Dear DAZ, please give us at least one subdivision level for use with Zbrush GOZ
Flortale
Posts: 611
Genesis 8 Base resolution barely has any geometry to work with when you send the model to Zbrush. There just isn't enough geometry to make any sort of fine detail.
Even V4 base has more geometry to work with than Genesis 8. In this regard, Genesis was an actual down grade. At least with V4 I have more geometry to work with.
Could DAZ please consider giving us one subdivision level for Genesis 8 for use with Zbrush GOZ? Also, I can't wait months or years for this. I needed this functionality yesterday.
I would be willing to pay for this functionality. Please, thank you.
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2025 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
Werd...I have a custom character I've been wanting to sculpt for ages just for my own use but can't because of the lack of geometry. The only way around is turning his entire head into a geograft, but that opens up other issues. I'd totally be willing to pay for the ability as an "upgrade" to the base Daz.
become a PA and have access to the HD tool.
You could subdivide it in zbrush, and then use the subdivision cage option to produce a low res mesh that has greater control over what a subdivided mesh looks like in studio.
I believe Mallenlane's monstrosities took atvantage of that technology back before HD morphs were a thing.
I dusted it off for my Necro Cephaloid who is a non-hd creature.
Not everybody wants to sell their work nor do they necessarily have the technical abilies to rig and develop textures for said work (or they just might not want to as their interest lies eleswhere). It's one thing to say "I just want to sculpt this character for some artwork" and another thing entirely to say "I want to sell stuff I've built from scratch."
Daz has offred extended use of their proprietary face transfer tool at a cost...what's to say they can't offer the super sekret morph loader tool in the same fashion? They could even stipulate it's use for non-commercial purposes only. I'd pay for it...and I'd pay more than $20 for it too.
Is that all that's needed? I ask honestly, because if I build up and sell a few clothing sets, and DAZ accepts me as a PA so that I sell them here, am I all of a sudden allowed access to this plugin?
...Or would I have to be a character artist?
...Or would I need to have a certain amount of history as a PA?
Honestly, I'd like to know. If this info were more available, then it would help some of us build up a roadmap to get to where we want. As it stands, it just feels like a pipe dream and a kick in the nuts.
That's why I said that they could stipulate the license for non-commercial purposes only and even go so far as to say it's for personal use only. Yes, it won't stop people from breaking that license, but as they say, locks are only good to keep honest people honest anyways. Who's to stop me from passing around the files I've purchased from Daz? Only my honesty.
You can bake the higher resolution sculpt to displacement, normals, or a mix in ZBrush - not ideal but it is an option (and for Iray you need the same level of division in the mesh sent to the render engine either way).
It's not really an option for stuff that requires actual 3D sculpting, such as tentacles, etc. Geografts are a thing, but like I mentioned above, that's a whole other can of pain-in-the-pattoo that could be avoided entirely by being able to import an HD morph...especially when it would involve needing to geograft pretty much...everything.
I've honestly considered becoming a PA just to get access to the tools.
Not that I would not like to become a PA in the future, but right now it really isn't in my plan but if it gave me access to the PA tools if I build an environment or a prop than I would do it.
Based on the past discussion all I see in arguments is that PA only tools shall serve as hard-coded DRM tools. I can't see any more arguments behind it. Not that its invalid. I wonder why DAZ didn't go through with an all-in DRM. Why only limit Rendo and others with HD sculpts. Why not stop Rendo and others from selling DAZ content altogether if Genesis content can only be used if it's sold via DAZ store. Why not at the same time stop piracy of DAZ content. True, users protested against DRM but so did they with other topics and DAZ followed through nonetheless.
Yeah, who knows. I know if I were to be able to create this one character for my fanart, it wouldn't take away from the $$$ I spend on the marketplace. And like you said...if I were given the opportunity (or purchased it) to hone my sculpting skills, who knows...maybe I would gain more interest in creation and selling...thus earning Daz more $$$ from me. But right now, I have literally zilch interest in using ZBrush for more than scene tweaks (soft-body morphs and clothing fixes) and simple things like scars, etc that I can bake maps for...because I can't sculpt anything advanced I can actually use.
I wouldn't think an HD morph could handle tentacles very well, but if you want something like that a mix of morph and displacement might work.
Note that PAs get the tool to create content for the store, not just to do with as they wish.
I feel the same like you with hair. The hairstyles I'm interested in creating require some form of dynamics or they look weird in many poses. But since I can't use dynamics and setup dforce cloth for hair with this amount of polygon count is not really workable I lost interest and I looked elsewhere.
It's not so much tentacles as a face with a lot of spines that make up eyebrows and a beard of sorts that includes bony ridges/spines and two wobbly tentacle bits attached to the cheeks. I've attached a picture of the in-game characer model, but my fanart is photoreal (or as near as I can get) recreations/interpretations of the cartoon-based models...so I would need a lot more detail. A lot of it could be done with baked maps, but the jaw/chin area and brows are something that cannot. As I said above, a geograft could be an option, but they are a pain in the patoo, especially when it would be his whole face (the ongoing issues being discussed in the Auto Face Enhancer thread is a testament to that...that is a geograft-based product and it has all sorts of distortion issues from the HD graft). His body is also covered in ridges on the neck, chest, spine, arms, legs, elbows, and knees. Those could probably be done with maps.
Yeah, going to tell you now that tentacles like that, you'd really want to do as geografts. HD isn't going to behave very well. Among other things, it's weightmapped to that part of his face, so smiling would likely turn the tentacles to garbage.
Even if the two soft tentacles would need to be geografted, the rest of the jaw/chin is bony/hard, so I would think that would need to be sculpted. Displacement maps wouldn't work as some of them overlap each other or are curved. In an ideal state, couldn't the base face be sculpted and then the geografts added on top...rather than geografting the entire face?
Well, yeah, there's no point geografting the entire face if you don't have to; you'd do a regular morph approach for the face, then a geograft added to it.
...and that's where I wish I could do that. I've tried to sclupt his face using the suggestions of maps and whatnot and it just doesn't fly. There's too much detail lost. I've been wanting to create this guy for a couple years now and on the backburner he sits.
Creating tentacles and whatnot is like 100x harder than sculpting a face, so... yeah. My advice, if you want to do more, is to just practice doing faces and such.
Things like HD and other stuff are tools; there's no substitute to putting in the time to polish skills.
I was able to sculpt him just fine...using a subdivided mesh in ZBrush. What put a halt on everything was not being able to bring that back into Daz without all the details being smoothed right back out. As I said, I could bake displacement for some of it, but that won't work for the ridges that are curved or the point of his chin where ther are actually three ridges that kind of twist around each other to a point. Baking normal and displacement maps can only do so much. Thus, I was at a juncture...turn the entire face into a geograft that I could subdivide and sculpt on (provided the graft points remained unchanged)(but I wound up with other issues...the main one being that you have to sculpt the graft from an unaltered base whereas I would prefer to sculpt from the base face shape I'd already created)...or forget the whole thing...and I unfortunately chose to forget the whole thing for now.
I wouldn't create content for other people, just for personal use. I have some projects where I would really love the PA tools.
I would still create tools for the store from time to time, but I couldn't focus on it yet like I imagine most of PAs do.
A face like that could properly be made with geografts for all the tentacles along the chin and side of the mouth, then you could achieve the rest of the face morph with LD morphs and displacment. Yes you could add even more details with HD, but the look in that picture you have show coudl easily be done LD.
Thanks, but I already said above that the picture is from the in-game cartoon-based model. My fanart is photoreal (as close as I can manage) recreations/interpretations of those cartoon characters...so I would need much more detail.
And are you saying separate geografts for each spine, or just one (the entire lower face)? The issue I have with geografts is that I was told that you have to sculpt them from a non-deformed/modified base figure...so G8M. But, I already have a base dialspun figure that I want to sculpt off of...in other words I'm trying to say that G8M out of the box has too round/pudgy of a face and I've dialspun myself a nice chiseled/cheekboned face to start from that I could sculpt those spines much easier from...rather than trying to eyeball where they'd end up if I were to sculpt from the round/poochy G8M base face. I hope that makes sense.
*OK, for example of what I mean when I say my fanart is a reinterpretation of the in-game characters...I've attached a shot of one of my pieces...alongside that corresponding in-game cartoon character...so yes, much more detail is needed*
Normals and displacement could easily handle the details you are talking about.
If displacement can only handle "up" or "down" by varying degrees of the greyscale map, how can that tell the mesh to deform into a curved shape or any shape that isn't completely straight? For example, it can't tell something to hang over something else, like a roof overhang, etc. The points on his chin are a prime example. They are three spines that curve around each other (picture your middle three fingers bunched together into a point)...I was able to sculpt them at a higher subdivision in ZBrush...baked maps...then brought the subdivision down so I could import via morph loader...but even with the maps I ended up with just one rounded nub on his chin.
DAZ needs tangent space displacement
How many levels of division did it need in ZBrush?
People were able to do that with a Shader Mixer network in 3Delight, I don't know if anyone has tried in Iray
It's been a while, but I think I sculpted at 4 or 5.