DAZ3D’s Genesis 2 And Victoria 6: Bringing An Early Sunset to Generation 5?

Posted on June 17, 2013 by Jim Willey

Looking for a Full Genesis 2 and Victoria 6 review?

Genesis 2: rumour to reality

Rumours of Genesis 2 have been bouncing around since December of 2012, just a year after the release of Victoria 5. Whether the quote from a 3D World promotion was correct at the time or not is not known. It prophesised the emergence of the sixth generation of figures and characters for 2013, which to many seems absurdly soon considering Genesis was only released at the end of 2011. Considering Victoria 4 and her gen 4 counterparts ran rampant for more than half a decade before the birth of Genesis, a two-year reign does seem on the short side.

The subject was quite for just over six months until the release of Gwen Hair, on the 13th of June, once again exploded the cat in the bag (that’s how the saying goes, right?). In the included features it lists Genesis 2 and Victoria 6. Whether this was an intentional slight or not is debatable, but since then several other products have come out with similar support, with the release of one character product (FW Candace) designed specifically for Genesis 2 being promptly removed.

A Member’s Club (PC) only Genesis 2/Victoria 6 preview thread (which I can’t directly link to for some reason) was created on the 11th of June but not made public till the 14th. The thread features renders by various DAZ published artists depicting Genesis 2, Victoria 6, and other related characters and products. Examining the images does yield some information about what we can expect. Character mesh appear to be more detailed, and flexing joints are more realistic. There is no other concrete information, but judging by the wording of some of the promo material and comments by some of the vendors has led to speculation that Genesis 2 characters will not share a common mesh. Whether Gen 6 products will be backwards compatible with Genesis is not known, and many are wondering if this indicates a return to the days of buying matching his and hers morph sets and the like.

I would love nothing more than to spruce up this thread with some fresh Gen 6 images, but alas the images posted on the member’s forum have yet to leak onto Google in any serious or obvious way. I feel compelled to play by the rules here, but in any case it should only be a matter of a day or two before we can expect a full press release and/or product release.

Generation 6 splits community

Sentiment and opinions are split between those are looking forward to seeing new advancements, those that are wary, and those that are out-and-out pessimistic. With Genesis being supported primarily by DAZ 3D, and only a very small pool of content creators selling on other stores working with the figure, the days of fresh Genesis content could be short indeed. Generation 4 figures, on the other hand, have remained popular with vendors servicing the other big DAZ/Poser stores like Renderosity and Runtime DNA.

Why?

Why exactly DAZ has decided to release Genesis 2 just two and a half years after Genesis is a head scratcher, but for it to gain a slice of the market, let alone own it, there would have to be some serious advances in technology. One suggestion is that it could be Poser compatible to a greater and more flexible extent than is currently possible with Genesis’s DSON plugin for Poser. Certainly since Poser’s adoption of Pixar’s OpenSubdiv, which was included in the last DS point release, this removes one obstacle. Of course, the two programs still work with two different weight mapping solutions… Specific inclusion of OpenSubdiv’s power into Genesis could be another reason for the release, but alone seems unlikely to generate a huge amount of interest.

Whatever the reasons DAZ has decided to spring this rather unexpectedly early Gen 6 on the community, some are already chalking this one up as another DAZ PR disaster, but only time will tell.

See our Full Genesis 2 and Victoria 6 review

The Plant Factory Pre-Release II Sees Relaxed Feature Restrictions

Posted on June 8, 2013 by Jim Willey

E-on Hoses Down Fire On The Plant Factory Blog

The tune has certainly changed over at The Plant Factory’s blog. Whether it is a sensible distillation of the overwhelmingly blood curdling response from the blog’s angry mob, and the probable torrent of emails, or whether it was the more mild-tempered feedback from pre-release adopters (or some combination of the two), but E-on has relaxed a number of the harsh feature restrictions.

Changes for The Plant Factory Pre-Release II

TPF Studio users will now enjoy full node and graph capabilities that were previously restricted only to Producer. Essentially this means that users of Studio can now produce the same content they would be able to with the Producer version.

Plant Factory Designer replaces Plant Factory for Vue

With all the features of the previously announced PFfV, Designer users will now be able to export static objects as FPX, OBJ, and 3DS formats.

Pre-Release II will be available on Monday, 10th of June and the new price will be $595 for one week after release – still a discount of $400.

A move in the right direction

E-on have undoubtedly won many users with their alterations. Many will be happy that they no longer have to fork out almost $1500 for a product they spent months reading about with every teasing post. Being able to settle with a fully featured TPF, just without the fancy compositing/rendering capabilities, for $995 (or $396 if you grab it now) will settle a lot of bad blood. For some, the final price tag will still be much too high, which I tend to agree with, especially considering that objects created with any version of TPF cannot be distributed outside Cornucopia 3D. Given the price of the software one can still only ask, WTF?

WTF indeed

In a post on the blog, one responder pointed out that free redistribution of TPF products would be commercial suicide for e-on. If people could just go out and buy plants from any old back alley brokerage, then why would anyone need to buy the software in the first place? How would e-on be compensated for their fabulous software development?

Umm… are we serious here? This sort of thinking plays right into the hands of e-on, and simply just doesn’t fly. Clients and content consumers are always hungry for new varieties and unique content. Artists always want/need to create new from scratch. If free distribution of content killed sales of content creation software then why is there so much software out there, and why are these suicidal developers constantly updating it?

E-on are certainly heading in the right direction here, but are they more concerned with creating tools (to sell at enormous cost – think upgrades here too people), or with establishing themselves as a content distribution service which? If the latter, it would be greatly appreciated if they dropped the price of such software.

Cyberpunk 2077: Pen and Paper Techno-rebellion Comes to PC

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Jim Willey

Larger wallpaper images from the Cyberpunk 2077 website

Cyberpunk is back and it’s 2077!

I remember hearing something about someone announcing a Cyberpunk game (as in based on THE Cyberpunk PnP game) back in 2012. This was cause for a moment’s excitement, but with the predictable cynicism of one who has been burnt time and again by the promise of an authentic game conversion of favoured titles from various genres and mediums I filed it away under “check out later”. The name popped up again just today via a seemingly unrelated link which led to one of the most stunning, disturbing and exciting game teasers I’ve ever seen.

The almost 2 and a half minute promo features a gorgeously rendered woman, who is not as she first appears to be, amid an equally beautiful (gritty beautiful) setting full of Cyberpunk 2020 references and typical genre tropes. Had I not known I was watching a Cyberpunk 20xx teaser I would still have known I was watching a Cyberpunk 20xx teaser. Of course, this is to let us CP fan know that everything is all right – they know the lay of Night City, and they aren’t going to screw it up. Not like gamers have been tricked by a pretty teaser/promo before, right?

So, while I’m not going to take a brilliant game as a given, I am certainly a lot less sceptical than I was when I first heard rumour (maybe even optimistic). Also putting weight behind my renewed faith is the discovery that it is CD Projekt RED (based in Warsaw Poland), which is responsible for a little game called The Witcher. The animation is presented as a dramatic slow-motion sequence depicting… well you’ll have to watch it for yourself.

There is a short behind the scenes look at some of the work that went into the trailer. Unfortunately it is a little light on detail in terms of hardware, software and process (you know all the stuff that went into making it), but it contains some set and character sketches, and will likely still contain something of interest.

Game details? What’s Cyberpunk 2077 All about?

Most of the goods are tightly under wraps, but what we do know is that the game is being developed for Windows, PS4, and Xbox One on their own in house REDengine3, which apparently offers many graphical features that have been offered to date only on FPS engines. Reportedly the engine also allows for the creation of vast environments without load times between areas (even when changing between indoor and outdoor environments). Unfortunately a full feature list is either not publicly available, or requires more Googling, but if we are about to be given an RPG with visuals to rival AAA first person shooters, then this news can only be all the more exciting. Could REDengine3 to RPGs what UnrealEngine is to FPSs? If so we could be sitting on the verge of a revolution for more visually immersive open world RPGs.

We are being promised an experience that is modelled as closely as possible to the rules and law of the original PnP series, so lots of heavy RPG elements. It will be presented as a story driven, non-linear and open world format – who doesn’t want to wonder about Night City at will? More details can be found in an unofficial “Known Features” thread on the game’s forums. While it might be an unofficial thread it does reference material attached to the game’s producers, so should contain accurate information, vague as it might be. The promise is huge, the ambition matches – can CDP Red deliver? Well, they seem to have the full support and collaboration of CP creator, Mike Pondsmith – see him here discussing the Cyberpunk world and some thoughts on 2077

Also see

If you’ve become nostalgic for the old days you might be looking for your old 2020 rulebook. Or maybe you’re ruing the day you pawned it for that upgrade? I’m not here to judge. Maybe you’ve never played Cyberpunk and just want to get a taste for it. Also suggested is William Gibson’s Neuromancer, the novel which arguably spawned the genre.

Daz Studio Sci-fi Content Feature Pt. 2

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Jim Willey

A quick note on Poser compatibility: Most if not all content sold at DAZ 3D has very good Poser compatibility, and often comes with Poser specific configurations.

DigiVault brings affordable sci-fi content to your DAZ Studio and Poser runtime

With the release of The Artifact by DigiVault it seems like a good time to do the follow up to our Daz Studio Sci-fi Content Feature Pt. 1. “The Artifact is a detailed, large scale set” that comes with the usual texture maps, including specular and bump which denote a product that is a cut or two above cheaper products and offer a greater sense of realism and detail. Anyone who has been rendering for any length of time will know that a good specular map, especially in combination with a bump map, can make all the difference to a still image or animated sequence. It is strange that they are still not stock and standard with every release, at least in ones where they would be useful.

DigiVault is a relatively new vendor to DAZ 3D, but since the release of his first product, The Bunker, back in the second half of 2011. With a number of war torn and sci-fi content releases since then, DigiVault has established a reputation for quality. For the curious in nature the following video will undoubtedly be of interest. It briefly shows how DigiVault’s most recent scene prop evolved from its first beginnings through to completion and final promo render.

In true DAZ style, they have decided to celebrate by throwing a massive sale. Buy any one of the three sci-fi releases and get 40% off Premiere Artist and 50% percent off DAZ Original sci-fi items. Great chance to pick up some of the more expensive items like Stonemason’s Urban Future Bundel, or just about any of the items mentioned in this article. Just remember that you won’t see the discount until you get to the final stage of the checkout process. But more about DigiVault’s releases!

The modular Destroyed City and WarZone will be of particular use to anyone looking to quickly make detailed and interesting war torn scenes and post-apocalyptic environments. The sets should work well with any time period from the past to the distant future. Being modular in nature users will be able to quickly arrange and instance partial/destroyed buildings, and rubble to build up believable environments with potential to mix and match with other sets, such as Stonemason’s highly detailed City Ruins sets to add a splash of variety or a focal point.

Team Dystopia

Team Dystopia are a well-recognised coalition of modellers and texture artist’s that have been hanging around DAZ 3D, and putting out a variety of props and figures for quite a number of years. Their towering, monolithic Dystopia City Blocks, both the freebies and the full priced products have graced thousands of sci-fi renders since their release, as have other iconic models such as the Drone Trooper Another TD freebie you will see regularly gracing DAZ Studio and Poser renders is their Console Station.

Those looking for yet more dystopian flavoured free items should head over to the group’s website and join in on the forums. This was one of the first places I signed up to on my voyage to the 3D worlds. The forum was described to me, by one of the site owners, as being in a state of “slow burn”, which is of course to say, quite. So, it may not be the most happening place in CG land, but it is a friendly place and host to a wealth of information on everything from sci-fi tropes to advice on writing, modelling and much more.

There have been a number of recent releases to carry the Team Dystopia branding, my personal favourite of which is the Dystopia Worker Drone You can find more of the recent releases on Mobius87’s DAZ 3D store page, but do be sure to check out the other related members to find the rest of the booty.

Cyberpunk

As someone who loves a good dose of Cyberpunk it is a little disappointing that there is so little overtly cyberpunk inspired stuff getting released these days. It is there, but it is few and far between. So us cyberpunks make do with what we have, but in the true sense of cp we also “hack” and bend all the lovely sci-fi content to our needs.

So, what are some of the best examples of cyberpunk on the DAZ Store? Stonemason’s Urban Future series is one that jumps to mind, but we’ve already covered this in the previous sci-fi feature content. ElorOnceDark is another name that invariably pops up. His designs are innovative, unique and of the highest quality. It is just a shame that there have not been more recent Genesis releases, but with the release of a refitted version of ArtemisX for Genesis maybe we can hope to see the other classics follow. Of course, there are always the auto-fi tools, which will give a basic and usable Genesis fit. There is also the Sickle Rigging and Morphing System which will undoubtedly return an even better fit. Then, if you are a modeller you can always attempt a Genesis morph or full refit, something I have been meaning to try myself. Anyway, back to the punk. To the top and left is Rogue for V4, undoubtedly there are a hundred and one cyberpunk applications for this sexy outfit.

Perhaps my favourite of Elor’s releases is Cyberpunk for M4. It is a versatile set that comes with many props including retro analogue data ports, body armour, swords, firearms, cyborg arm implants (which fit to Genesis wonderfully if you hide the arms), and multiple texture sets. All this makes it easily one of the best value for money products available in the entire store. And if you want even more options there is Elor’s expansion as well as several third party expansions such as 26FAHRENHEIT’s PUNKED UrbaN Styles, which adds several gritty street sets of textures. There is also a post-apocalyptic version, and even a character by famed character creator and texture artist, Morris

Too many sci-fis!

There is still so much really great daz sci-fi content that I still haven’t even covered. I was hoping to fit it all in here, but time is ticking away and 1000 words is more than enough for what is essentially a store feature. So, Content Feature Pt.3? Well if you’re game I’m game too. Hope I’ve pointed at least some of you in the direction of something useful that you don’t already have.

Happy renderings and see you next time.

DigiSprawl

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