Digital Art Zone

You know, I’d feel more sympathy if I ever logged into Smith Micro or Runtime DNA forums to complain about all the stuff that is released that is Poser only. There is so much stuff I’d love to use in Daz but it is made only for Poser. I guess I better head over to their forums asap and start complaining. “Stop releasing this cool stuff for Poser only, you’re alienating people who use Daz.”

...ssgbryan, good points. 

As I mentioned above Development has to stop being distracted by new and shiny and focus on just making things work.

In a sense DazStudio is the 3D world’s Edsel. lots of neat flashy accessories on a poorly built body and chassis.

I like the ease of use Studio offers compared to other apps as I am an artist first and computer geek a very distant second. When I first encountered Studio (ver 1.5)  I said to myself, finally, here is the CG application I have been waiting years for.  No more calculations, no more programming, no more compiling and hoping all that time spent doesn’t end up in a slew of error statements (yes, I came from, the “stone age days” of CG).  I’ve worked with other 3D applications and while they have a lot of good points (and tend top be more stable) they just didn’t feel as intuitive.  Working in Daz Studio just seemed more “natural” to me as an artist.

We’ve all laughed at the “Make Art” button jokes, but by the same token, the less time spent with complicated processes and routines, the more time for attention to creativity, and isn’t that what this is all supposed to be about? “Releasing the artist from within?”

Instead it lately feels more like “Releasing the beta tester/bug reporter from within” (and in the case of S3A, paying for the privilege to do so).

Again no software is 100% “perfect”.  I’m sure even the high end apps like 3DS, Lightwave, and Maya have their own issues that need resolution from time to time.  When Studio was free, I could accept all the constant updates.  When I had to shell out my hard earned zlotys for S3A I expected a complete usable product.  Instead what I got was a total wreck that in the end after all the overhauls, never fully worked right. In auto industry terms that is what is known as a “lemon”. Instead of a Mercedes, we ended up with a Yugo.

So why continue to stick around? Why not totally jump ship to another application camp?

1. because of the investment I already have in all this.

...and…

2. as difficult as this may seem, I can still see a lot of good potential in the Studio concept. 

To paraphrase an old proverb, A fancy flimsy house built on sand will never outlast a simple solid one built on rock.

Let’s get back to basics guys.

I for one am enjoying the shopping experience as of late, no issues here so far,

I don’t know how anyone could say this.  Perhaps if they are new and don’t own much content. I find it really hard to know if I have already purchased something in the past, because all memory of that is gone.  Even new products since the site change, which are supposed to show up as being previously purchased, don’t.  I don’t get any warning that I have bought stuff before, and I have a lot of content.
This means that if I do want an old product I have to check really carefully that I don’t already own it.  I really miss that feature.  It save me money lots of times.  Because i haven’t installed all my content it is not an easy search as the file name of the zip doesn’t show up on the promo info, otherwise I could find it easily.
Resetting stuff is also hard because I can’t search my previous purchases on my account page anymore.
And the plat club voucher - I keep forgetting to apply it.
Plus I too am very disappointed that the newer figures don’t work in poser.
Love esther

...just went to the PC store pages to pick up Jack’s latest creation and after going through ten or so pages, noticed everything there that is not a prop, pose set, or vehicle is for Genesis.  The first Gen4 Items I came across were the Happy Camper for V4 outfit and a texture set for Bunny Dazed that were released months ago.

Seems like if you don’t jump on the Genesis bus, it’s looking pretty much like the end of the line.  After just over four years in this, really not into starting all over again.

...yeah, the more I see of this, the more I am considering letting my PC membership lapse when it expires in two months.

well there is a way to use genesis in poser already.  snarlygribbly created a script that lets you subD your scene.  this means you can have low poly V5 etc in poser, and then you can maybe have lots and lots of poser people because they are low poly, then you can subD for the render.  This could be really advantageous.  Just the problem if the clothes and hair and textures don’t come across all that well into poser.
Also DAZ say/hint there is something coming for genesis in poser.  so all is not definitely lost.
Love esther

esther - 02 September 2012 07:26 PM

Resetting stuff is also hard because I can’t search my previous purchases on my account page anymore.

Try this:

Daz History Manager utility

It creates one single file of your entire purchase history without page breaks which can be sorted by date and can also be used to reset DLs. 

You can also save a copy of the list as an Excel spreadsheet for reference purposes.

esther - 02 September 2012 07:26 PM

I for one am enjoying the shopping experience as of late, no issues here so far,

I don’t know how anyone could say this.  Perhaps if they are new and don’t own much content. I find it really hard to know if I have already purchased something in the past, because all memory of that is gone.  Even new products since the site change, which are supposed to show up as being previously purchased, don’t.  I don’t get any warning that I have bought stuff before, and I have a lot of content.
This means that if I do want an old product I have to check really carefully that I don’t already own it.  I really miss that feature.  It save me money lots of times.  Because i haven’t installed all my content it is not an easy search as the file name of the zip doesn’t show up on the promo info, otherwise I could find it easily.
Resetting stuff is also hard because I can’t search my previous purchases on my account page anymore.

If you’re using Windows you may find some help here:

http://taosoft.dk/software/dazhm/

i’m on mac but if i wasn’t would that help with all my previous purchases too?
Love esther

Kyoto Kid - 02 September 2012 07:55 PM

esther - 02 September 2012 07:26 PM

Resetting stuff is also hard because I can’t search my previous purchases on my account page anymore.

Try this:

Daz History Manager utility

 

Hehe, one second faster than me…

...and I’m on an old 32 bit notebook with not the fastest connectivity.

Taozen - 02 September 2012 07:56 PM

If you’re using Windows you may find some help here:

http://taosoft.dk/software/dazhm/

Thank you very, very much. :D

Regarding Genesis… what I’ve heard from PAs who make content for figures (e.g. clothing) is that content for V4 isn’t really selling anymore (content for M4 has almost never sold very well). It takes a fair amount of time to make clothing, and if it doesn’t sell, say, at least 200 copies during the intro, the creator is probably going to end up making way below minimum wage on the product (with no health benefits, etc.) Content for Genesis is selling better, so that’s what a lot of vendors are going to make. I can’t blame them. They’re doing this to make a living, after all. (And I know there are now a bunch of people pounding their keyboards to tell me that I’m wrong and that THEY would buy more V4 etc. content… but the thing is, the sales numbers just don’t back that up.)

I do hope that whatever DAZ has cooking will result in Genesis being able to be used within Poser. I’m cautiously optimistic that the new release of Poser, which exposes many more application functions to scripting, will help. (Apparently these changes made it possible to write a version of Reality for Poser, so I’m hoping….) I still think DAZ intended for Genesis to work with Poser at or shortly after release, but a variety of glitches and perhaps misunderstandings got in the way.

There are still a number of problems with the Genesis/Tri-Ax platform, such as the “clingwrap” morph transfer and the wonky artifacts sometimes introduced by smoothing, and I really truly wish we had a more flexible dynamic cloth system that would be as easy to use as the Optitex clothes (which can be fitted to a figure and posed before draping, rather than requiring an animated drape), but would work better with a wider variety of clothing and would take figure scaling and morphs into account. I also wish shaders made with Shader Mixer had better preview features.

But then again, I’m still wishing for an Unflatable Pony, or at least the Moolennium Cow. ;)

I can’t blame anyone who’s gotten tired of waiting for these problems to get sorted, any more than I can blame content creators to moving to where the market is. For most of us, this is a hobby, and hobbies are supposed to be fun. All I can hope at this point is that things do change around here within the next few months and that DAZ is able to gradually build up the trust and community that have been lost over the past year.

esther - 02 September 2012 08:01 PM

i’m on mac but if i wasn’t would that help with all my previous purchases too?
Love esther

Yes, complete history back to day one.

esther - 02 September 2012 08:01 PM

i’m on mac but if i wasn’t would that help with all my previous purchases too?
Love esther

It will warn you if you try to buy something you have purchased before. It’s not 100% reliable as is is based on product names and some of them have changed over time, but I believe it will catch 98+% of them. Doesn’t work with stuff you have bought in bundles though (but it works on the bundles themselves). 

Cypherfox is working on something similar that I believe will work for Macs too, but I haven’t tried it myself. Check out this thread:

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/6195/

Taozen - 02 September 2012 08:22 PM

Doesn’t work with stuff you have bought in bundles though (but it works on the bundles themselves).

Do we still have a “Fun with Bundles” list anywhere that could be used to help with this? Is there some online format that could be used that would help you add this functionality? I have a website with software that can be used to store a database with RSS feeds, for example.

Riggswolfe - 02 September 2012 05:58 PM

You know, I’d feel more sympathy if I ever logged into Smith Micro or Runtime DNA forums to complain about all the stuff that is released that is Poser only. There is so much stuff I’d love to use in Daz but it is made only for Poser. I guess I better head over to their forums asap and start complaining. “Stop releasing this cool stuff for Poser only, you’re alienating people who use Daz.”

Haha, very nicely said.