All right, I've tried. I really have. When DAZ first announced its newest generation, Genesis - a bold new concept that would allow users to mold a single figure to fit their needs - I was on the edge of my seat with everyone else. What a concept! A single figure that could be fashioned into male or female, adult or child. A figure that all clothing would fit, regardless of the gender or body shape of each character. How amazing would that be??

Unfortunately, the reality wasn't all that many of us had hoped for. Apparently, DAZ has finally decided to go at it alone and forsake their tradition of cross-program compatibility. Personally, I was happy with the status quo. DAZ makes the best characters - hands down, nothing from Smith Micro comes close to Michael and Victoria - and a lot of amazing hair, clothing, sets and other products as well. All of those great figures are then imported by people like me into Poser Pro.

With the release of Genesis, however, DAZ seems to have made a break from this long-time formula with the intention of going rogue and creating a major divide in the 3D community. They're promoting the hell out of their own program (DAZ Studio), currently being offered for free, and the Genesis figure is not compatible with any program outside of it! Sure, after ages, they created an "importer," to load Genesis content into Poser but it doesn't work properly. It's nearly impossible to effectively load or create a single character, let alone a bunch of characters in a whole scene. It's a half-assed, totally unviable solution that ultimately boils down to this: if you want to use Genesis in all its glory, you need to use DAZ and nothing else.

Unfortunately, I've tried DAZ. I've attempted to use it on multiple occasions, tutorials and all, and find it to be an absolute mess of a program. The interface is a disaster and, aside from preloading figures and sets, I can't figure out how to do a damn thing with it. Perhaps it would be easier if I had no experience with a different program, but having poured years into learning the ins and outs of Poser, I find DAZ to be really counterintuitive and have no desire to deal with it. Not even for the plethora of gorgeous Genesis products that I'm seeing.

In addition, there are a large number of great products still being made for Poser-compatible Gen4, whereas Genesis seems to be evolving every year and lacking backwards compatibility. Since I have no urge to spend money out the wazoo on rebuilding my 3D library every few months, I'm happy to forgo this latest craze for now and stick with the classics.