DAZ3D’s Genesis 2 And Victoria 6: Bringing An Early Sunset to Generation 5?

Looking for a Full Genesis 2 and Victoria 6 review?

Genesis 2: rumour to reality

Rumours of Genesis 2 have been bouncing around since December of 2012, just a year after the release of Victoria 5. Whether the quote from a 3D World promotion was correct at the time or not is not known. It prophesised the emergence of the sixth generation of figures and characters for 2013, which to many seems absurdly soon considering Genesis was only released at the end of 2011. Considering Victoria 4 and her gen 4 counterparts ran rampant for more than half a decade before the birth of Genesis, a two-year reign does seem on the short side.

The subject was quite for just over six months until the release of Gwen Hair, on the 13th of June, once again exploded the cat in the bag (that’s how the saying goes, right?). In the included features it lists Genesis 2 and Victoria 6. Whether this was an intentional slight or not is debatable, but since then several other products have come out with similar support, with the release of one character product (FW Candace) designed specifically for Genesis 2 being promptly removed.

A Member’s Club (PC) only Genesis 2/Victoria 6 preview thread (which I can’t directly link to for some reason) was created on the 11th of June but not made public till the 14th. The thread features renders by various DAZ published artists depicting Genesis 2, Victoria 6, and other related characters and products. Examining the images does yield some information about what we can expect. Character mesh appear to be more detailed, and flexing joints are more realistic. There is no other concrete information, but judging by the wording of some of the promo material and comments by some of the vendors has led to speculation that Genesis 2 characters will not share a common mesh. Whether Gen 6 products will be backwards compatible with Genesis is not known, and many are wondering if this indicates a return to the days of buying matching his and hers morph sets and the like.

I would love nothing more than to spruce up this thread with some fresh Gen 6 images, but alas the images posted on the member’s forum have yet to leak onto Google in any serious or obvious way. I feel compelled to play by the rules here, but in any case it should only be a matter of a day or two before we can expect a full press release and/or product release.

Generation 6 splits community

Sentiment and opinions are split between those are looking forward to seeing new advancements, those that are wary, and those that are out-and-out pessimistic. With Genesis being supported primarily by DAZ 3D, and only a very small pool of content creators selling on other stores working with the figure, the days of fresh Genesis content could be short indeed. Generation 4 figures, on the other hand, have remained popular with vendors servicing the other big DAZ/Poser stores like Renderosity and Runtime DNA.

Why?

Why exactly DAZ has decided to release Genesis 2 just two and a half years after Genesis is a head scratcher, but for it to gain a slice of the market, let alone own it, there would have to be some serious advances in technology. One suggestion is that it could be Poser compatible to a greater and more flexible extent than is currently possible with Genesis’s DSON plugin for Poser. Certainly since Poser’s adoption of Pixar’s OpenSubdiv, which was included in the last DS point release, this removes one obstacle. Of course, the two programs still work with two different weight mapping solutions… Specific inclusion of OpenSubdiv’s power into Genesis could be another reason for the release, but alone seems unlikely to generate a huge amount of interest.

Whatever the reasons DAZ has decided to spring this rather unexpectedly early Gen 6 on the community, some are already chalking this one up as another DAZ PR disaster, but only time will tell.

See our Full Genesis 2 and Victoria 6 review

 

4 thoughts on “DAZ3D’s Genesis 2 And Victoria 6: Bringing An Early Sunset to Generation 5?

  1. Are you going to blog about the new Dawn character?

    PS Love your articles – looking forward to more LW –
    Daz stuff!

    • Undoubtedly! I’ve been watching Dawn for the last week or so now. It will be interesting to see if she can take a chunk out of DAZ’s figures. Would be great to have some diversity out there. Glad you liked the article. I’m always on the hunt for something new to write about, so stay tuned 😉 If you haven’t signed up for the RSS or email feeds, please do so (both available from the sidebar). There is an email option for the RSS too, so there are a pile of ways to stay up to date.

  2. Thanks for this post, it was actually the first I heard about V6 since I was not keeping up on DAZ news.

    I would suggest that this release of V6/Genesis 2 is an indication that Genesis 1 was not selling well at all. No one wants to buy a figure whose big selling point is being able to switch genders. Tools that perform multiple tasks are NEVER as good as tools designed for specific purposes. Also I’ve never had much need to put M4 into V4 clothing or visa versa.

    TBH – I hated the concept of Genesis from the start and I never understood why DAZ ever thought it was a good idea. I’m very glad to see they seemed to have figured out their mistake and are now going back to models designed specifically for each gender.

    • Glad to be helping people get their DS/Poser news 😉 Personally, I quite liked being able to morph between male and female – if you have a unisex wardrobe it makes things a lot easier. I’m not sure how much benefit we really get from having separate meshes, but I do like the extra detail of G2 Female and Victoria 6.

      Thanks for stopping by, and come on back anytime.

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