how do you guys feel these textures compare with other sets ?
There are no morphs, for one, and at full price seem a bit high to me.

I just bought the new one, but I'm not seeing much that should elicit an "elite" in the name.
they come with less than most. but there is an uptick maybe...they are, for what they are, pretty well done....and they are based on different real people, I think...or are they ?

They are based on real people and have a high quality to them. They don't have as many options because they are pretty much photographic and aren't a based with a little bit of photoshop layers on top for extra makeup options, etc. As I said, I do enjoy them but you do have to pay a bit more for the extra quality. They do hold up well for closeups and stuff but you do have to set your render settings to a decent quality to really see the difference too.

... and remove that ever prominent shiney node they stick all over the texture... a real pain to render in Poser with some light sources... I wish they would make a MAT file option, "Proper Skin" and "Ugly Trying to Imatate Wet and Shiney Skin" it would make life and their use much more enjoyable.

Quote - ... and remove that ever prominent shiney node they stick all over the texture... a real pain to render in Poser with some light sources... I wish they would make a MAT file option, "Proper Skin" and "Ugly Trying to Imatate Wet and Shiney Skin" it would make life and their use much more enjoyable.

Good ON you, RGUS. Nice to see others who think burnt-in specular is a bug, not a feature.

Quote - > Quote - ... and remove that ever prominent shiney node they stick all over the texture... a real pain to render in Poser with some light sources... I wish they would make a MAT file option, "Proper Skin" and "Ugly Trying to Imatate Wet and Shiney Skin" it would make life and their use much more enjoyable.

Good ON you, RGUS. Nice to see others who think burnt-in specular is a bug, not a feature.

I think RGUS was referring to the shader settings, the Elite series don't have burned in specular.

Coldrake

Disclaimer:  General texture rant to follow, not limited to DAZ Elites so please people don't get your knickers in a twist.

I'm constantly disappointed by most textures that do not include eyebrow options.   They gave us the transmapped brow and nothing has been done for it.    I'm tired of getting 457437329785 different lipstick shades and would much rather prefer 3-4 eyebrow shapes and a range of the basic colours.    I'm aware some vendors do the colour variation and I have bought those textures but what's missing is a choice of eyebrows.

As it is, the plucking of the eyebrows on this latest Elite is atrocious to say the least and limits the use of the texture.  

Edited to add:  The shaders don't bother me because I always use BB's VSS and resave textures as .mc6.    Everything does indeed look better that way :)

Quote - Disclaimer:  General texture rant to follow, not limited to DAZ Elites so please people don't get your knickers in a twist.

I'm constantly disappointed by most textures that do not include eyebrow options.   They gave us the transmapped brow and nothing has been done for it.    I'm tired of getting 457437329785 different lipstick shades and would much rather prefer 3-4 eyebrow shapes and a range of the basic colours.    I'm aware some vendors do the colour variation and I have bought those textures but what's missing is a choice of eyebrows.

As it is, the plucking of the eyebrows on this latest Elite is atrocious to say the least and limits the use of the texture.

 

Edited to add:  The shaders don't bother me because I always use BB's VSS and resave textures as .mc6.    Everything does indeed look better that way :)

And you need to do this BB'S VSS thing because???? Not knocking BB's thingy... but they ain't that elite if you need other pythons etc. to make them work...

There's several threads at Daz asking about the morph used in the promotional image with the woman getting out of the water. As far as I know, no-one has said what it is yet. Probably a custom morph that that artist does not want to share or sell, which is fair enough I suppose.

Although it clearly states that it is just the textures, I've often looked at some of these images selling textures at Daz hoping that the morph was included or at least credited, so that I could either buy it and the texture or on it's own. Sometimes a great morph can make an ok texture look good and vice versa.

At least here at Rendo. many of the merchants do credit other products that they have used in their promotional images. That would make me possibly buy both products.

Quote - And you need to do this BB'S VSS thing because???? Not knocking BB's thingy... but they ain't that elite if you need other pythons etc. to make them work...

 

Yeah, so why complain to me??  I'm just expressing my dissatisfaction with the Elites as well and suggesting what I did to improve my renders.   Just because DAZ decided those shaders are best does not mean we who got some Elite textures based on promos are not free to experiment with other, more promising solutions out there.

i am looking right now at the Ariana face texture in my paint program , and there is a bit of specular on the forehead and bridge of the nose. there are even a couple of skin flakes :) She has some dry looking skin for sure.

Anyway, I think the bottom line here is that each elite texture is what it is...that individual skin with no variation. That texture has those brows, You buy another one to perhaps get a different color brow or skin shade.

I went ahead and bought 4 of them ..This new Ariana, Natasha, Maya, and Lana. They were 50% off plus I had the FB 45% off and a $5 voucher form FB, so the price wasn't bad...$28 for the 4 of them

I haven't paid that close attention to these textures as I always thought they were so limited in package content compared to say, Rebelmommy, where you do get all the variations, eye colors, lips, etc etc, but this texture is looking pretty good, and the few renders I've done so far have come out looking pretty realistic. The areas around the nose , though, for some reason, look plastic or something.

Quote - ... and remove that ever prominent shiney node they stick all over the texture...

What's the best way to remove the shine? I have tried BB's VSS but the results still do not seem very "elite" to me. This is the result of my efforts with VSS, IDL and Ariana. Any help to achieve better results would be greatly appreciated.

damn , girl..I think she's looking pretty good right now :)

Thank you very much, Dave. I have lots to learn about VSS. I have seen some spectacular results but have not achieved them yet. I try to follow the discussions but I get lost in all of the technicalities. I will keep on reading and experimenting though. :)

Someone mentioned there should be no need to use VSS for an elite texture but before I posted my question I had been struggling with the default material. I must have been having a senile moment though as I know the specular color controls the shine.

I see you went ahead and purchased some of the other elite textures. I really like the Lana one but have not used Maya very much as she got tucked away in my runtime and I forgot about her. I must get her out soon. Have fun with them. :)