Hi...

Apologies if this is not the best place for this question, but it is somewhat related to DAZ:

I have been considering getting Blachearted's beautiful GND4.2 for a lont time, but have been putting it off because of the cost for a several-year-old character that seemingly still has little clothing support, outside of a few items that include fits, and externally available fits that apparently will not run on later versions of DAZ. Also, I'm not sure whether the Perfect Fixes will work with her, as I find the notoriously unaesthetic/incorrect V4 shoulder to be totally unacceptable. That said:

• Will the fixes run on GND4.2, or is there a satisfactory shoulder fix available? (I am aware of one on here, but don't know how effective it is.)

• Are there any shoes available for her? Apparently, the heels in her promo images never bacame available, nor did the lingerie.

• Has anyone come up with a GND4.2 shape for Genesis 2 Female?

Any input would be helpful. Thank you!

Good questions all.  

No one?  Anyone?

I'm at a loss as to why no one has answered your question.  Have you tried to contact Blackhearted through the email here on site?  I don't have the GND product, much as I would like to, but I'm always interested in finding out new things about the product lines.

Yes, I have, on two occasions, but he seems unreachable.

As for shoulder probs, I have used corvas "SimpleDetails V4LITE" for years on every V4 character.

Thank you very much, CyberDream. Helpful information. I may just have to take the plunge.

CyberDream... just wanted to let you know that your solution for GND4.2's feet/shoe compatibility worked a charm. However...

... does anyone have a solution for her limb bending shortcomings? I am finding that the Perfect Fixes actually remedy her shoulder issues very well, but the insides of her elbows and the backs of her knees, when bent at anything exceeding 90 degrees, are unacceptable by the standard of anyone who is the least bit serious about this medium. Whether the fixes are on or off, her elbows and knees would have to be hidden by limiting poses, camera angles, or postwork. Does anyone have a solution at hand, by any chance? GND4.2 is a potentially beautiful character, even in DAZ (if you know your wayaround shaders and mats), but for practicable use, I can't give her more than a C or C+, especially in light of her being about twice the cost of of other characters that are twice as versatile. In hindsight, I can't see the logic in doing a full-body morph that basically constitutes a crippling regression in V4's functionality.

Failing other options, I might have to try to convert her to Gen2F (when GenX2 comes out) so that I can use her.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Well, credit where credit is due. After a bit of twiddling, I have her looking so good in DAZ that this texture, though it's optimized for Poser, may be one of the prettiest textures I have ever used. Some home grown displacement maps make al the difference as well. GND4.2 redeems herself in so many ways that I am compelled to do what I need to do to get her up to snuff. Judiciously adding the equivalent of about ten or fifteen pounds of muscle actually seems to have increased her aesthetic limits when bending, so I might do some work with her while she's still in V4 format, and possibly experiment with her conversion to Gen2F once the utility is released.

And that face. There is not enough that can be said about that face. I'm not going to touch it at all.

The real scary thing is to use Gen-X and put her on Genesis. Then you even have clothing that works well with her and the bends work well, out of the box.  :) 

I have done just that. Used Gen X to create a Genesis version of GND. The rumor is that Gen X2 for Genesis 2 will be released shortly. 

One think to recognize useing GND next door in DAZ Studio is that she does not come with DAZ materials.  The description says "Works in D|S (with Classic GND4 MATs)." Many Non-SSS poser mats will "work" in DS, but they do not produce results like the promo renders.  To get better results you will need to know how to adjust materials in DS. The specular needs adjustment to use these materials in DS. As you can see from the STD render the skin looks rather flat in the STD material. Rather than try to fix the STD material, I changed to use the AoA SS shader and fixed the specular there.

Above I have a comparison showing the STD materials that come with GND, my setup of the materials with AoA SS Shader and 75% subsurface strength. This is basically Skin A mild preset from the subsurface tool box with alot of adjustments to the specular. The 3rd image combines the AoA SSS with some techniques using the layered image editor (LIE) to make the skin paler. Strong SSS usually makes the skin look darker, like it is tanned. Most Poser SSS material use skin tone adjustment in the procedural shaders to make the skin paler. I did someting similar in LIE. Added a new layer, set the color to white, opacity to 10% and the blend mode to additative. I did that on each skin zone. Lips I added a little red color this way.  

When first fitted to GND, there is a lot of poke through with this dress. The first step is to right click on the dress and select "Transfer Active Morphs" at the bottom of the menu. This takes care of most of the poke though, but there is still a little left.

The next step is to add a smoothing modifier. With the dress selected go to Edit -> Figure -> Geometry -> Apply Smoothing Modifer. That takes care of the rest of the poke through in this case. 

If the default smoothing modifier does not fix the poke through completely, you can go to the Parameters tab with the dress selected, under General -> Mesh Smoothing you can adjust the "Smooting Iterations" and "Collsiion Iterations" to try to elminate the poke through.

This does not work with all V4 clothes. It should work with conforming V4 clothes, though it may not work in all cases.

On the right of the image is the Genesis GND wearing the same dress which was autofitted and with a smoothing modifier.

There's a magnet set to fit V4 clothes to her that works pretty well, I hear.

Quote - There's a magnet set to fit V4 clothes to her that works pretty well, I hear.

I don't have Lyrra's GND4 magnet set. Magnet's can be made to work in DAZ Studio, but they do work differently than in Poser. DS transforms the magnets into DFormers. You load the magnets/DFormers onto each item of clothes. Then you use the DFormers to spawn a fitting morph for each item of clothes. Then you some how save a cr2 with your new fitting morph. 

This is pretty complicated, but the advantage is it can work for any V4 clothes, not just conforming clothes.

Conforming V4 clothes can be easily made to work on the V4 GND through "Transfer Active Morphs" and "Smoothing Modifiers", but the much better solution seems to be use Gen X to transform the GND body/head shape to Genesis. V4 clothes will work much more easily through autofit. You don't have the bending defects that V4 has.

According the developer of Gen X, the update for Genesis 2 should be released very soon, like next week maybe. He says it got delayed a bit because of the release of DS 4.6.2. 

All... especially markht... thank you very much for your detailed responses. I have been developing GND4.2 to my own standard (among my custom characters, she is called "Belinda"), and am working on a short light fetish series with her. I never use any shader, map or texture out of the box, so issues in DAZ are not a problem for me. I managed, also, to find a little strapless dress that works nicely for this set, but will explore that issue more later if I convert her to Gen2F. That will be an experiment in itself, because I am very particular about how the various platforms handle muscularity; each has its own strength. If the results are not satisfactory to me, I am willing to suffer some clothing-related inconvenience for the sake of Belinda's physique, with which I am currently very pleased (I did a bit more work on her beyond her original state, and have seen to those classically horrific V4 shoulders). Some other joints are still an issue with more extreme bends; for now, I'll deal with it in composition until I see about a Gen2F conversion.

Sorry for my delay in responding, and thanks once again!