Job, I totally understand what you are saying. I was always advocating here on the forum for user responsibility, when someone was trying to through unimaginable stuff into iClone (like models from cgtrader or other sources with millions or polygons or crazy texture) and demanding it to behave.
Yes, we should be responsible for brushing up our models and characters, while building a scene. And I am willing to help to those who does not know how.
But there are 2 sides of a coin. RL should be responsible for delivering a product, which is at least optimized to the level where ordinary user like myself would not find some outrages stuff to complain about.
And that is a case now.
I am always trying to be fair and backup my statements/complains. And if someone proves otherwise with hard evidence, I'd be glad to take my hat off, admit I was wrong and shut up.
Again, here are facts.
PBR character with 2K texture for critical body parts exported out of CC.
The overall texture size is 39 MB - 83 files
Same PBR character converted to CC3+ with medium 2K quality and exported out of CC
The overall texture size is 234 MB - 124 files
I am not a developer and I do not know the way it internally works and what else might be causing high VRAM utilization. But I see that huge difference, plus some obvious texture size *abuse* and I start asking questions.
I can optimise both PBR and CC3+ character, but in the end the difference in VRAM utilization would be at the same level (when compared).
BTW it is a great idea to have everything baked in iClone including DHS (if that is even possible) for characters which are customized and ready for render.