What DAZ assets are you growing tired of seeing in adult games/VNs?

[Salami Pasta]

My understanding is that Poser, for various reasons, is less "accessible" to devs and there are consequently fewer adult mods for it. Honey Select is fine as far as it goes, but high end DAZ work blows it away. Custom scratch built models in Blender, Maya/StudioMax, etc. are awesome but are going to be wildly inconsistent in quality between devs and games. Expecting a dev to be 3d savvy enough to build and rig their own original models for an entire game(that's multiple original models), and code and write...that's a lot to ask for someone who doesn't have a studio type budget behind them.
For having a massive existing character/asset/prop/pose/morph etc library, you really can't beat DAZ right now. Maybe someday Blender might have a comparable set of assets, and then there will be someone complaining about how those look.

What seems to be the issue at hand is not how they look per se, but that there are a number of accessible customization opportunities that are missed more often than not, resulting in carbon-copy locations featured across games.
But as always, there's more than one way to look at it.

 

[megaplayboy10k]

What seems to be the issue at hand is not how they look per se, but that there are a number of accessible customization opportunities that are missed more often than not, resulting in carbon-copy locations featured across games.
But as always, there's more than one way to look at it.

Well, yeah, the location assets do get overused. And I don't really see a lot of assets that would be more appropriate for a middle middle class or lower economic status household. Everyone's in a 4000 sq foot home with 5 bedrooms, but somehow only one bathroom!

 

[Faceless0ne]

The food.
In every fucking game they eat the same 2D lowres pasta...

 

[RocketGirlGames]

I've noticed this a lot as well. But if you aren't familiar with using Daz you might not know that while Daz has a lot of assets available on its site and others, many scenes really don't have a lot of options. The one I notice most is the grocery store scene. Everyone that has a scene in a grocery store, convenience store uses that one model. The reason is, there are absolutely no other food type stores available. So gotta use what is available.

That being said, there are many ways around this if you are creative. First, stop doing a lot of wide angle shots. Do closeups so you get less of the background in the shot so at least it doesn't look quite as obvious.

You also dont always need a whole set for a particular scene. Got a scene with two people chatting on a couch in a room? Find a floor and a wall. Put a painting or poster on the wall, maybe add a plant and place a sofa. As long as you keep the FOV constrained, you don't need an entire room to make the scene work. Also anything outside of camera view should be disabled as much as possible so as to decrease rendering time.

I use canned props whenever possible except for my main characters. Anything that is going to take the majority of the focus should be custom IMO. Sets though I try to spend as little time on them as possible. Every hour it takes for me to design a particular set is one less hour I can be making more scenes and rendering.

 

[trusk rock]

I agree. Many devs and aspiring devs (myself included) have zero artistic talent and would be unable to produce any visuals at all if not for a tool like Daz. I could barely manage a stick figure myself if I had to actually draw something rather than using someone else's art assets.

I do think too many devs are lazy about it though and overuse the base model for whatever character they're using instead of customizing it. There are lots of different shaping plugins out there that you can use to tweak a character a little so for instance you don't have 20 different games where the lead female looks IDENTICAL to the girl from DMD, or Max from BB, or whoever you might have a pet peev about.

I don't think it's as much of an issue for backgrounds, although just as you could customize a model with shaping options you could just as easily change/move around the furniture/paintings/etc for your rooms so they don't look exactly like some other game even if the base room is the same.

I think in general, most people appreciate it when a dev puts at least a little effort into customizing their visuals even if all they're doing is just tweaking a few sliders to do it.

Exactly! I can only draw a stick figure when it comes to art. even that may not be perfect lol. when i first played the summertime saga i loved it but there were some things that i though should be done differently so i decided im gonna make something mylsef but realized soon enough that i cannot learn drawing art now . Although the easier alternative was DAZ, still took me while and my renders are far from perfect but i improve everyday which would be impossible otherwise. im so thankful that daz exists lol.

i hope adult game devs that have a lot patreons donated to daz asset creators more generously so that more content is created. btw maybe big devs do donate already , im not sure , im just assuming. those guys have indirectly helped so many games that we love for free.

 

[khumak]

Exactly! I can only draw a stick figure when it comes to art. even that may not be perfect lol. when i first played the summertime saga i loved it but there were some things that i though should be done differently so i decided im gonna make something mylsef but realized soon enough that i cannot learn drawing art now . Although the easier alternative was DAZ, still took me while and my renders are far from perfect but i improve everyday which would be impossible otherwise. im so thankful that daz exists lol.

i hope adult game devs that have a lot patreons donated to daz asset creators more generously so that more content is created. btw maybe big devs do donate already , im not sure , im just assuming. those guys have indirectly helped so many games that we love for free.

I'm kind of curious how most devs manage assets myself. I get the feeling a lot of devs probably pirate them initially and then buy them after the fact if their game ends up doing well. I know personally I have tons of assets I've been screwing around with that would cost thousands of dollars if I had bought them. I'm not paying for them unless I'm actually using them for something that I'm trying to sell. Maybe some devs buy them up front but I would find that surprising unless it's not their first game. I definitely would feel obligated to buy all of the assets I used in my game though if it's selling well, whether it was up front or whether it was me retroactively going back and buying everything on my list of assets that I used for it.

 

[Carpe Stultus]

Aiko 7+8

 

[RocketGirlGames]

I'm kind of curious how most devs manage assets myself.

I have about $4000 worth of legit assets. If you are producing a game which you plan to sell or make money from, you should really protect yourself by making sure you have a proper license for the assets you use.

The creators of said assets have put just as much time and effort into their assets as you do in your game and deserve compensation for that.

With that being said I have more than a few assets I regret buying. They looked great on the product page (or I was new and didnt know what I was really buying) but turned out to be useless.

While Daz does have a 30 day return policy, you have to submit a ticket to return an item and its a giant pain in the ass.

Id say definitely download an asset first (IE pirate it, though I like to think - Try before you buy) to try it out to see if you both like it and works for what you want. Then buy it from the store.

Some advice for purchasing from Daz, most everything goes on sale eventually (and often). Try to wait for at least a 57% off (or better) sale before purchasing an asset. You’ll maximize the amount of assets you can obtain.

If you are really patient the absolute best tine to purchase anything is around Christmas/New Years. The sales around then are usually the best (like 80-95% off).

 

[DillionWhore]

expression-poses from bad facepacks that would put silent movies to shame.
Expressions are my pet pet-peeve .. after floating feet or objects inside eachother. Sex excluded.
Or the same 3 expressions in all renders.

 

[Geralt_R]

As someone who only consumes but does not create VNs I have zero problems with reused locations or character models. I consider the popular DAZ models to be something like actors who appear in different movies. No one complains about seeing Brad Pitt or Elizabeth Olsen across various wildly different genres and movies. Actually, sometimes it is quite nice to find DAZ models you like across various games, it means I get to see more of them. Truly unique characters are certainly nice to have in a VN, but familiar looking faces don't really detract from anything and can even be a plus sometimes for me, it's always about story and execution.
And even though I have seen that one park or the supermarket a lot of times now it's not that different from seeing the New York Central Park in countless movies. Maybe all these VNs are set in the same city I don't mind.

So no, there are no particular DAZ assests I grow tired of seeing other than a few overused hairstyles maybe here and there, but even that is just a minor nitpick.

 

[Deleted member 5020013]

I'm an aspiring dev when it comes to Visual Novels. I'm currently working on my first one, I've been reading threads like these for research while working on mine. To an extent I can see that constantly seeing the same assets could be kind of annoying. Try to look at in from the Developer side. Let's say you are a great story tell but that's it you can't design you can't draw or anything so of course you shop around for assets to use to tell your story. Like many people here said is that some times there just isn't a whole lot of options to choice from when creating a scene so you have no choice but to pick the same food / supermarket that everyone uses because that's really all there is.
Now for myself, I've already purchased many assets to create the visual of my story. However there are things I need that I simply can't find or just don't like thus I'm pushing back my own production & work to learn new software such as Blender thus I'll be able to make my own assets for things I need and simply can't find in assets. For example one of my scenes require a buss but all I can find are like "City Buses" (Local Transport) or a very old bus. Neither of these options work for my story it just doesn't fit. So instead of trying to change my story to fit assets I'm working on learning another program. Thankfully I already have some 3D Design from Fusion360 that I use for work but it's still a learning curve none the less. Doing something like I'm done now pushing back production and makes it take longer for updates of course because I have to learn and then create assets to use in my story. You also need to purchase assets for textures for buildings, roads, lamps, doors, etc so it's a ton of work and sometimes if you can make an already made asset work that has everything, yeah most people will just opt to buy something already made that works. This helps speeds along development specially if you are really enjoying the story.
I feel like most people here are Indie so we don't have teams of people we are working with to help push out content is just 1 person who's doing everything story telling, coding, design, etc. It's a lot of work to be doing all by yourself and using assets already made helps use developers a whole lot. I've read a lot of VN before making my own so I have a good understanding of things how they made, what they use etc. The re-used assets really don't bother me personally as long as the story is good I could careless about the assets really. I understand how it is and maybe it's because I'm in the same boat but yeah. Like I said try looking at it form our perspective.

 

[Network 34 Games]

I wouldn't go so far as to say "Annoying" but seeing the same clothing shop, supermarket, Hand full of houses, etc I know from my own experience is down to the fact that there really just isn't the choice out there to begin with (Although it does seem to be getting better as it seems the asset creators are beginning to realize that there is a market for alternative clothing shops, supermarkets, etc)

The biggest "D'oh!" moment for me though was finding that my MC's house shows up a LOT. something I only realized AFTER I had already produced and released the first chapter.

The only real complaint is that there is a lack of "Middle and lower middle class" assets out there. the majority of stuff you either need to be super rich (i'm game) to afford, or it is a long abandoned asset (as in dingey, run-down) with a huge chasm in-between. again, not the VN Dev's fault as not everyone has the knowledge or skills in programs like Blender to be able to make a set from scratch when it is much easier to buy a pre-made (after all, your story is about the characters, not the rooms they are in with of course a few exceptions. (the same point is also true for hairstyles. There seem to be very few "everyday" type hairs)

 

[Bavor]

For a while it seemed that 75% of the games I tried used the Voss Hair asset on one of the female love interests.

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[Bavor]

When it comes to environments/backgrounds... sure, it can get old seeing the same again and again. I definitely recognize three of the four mentioned in the OP. Maybe I'm not paying so close attention anymore, but I feel like I see less of the same these days than a few years ago. Either way it doesn't really bother me much. I can't really criticize devs for not wanting to be interior designers.

I worked on my own environment for a game I'm working on and it took forever. I made a three bedroom apartment with two bathrooms, a kitchen, balcony, and a living room. That time would have been better off spent rendering scenes and developing the story. Because of that, I can understand why many game devs use off the shelf assets with minimal customization.

 

[hornyguy247]

y Select is fine as far as

For a while it seemed that 75% of the games I tried used the Voss Hair asset on one of the female love interests.

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in fairness hair styles are pretty repetitive in the real world, you see the same styles everywhere when they are in fashion.