that, it's just a very slow trickle, slow enough that some vendors even choose to prune their back catalogue to a) provide a better portfolio and b) not have to worry about providing product support to anyone who buys a product that old.
I'd just like to chip in: I don't often use Genesis 8.1.
The majority of my content is Genesis 3 or 8, principally because those two are more compatible with each other than G8 and G8.1. I say this in particular regard to textures and material presets which are the things I want to share between them most. The clothing fits make G3, 8 & 8.1 largely interchangable without much effort. Geoshells are not on my radar, usually. Due to the UV and material zone change, G8.1 is actually less useful to me than G3. This is very much a personal view, but it is contrary to the OP's.
I am sure that, had the creators of G8.1 wished to, G8.1 could have been set up so there were material zone changes at the boundaries of the old G8 materials and also at the boundaries of the new material zones, then it'd be possible to have two UV sets for G8.1 and then easily be able to use G8/G3 textures on G8.1. I can only imagine that this approach was not taken for commercial reasons - the creators of G8.1 are clever enough to have thought of the backwards compatibility issue and its solution without my input.
Regards,
Richard
It's trivially easy to use G8 and G3 textures on G8.1.
And G3 onto G8 is not even trivial, it's the same.
Regards,
Richard
It is exactly as easy to use G3 textures on G8.1 as it is on G8.
Use the script attached in this forum post to create the geoshells, and you won't need updated presets.
Textures yes, but not geoshells
We have our soft skin transitions products for G8 and 8.1 (we have male and female versions) wherein we include a geoshell that is already set up to apply G8 UV Materials on a G8.1 seamlessly. So you could use any of those and apply the materials presets of this other product.
Thanks FenixPhoenix! I wouldn't have realized that if you hadn't mentioned it. I have both the male and female versions, so that's handy. Made a note of it and will try it out.
Thank you for the support! Indeed, those products were made as flexible as possible to help users mix and match between G8 and 8.1. It's also set up via a selection set so that you can apply G8 LIE to the "Trans Shell to 8.1M with 8M UVs" and have it automatically apply the torso maps to both the Body and Head Surfaces.
This will be a hot take but.... if I wanted people to buy newer generation figures and content, maybe, just maybe I should developp free of charge tools and support to help with using/migrating assets form older generations.
I know... its CRAZY talk....
Learn something every day. I wonder how on earth I managed to convince myself G8.1 & G8 had entirely different UV's. Wouldn't have gone back & tried it out without Gordig's intervention. Thanks.
Regards,
Richard
When you look at the surfaces tab for G8.1, you will see what they did to enable using G3/G8 materials (and G8 UV's) on G8.1, but that doesn't help with geoshells or fullbody hair because the surfaces are still different with different names.
Surfaces can be renamed, though. I've used G8 and even G3 geoshells on G8.1 just by renaming the body surface to torso and, when necessary, copying the torso surface to the head. That probably doesn't help with full-body hair, but apparently I never use those.
Come to think of it, the ball is really at Daz's court, expecting PA to do free work over a same generation figure "upgrade" without apply a mandatory compatibility test isn't PA's fault.
OMG!! it solved all the problem with one click, THANK YOU!!
I know alot people will hate me for saying this, but if this author just package up this little script and put it on sale in Daz's store for $10, I'd totally buy it, I think he should, and I'd buy it again just to show my gratitude.
Interesting looking product, I think i will give it a try :D
"new generation figure"?? Daz pretty much released 8.1 to replace 8.0, 98% of everything can be used directly without convert, except expression & geoshell materials
i agree with matt_castle's position that daz should have made it more streamlined. But it's easy enough to do as a user, so putting the onus on PA's to do it seems unreasonable since it's so easy.
TFW you go "Oh, that sounds awesome," you click on the link to download it, and you realize that you, yourself, were one of the first people in the thread to say "Works like a charm."
I've downloaded so much Daz stuff over the years that now I can't even remember what I've downloaded.