Now as my desert dungeon chapter swiftly approaches in my comic and I have a much better job to afford the product, I just noticed that I am unable to find it anywhere.  A search for a Dragon Skeleton brings up an entirely different and older product, but not the one where the conforming "Bone Dragon Spikes" from Sequestrian fits on to.  I bought that old one anyway, but I'm afraid that Sequestrian's Bone Dragon Spikes, which keep going on sale periodically, are useless to me if I don't have the main model to fit them on to.  (And I have my eye on the spikes too)

If it's permanently gone from DAZ, does anyone know where else I might be able to purchase it legally?  (I've only seen bit torrents of it when I queue Google search engines, and I don't go that route).

PS: Does anyone know who made that here?  I was new to DAZ when I added it to my wish list, so I wasn't well-versed in which vendor made what at that time.

This time we run another themed contest, and the theme is The Sequel. Yes, simple as that. The sequel to what you may ask, that's entirely up to you. A book, a movie or perhaps something completely out of the ordinary, like the sequel to a previous RRRR contest.

For all who have no clue what the RRRR is, it stands for “Random Runtime Roulette Renders”.

Who can play?
Anyone can play!

How do you prepare yourself for play?
The rules are very simple, but first you need to have all your items in some kind of order in a text file, dumped from the itemized history into a text file or a spread sheet. Remove things like software, gift certs, and special plugins from the list. Then you use a randomizer to randomly pick 4 items from your list (your Runtime/My Library). You can use items from any store.

Lucky Bastard Rule!
If you have sticky lucky bastards, you pull one extra item for each LB you have, simple as that.

Lucky Bastard standings

Karibou: 2 LB
Chanteur-de-Vent: 1 LB
Luci45: 1LB
Gopherus: 1LB
Ken OBanion: 1 LB

New rules for scoring and for Lucky Bastards - READ THIS!

As the LBs reset over the new year, I have decided to twist the LBs and scoring a little. It's a two edged sword. Those who make many great renders will benefit from it, but at the same time get more LBs.

The image with most points from the same artist will be the base, the the average score for up to for other images will be added to that score, but if that image takes a top three placement, images who got to the cream of the crop with help from other entires, will gain extra LBs based on how many places it climbed, minus one. Here are two examples:

Example 1: The top image from X has 15 points. X also has five other images that has been voted for, 10, 8, 7, 7 & 5 points. Thaking the average of the first four images behind the top one is 10+8+7+7 = 8, so the first image which was at 4th place, now gets 23 points and rises to the top and becomes the winner. But, that image climbed 3 steps, so it will not only win, but give the winner 3 LB for the next run. 

Example 2: The top image by Y has 11 points, and the second image 9 points. The top image will now have 20 points and go from 5th place to 3rd place, granting Y 2 LB for the next run.

Randomizer that works well:random.org
Randomizer where you get all numbers in one draw:All at once

There are some situations where you allowed to redraw, these are:
- You picked something that doesn’t work, broken thing, only works in a version / software not used etc etc.
- You picked a software or add-on to a software or anything you should have filtered out from the list.
- You picked only huge environment props and will not be able to render a scene without crashing.
- You picked an item you already have been using in two RRRR renders in this content and that was picked randomly. Three is a curse - rule!

Bundles
If you pull a bundle, use two three complete items from it, or more if you like, but you do not need to use all, but only picking a hairpin from V4 Complete Bundle is “too little”. Clarification: A bundle still counts as only one pulled item.

Poses, Expressions and textures/colors
If you pull a pose pack, an expression pack or a texture/color pack, you only need to use one of them, not all. For example if you pull 500 expressions for V4, use one, if you pull 128 colors for Frappe Hair, use one.

The rules of madness!
Now you have successfully and randomly picked your items, make a scene, you can add other items as well but the one you picked should be prominent or cleverly used. Render it, post it and make us all laugh! Remember though that the renders must follow the TOS of the forum. As we have a theme on the contest, the render should in some way touch that theme.

The contest categories!
There are two categories, Funniest and Best, you get it. A fun render might maybe not be a super great render but will cause the viewer to fall of the chair laughing.

Contest duration!
It stats now at February 11 2016, and will go on until Sunday March 20 2016 at 23:59:59 local DAZ time.

Yes, we have prizes, thanks to our sponsors!
This months sponsors so far:

Totte is sponsoring with one item in each tier from his store 
Ken OBanion is sponsoring wtih $100 DAZ GCs. 
Dumor3D is sponsoring with one item in each tier from his store.
FirstBastion offers 2 product choices from his store for the winner in the best category, (bundles excluded). 
Diomede is sponsoring with a $10 DAZ GC
ARTCollaborations is sponsoring with a $10 GC for the winner in each tier.
Karibou is sponsoring with a $20 DAZ GC
 

I might have forgotten someone who said they sponsor, real life has been busy.

I hope we can attract some more sponsors.
Sponsors may of course participate in the contest, their own decision. As Ken O Bannion so elegantly put it, sponsors play for keeps.

If you want to sponsor this RRRR, send me a PM or post in the thread!

More to know?
I will edit this when new info on sponsors arrive.

Maximum number of entries?
Yes, this time we limit the number of entries per person to seven ten  eight, eight is the holy number for this contest.

Are you ready to render in 3….2….1…..go!

Entries!
Post your entries here together with your pull and your comments, and feel free to comment on other peoples work as well.
We post images in the Entries only thread with tag and name. We also post the entries in this thread with a full list of the randomly picked items and also, which is a free choice, other used items.

List of some previous RRRR Contests

In the PC Members Only forum:
RRRR Summer Edition ( 13 June 2012 - 15 July 2012) http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/2065/
Winners Thread: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/5053/

RRRR “Back to Reality / My Summer Memory (15 August 2012 - 23 September 2012) http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/5759/
Winners Thread: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/9315/

In The Commons: RRRR Commons Premiere (9 October 2012 - 18 November 2012) http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/9325/
Winners Thread: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/12867/

RRRR “Sayings” Contest (6 December 2012 - 31 December 2012) http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/12867/
Entries-Only Thread: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/12877/
Winners Thread: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/15094/

RRRR Contest (18 January 2013 - 24 February 2013) http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/15285/
Entries-Only Thread: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/15307/
Winners Thread: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/17908/

RRRR “April Fool” Contest (with “Mini” Contests) (21 March 2013 - 21 April 2013) http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/19109/
Entries-Only Thread: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/19108/
Winners Thread: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/21780/

RRRR Summer Contest (23 May 2013 - 4 August 2013) http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/21780/
Entries-Only Thread: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/22664/
Winners Thread: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/27864/

RRRR “Chain” Render Contest (15 September 2013 - 13 October 2013) http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/27864/
Entries-Only Thread: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/28997/
Winners Thread: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/31526/

RRRR “Chain” Render Contest - Round II (1 November 2013 - 1 December 2013) http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/31615/
Entries-Only Thread: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/31760/
Winners Thread: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/33417/

RRRR “Story” Contest (4 December 2013 - 12 January 2014) http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/33479/
Entries-Only Thread: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/33478/
Thread: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/36407/

RRRR - One day in XXXs life Render Contest: 13 February 2014 - 16 Mars 2014) http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/37042/
Entries only thread: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/37041/
Winners thread: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/39504/

RRRR Classic (19 May 2014 - 22 June 2014) http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/41451/
Entries only/Winners; http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/9325/

RRRR Freak Accindents (15 July 2014 - 10 August 2014) http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/43832/
Entries only/Winners: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/43830/

RRRR Back to renders ( 25 Aug 2014 - 28 September 2014) http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/45619/
Entries only/Winners: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/45617/

RRRR Things to do before you die ( 13 October 2014 - November 9 2014) http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/47518/
Entries only/Winners: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/47517/

RRRR Unleashed (3 December 2014 - 11 January 2015) http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/49497/
Entries only/Winners: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/49496/

RRRR Not on the screen ( 29 January 2015 - 1 March 2015) http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/52007/
Entries only: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/52006/
Voting & winners: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/53400/

RRRR Just Random (25 March 2015 - 3 May 2015) http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/54371/
Entries only thread and Winners: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/54370/

RRRR Unlikely Occupations (20 Jun 2015 - 2 August 2015 )   http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/56841/contest-rrrr-unlikely-occupations-with-prizes
Entries only thread:http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/56835/
Winners thread:http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/61494/rrrr-unlikely-occupations-winners-announced

RRRR Stupid is as stupid does (September 1 2015 - October 4 2015) http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/61970/rrrr-stupid-is-as-stupid-does-render-contest-closed/
Entries thread: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/61969/rrrr-stupid-is-as-stupid-does-entries-only-thread
Winners thread: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/64971/rrrr-stupid-is-as-stupid-does-winners-announced

RRRR Murphy's Law (November 15 2015 - Sunday January 10 2016) http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/66026/rrrr-murphy-s-law-render-contest-closed/
Entries Thread: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/66025/rrrr-murphy-s-law-entries-only-thread
Winners thread: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/70820/rrrr-murphy-winners-announced

DAZ store don't seems to have many Asian girls for G3F for sell at the moment it seems.

I only able to find two that are close to Asian but that's in names only, Xin and Chiyo. Only things that resemble close to Asian is their body shape.

Chiyo skin looks very Caucasian and Xin's body shape are close to south easterner, but facial don't resemble Asian or Chinese at all.

Is there a pose converter that does... wait for it... G3 to G2?  I've asked this one before.

If not, will these ever exist?

Thanks.

I'm trying to figure out a mystery.  After using DIM to download new products or even updated products, it's changing the file update dates for numerous files (zips and whatnot) that were not actually downloaded in the just-finished DIM session.  This causes subsequent file sync operations to needlessly copy files that really were never updated in my last DIM download session.  It also causes needless incremental backups to be taken when my backups run overnight.

Here's my setup:

Desktop Computer:  Download folder is on G: partition, which is on an internal hard drive that always stays in the desktop case.  DIM on desktop points to this folder for downloads.  Installs go to P: partition, which resides on an internal SSD.  I have "delete installer after installation" turned off to avoid re-downloading in the rare (but occasional) instances where I need to re-install something.

Laptop Computer:  Download folder is on Q: partition, which is an external USB 3.0 hard drive.  DIM on laptop points to this folder for downloads.  Installs go to P: partition, which is an internal SSD on this machine (not to be confused with the "P" partition on the desktop; they are separate partitions that just happen to contain the same files).  Just like the desktop, I do not delete installer zip files after installation.

File Transfer:  To avoid the hassle of re-downloading content to two different machines, I use DIM on either machine (or both, at differnt times), then just syncronize my download folders so that both machines have a locally available drive partition containing all of my downloads, DAZ and "other".   To do the sync, I remove the laptop's drive and plug it into the desktop, where it becomes "E").  Then I sync the relevant folders E and G.  Microsoft SyncToy and Free File Sync both do a good job of syncing, but I prefer the latter because it is maintained by the vendor and it's a lot faster than Microsoft's solution.

The Problem:  After using DIM to download new purchases and updates, I see some files are getting synced but should not be, becasue they were not among the products that I downloaded (whether new or updated products) from DAZ.  Both DIM on the desktop and DIM on the laptop are behaving the same way, and this problem is not new; it may have been happening for up to a year or more, but I always thought it was SyncToy.  Now that I have switched to Free File Sync, I see the same behavior, so I think it's not the sync process but maybe something that DIM is doing.

Question:  Has anybody else observed this behavior, where DIM updates some of your already-downloaded files that were not part of the most current download?

Business 101: If you sell one product and recommend another that product needs to exist.

there is one thing that really annoys me currently.

It is great that we have als the nice RDNA Items in the Store now.

But, my dear people at DAZ: Are you really serious about releasing all this stuff without proper Metadata.

You reserve more or less the complete 4.9 relase to finalize the (IMHO worthwile) move from a file system based content organization to a metadata driven content organization and the only 2 month later, when more and more people start to adopt to working with Smart Content pane primarly, you realese tons of stuff without even basic category mappings, making it completly useless in Smart Content pane?

I don't even want to start about Procuct Icons!

This makes about as much sense as that Chewbaca is living on Endor.

And you are seriously alienating the Smart Content advocats in your userbase.

Creating category mappings for a product is about 10-40 minutes work (based on complexity), creating a product icon out of existing promo pics maybe 15 minutes, doing the rest of the Metadate Creation maybe again 15-45 minutes based on complexity.

If you can't invest the time to do that it might be better to not move them in the store at all....

Would be good to get that cleared and into the description.

Thanks!

Why don't they fix it, it makes it super difficult to use as a resource.

Just one of hundreds of examples.
 

I have some light sets that I purchased and when I use them, I try to look at them to see where the lights are and what the settings are. In one light set, the tone mapping was set to 14 and I saw the spot lights were father away than I put them and the settings for the lumious was around the default. So I thought...maybe my lights need to be farther away. So I tried that. I also plugged in one of those HDRI images that I had. When I first rendered, I thought it looked nice, but then after looking at it for a while, I decided that the figure wasn't lit properly. I tried adjusting the tone mapping up and down, but the figure just didn't pop. Finally after a bunch of trial and error, I finally set the tone mapping to 14 to see if my light would have more of an effect. At first I doubled the light setting (luminous), and then I started adding zeroes. I think I ended up with 4,000,000. I had tried 400,000 and it still didn't pop. I figured the 4 mill was going to cause some burn out. But it didn't. My figure looked nice. I could see variations in the skin tone. I could see details on the hands and legs.

But I don't get it, how can a preset light use so low a luminos value and I have to use one so high?

Or are there other settings in play here that I haven't discovered yet?

And what setting do you use to contral how much or how little the HDRI affects the scene?

I also noticed that the back light is often set much higher than the front and fill lights. I would have thought that it would be low. Maybe that has some affect too on how things turn out.

When I came back now, the CallaCascade Hair is still listed in the Newly Mad section, but is the only item that doesn't have the Newly Mad -40% showing on the March Madness page, but 1) the price in my cart is at the -40% amount and 2) the -20% for having two Newly Mad isn't showintg anymore.

I'm very confused :-)

Do other people see the hair in Newly Mad without the -40% on the price? Is this likely to be a transient problem, or is the item ineligible for the Newly Mad discount? Or maybe for the -20% "Today Only" promotion?

Should I wait a while and see what combination of prices appears next?

New products were following the normal sequence with SKUs in the 24000-24999 range, with the a few still in the 23000s that had obviously been held back, but suddenly there's been a jump to products in the 29000s and 30000s. But the Documentation Center product ReadMe index still only goes up to the 24000-24999 range. It's not uncommon for me to want to go to a product ReadMe to look for more info to decide if I want to buy something through looking at additional info notes in the ReadMe or the file list (e.g. to check if/what morphs are included in clothing, or - like today - to hopefully see from the filenames exactly what types of fabrics there are shader presets for in a shader product that just says 'Clothing, Fabric & Leather x 71 shaders' on the product page).

What gives? Not having links to the product ReaMes in the website just means I won't be buying some things I otherwise might. Today it means I've dropped considering today's new shader product.

(I REALLY hope this isn't some new system to only allow acceess to ReadMes via Daz Connect, as I have not and will not install DAZ Connect, ever. I remain and will remain on DS 4.8 until/unless a higher version of DS without DAZ Connect - or with a version of DAZ Connect that contains no DRM/encryption module/plugin/code - becomes available, even if that means I never upgrade past 4.8.)

no buttons come up, cant remove it or nuttin.  how can fix?

Starting off with a clean install of DS4.8

I installed the CMS first, installed it where i wanted it on my E:drive partition.

Installed 4.8.  DS didn't ask me for a path to install the cms (PostOgre).

Where do i configure the path to the cms in DS 4.8?

How does carrara find the cms?

my only goal for the cms is to help with the autofit clones.

thanks!

Also the youth and baby aren't part of the sale but almost everything else is? So confusing.

http://www.daz3d.com/legendary-tiger-babies this is just the coolest idea ever though o.o

EDIT: DisparateDreamer has written a helpful guide here for navigating this world of horned horses http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/77631/unicorns-faq-in-progress

If I make a character that I want to save to use later, wh as t are the best ways of reducing the file sizes. I used  to know how to do this in Poser, but I've switched to Daz Studio.and need some help.

Thanks in advance everyone 

Ancient Celts 2

70% discount for 30 days. ($ 7.49)

Enjoy, this is my last personal discount !!

Betomelo.

https://www.daz3d.com/age-of-warriors-celt-2-for-genesis

(mod edit:  don't forget to add commercial to your threads when promoting a product)

Anyone can vote, not only those participating in the actual contest. You can vote for any entries except for you own entries, and we vote in two categories, Best and Funniest. Best is more of a traditional render contest voting where funniest more takes the humorous look at the image. Some images have a few lines of text explaining the story behind them, which often helps the voting, specially in the funniest category.  Each win (1st to 3rd place) will also give the winner at least one sticky Lucky Bastard pull, which means the next round will be a little harder, see below for how wins and Lucky Bastards are counted.

Entries thread here: Entries only thread
Vote here:  RRRR Voting

So, what are we voting about?
What are the prizes?

Winner in the best category:
- Two items from First Bastion's store.
- $30 DAZ Store GC

Winner in the funniest category:
- One item from Totte's store
- One item from Dumor3D's store
- $30 DAZ Store GC

Second place in the best category:
- One item from Dumor3D's store
- $20 DAZ Store GC

Second place in the funniest category:
- One item from Totte's store
- $20 DAZ Store GC

Third place in either category:
- $12 DAZ Store GC

Fourth place in either category:
- $8 DAZ Store GC

Fifth place in either category:
- $5 DAZ Store GC

The voting starts now, and ends Sunday, April 3, at 23:59:59 DAZ local time.

How votes are tallied and summed up:

Voting points: 1st = 5 points, 2nd = 4 points, 3rd = 3 Points, 4th = 2 Points and Tiebreaker = 1 Point.

If an image gets 1st, two 2nd, one 4th and two tiebreakers in a category, that is 5 + 2x4 + 2 + 2x1 = 17 Points

Every image points per category is summed up, and top three is calcutaled in each category. As we now have five prizes, a maximum of two entries from the same artist can end up top three in each category, this is to spead the joy a little more. 

The image with most points from the same artist will be the base, the the average score for up to for other images will be added to that score, but if that image takes a top three placement, images who got to the cream of the crop with help from other entires, will gain extra LBs based on how many places it climbed, minus one. Here are two examples:

Example 1: The top image from X has 15 points. X also has five other images that has been voted for, 10, 8, 7, 7 & 5 points. Thaking the average of the first four images behind the top one is 10+8+7+7 = 8, so the first image which was at 4th place, now gets 23 points and rises to the top and becomes the winner. But, that image climbed 3 steps, so it will not only win, but give the winner 3 LB for the next run. 

Example 2: The top image by Y has 11 points, and the second image 9 points. The top image will now have 20 points and go from 5th place to 3rd place, granting Y 2 LB for the next run.

If two images ends up with the same score, we use the same rules as in the European Song Contest, the number of higher scores wins over many lower scores, so if one image has 5+5+5+1 (16) and another has 2+2+4+4+2 (16) the first one will come before.

To avoid votespamming, anyone voting needs to post here in this thead that they did vote, and use the same name as they have posting here as the DAZ Forum Name in the first question in the vote system at SurveyMonkey.