Renderotica

So daz announces V9 and its back to a uni-body like Gen1 ... No one has said much about wether it will come with private parts for male and female.. I imagine content creators are going to be making or upgrading Geo graphs for this new character.. 

Vendors may need to warm up for nipples and navel geo grafts too.

So I've been following the G9 announcement and have been chatting with a few fellow 'rotica vendors. The reception of this new figure (and the throwback to G1 unibody) has been,,, mixed.

DAZ intention is that several PA products will be ready for release that will allow you to move your current G8/8.1 characters up to G9, but it will require some fiddling. The G9 UV is very different from the G3, 8 and 8.1 UV so it won't be as simple as just moving materials to the new figure and will require special grafts to make the textures match up right. However a PA product is already in development (should be in testing at DAZ), so that "should" be released on the G9 drop day or within a few days of it.
Also they plan to have many new G9 native PA characters ready for release day.

Moving morphs to the new figure is a whole different can of worms. If you're familiar with how this is usually done within Studio, you already know it's a temperamental process to do manually, however there is a PA at DAZ already working on a transfer product, fingers crossed. 
Personally I plan to just create new character morphs for my characters in native G9 once I begin using G9 for my renders. 
On release day expect all the standard DAZ body morph and face morph packages that every generation gets, so you'll be able to start creating in-Studio dialed characters right away.

Fingers crossed for a quick release of Skin Builder 9...

There is already a pose converter that is more or less ready to go on release day, that can convert poses on-the-fly from G3, G8 and G8.1, however those will convert BODY poses only, since the new mouth and eyes are a separate piece now, only G9 expressions will work on G9 out of the box. This pose converter appears to be a simple process of select (highlight) a pose in your library, and run the script that will apply the selected pose and auto convert it onto the new G9 figure.

Enterprising tinkerers will possibly find a workaround like they did to get G8 expressions working (sort of) on G8.1, but each face rig (G3, G8, G8.1 and now G9) is so different that the results can be drastically different. It's not just a matter of the expression dials themselves, it's the way the figure handles JCM's in the face that can make a HUGE difference, so as with previous generations, expressions built for a figure generation will look best on that specific generation.

Auto-fit still works for G9 and it was demonstrated on a livestream a couple of days ago. As with all auto-fitting, it can be hit or miss however the T pose of G9 is just about the same as G8, so anything you have that is G8 native, or items that successfully autofitted to G8, should have little to no issue being auto-fitted to G9. 

Shoes are another matter, but shoes are always a problem. ( I expect to be buying a LOT of new G9 shoes o_O )

Personally, on the posing end of things, I do plan to do several sets of G9 native expression kits as quickly as possible once the figure is released. For body poses, I plan to begin Body Pose support of G9 soon after release, but will continue to support G8 for as long as there remains a market for those figures, I'm assuming I'll be making G8 and G9 throughout '23. 
I'm personally kind of looking forward to this because I've been wanting to have a do-over of some of my early kits to address some shortcomings in my older posing method. These won't be joint-for-joint remakes, they'll be new poses, but many of those poses may be inspired by my favorites from the old sets with better/smoother joint rotations, mixed with completely new poses to keep things fresh. :)

All in all I think it will be a relatively successful figure. Their goal here is to update their base to fit within industry standards so the figures can be used more easily in programs other than just Studio. With the new mesh, they expect it to be much easier to create not just human character morphs, but all kinds of creatures, monsters, aliens, animals, anything with a head and 4 limbs. So it's likely that Horse 9 and Dog 9 may be character morphs rather than completely new figures. I already know what you're thinking, remember the 'rotica gallery does have a few rules :o

I'm waiting to see what (if any) major improvements will be made, I'm hoping for improved JCM's in the shoulders and hip to thigh joints, but we'll all find that out later. The 8k mapping is something PA's could be doing now on G8 (some already do), Map size/scale is pretty much unlimited as long as your memory can hold the file size. I think they're pushing the whole "8k maps!" angle to drive PAs into using higher rez maps more often.

Keep in mind, on Vicky 9 her basic maps are still 4k. The 8k maps are purely for detail maps, which is how she has the super detailed pores and micro wrinkles around the eyelids. I'm told you can simply turn this feature off to save vram or downscale the maps to 4k.

The mesh is 2x more dense, however as some have noted there is no detail cage around the navel or nipples on the version of the figure that has been shown. This could change before release but I'm not holding my breath. All new base characters (Vicky 9 as an example) will come with their HD morphs in the core package, no more separate HD add-ons. This will make the core characters a little more expensive, but if you use coupons and sales you'll be able to get these pretty cheap.

That's pretty much all I've learned so far, hope the info is helpful :D

Edited by user Friday, September 23, 2022 3:16:04 PM(UTC)  | Reason: spelling errors

Originally Posted by: Optika

Thank you for elaborating on Gen 9.

One thing I strongly disagree is stating that core characters will get more expensive since the HD is always included. From my perspective both the base price of a core character ($44.95 for the new Assassin 8.1 for example) as well as the price for the separate HD ($39.95) are already way too high and not including the HD with the character is just a method of making money or simulating value by throwing the HD in "for free" with a bundle. Especially given the fact that DAZ is outputting core characters in a somehow crazy frequency nowadays. With Gen 3 there have been only a limited number of core characters, with Gen 2 even less. Those core characters have been really core as many of them (like The Girl, Stephanie, Teen Josie or Olympia) where used as basis for a lot of PA characters or dedicated expression or pose packs. Other figures (like Minotaur 6 HD or Reptilian 6 HD) have been dedicated creatures with grafts and not only simple shape adjustments. Plus the later mentioned even came with HD included.

So I do not see any reason (other than making money) for an upcoming Alawa 9 HD or Dain 9 HD - just to refer to some of the plethora of come and go Gen8 core characters - to cost $60 base price once characters (with HD) from quality PAs like blue jaunte, P3D or Thorne are sub-$30 or even sub-$20 sometimes.

Keep in mind, the core characters getting more expensive is an assumption. Vicky 9 is a little higher priced, but with coupons and being a Daz+ member, I got her pre-order for about $17 plus tax. That was the base Vicky, not the bundle. I can't see my way to buying a bundle when I can't see the included items as the core figure bundles usually come with hair and/or outfits I'd never use, or would be happy to buy individually.

I (and others) are assuming the core character prices will go up with the inclusion of HD, but they will make that decision based on how well the new characters sell. Vicky always is their highest seller, because she's sort of a default purchase for everyone. After Vicky we'll start to see what their pricing really looks like. :)