Here's some news from the farm:
The next iteration of the tool (again another rewrite from scratch that aims for things to come) solves a bunch of problems with various FBX sources/issues. It will “recreate” high definition geometry instead of using parallel imported OBJ (it still allows for OBJ imports to DEFINE the HD version, but also enables users to create high definition layers like clothes for better simulation results), it will feature a material creation system (with the ability to use different render engines) and it will, again, improve on animation performance.
That said, I have also looked deeper into DUF files. While this tool is NOT intended to be a DAZ-only-thing, DAZ is doing some nasty shortcuts when creating their FBX exports that are the cause of more than 50% of the problems I have solved by now.
I am now able to write a DUF-importer system for Houdini, which would be able to
- automatically create material setups with texture files and value settings (not limited to diffuse channels)
- sail around most of the FBX problems (including some random UV-error-deformation slips)
- work with static and deformed meshes, meaning, it would work with characters, animals, environments, buildings etc (as opposed to the infamous “DAZ bridge tools” that are currently hardcoded to work mainly with Genesis3 and Genesis8 figures, nothing else)
- use the OBJ HD workaround and recreate geometry OR, if so desired, create displacement maps tailored for individual polygon groups (to get around the deformation issues a simple bake would create)
Reason for writing about this in public instead of sending a mail to the over 30 people who “test” the tool is that out of those over 30 people the overwhelming number of 3 have actually given any feedback, 1 reporting problems that I was, partially, able to solve. I would not need to write a special “DAZ DUF TO HOUDINI” system for myself and ONE other user. Creating such a tool and providing support for it, extending its features over time and adjusting to ongoing development in Houdini would require a significant amount of time, so I would have to SELL such a tool (I haven't found a sales channel yet, but haven't really searched either).
INTERESTINGLY it would, technically speaking, be possible to PORT BACK changes one did to a DUF based geometry in Houdini into a DUF. Meaning, it would, technically speaking, be possible to DEFORM say a building in Houdini and create a new version of the base asset for DAZ Studio (writing back to a new DUF). This includes changes to materials (imagine using a paint system in Houdini to add dirt etc onto DAZ characters), sculpting etc.
The same caveat as above applies: Developing this only makes sense if development time “is worth the investment” - I am way too old to “just do it and see how many people are buying into it”. I've only got so many hours left of my lifetime :-)
TLDR: Please provide feedback about whether you would be willing to pay real money for a Houdini-DAZ-connectivity system that, at minimum, supports the listed above features and would aim for backward exporting features as mentioned above.
Thank you.
Marc Albrecht