As I understand it, G2 is now gender specific, and v-6 works only with g2 and poser via DSON It seems like G1 fans are being thrown under the bus 3 times. Perhaps I am misinformed, caan anyone clear this up for me?

G2Female is a different mesh than G1, so there is no direct cross-compatability between them out of the box, and yes it's gender specific albeit with zero improvement to genital representation.  Additionally, you cannot use V4 textures by default but can buy an add-on product that makes this possible.

G2Female uses DSON to get into Poser (sorry, I don't actually use Poser myself, so I don't know if the improvements claimed make a big difference or not)

G2V6 is still an improvement over the typical G1 female character, but is by no means a replacement.  If you don't do pin-up art and/or fantasy scenes with sacntily clad females, might be worth waiting until it's in the bargain bucket.

Dimension3D is working on an updated/new version of GenX and Sickleyield is working on an updated/new version of SRMS, so once these good folk do their thing, G2Female will become a whole lot better - including ability to apply G2 clothing and shapes to G1 (at least that's what they're trying to achieve at time of writing, don't know how successful the results will turn out to be, but should be ok).

As things stand, G2Female+V6 is a human female, not the blank canvas G1 is that can be made into any bipedal character (male, female, monster, alien, or anything in between).  G2 will give great results for female characters so long as one is prepared to pay for the new content that will be coming out for it.

For what it's worth, I've bought V6, but G1 will still be the workhorse for my characters in general.  I won't be buying everything that comes out for G2V6, but only the items I will use for definite.  I am not buying unnecessary items just to be a cash cow to DAZ or anybody else, but I do some pin-up art, so V6 does have its uses to me.

I think that was very well put JV, a pretty good summary :)

Thanx JV

Another possibly dumb question, is it possible to run both genisis systems on any version of DS?

It is possible to run them side-by-side on the newest version, I'm not sure about running V6 on the older versions.

I purposely am not referring to V6 as Genesis2 because I haven't given up hope they will see the light and split the Genesis line from the Gen(x) line and run them both.

Ah, good point that i should've mentioned... Genesis 2 Female has some interesting changes to the surfaces formats, so you need to be using DAZ Studio 4.6+ to get the best out of it.  I don't think V6 textures will work in DAZ Studio 4.5 (but the morphs will still work).

G2F and Genesis sit fine together, the same way you can have V4 sitting in your runtime too - one does not replace the other.

V6 is a character for Genesis 2 Female the same way all the Generation 5's are characters for Genesis.  From what I've seen of the G2F mesh, no reason why the male equivalent could not use that very same mesh, so to split them apart does look like a commercial decision to increase revenue rather than due to constraints of the technology.

Don't get me wrong, there are advantages to the G2 mesh, mostly the extra polygons that will enable better facial expressions and scope for more realism to the joints.

V6 is a perfectly plausible purchase to make so long as you know what it is you're buying into... and that IMHO is where DAZ dropped the ball big time - slap dash release with insufficient preview information, no attempt to manage expectation, and failure to clarify fact from rumour as the thought of forking out a whole load of cash for no apparent reason has understandably put a lot of customers' backs up.

...possibly a panic response to the Dawn announcement (compared to other releases, G2F+V6 seems like such a rush job lacking proper planning), or maybe I'm simply reading too much into the timing of this week's events.

I wish to beg to differ as to there being no reason except commercial for splitting them into male/female. If one understands 3D modeling and topology, and looks at the actual mesh, one will quickly see that the G2F mesh is optimized to a female form. There was a reason to split them from a design perspective. If one doesn't see that by looking at the mesh in wireframe, it is because they don't understand advanced topology in 3D design.

It is not just extra polygons, it is how those polygons flow and where they are placed.

I'm sure you're absolutely right, I'm in no way an expert.

We'll know for sure when G2M gets released and can directly compare the male and female meshes, rather than me looking at it and thinking "I bet I could make a good male character out of that", hehehe.

Btw, I'm not saying one cannot morph the G2F character into a male... it is a matter of fine detail.. which is what the Gen6 are really about. The whole difference between Gen5 (Genesis1) and Gen6 is what the meshes are optimized for, flexibility vs fine detail.

If one looks at the chest area, there are a lot of polygons for accurate breast shapes that the male figure doesn't need. On the hips, the polygons are clearly laid out for female hips. The same can be seen in the small of the back (to a lesser degree.) These are the relatively easy things to see.

I have said and continue to say that I think Genesis and GenX should be split to continue advancing a highly mophable design while also having a separate path for ultimate detail.

If DAZ did that, people could follow either path or both.

Thanks, the extra comments helped me 'see' better - i think I'm simply not used to the type of fine detail that G2 should be able to deliver... so maybe it's time for me to put her through her paces :biggrin:

Well the other thing is, the differences aren't as great as one might expect at this point. They will be noticible as new charactes come out, but the real potential is if the two different approaches are allowed to grow on their own tracks. A good example of this are some of the Gen4 Fantasy characters, or those of Sixius. The detail in them are finer then is possible in doing a morph in Genesis. Now, one could use displacement maps to create micro displacement on the mesh that would make up for some of that.. but from a pure detail perspective, going from an optimized Troll mesh for instance and doing morphs from that point is going to give much better of a starting point then going from a Genesis type mesh and doing a fine detailed Troll. However, the Genesis version of Troll can mix with all of the other Genesis meshes, giving much more generic flexability. The same would be true of humanoid base meshes as they evolve to more specialized meshes. Flexibility vs Detail.