Scared to "Upgrade" to 4.5
twalling
Posts: 241
I've been holding off of "upgrading" to Daz Studio 4.5 because it looks very labor intensive and I'm afraid the stuff I have that works in version 4.0 won't work in 4.5 I'm not a big fan of spending the time I could be using to USE my software upgrading it, and I'm never a fan of "upgrades" that make things worse. (I'm looking straight at you, new Daz website.)
That said, the spiffy sales going on at the moment put the Decimator in my grasp, but it appears to only work on 4.5 and I may have to bite the bullet.
I've heard there was trouble with Genesis items when you upgrade. I've heard it's a process getting them to work again. Can anybody explain what the issues are, and point me out how to go about fixing them?
Are there things that Just Won't Work afterwards? Will my saved files that have Genesis figures in them work?
Thanks in advance for any answers.
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FYI - I didnt have any issues what so ever with the upgrade. The only problem for me at the time was that GenX didn't work. Well it does now.
Just make sure you install all the product updates from your downloads. And make sure you install the Genesis starter pack that comes with 4.5 .... Easy.
Rendering is faster. Crashes are much fewer. Pretty much every thing will load up as normal from ds4.0 All my scenes, props and clothing had no faults.
Oh and clothing transfers work soooo much better in ds 4.5
Haha... that's certainly important to me... I wrote a thread about that elsewhere... thanks for your input!
Speaking of the Decimator, doesn't it come free with DS 4.5 Pro? I can see it listed in the downloads when I reset the free DS 4.5 I got.
I did however buy the Decimator once (to qualify for the big discount (or a free upgrade? don't recall)), as I already had everything else needed for that), when I bought the DS 4.5 Pro Upgrade (the free one is just a copy I grabbed for another computer). So maybe that's why?
Decimator is NOT part of the free version of DS4 Pro for contractual reasons. It is a paid for plugiin only.
But is it a standard part of the DS 4 Pro downloads, or do you only see it there if you have bought it?
Yeah, I think you gotta buy it to activate it... Prob you buy the serial code
I am not sure about that, I bought it myself a long time ago, and it was in my downloads for DS4, so that may be right. They also included the paid for version of the DCC, so I don't really know what is going on.
But wasn't it originally included in the Pro package, before it became free?
Wonder if the commecial DS4 thread is still in the old forum....
I am not sure about that, I bought it myself a long time ago, and it was in my downloads for DS4, so that may be right. They also included the paid for version of the DCC, so I don't really know what is going on.
Yea, it's pretty confusing.
The search function now works in the old forum too, somone posted about that the other day.
Yes the Decimator comes packaged with DS4/4.5 Pro but it will not work unless you purchase the serial number, effectively. It has never been free, ever. :)
I've not had a single problem with DS4.5 on ANY of the many machines I've installed it on. I have it installed on Linux/WINE, Windows XP/32, Windows XP/64, WIndows 7/32, Windows 7/64, and MacOSX/64.
As with anything, only those with problems gripe publicly. If there are only a half dozen people screaming, then you can take that as an indication that it works very well. If there are hundreds of folks screaming, then there is a problem.
Kendall
The search function now works in the old forum too, somone posted about that the other day.
As far as I recall google was better searching the forum than the built-in search... :)
As far as I recall google was better searching the forum than the built-in search... :)
Google isn't live updated though. But older posts it should easily find stuff.
Well found the DS4 Official Release Thread in the old forum:
http://forumarchive.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=177700
And it says this:
"The "Decimator" plug-in for Win32/64 and Mac32 is now installed with DAZ Studio 4, and is available separately, as part of the Game Developer Kit, or as part of the DS4 "Pro" bundle "
Looking though different posts it appears that it was included (for free) with the paid version of DS4 Pro, but not the free version of same. At least that's how I understand it.
There were several upgrade options including a very cheap one ($28 or something) for those who already had all the tools included, or previous versions of them. I found out I had them all except Decimator, so as it was on sale for about $20 then, I bought it to quality for the cheap upgrade.
So now it all makes sense.
DS4.5 is in general a great upgrade. Autofit works a lot better and the program seems more stable than 4.0 did. It does have its problems though like it is much more 'picky' about how dsf and cr2 files are set up. For example, in DS3 and 4.0 if the maker didn't put the references for a geometry object in it would still load the clothing or prop just fine. In 4.5 it appears to load but doesn't actually load on problem files like that. I did find a fix which is in a thread in my signature but stuff like that is something to be aware of.
Most plugins and shaders also work ok though there are a few scattered around that haven't been updated yet.
I too was afraid but did upgrade earlier this week. I haven't tested all of my old saved files/content, but what I have used works fine. My only issue is that the Genesis basic male and female have exclamation marks in the content folder and won't load... but M5, V5, Gorilla etc all load fine and the basic genesis shape loads on start-up. It looks like the app is looking for a .dsf file but mine is .duf. I was finally able to upgrade my genesis starter to 1.4 but it didn't help. I am running both the 64 and 32 bit versions on Win7.
Edit: Actually on the links I created in my Categories section don't work, the links to the genesis basic male/female work fine in the Daz Studio Formats section of the Content Library.
As far as the Decimator discussion goes, I think if you had BOUGHT DS Pro, then the decimator came with it. If you got the free version, it did not.
I've just bought Decimator and ordered the update, though the downloads for same are mysteriously unavailable.
I'm gonna try to update and hope for the best... thanks y'all, and thank you in advance for the fix.
Upgraded and never looked back. 98% of the stuff that worked for me before still work (with the exception of a few things that have yet to be updated). Auto-Fit works much better now (except when it comes to shoes, they still crumble).
I made the mistake of upgrading thinking Gen4 (Now GenX) would still work. It didn't. :( Which forced me to finally buy the upgrade to it and now it works.
I'm really glad I upgraded.
Hm... I don't particularly relish the idea of even 2% of what used to work not working any longer! I already have GenX, and got the update files in my download queue, I've read somewhere that the morphs I've already made with the old version will transfer to the new one, which is a relief.
They're just morphs, they don't particularly care which version you're running, but apparently the revised version will give a better conversion if you redo them.
Well, the 2% that doesn't work for me are products by Dreamlight. Thankfully, I don't have that many of his products and now that I know he won't be updating his plugins and lightsets to work for 4.5, I won't bother buying anymore of his products since, chances are, they won't even work.
Well, the 2% that doesn't work for me are products by Dreamlight. Thankfully, I don't have that many of his products and now that I know he won't be updating his plugins and lightsets to work for 4.5, I won't bother buying anymore of his products since, chances are, they won't even work.
The Dreamlight stuff mostly doesn't work in DS4, never mind 4.5, there are a handful of exceptions such as Light Dome Pro (but not LDP2), but none of the plugins will function.
Then Dreamlight should either update his products (which he won't) or remove them from the store.
Well, the 2% that doesn't work for me are products by Dreamlight. Thankfully, I don't have that many of his products and now that I know he won't be updating his plugins and lightsets to work for 4.5, I won't bother buying anymore of his products since, chances are, they won't even work.
Oh, cool, no problem there. I don't plan on buying anything from Dreamlight.
I have had intermittent problems with rendering since I upgraded, when I had none with DS4. Every time I think I have the problem solved I render something new and the problem starts all over again. I don't know what the issue is but Daz seems to be really resource intensive - using 100% of my cpu and more than 50% of my ram. I do have an older machine with 32bit vista and 4gb of RAM. When it's rendering properly it will render super quick I just wish I could isolate what the issue is.
Just want to say that I upgraded, and have encountered zero problems. Thanks everybody!
If you did your own categorizing previously, those links won't automatically be updated for the new .duf files -- I had to do them manually.