Having recently bought into the iClone family of tools, and a regular Daz3D user, can someone please help me understand what benefits I can get from developing my characters with Character Creator versus developing them in DAZ and then importing them to iClone?  Thanks!

Well......
The CC characters are a bit more optimized for real-time. Poly count is lower, and there are fewer materials per character. CC characters already have goodies like physics collision shapes integrated into them. These can also be added to DAZ characters.

The texturing is one of the biggest differences. CC character texture is Substance based. There are many layers in the Substance for everything from makeup to wrinkles maps. All the Substance settings are adjustable.

The Substance texture is baked (or flattened in iClone vocabulary) into a simpler texture for use in real-time. EG, when your creating your face, you have options to change makeup, tan, eyebrows, decals, and wrinkles. This get's flattened to a diffuse map, bump map, and specular map. The diffuse is baked at this point, and so the eyebrows, makeup, etc. are fixed. DAZ will give you a separate material in iClone for every material zone of your DAZ character. It ends being a lot!

Both work well.

Not really sure how long you have used DAZ, but if you are "proficient" in using it's interface and export options, the DAZ Avatars can use Substance inside iClone.  I had to make sure before I posted here, but it is verified that Allegorithmic Substances can be used on models from external sources, such as DAZ Genesis, or basically any other Mesh Based Avatars or props..  
You are limited to some degree in using the CC profiles on external imports because they will not use it's interface, but the Character Creator was intended as a Reallusion connected tool, so efficiency could be a factor.  
You also don't have to have a "large number" of materials coming into iClone if you know how to combine your UV Maps in DAZ.  

Sample of a DAZ Avatar using Substance:





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With the assumption that you're familiar with Genesis rigs and clothing rigging concepts...
Daz characters will be classified as non-standard characters.
IClone is Genesis-friendly on the whole. Compatible with PhysX collision and puppet motion tools.
Genesis has optimized material-texture set here, lighter weight, lower res

If conforming clothing is important in your work process
then
CC characters are the only iClone standard characters with native conforming/autofit clothing compatibility (true to date)

Overview
iClone Character types in brief





  >>> Indie Generalist modeler-rigger-animator <<< Hardware: AlienWare i7-HK 32G GTX1080 2T-SSDs BenqSW320 Wacom-Intuous 3Dconnexion ||| Software: IC6 Pipeline - CTA3 Pipeline - ATK2 - Indigo ||| Zbrush4R8. Blender 2.79. DazStudio 4.9. Carrara. Poser. Octane.

·        Dealing with the Daz textures on import is an issue to be concerned about because of the large possible number of materials brought in; however, combining UV maps prior to import may address some of that.

·       By combining UV maps I assume this means to use one large UV map for all parts /zones rather than a separate UV map for individual parts/zones.

·       Also, unique iClone features such as face fitting and body part exchange are not currently supported with Daz imports.

·       “CC characters are the only iClone standard characters with native conforming/autofit clothing compatibility”.

Can't BVH be applied to DAZ characters?

To export your motions/characters out of iClone will require 3DXchange "Pipeline", as well as export licenses.

DAZ clothing is auto-fitting as well, within DAZ. It's good practice to remove hidden body geometry for DAZ in iClone use. Avoids the problem, and lightens the load.

Using the "Texture Atlas" can make your material much more manageable.

Found the Texture Atlas in DAZ, they did a nice job of hiding it.  Should be very useful for combining UV maps and saving resources in interactive games and in iClone.  Also, hiding body parts under clothes makes a lot of sense and will hopefully eliminate clothing tears.   Thanks for the suggestion and info Rampa.

Yes, BVH should import to Daz and therefore, I could do my mocap animamations in Daz (a possibility I have considered as I do like the Iray renderings).  But for exporting to interactive game engines I did not find a way to do so with Daz.  Buying into Pipeline for that piece I figured I would see if iClone would help me with the animations.  I have two different mocap hardware setups on order and am hoping one or both will work well with iClone and/or Daz.