Looks like Tuesdays the A4 release. I'm guessing that from the Daz news letter and that it has been let out of the bag at Daz That there is indeed A4.

1. Are you ready to buy all the new but the same clothes again?
2. How long will it take PhilC to get WW working with her?
3. How much of a pain will she be with poser users?
4. Will poser users have to get ready to hack files and rely on scripts to use her the way the want?

What ever the answers are it will be fun to watch what happens.

As long as she's got smile morphs and no horsey teeth and bends better I'll support her. I've already gone through all my wish lists and carts and deleted all the A3 stuff.  I'm not supporting both versions, no way! 

That's where WW comes in. For what you already have. naturally.

Not a bad idea to empty wish list, never keep one but I'm sure many do.
I'll pick up A4 but I'm not to sure about the rest of the packages. If morphs ar separate, "I'll have to grab those," don't say that in public, you'll get arested. LOL Other than that, I think I'll just use the old stuff or model my own stuff.

OK, skin textures, but some merchant will cough up a merchant resourse and I'll just pick that up and use it my way. I have a subsription to 3DSK.

Well there is talk about V4's textures possibly fitting Aiko 4 so that will save some $$

Honestly?  I haven't used WW2 once since I picked it up.  I've been way to busy to play.  Doing texture sets and learning about the bus and doing hair for a living.... no time it seems.  LOL

Yeah, I thought about that after too. V4 textures working on A4.

I use A3 very little so It's unlikely I'll spend on A4, now M4 would be a different matter!!

Yep M4 would have been much more useul to me, too!

1. No
2. Phil is probably already working on it & it'll be done by Tuesday.
3. A Huge pain in the butt.
4. I for one can't be bothered.

I've bought a load of A3 stuff dirt cheap through Daz Platinum club, I'd be unlikely to buy A4 unless she's compatable with other characters I own, cheap and singnificantly better than A3.

I've probably got too many anyway.

You forgot the most important question will it work in poser7.  A lot of issues of poser7 were related to V4. Because V4 was published some weeks before poser7 was, many people were blaming poser7 for this, but I believe that the main cause was that V4 was optimised for DAZ-studio. Some of the new features of Poser7 like external morph targets and the new morphing took, just didn't work with V4 and made poser7 crash.
I hope Daz has learned from that experience and started talking with the Poser-people (Smith-micros at the moment)
If they use the same policy with selling of A4 as V4, there will be a free or an allmost free basic version and an additional "pro" version, with morphs, skins, clothes and more bells and whistles for a more expensive price. It's just those additional thingies that cause the troubles so it's good to know DAZ has 30day, payback policy.
Not that I don't like Aiko, I just don't use her as often as V4, but if A4 causes the same problems as V4 did, no one is going to be happy.

Best regards,

Bopperthijs

Can anyone tell me where the where is the info that A4 will be released?
cheerio  lululee

It's not until this coming Tuesday Lulu Lee.  The cat was let out of the bag, so to speak, when someone noticed that a new clothing item that DAZ just put in the PC Club area of the store mentioned Aiko 4 and some of the morphs that were included.  The question about this "error" was brought up in the Members Only forum and Laurie S, a DAZ employee, stated it was not a mistake and included an :evil grin: along with it.  So that started the ball rolling on things.  I then got a news letter from DAZ for this weeks stuff and towards the bottom is clearly stated that SOMETHING BIG COMING THIS TUESDAY, STAY TUNED and then in little font says ... "no peeking"..... Ah... it all comes together!! 

I reckon Tuesday was only going to be info release day but they've decided to release the model instead as they stuffed up on keeping it a secret till then.

Steve S (of DAZ Marketing) says that M4 will be coming this year too.  Studio 2.0 will be here sooner than later as well.  So I'm thinking that Aiko 4 promos and teasers will hit on Tuesday and perhaps on Thursday she will hit the stores and perhaps even Studio 2.0 released the same day so that newer additions to Studio, that Aiko may need, will make her work properly.  I'm sure DAZ has taken every precaution to make sure that Aiko 4 works much better in Poser 7 than V4 did.  As stated V4 hit BEFORE Poser 7 and there was not a whole lot DAZ could do about that, considering.  I think folks freak out about DAZ not wanting to support Poser but without one the other would not be doing quite a well.  So I wouldn't ponder that too much as we won't know until it all hits the market and is tested out by end users.  You know there will be bitching and complaining because .... well .... many  like to do that.  It makes their lives more fulfilled or some such nonsense!! :lol:

I really hope A4 is released soon, I've been looking forward to this one. I just hope I don't have the same disappointment I had when V4 came out.
A3 isn't perfect but it's an interesting figure to work with. More morphs & better expressions are what I'm particular looking at.
I actually thought M4 was next so this is a good surprise.

Perhaps this may invoke some thought and speculation......

http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/shop/catmain/-/?cat=626

:b_uncertain:

Hmm, something more seems to be coming on Tuesday or next Thursday it seems!!  WOW!  No images but I'm sharing this link with the DAZ forums too.  That will REALLY get the tongues wagging!! :lol:

@ Ramwolf
Who said I was complaining? I'm still using V4 and Poser7  and I'm very happy with it. The only thing I'm complaining about is what I see as a lack of communication between DAZ and the poserpeople. I think you're right when you say that the two cannot without each other, but I'm often under the impression that both parties are not very happy with that fact.
The whole relationship could need some more synergie, but I think the fact that poser-ownership changes so often isn't doing it any good.

Perhaps you were also right about the complaning, I should be excited about this new release, just like I would be about the new Daz-studio 2 , because I'm really curious how it's going to be, with its promised clothroom and other new features. I'm looking almost every day on the DAZ-site to see if there's something new, and the only thing I'm saying now : "wow"(with a really droopy-like voice) a new Aiko, hope it doesn't give me any problems.
It must be the winter, I'm feeling rather depressed these days. Let's see if Aiko4 can cheer me up! It's almost springtime!

Best regards,

Bopperthijs

Quote - Perhaps this may invoke some thought and speculation......

http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/shop/catmain/-/?cat=626

:b_uncertain:

Ooooooo!  Very interesting on that!  Strange they have a webpage set up to go for this, but, not not one for A4.

What was the clothing item that listed A4 as compatible?  I looked through all the new stuff, but, didn't see anything that mentioned her.

Perhaps there is a possibility that there will not be an Aiko 4 as such - but a Victoria 4.2 with Aiko Morphs.

Which in my mind would be a very functional alternative to having two individual figures....

Quote - > Quote - Perhaps this may invoke some thought and speculation......

http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/shop/catmain/-/?cat=626

:b_uncertain:

Ooooooo!  Very interesting on that!  Strange they have a webpage set up to go for this, but, not not one for A4.

What was the clothing item that listed A4 as compatible?  I looked through all the new stuff, but, didn't see anything that mentioned her.

Never mind, I found it!  It was listed in the text not the required list!

2/2/08

Tasinger:

*"Perhaps there is a possibility that there will not be an Aiko 4 as such - but a Victoria 4.2 with Aiko Morphs."

*I agree that combining the morphs for Aiko and Victoria would be efficient, and guarantee the support of both figures.

But, didn't A3 and V3 have different meshes (just UV mapped nearly the same)? Do you think there would also be Aiko 4 male morphs included? The male morphs of V3 and V4 remain largely unsupported. Is this because they aren't that good (I have only just bought the V4.1 bundle because the price is so good for PC members, but I haven't had a chance to install and try her out)?

LMK

the poser pro sdk is not available yet, hence it may not work in poser pro, either.

I thought A4 was an Italian car...;) And M4 is a highway in England...;) Or maybe the rifle we're using in Iraq..;)

Bopperthijs, question 3 and 4 were the questions about working in poser.

Having to fix the Cr2 ourselves to stop the crashing and having to hack the files to unhide the dials will cause complaining. There was reason to complain.

Now maybe this V4.2 is what Tuesday is all about, we won't know till then. Maybe V4.2 will be the fix that was supose to happen with V4.1 and was never given. Or, Maybe V4.2 is just V4.1 with a male morph and not fixed at all.

I hope A4 is not a V4 morph but has same UV's asV4, as in the V3 A3 way. With the teeth/mouth fixed.

It shall be fun to see all the speculation, guessing and conspiracy theories.

I hardly ever use Aiko 3, not that she isn't a cutie, so A4 will have to be something special for me to buy her.

I took A3 out of my runtimes sometime ago. I hope A4 has better looking feet than A3 did. There is nothing more terrible, in my opinion, than to have a killer body morph for A3 and her feet look like blocks with toes.

It just goes back to my pet peeve of creators packing in so called "down to the last details" in models and omitting the little things. Like poser vehicles jammed packed of details yet the pedals and gear shifters don't move.

Well the consensus is in. 

Coming this Tuesday:

Something Big: Male Morphs for V4 like the Male morphs for V3 (no, not Vittorio)
Something Beautiful: Updated V4.2 cr2, Aiko 4 morph for V4.2
Something BOLD: Studio 2.0 with dynamic cloth room

I may be wrong but that's my guess.  Seems I was off base and after reviewing the hints that Steve S was putting out there perhaps Aiko 4 is indeed a morph of V4.  After all updating the cr2 to a V4.2 is quite a step in the right direction and if they were able to pull it off an Aiko 4 morph might be gotten.  If so then with some tweaking and perhaps the generosity of the merchants we may have plenty of clothing for her and the same fabulous skin texture packs that have been coming out (OK some of the textures are really fabulous)

Quote - I thought A4 was an Italian car...;) And M4 is a highway in England...;) Or maybe the rifle we're using in Iraq..;)

A3 is from Audi I think

Well I resently instaled V3 on my hard drive and did take a few looks at it.
Started with crooked feet..uh.

I am still a user of Jessi and Sydney.
If I need a "girl next door" type of caracter, I grab Syd by her...uhm..wel..
If I need a more athletic type, I smack Jessi on the......ahum...hmmm..
Anyway,
I see good potential in those two, only there are not much items around for them.
So time to learn to create my own garments

On the other hand, I am all fairly new to this, so it might change in the future.
But so far I am not realy interested in the V serie.

Oh great.
Looking forward to a glut of Aiko 4. Not. Just when I was beginning to hope the Poserworld would move on a bit...

Honestly, I'm amazed they would do A4 before M4. Seems like it would be more balanced to have a male counterpart to V4, but I imagine when you consider all the crap.... I mean accessories -  that an A4 will create a need for, it's just a marketing move. Gotta have priorities, 'n all.

yeah. Bring it on, daz.. woohoo.

If your right RAMWolf, then that's a real shame and nothing to get excited about then. The mythical dynamic cloth would be fine if it was for Carrara but from what I have read it will be DS that gets it first and a Daz SOON for Carrara. Most likely another plug you will have to pay for. One for DS and one for Carrara, I'm talking about the full version. IIRC there is the basic that uses pre-built content but you have to buy the full version if you want to really use it like the poser cloth room.

It is sure getting hard to spend money at Daz.This is the second month in a row I have not been able to use my PC voucher. Well maybe this month it will get used. Maybe.

As for eF figures over Daz figures, not even close. EF figures JP's have never been fixed properly, the bodies are so sculpted to make it hard to morph.out. Have you ever noticed how most promos have the arms straight.? Or if they do bend the arms or legs, there is something in front of the joints to hide them? What a pain of so much postwork that has to be done if you use them in an animation.

I may have lost the luster of Daz content in the last year or two but they still have better figures. EF figures are best at a distance with some blur or used in stills.

This is like a replay of the Aiko 3 release! Check the Aiko 4 thread on DAZ. I believe it has a
link to the old Aiko 3 release thread. You'll be surprised at the complaining there, virtually an
echo of now. (Shakes head) The more things change, the more they remain the same. SIGH.
Heh.

Greywolf

I really couldn't care less.... A4, M4, D4 whatever, the last thing I need is yet another figure.

*Quote from the DAZ newsletter:  Something bold! Something beautiful! Something BIG! This Tuesday . . .

*Somehow that doesn't sound like a figure release at all to, sounds more like DAZ has taken over Smith Micro or something like it.

AH, such positivity!  :lol:

My guesses are Something BOLD: ? Male morphs for V4? Something Beautiful: Aiko4?/V4.2 Something Big: Titantic It's frustrating there is no M4. Maybe V4 Male won't suck too much. We'll see. bB

Theres already male characters for V4, Vittorio is really good, but some of the others have "man boobs".

The trouble with male morphs for female bases is that no matter how well morphed, it never looks right. It took me a long to figure out why, then it occurred to me that the figure's proportions are still female. For example. I like wide shoulders on my male figures, but the shoulders are too narrow for a female -to-male figure. It is unfixable because of the way the figure is rigged for a female. bB

Yeah, some of the complaints are the same.

The if she can't use A3 clothes then I'm not buying is a main type. Daz has always made sure that there is a previous body version for clothes. But if it is only a V4 morph, well, there are lots of ways to make V4 clothes fit. So you win either way.

There are a few others but I don't see a lot of complaining in this thread as much as speculation and opinions. Which everyone has the right to do.

RAMWolf, positivity?  I'm positive it will be a disappointment if your right. Hows that?

There are updates coming for the V4 male so just hold on to your panties boys!!  :tt2:

The trouble with male morphs for female bases is that no matter how well morphed, it never looks right. It took me a long to figure out why, then it occurred to me that the figure's proportions are still female.

For example. I like wide shoulders on my male figures, but the shoulders are too narrow for a female -to-male figure. It is unfixable because of the way the figure is rigged for a female.

QFT !     

All the Unimesh figures from Freak to the MillBaby are the exact same mesh.
BUT...all have a different shape (morph) AND a different rigging.

To get a truly different figure, you must change both: the rigging and the shape.
And that is exceptionally hard to do with V4.1 because her built in magnets are tied to her default shape.

That's why I have given up working with her, and that's why I won't have any need for A4.
I can morph a figure, I can re-rig a figure.
But unless there is an (easy) way to move V4.1's JSM magnets, we are stuck with her default "morphform" morphs, and all attempts to go beyond that (Like to create a  realistic male or a child), will be amateurish at best.

This is not just true for gender or age changing morphs, also very obese or very emacicated, or very tall or short bodytypes need completely different joints (And thus a complete new set of JSM magnets in V4's case) to be truly realistic.

As I said, I've given up on V4 because of that, and I don't have much hope for the other fourth generation DAZ figures either.
Unlike the Unimesh, the built in JSM magnets tie them to their default bodyshapes and proportions.
You can morph a bit here, scale a bit there with the "morphforms" but it still will look all the same after a while.

So, no, no use for A4 at all here.
I might get her anyway for "completeness" sake, but I wasted enough time trying to work with V4.1 already.

The whole concept with embedded JSM-magnets and "morphforms" is a failure, as it seriously limits creativity.

Guess we will find out when she's released!!  I heard this update changes quite a few things so stay tuned and think positive!

EF figures are best at a distance

About 3 kilometers/2miles...

Bopper.

A lot of people like Aiko for fairies. I hardly ever see M3, at least not here. I posted a few male renders and nobody looked at them, LOL!

Quote - @ Ramwolf
Who said I was complaining? I'm still using V4 and Poser7  and I'm very happy with it. The only thing I'm complaining about is what I see as a lack of communication between DAZ and the poserpeople. I think you're right when you say that the two cannot without each other, but I'm often under the impression that both parties are not very happy with that fact.
The whole relationship could need some more synergie, but I think the fact that poser-ownership changes so often isn't doing it any good.

Perhaps you were also right about the complaning, I should be excited about this new release, just like I would be about the new Daz-studio 2 , because I'm really curious how it's going to be, with its promised clothroom and other new features. I'm looking almost every day on the DAZ-site to see if there's something new, and the only thing I'm saying now : "wow"(with a really droopy-like voice) a new Aiko, hope it doesn't give me any problems.
It must be the winter, I'm feeling rather depressed these days. Let's see if Aiko4 can cheer me up! It's almost springtime!

Best regards,

Bopperthijs

Hmmm...  I think it's time for Daz to make another purchase.  Then I could get DAZ Poser for $1.99

Hmmm...  I think it's time for Daz to make another purchase.  Then I could get DAZ Poser for $1.99

I think we all would like that.

Bopper.

Quote - The trouble with male morphs for female bases is that no matter how well morphed, it never looks right. It took me a long to figure out why, then it occurred to me that the figure's proportions are still female.

For example. I like wide shoulders on my male figures, but the shoulders are too narrow for a female -to-male figure. It is unfixable because of the way the figure is rigged for a female.

QFT !     

All the Unimesh figures from Freak to the MillBaby are the exact same mesh.
BUT...all have a different shape (morph) AND a different rigging.

To get a truly different figure, you must change both: the rigging and the shape.
And that is exceptionally hard to do with V4.1 because her built in magnets are tied to her default shape.

That's why I have given up working with her, and that's why I won't have any need for A4.
I can morph a figure, I can re-rig a figure.
But unless there is an (easy) way to move V4.1's JSM magnets, we are stuck with her default "morphform" morphs, and all attempts to go beyond that (Like to create a  realistic male or a child), will be amateurish at best.

This is not just true for gender or age changing morphs, also very obese or very emacicated, or very tall or short bodytypes need completely different joints (And thus a complete new set of JSM magnets in V4's case) to be truly realistic.

As I said, I've given up on V4 because of that, and I don't have much hope for the other fourth generation DAZ figures either.
Unlike the Unimesh, the built in JSM magnets tie them to their default bodyshapes and proportions.
You can morph a bit here, scale a bit there with the "morphforms" but it still will look all the same after a while.

So, no, no use for A4 at all here.
I might get her anyway for "completeness" sake, but I wasted enough time trying to work with V4.1 already.

The whole concept with embedded JSM-magnets and "morphforms" is a failure, as it seriously limits creativity.

What's unknown is if DAZ has some kind of Pose file that will alter the V4 magnets to a male shape, and reset pose to set it back to V4. If A4 is a morph of V4, they might also use this trick. But it's an unknown if you can use magnets to readjust the figure's proportions without changing the rigging. If they have figured it out, then all the Gen 4 figures will be V4 and not separate figures like Gen 3. Will Apollo-like shapeshifting be used on V4? We'll see Tuesday. But... I am skeptical. I'm not excited about Aiko 3 becoming obsolete. Grrrrr >< I am interested to see what DAZ's attempt of male morph looks like. bB

V4.2's new male morph is a precursor to DAZ's future plans. That's been stated ("everyone needs to have access to V4").

V4.1 already has a Young Teen morph (Laura 4, basically). A4 is to be similiar -- a morph or cr2 extension. V4.2's male morph will not replace the announced forthcoming Michael 4, but instead serve as the building blocks for Luke 4 (YT), similiar to the original Milboys.

Any other male figures (David/Hiro/Freak) will more than likely just be morph/deformer extensions instead of separate figures. Basically, a consolidation of the figure market, due to the "advanced" technology of V4.

I just hope that V4.2 will no longer have the assinine constraints built in, and the dials become reversable.

Upon V4's release, there was an outcry from the forumites about the future "unimesh" model and what could and couldn't be migrated to the new figures. It would make savvy business sense to make the entire line of "4" figures completely compatible, espeically since DAZ has sponsered many clothing morph kits featuring the newest body shapes (Morphina, Laura 4 "whatever her name was," etc). This way, their vendors wouldn't have to create more than one outfit and could concentrate on a wider variety of characters and wardrobe.

All speculation, of course, but that seems to be the model demonstrated so far.

-- Jeff

Kinda what Anton talked about in saying that there was no reason why meshes could not share clothing, morphs, skins and all that.  Perhaps DAZ is embracing that idea and making it virtual reality!

Quote - Kinda what Anton talked about in saying that there was no reason why meshes could not share clothing, morphs, skins and all that.  Perhaps DAZ is embracing that idea and making it virtual reality!

And as E-F did with the G2 figures -- same body, different heads. 

M4 has been announced for later this year, so more than likely, another other legacy figure will play out as a morphed up .cr2, similiar to Capsces' figures and Vittorio.

The question is: why doesn't DAZ just buy Vittorio 4 and help develop content for him? It didn't work for Vittorio 3, but could be used as a base for Luke 4.

We'll never know.

-- Jeff

I totally agree.  Jim's work is outstanding in this area but as folks say there are still small issue like the hips and shoulders that need more work and perhaps rigging adjustments so why doesn't DAZ go for it?  Seems silly to me.  Perhaps they think they can do a better job.... what ever.... LOL