How do I get Body hair on my figures?  Actually, I think I am confused about the whole MAP thing.  Most of my downloads for characters do not work.  What happens to nipples, body hair etc.  Is there a tutorial on this somewhere?!?

There are two ways.  (Actually there are probably quite a few ways to add body hair, but these are the most common.)

One:  Get a texture set that has the body hair painted on it.

Two:  This method requires you to have the Body (or Cat) Suit for the figure.  Then you need a texture set that has both body hair textures and transparency maps.

To learn how to apply these I strongly suggest reading the manual.

treat image MAPS as a painted texture that applies to your figure . They must follow the UV MAP for the figure you are using. So a v3 texture wont fit V4 .

In Poser you can merge several images to make the texture. In Daz studio it needs (I think) to be one image , so you layer them in a paint program like Gimp or photoshop. There are sets of bodyhair brushes so you can paint your own , or you get  one already done from the marketplace .

Thanks for the replies.  Ive been having a hell of (hard) time with Daz.  I think I may be expecting too much.  I keep dowloading content (much of it free), and about 1 out of 4 or 5 items seem to work.  When  I get a couple figures and  some clothes and tex mats, and some props, Daz seems to  lock up (or take an  unnacceptable time  to update and save the scenes).  According to the manual, My computer doubles or better all the hardware requirements.  I just went and doubled my ram to 1 gig, but it doesnt seem to help any.  I know I have a bunch of messy, seemingly un-usable content in my directories, would that cause problems?  Is there a way to paint your own mat.  I remember seeing a flattenned version of skin somewhere in a jpg file.  If I could find one of those, can I just alter the mat in Photoshop, or is it more complicated than that?
Thanks again

Have you upgraded to the latest version 2.2.2.20?   Should be at Download.com now,  v2.3.x.x is being released later this week as a beta.  DAZ has changed the way future releases will be handle,  a public beta will be posted in the official DAZ Studio forum, when they feel they have worked out the bugs in that beta it will then be posted to Download.com as the current stable release.

A bunch of installed stuff wont slow Daz studio down noticably.

If the stuff is in a zip file , the folder paths , shown on the right in winzip should start with RUNTIME
, they install into the folder that CONTAINS the runtime folder. If the paths dont start with runtime I would put it aside for now. There is a tutorial at Daz  that explains the runtime structure and where things should go.

I followed Jestmarts reply and re-installed da from 2.2.15 to 2.2.20, what a difference!  Everything works, renders work, no more locking up.  Im sill working on the textures, I'll bet it has something to do with this UV Map.  I didnt buy any UV Maps that I know of.  A couple of skins have worked on V3, but not V4 or Micheal.

Markschum, As far as the content folders... First I was manually putting files where they seemed like they ought to go, untill I figured out they had to be unzipped (somehow I thought double clicking them was "installing" them and there just was no official looking installer.)  Anyway, at some point recently, I started "installing" all the files to my content folder (which contains my runtime folder), which is working out much better, but still not perfect.  Many of the installers end up making new runtimes and new contents and new people/figures/prop/clothing folders.  I am assuming that is the fault of the person who designed the object or the installer, I have not had that problem with DAZ, though they do have studio and non-studio folders for some reason.  Im still working on skins...

I thinks its best not install to the content folder inside of Studio.  I prefer creating external runtimes and content.  The two main ones I made are "PoserStuff", for Poser format, and "DAZStuff", for native Studio format.  I also a "PoserDummy" and "DAZDummy" that I install everything to first.  This way I can rearrange or fix things.  If I needed to rearrange or fix  the  folders or files  I re-zip  and archive along with the original zip or installer. 

A general rule of thumb is that  textures for one character will not work on another because they are UV-mapped differently. Open a skin texture for V4 and one for V3 and you will see what I mean.

DAZ figures of the same generation usually share UV-mapping. So Aiko3, Victoria 3 and Stephanie Petite can all use the same textures with some issues around the nose and mouth. Same with Micheal 3, Hiro 3 and David. You can even use a female skin Millenium on a male Millenium character, again with some issues (V3, SP, A3, M3, H3 and D3 are also known as the Millenium figures for some reason).

However, A V3 skin will not work on V4,  Miki 2 or Jessi as these are totally different characters.  

When installing stuff, it is generally a good idea to unzip it to a temporary directory first, so you can read the readme's and check what it contains and perhaps adjust the runtime structure to suit your tastes, before you move it whatever runtime you intend keeping it

I have frequent lockups or freezes of D|S when using FREE content Poser files such as a CR2 character file. The usual problem is that the code within the file specifies an incorrect filepath or a filename that doesn't exist. Use a text editor to open the file and investigate the filepath and the filename it is calls to load. Any filepath before the word "runtime" should be deleted.

There are several discussions in the forum about this common loading problem. It's not D|S or Poser's fault, it's just plain bad programming of the people who make the free content. Suppose we should't expect too much from freebies. Sigh!

Maybe I need to repose this question: 
I have Vic 3, Micheal, V4 and Morphs++

I would like complete Male and Female nude characters. That includes hair, body hair, nipples, genetalia, freckles etc. - everything a body comes with!

I would also like a complete set of clothing for both characters.  Preferably NOT sci fi, fantasy, or lingerie.
 
Of course, I would like it all free :-}   - But apparently that aint gonna happen.  Can anyone give me a list of products I need to make this happen. 

The following link is to an ADULT render site.  www.renderotica.com
They have some interesting free body parts & accessories. Membership is free to most areas.
Once again it is an ADULT site and DO NOT go there if you are not an ADULT as legally defined by whatever National law governs your real world location  (obligatory disclaimer).

Wow.
A whole new 3d world.  If I register to this site, will I be bombarded with porn stuff?

That new 3d world is actually well behaved for a porn site. I believe they take what they do seriously. However some of the off site links it has are not. To be safe create a spare hotmail email account and use that.

Also I surf with "Mozilla Firefox 3" and have installed a great plugin called "Add Block Plus" from Mozilla's web site. ABP takes care of most of the nasty popups from those off site links.

One note about web browser plugins; the more you have then the more unstable your web browser. Don't install plugins all because they seems like a good idea.

If you signup then check out a 3D artist called RRWard. He is quite funny in an interesting sort of way. Some of the other 3D artists are good but most a too crass for my taste.

Also don't forget to post your question into their forum. You may get a little distracted whilst there and forget your original purpose. LOL.

Happy rendering.

Thanks very much for all the tips.

As regards clothing, the DAZ Morphing Fantasy Dresses (and expansion packs) are a must have. They are incredibly versatile. With the right textures the MFD can be anything from a Medieval barmaids dress to a modern evening dress. All the MFD's except Stephanie Petite's one can share textures as well.

As regards other modern, sensible clothing, it is out there but can be hard to find among all the cocktail dresses and stilleto heels.

Addendum to above:

The DAZ Cyberboots are a good buy, as they have a workboot texture and morph. Billy-t's Real Jeans here and at DAZ are also pretty good. PoserWorld seems to specialise in sensible clothing.