2011
11.23

Genesis: Will I or Won’t I?

Well, the subject has come up quite frequently, and the question has been asked: Will I or Won’t I support Genesis? So I figured I’d do a blog divulging my point of view.

But before I do that, I think its important to convey one thing. I started with Poser, and Im a native Poser developer. So, I will never abandon my Poser users.

I also think its important for you guys to know that DAZ has not abandoned you, either. I know its probably easy to feel that way… like your favorite toy was just taken from you, but its really not the case at all. They have done all they can to get this tech to work in Poser…. but unfortunately, they have no control over other software houses. And DAZ is still accepting Gen 4 content to their store, still releasing Gen 4 content, and still supporting Gen 4 content…. as well as doing everything they can to get Genesis to work in Poser. So, please try to keep that in mind. It saddens me to see so much upset lately over the issue for both DAZ and the poser userbase.

Now that all that has been said, I am moving onto the meat of this blog.

I really love the new tech in DS4 – I love how Genesis bends better, I love how the morphing tech works and how it alleviates most, if not all of, pokethru that would occur on a traditionally rigged figure. I love the uv switching, how you can rescale the rig to fit a more extreme styled morph… I love everything that have done with the new technology. I think DAZ has done a brilliant job with this, and the accolades they’ve received for it are well deserved. I would like to support it, and I am quite sure I will…. but….. it comes down to multiple issues for me.

1: Whatever I do, will need to work in both applications. As Ive already stated, I will not abandon any of my customers. So I am still doing Generation 4 content for the moment, which is set up to work in DS 3, 4 and Poser. I also have a couple other in progress packs that are Gen 4 as well. These were started way before Genesis and DS4 came out… so the plan is to continue on with them as they are. Even if I knew what I was doing entirely with the new tech, these were not built to fit Genesis, nor work ideally with the new tech… and I will not release something half-assed (pardon the terminology there lol)

This decision I have solidly made to support both apps, also leaves me no choice but to do BOTH sides of the coin, should I decide to brave the Genesis waters.

2: I am not yet familiar with the new tech in DS4. You see, most merchants… they only have to really learn one or two things about the new tech, since most tend to be specialized toward a certain type of content. But since I tend to have many different types of content (and a lot of the time, all in one of my bigger packs) I need to learn ALL of it: Characters, rigging with weight maps for any clothing/hair, how to get the same extra movement and style morphs on two different geometries, I will have to resave ALL the poses I create in a set, since V4 poses will not work with Genesis, etc. The list goes on and on. And while I do have some DS experience, DS4 is hm… way different in a lot of cases. Since there is little to no documentation currently, I don’t see that happening overnight. I will have to slowly learn on my own, as I did learning content from my first days doing development to now. I will say that it will prolly not be AS lengthy as it took me to learn from the beginning- but still a fair amount of time. And I will most likely start out slowly and small… like, doing a character only.

3: Given both points mentioned above, but especially point 1: I am effectively having to double my work load. Even if Genesis is easier when all is said and uh… learned, this is going to take me more time to do two sides of a set (and even more to do one of my big sets esp) and enlarge what is already an overly enlarged pack (in the case of the bigger ones) This means I have two choices: Charge more for the bundled item… or split them up into two packs, and sell each… and you will have to pick and choose which to purchase. I am not sure which is the better method here.

4: My only other option is to stop doing characters and clothing completely, and ONLY do stuff that relies on nothing to function, and can be used with veritably anything. I don’t really see that happening tho, as I will end up wanting to slit my wrists LOL

So for me, the future is indeed, undecided… for the moment anyway. We shall see what it brings.