Another wishlist would be a DIFFERENCE function that would compare a "before" character (prior to modifiations) and an "after" character (a character saved after CC modifictins) and then calculate the slider values required to reproduce the same RELATIVE reults on any character. 

The calculated values can be in a "script file" format recognizable by iclone as special keyframes to enable real time animated morph/transorm effect on a character.

So I take Gwenn and catGwenn, extract the DIFFERENCE and load to iclone to a scene where Gwenn convincingly transforms into catGwenn.

Saving a base character is a static and inefficient way of saving slider adjustment and its not very flexble. Assuming I already have a group of characters e.g. from a content pack  and I want to convert them all into elves without affecting their individualizing characteristics.. eg. a fat man becomes a fat elf, tall man becomes relatively tall elf and skinny man becomes skinny elf. they all.look different but retain common characteristic of elves.

Randomize button for sliders would be great and if taken a bit futher within a scripting environment would be much more powerful and efficient.

But aren´t we able to save slider adjustments by simply saving the whole character and use that one as a base for creating another one?!

A randomizer (including a slider for the degree of randomization) would be perfect to create new family members ...

(Moved to wishlist) Given that CC is premised on slider adjustments, its a natural expectation that users will need the ability to save slider adjustments used in one character and apply the same to a different character to get smilar RELATIVE results. Example, when you want to rapidly create a "family" of different unique characters with certain common features.

Remember, sometimes less is more.  I don't think it's more sliders we need, it's more useful slider grouping.  And in the case of some sliders, more extreme ranges for the slider.  There are already oodles of sliders that rarely get touched because their effect is just so insignificant.  To create a character, one really shouldn't have to pick from hundreds of sliders, if they were grouped better, and their area of effect was a bit more broader, covering more than just one single small area.

Sw000p you are so predictable (see above where I predicted that you would say exactly that and also where I answered that question). I wonder if you actually read people's posts or if you just look for tid-bits that you can "jump on".

As I said, I switched to iClone because of their SoftCloth and Physics. When I switched, DAZ was adding Softcloth (called Dynamic Cloth in DAZ) but, at the time, it did not have options for user created meshes with Dynamic Cloth. Also, note that I was not suggesting people would not use iClone. I was suggesting that people would, like I do, use DAZ Studio instead of CC. They will use DAZ to create DAZ characters using all the free bells and whistles and them import them  into iClone. This will get them the benefits of iClone but, since they won't be using CC, it will reduce the chance that they will buy RL's CC content.


I am not completely convinced about that. I think they are doing some things right and some things could be greatly improved:
Their software seems to be missing functions that are more common or more intuitive in other software packages (e.g. full body morphs, custom morphs, etc) but they also provide functions that other packages don't have or do not implement as well (such as Softcloth and Physics).
I am also not convinced that the Get-Money-Upfront is the best business model. I still think lowering upfront costs will increase the number of users and thereby increase RL's revenue through the percentage that they take from each content sale. As far as I can tell, DAZ is not hurting and their revenue, as far as I can tell, comes only from content sold (since their base software is free). In addition, RL's Marketplace is a lot easier for users to sell content in than the DAZ Store (i.e. it should generate more revenue since any user with iClone can sell content in the Marketplace and RL gets a small cut of each sale).
The RL Marketplace, in my opinion, is a big plus. The fact that anyone (with iClone) can sell content there means you might find some questionable quality items but it also means that you will find more user content than, for example, you might find in the official DAZ Store.
On the other hand DAZ has a large content community including a lot of free content which, due to the upfront costs for iClone, iClone will never have (in my opinion). Sure there is a lot of non-software specific content out there (i.e. in OBJ files) but for DAZ you can get stuff already pre-fitted for DAZ characters, or DAZ Morphs to add more character customization options, and even scripts to perform various other DAZ functions. It is much less likely that you will find iClone G5 Upper and Lower meshes, or G5 clothing meshes that you can just Replace Mesh onto G5 characters, or CC clothing meshes that you can just Replace Mesh onto CC characters. 

Just my 2 cents.

EDIT: We should probably end this discussion in this thread or move it to a different thread since this thread is intended to be a list of wishful features and not a discussion on RL's good and bad points.


"We often compare ourselves to the U.S. and often they come out the best, but they only have the right to bear arms while we have the right to bare breasts"
Bowser and Blue, Busting The Breast

I have been an on and off DAZ Studio user for quite some time. Version 1.0 (now ten years ago) was announced with big fanfare as a Poser replacement; apparently there was a fall-out at some point about content. Several years ago DAZ made the decision with release 4.0 to have a Pro version for $495. So free was gone. That didn't last too long so they reverted to the free model. This for those that believe that all is paradise in the DAZ world and that things have been consistent and trouble-free for each users over the years. And, I see DAZ primarily as company that creates and sells content. Not everything is free; that would be an unsustainable business model.

Now with respect to CC I would say the product is just out for maybe a month. As with iClone there will be evolution and new features will be added. What I never understand is why some people want everything now. RL has communicated a development path with a Pipeline version later. They could have decided to postpone the release of CC until all imaginable features could be included, but that would have disappointed many more people and left iClone 6 with an incomplete character set. Heidi and Mason never did it for me.

I'm always a bit amused by the wagging finger accompanying "RL should realize that..." I'm sure they do, but they have to make decisions. I don't agree with everything RL does and have been upset at times and voiced such as well, but for me that is no reason to move to DAZ or another software. I just wished they start working on improving the animation part because that is MY main pet peeve.  

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I understand that...and I believe my follow up post explained my logic: If CC has enough free components/functions then it will encourage users to use it and thus provide the potential revenue of CC content (e.g. CC Essentials Pack, CC bases, etc) via the Marketplace and/or Store. However, if CC does not provide enough free components/functions then user will go to other sources (such as DAZ Studio which is available for free) where they can get these components/functions for free and still import them into iClone. I know, for example, that DAZ Studio also sells its Ethnic pack (similar to RL) but DAZ Studio has such a large community of (legally) free content that you can easily find ethnic characters without needing to buy the DAZ Studio Ethnic pack.

In my opinion, RL should realize that they are in competition with other software (such as DAZ Studio) which offer more functions at no cost. DAZ Studio has a large community of free content. DAZ Studio allows you to make conforming content from scratch (for RL we need CC PIPELINE). DAZ Studio allows you to add custom morphs (for RL we need CC PIPELINE). DAZ Studio allows these morphs to be applied in real time (iClone has a workaround for applying body morphs using Face Expressions but support is minimal and requires exporting CC morphs in order to accomplish).

Please don't get me wrong, CC is a good start but, being on a budget, I frequently find myself going back to DAZ Studio to do stuff that CC/iClone does not do well. Yes, I can already hear someone saying "if you like DAZ Studio so much then just use it instead"...That is not the point. I am not pointing out DAZ Studio features because I want to use DAZ...iClone has features that DAZ does not have (or at least did not have when I switched) such as Softcloth and Physics. I am pointing out DAZ Studio features so that RL can consider implementing similar features in CC/iClone. As for the revenue, RL will still get it. Having controls that help design a ethnic type are useful but they are far from a complete character. RL can make its revenue selling finished characters and/or through developers selling finished characters. Remember that the easier it is for a content designer to create something, the easier it is for him/her to sell it on the Reallusion Marketplace from which RL gets revenue.

In my opinion the following items are the weaknesses in CC which should be addressed in order to make CC even more popular:

1. Custom bases. As soon as CC came out, everyone started asking "how do I create my own custom bases". At first the answer was "you can't - you need to wait for CC PIPELINE". With patch 6.21 the answer has changed a bit because the Replace Mesh function has been fixed so you can use this method to make custom bases, However, the Replace Mesh is very restrictive, due to the requirement for same number of vertices, and thus is better than nothing but not a full functional way to create custom bases. Again, using DAZ Studio as an example, any imported mesh can be used as conforming clothing in DAZ Studio which means there is very little in the way of limits when creating custom bases. Prior to CC, custom bases could always be made using iClone and 3DXchange, so why not do the same for CC?

2. Custom morphs. CC comes with a good set of starting morphs but there is not support for adding your own morphs. As far as I know, we need to wait for CC PIPELINE in order to create custom morphs such as those added by the CC Essentials Pack. Once again, other software such as DAZ Studio provide this possibility out of the box. Using the Face Expressions work-around, this functionality is even available in iClone/3DXChange so why not allow it in CC?

3. Integration with iClone. Because CC was developed as a stand alone application with only lose ties to iClone (i.e. common file format and a "send to" link), you need to create a character in CC and then use it in iClone. Yes, you can jump between the two applications to modify the character but once modified the appearance of the character is static in iClone. If the CC morphs were properly integrated into iClone (such as applying them through similar functions as Face Expressions) then changes in the character could be applied in real time. Consider a video of accelerated aging (where a character ages many years over a matter of seconds) or consider a character getting fat. Currently the CC/iClone combination does not allow you to create one character that transitions into a different character (without exporting the second character and applying it, via 3DXchange, as a Face Expression morph). I even demonstrated how, with no modifications to the software, RL can provide the CC morphs inside iClone to allow morph transitions to be recorded.

Right now CC is good...but it could be better...and the better it is, the more users will use it which translates to more revenue.


"We often compare ourselves to the U.S. and often they come out the best, but they only have the right to bear arms while we have the right to bare breasts"
Bowser and Blue, Busting The Breast

Agreed. However, I would suggest some basic ethnic (and possibly other) template controls in CC for free and then provide more polished character in the Essentials pack. I am basing this request on my own experience. I don't have the money to shell out for the CC Essentials Pack so I either need to create ethnic characters from scratch (using the base CC morphs) or use something else than CC. Since DAZ Studio has a very large free content community, it is fairly easy for me to find free ethnic characters for DAZ which just pushed me away from RL products. Yes, I will likely import the DAZ figures into iClone and use them that way but the point is that the lack of these free controls is giving me reason not to use CC.

Being able to add our own morphs (as you can in DAZ Studio) would also be very valuable. Am I correct in understanding that at this point we cannot do that? This requires the upcoming CC PIPELINE, correct?


"We often compare ourselves to the U.S. and often they come out the best, but they only have the right to bear arms while we have the right to bare breasts"
Bowser and Blue, Busting The Breast

The essentials pack already contains several Ethnic Avatars, complete with all the Bells and Whistles to suit most users. :):cool:



Gerry

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System: Win 10 Pro (21H2), Asus X99-E WS, CPU i7-5930K -3,5 GHz, 32 GB DDR4 2666-16 RAM, NVidia GTX 1080 Ti GPU - 11 GB VRAM(Driver Studio-536.99), Samsung 850 Pro 512 GB SSD, 6 TB HD storage.