Preparing An HD Character For The Export In Daz Studio 4.21 and up
First, make sure you are using a Genesis 8.1 character.
If your character is still based on Genesis 8, take a look here: https://stahlnessel.com/sf/index.php/topic,74.html
Useful links
Freebie: Spyro Rue's G8F ResetPoses: https://www.deviantart.com/spyrorue/art/G8F-Reset-Poses-700458001
Paid: Meipe's Shop at Renderotica: https://www.renderotica.com/content-artists/Meipe/117
For this tutorial, we will equip a 8.1 character with a geograft. I will use Meipes Golden Palace V2 in this case. I am using Pussy Wizard to colorize the genitals. We will start with a plain character with no hairs or eyebrows.
We wil further use a freebie from SpyroRue to reset the poses of the character.
(https://stahlnessel.com/sf/gallery/0/1-060424121433.jpeg)
INFO
To have a quick rig in Blender, we select all the morph values that will not change in the future. When the character is exported, the morphs are "baked" onto the geometry. The fewer morphs that need to be imported into Blender, the faster the posing will be. Dial in any HD morph to kitbash your character.
Step 1 - G8.1 preparation
Important
Make sure that your character options are set like in my example below.
(https://stahlnessel.com/sf/gallery/0/1-060424120515.jpeg)
The options "Base Joint Correctives" and "Flexions" should both be activated, the resolution level should be set to 3.
Tip: To speed things up a little, switch the drawing style of the viewport to "Texture shaded".
Step 2 - Adding a geograft
In the next step, I add Golden Palace V2, including two geograft shells. Golden Palace is stored under People / Genesis 8 Female / Anatomy / Golden Palace V2. (1)
(https://stahlnessel.com/sf/gallery/0/1-060424122221.jpeg)
Make sure to navigate to 9-Genesis 8_1 (2). Switch the visibility to list view (!)
(https://stahlnessel.com/sf/gallery/0/1-060424122819.jpeg)
Select your character and then click on (1), (2), (3). The material copy script may take a while. Avoid the Rigidity :)
Quite an acceptable result. In the next step, I add the "Pussy Wizard" textures to the geograft. You can skip this step if you don't have this product.
(https://stahlnessel.com/sf/gallery/0/1-060424123449.jpeg)
Step 2B - apply the Pussy Wizard settings.
Select your G8.1 character, Go back one level to Golden Palace V2 (2) and apply the Labia Majora Shell (3).
(https://stahlnessel.com/sf/gallery/0/1-060424124447.jpeg)
Two shells should now be visible on the "Scene" tab, (2) and (3). If not, repeat the last step.
(https://stahlnessel.com/sf/gallery/0/1-060424125015.jpeg)
Using a preset is the easiest way to achieve an acceptable result. Of course, you can refine your result if you wish.
Click on the Preferences node (1) and select Majora Shell Selector (2) (the character must be selected). Or you can select the Majora Shell on the "Scene" tab (3)
(https://stahlnessel.com/sf/gallery/0/1-060424125905.jpeg)
Click on the Preferences node (1) and select Majora Shell Selector (2) (the character must be selected). Or you can select the Majora Shell on the "Scene" tab (3).
Now apply any texture that best suits your character's texture. Repeat this procedure by selecting the minora shell and apply the minora preset. I've chosen Preset_2 Majora and then Preset_2 Minora.
The Golden Palace Geograft now has UV maps and the unnatural pink of the Minora parts has disappeared.
Result
(https://stahlnessel.com/sf/gallery/0/1-060424130903.jpeg)
Let's continue with step 3 :)
Step 3 - important preparation steps
We must not skip the next steps. These are mandatory - else you'll get a bad result, as shown below!
(https://stahlnessel.com/sf/gallery/0/1-060424132027.jpeg)
We have two problems here - the geograft shells are not configured correctly - and there is a mismatch in the HD geometry, so the HD character could not beunsiubdivided by diffeomorphic.
Loading D:\SN-Tutorials\Export To Blender\Characters\Birgit\Birgit-unprepared Hd.duf
Parsing data
Preprocessing...
Fitting objects with dbz file...
Highdef Genesis8_1Female 3 1184737
Building objects...
Build HD mesh for Birgit Mesh: 1184737 verts, 1183392 faces, 0 edges
HD mesh Genesis81FemaleGeom_HD built
Info: Removed: 135 vertices, 0 edges, 0 faces
Info: 3 new levels rebuilt
################
Cannot unsubdivide "Birgit_HD"
First things first. The large white part of the texture maps is created because the visibility is not set correctly. Not a problem in Daz Studio, but in Blender.
3.1 - fixing the geo shells
Select one of the Geo-Shells, I'll start with the Golden_Palace Shell in the Scene tab. (1)
(https://stahlnessel.com/sf/gallery/0/1-060424132817.jpeg)
Scroll down and check whether a body part (except GoldenPalace or genital region) is set to multiple or set to on. Click on the button (2) to deactivate the geograft for this region.
(https://stahlnessel.com/sf/gallery/0/1-060424133519.jpeg)
Don't overlook any region! Repeat the same procedure for the Golde_Palace Shell Majora.
For both shells, "Head" and "Body" regions are set to "Multiple" or "On". If you have loaded other geografts, proceed as described above.
3.1 is done, let's fix the other problem. :)
3.2 - fixing the hd subdivision problem
Okay, now we need to fix the geograft subdivision problem. We need to activate the geometry editor.
(https://stahlnessel.com/sf/gallery/0/1-060424135106.jpeg)
Select the Golden Palace gens in the Scene Tab (1). Then open the "Tools" dropdown menu (2) and activate the "Geometry Editor". You could press Alt+Shift+G instead of using the menu.
If you move the mouse over the genitals, you should see a red circle (!) indicating that the geometry editor is active.
(https://stahlnessel.com/sf/gallery/0/1-060424135953.jpeg)
Now make sure that the mesh resolution of the Golden Palace gens is set to "High resolution". Set the value for "View SubD Level" to 3. The level of the G8.1 and the gens should match. The same applies to all other geografts.
DO NOT DEACTIVATE THE GEOMETRY EDITOR, THIS IS IMPORTANT!
see https://diffeomorphic.blogspot.com/2020/09/hd-meshes-and-geografts-revisited.html
Step 4 - final steps
Open the "File" dropdown and choose "Save As"
(https://stahlnessel.com/sf/gallery/0/1-060424141251.jpeg)
Navigate to your output folder and save the scene to your export path. (1) (2) (3)
(https://stahlnessel.com/sf/gallery/0/1-060424140920.jpeg)
A small option windows will appear.
(https://stahlnessel.com/sf/gallery/0/1-060424141516.jpeg)
Feel free to deactivate the upper three checkboxes. Press "Accept" to commit the action.
HD Export - Open the "File" dropdown and choose "Export HD to Blender".
(https://stahlnessel.com/sf/gallery/0/1-060424141954.jpeg)
The script uses the project folder and project name and will create a file with the extension ".dbz" (2).
Click "Save" (3). Another option window will appear.
(https://stahlnessel.com/sf/gallery/0/1-060424142232.jpeg)
Make sure to tick "Export HD UVs" and click accept.
Depending on your PC system, you may need a little patience - wait for the final message :)
(https://stahlnessel.com/sf/gallery/0/1-060424142544.jpeg)
DONE!
Viewport Result in Blender
(https://stahlnessel.com/sf/gallery/0/1-060424144856.jpeg)