All I've just started using P5 and exploring Renderosity. I find all sorts of models, expressions, etc that refer to Vicki3, Victoria and others. But I can't seem to find these models (I'm assuming that these names are "base" models you can buy). Am I missing something? What female figure would you recommend I buy first? Your help is very appreciated! TC

Attached Link: http://www.daz3d.com

Victoria in her 3 versions is available from DAZ 3D. I dunno about any specific issues relating to P5 (I have P4PP) but IMO - and many other people's - Victoria 3 is the absolute best figure available so far. If you want the full flexiblity of morphind and reshaping, you will have to buy the morph injection packs to go with the figure.

That should read "morphing". Curse my typing.

If you are new and not ready or able to spend a lot on models, the Victoria 1 figure has been greatly reduced. You will find her in the "Loft" store tab. I have all three and each is better than the last. Vicky 3 just came out recently and there are not many clothing items--free or otherwise--available for her YET. Any of the Victoria figures look way better than the P4 figures and, in my opinion, the P5 figures, too. If you go for the lowest level, Mike 1 is available in the "Loft" store, too.

I'm fairly new to Poser too - I have v.4. I was a bit overwhelmed at first with all the references and abbreviations. If this info is too basic, then please excuse the intrude. Poser comes with a few characters and some poses. None are as good or as realistic as either vic 2 or 3. As stated earlier you purchase Vic 2 or 3 from DAZ3D. Poser's included textures (skin for the people) is not very realistic or detailed. Standardincluded Vic textures (skins) are better. The best textures for her (or for DAZ Mike) are available here at renderosity and at' Runtime DNA' and they cost anywhere from around $5.00 to over $25.00. You get your money's worth with the more expensive ones if up-close detail and overall realism is what you want. Poser software treats these textures (skins) as "Poses" and they are unzipped automatically (mostly) into the Runtime/Pose directories of the software. Most artists here at Renderosity call them "Character Packs" or similar. Besides the textures in the chartacter packs , the characters- which were originally based on Vic2 or 3- have been permanently changed physically to emphasize the designer/artist's vision. Most all of them require the prior installation of Vic on your computer. Other packs are for Stephanie and other Daz characters... or still others. One (Latexa) has fairly accurate genital area morphs already installed. It is independent of Vic or Steph or any others - called a "stand-alone" character and does not require Vic on your system. USVicky3 is relatively new and does have better joints - they don't deform badly as in the previous Vic2. There are other improvements too. Since Vic3 is so new, there are not very many textures for her besides the ones DAZ includes. But, they are growing in number daily here and they are beautiful as well as detailed. Use the search functions within the market place button above on this page. narrow your search for Poser/Vicky or some such and you will be able to spend about month looking around. Check out "most popular" and "best sellers". My personal favorite texture for Vic2 is" Noa" because of the realism and compelling renders. The higher the resolution GENERALLY BUT NOT ALWAYS means a more realistic texture. That, however, is not all that is important. There are some great fantasy and romantic character packs too. Often props like clothes and pre-manipulated poses are included in the character pack. The poses are extremely helpful as a place to start and can save many hours of fiddeling around. Hope this helps some and that I am accurate. if not, someone will surely correct me. Post here often for answer to questions. Best of luck.

Oh sorry, I said "permanently changed" but what I meant is that they load into Poeser with the changes already attached and "morphed". You can furthur modify them in Poser - no problem.

Vicki3 costs around $50--to $70 with the platinum card, twice that without. She's worth it, but that may be more than you are willing to pay for a new figure who has very little clothes yet. Vicki2 just went down in price to $40 and there are plenty of free texture and clothing and hair for her all over the place. She's a darn good model and was state of the the art till V3. Vicki 1 just went on sale at the Loft -- she's $13. Takes all the textures and clothes that Vicki2 does but not the morphs. She has morphs just not so many or refined. Good model togged up in a V2 texture. Thought you might want to know the bottom line. If you get any Vicki, you'll probably have some issues about eyebrows and applying textures, come on back we'll answer them. It's pretty safe to say that most of the models in the gallery are either a version of Vicki or Stephanie. Usually Vicki. Many now are V3 and will say so. Take a look in the Poser galleries and see what you think. Emily

Oh, one more thing, Vicki 2 does render faster than V3-- so far-- in Poser 5 Firefly. That might be a big issue. With practice and stripping all morphs out that she doesn't need, this is not necessarily going to always be so, but right now, she does. Emily

First - thanks for all the great information. hmmm... DAZ currently shows the "Victoria 3.0 base" on sale for $31.96. Is this right, and is it enough to start out with, or will I need to buy more now (what can I do without the morph packs) If so, what morph pack do you recommend? Thanks a bunch TC

Attached Link: http://store.daz3d.com/catalog/product.php?pidx=1850&paridx=0

If you get Victoria...her base come with a 'few' but not enough morphs to make it really worth while. at the minimum...you need to get the base, head and body morph packs and if you want...the base textures and bombshell hair. The textures come high rez, low rez, no gens (meaning that she has no nipples or naughty bits on the texture) and highlight/contour (this is really only if you intend to export to other programs IMHO...there are tons of threads here discussing the differences between the standard and contoured) I humbly suggest if your going for budget/familiarity/usability...give the Victoria 2.0 CD a look...she isn't as awesome as 3.0 is but there is an insane amount of freestuff out for her. Then upgrade to 3.0 when you feel ready :)

Yup, the Victoria 3.0 base is what you need. Also... I would seriously recommend the body and head morph packs if you want to alter V3's face and body shape/size in any way at all. The base figure will pose , but that's about it. I'd also recommend you buy one of the Hi-Res texture maps and at least one good hairstyle. Else, your V3 will be untextured, un-bump mapped and bald. Could be useful for android/robot types, but not much else :). There are some free textures available, but IMO one of the Hi Res maps from DAZ is worth buying because they are very, very good. Another route you can take with the textures is to get a copy of the UV remapping free download from DAZ, and a copy of UVMapper (available here in Freestuff, I think - may be wrong, someone will point out if I am :)). Armed with these two things, you can create a re-mapped version of V3 with the ability to take any of the V1 and V2 textures. And there are thousands. Oh yeah, and you'll want to get hold of some clothes for the figure, too. There are a few sets around in the Renderosity (known here as 'Rosity) Freestuff section, and other places on the Net.

Ok - I'm getting a good idea now of what I'll need. Thanks for all the DETAILED info. This forum is awesome. I looking around, the "Yuma" package looks incredible: http://market.renderosity.com/softgood.ez?ViewSoftgood=4572&ViewImage=1#Image Looks like it does only work with Vicki2. How does a package like this on Vicki2 compare to Vicki3? TC

It compares very well in the detail stakes, but IMO V3 is a much more versatile figure than V2. As I mentioned before, you can remap V3 to take V2 textures, so you could have the best of both worlds if you buy V3. OTOH, V2 is a very good model, and there's plenty of life left in the old girl yet. :)

Hi I would love it if my favorite texture masters make their characters adaptable for V#...HINT HINT DALINISE. But alas they won't work with her as her Mapping is totally different from V2. But if you get V2 and then get the Upgrade for V3. It will have a cr2 that will make V3 into a V2 version of V3(HUH?), and you can use that V2 texture. Sounds really weird but it still makes sense in my head....;) V3 is totally awesome.....She is worth the wait on new textures......I may even just bite the bullet and make my own...

Oh Yea and YUMA is an AWESOME texture... :)

Yuma is agreat example. If you buy Vicki 2-- I would not recommend the Cd unless you know you are going to use the catsuit-- I've used nothing else from the cd but that. Ok, you've got Vicki 2 you apply the Yuma texture and Morph, it looks just like Yuma. You buy Vicki1 and do the same, no Yuma morph-- looks like Vicki 1 with a little morphing of your own and the Yuma texture-- still looks very good. But not exactly like the picture. Ok, you've gone whole hog and bought Vicki3 with no textures and the Head morphs. You follow the esy instructions that we will point you to to convert the uv mapping to take Vicki2 textures. You inject most of the head morphs-- including expression morphs into this figure. [ That's right, Vicki3 base does not include even expression morphs beyond a smile. You apply the yuma texture-- can't apply the Yuma morph because that's V2. But you will probably spend the rest of the day, making Yuma chinese, Tahitian, French, gypsy, you get the picture. Emily

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=314233&Start=37&Sectionid=1&WhatsNew=Yes

tomtomclub - I've just seen a stunning image of Asia on V3. Asia is another texture by StefyZZ, the creator of Yuma.

V3 will take the V2 textures. Just download the associated uvs files on the Daz product pages and follow the directions. Point is, you don't have to purchase the v3 textures, you can peruse freestuff and start with some of those if you're short of cash.

Welcome! Whatcha gonna do when you get out of jail? I'm going to play with P5! Sorry...couldn't help myself;-)

archrendr, just as a sort of technical/historical note, Poser doesn't treat textures as Poses...the textures still exist as separate files, usually somewhere in the Textures directory. Although MAT Pose files to apply the textures have sort of become the standard, they (the pose files) are created by the texture creators (or whoever puts the package together). In the not-so-long-ago old days, you had to manually apply the textures to the appropriate materials yourself, like you still do with some of the freestuff. It seems like I used to know this, but I can't recall now -- would some humble genius/group of geniuses like to stand up and say that they discovered the MAT use for pose files? And finally, archrendr, don't worry about posting information that is too basic -- beginners need basic information that more advanced users often take for granted. Thanks for sharing :-)

Actually Vicki3 is an incredibally versatile terriffic mesh that can render fast as lightening if you only inject the morphs you need for a particular image. She is a flat out bargain with Platinum Clum Membership, the Upgrade base, and the Upgrade Combo Special- Especially since they extended her sale. You don't need to get all of the textures/maps/poses and the hair and bikini etc that I did, so you can get her for around 30$. Look at all that I got for less than 65$. Code Product Quantity Price/Ea. Discount Price Total Victoria 3.0 Base V3 Bikini V3 Fashion Model Pose Collection 1 Victoria 3.0 Head Morph Pak Victoria 3.0 Body Morph Pak Victoria 3.0 Universal Texture Maps (High Res) Fashion Model Face Maps for V3 BombshellV3: Long Conforming Hair Platinum Club Discount: 30% Off DAZ Created Products 1 -38.94 n/a -38.94 1 -4.37 n/a -4.37 1 -1.74 n/a -1.74 1 -4.37 n/a -4.37 1 -2.79 n/a -2.79 1 -2.79 n/a -2.79 1 -4.19 n/a -4.19 12-30-02.V3UPGRADECOMBOSPECIAL 1 -10.00 n/a -10.00 Grand total: $64.49