A no "readme" rant
ALLIEKATBLUE
Posts: 2,983
Just a little rant on my part. I am finding myself increasingly frustrated at the lack of instructions provided in many DAZ products. Again I have purchased an item which looked promising but of course no readme or instructions on how to use the dang thing. One thing about rendo products, you can view the readme before you purchase to see some information about the item. Here at DAZ, you purchase first, fiddle around with the product, then troll the forums to see if anybody can help. DAZ forums are great for this help and the DAZ community is the most helpful out there. But I would like it if some instructions are included in the product.
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Go to help at the top of this page, then Documentation Centre, then Product Readmes and use the SKU to find the right one - or just paste the SKU in place of the #### in http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/read_me/index/####/start
Have you checked here ofr the readme http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/read_me/index/start
If your using DIM to install your products just select the info at the end of the line for that product.
See, DAZ forum community is so helpful. However, there is no readme at all for some products and/or broken links when you use the DIM info icon. Just saying, when they have readme you can find them. But when the artist doesn't include one, then you find yourself out of luck.
It would help if you told us the urls to the product(s).
There are quite a few so I don't want to bog down the forum unless I really can't figure it out myself. Usually a quick post gets the answers I need and more. Right now I was referring to Promo Style Catch Lights for Iray. I already opened a "how do you use this product" thread so I am sure someone will help me out.
http://www.daz3d.com/promo-style-catch-lights-for-iray
I have the lights so, pose your figure, add the props you like, I like to add an HDR background myself or a background image, add the lights, scale them with the light scale options, render....
See, who needs readmes when we have DAZ community. Thanks nemesis10
DAZ "readme" files have not had a history of being overly informative. It's not a culture much used here. Although, a few (very few) creators had very informative "readme" files that explained file naming schemes, and ideas about how the product was intended to be used. However, after several years of kvetching I gave up begging for useful "readme" files and just joined the poke, prod, and ponder set like everybody else.
I used to work my bum off doing manuals for products. People wouldn't read them. Then they would complain on the forum that the products were hard to use. Eventually I gave up on doing the documentation for the 5% that were actually reading it and switched to doing video tutorials linked from the product page. Now people complain about the lack of manuals. There is no winning.
Speaking for the 5% SickleYield I love and appreciate your manuals and tutorials
Be assured that I value all tutorials (and I prefer pdf to video)
I happen to be one of the few who actually use the Readme's; with all the content I have, they are essential to locating that content. I had always assumed that that was what they were for (since it was pretty much the only information in them).
I lament the fact that DAZ no longer packages them with the products, and have never understood why they stopped.
It looks increasingly as if Daz are giving up on readme files. We now have items with numbers in the 33,000 range and there is no page for readmes that high. I have tried loading one of the other pages and changing the numbers in the range but the page isn't there. And some of the Runtime DNA items I bought in the recent sale don't have readme files even though their numbers are in the range that has pages.
I use manual installation so I can find where things are installed by looking in the zip files, I still look for readmes but I'm not surprised when I don't find them. If they went back to putting them in the zip files it would be better.
Sometimes I think both Daz and many of the PA's forget that this is software we're talking about here, that isn't necessarily intuitive. Even with tangible items many people don't immediately read the manual, but there is a manual there, and I can almost guarantee there comes a point where they dig them back up to find something out.
You really do have to throw your hands up at some people's astute business savvy.
Thank goodness for people like
Colm Jackson
Age of Armour
SickleYield
who have done very good tutorials overall with their products.
100% spot on. I really appreciate the excellent tutorials Colm, Age of Armor, SickleYield, and other PAs provide. I'm sure it's frustrating to put in lots of time and effort to create a meaningful ReadMe/tutorial and have users complain about a product when they haven't taken the time to read or watch these help files. Unfortunately, we seem to live in the age of "Who needs manuals, just click on sh*t and see what happens." Back when I worked in the high tech field, RTFM was a common response to basic operational questions. Nowadays, not only is that response foreign to a lot of people, it has much less relevance given the trend toward sparse or nonexistent documentation.
For the dedicated PAs still providing quality documentation, thank you.
I would also like to thank those to take the time to produce documentation.
Me too - I always at least look at any manuals provided even if the product turns out to be really easy to use without. There 's often some little gem in there that I'd never have discovered for myself. So big thanks to SY, AoA and others who go to that effort.
On the ex-RDNA products: the ones I have bought all seem to have a (text file) ReadMe inside the install zip - so at least you can see what files are included and where they are located. (I've used these to identify a few missing files to notify DAZ about via a ticket and whether coincidence or not those tickets got fixed within 24 hours)
Add me to the list of avid readers of manuals provided! I find them indispendisble.
And with the ODD, to say the least, naming conventions some vendors come up with, it would be really nice to at least have something that covers the basics so I can understand what the 101 materials presets I just purchased actually does!
I really appreciate the Readmes. Especially for older cousin content which might follow poser naming conventions. Finding content in different directories has always been a chore.
And here I thought this was supposed to be the "Information Age".
And I agree with the principle that documentation is completely unnecessary - until you need it. Thanks to all those who realize this and make the effort, and to those who don't - thanks for nothing.
I'm with you on this one, if it's a bit hard to use or something new, I do a tutorial video, I don't have time to write manuals that cost production time I don't have !
Maybe, but for non-native English speakers a written turorial is much better than an video.
Not to mention, and I have before, that the biggest problem with videos is the fact that they lack a Table of Contents and an Index and are unsearchable.
I've started adding an 'Info Panel' to some products. When I want to give users information, but not enough to justify a readme, I include an extra prop (a simple plane) in the product folder. I give it a texture, which is the info required in text form. It's an easy way give the user odd bits of info. You can load it and read it without having to hunt for a readme. And once you've digested the info, you can delete the panel prop.
mac
I used to put hints, tips and other information in my read me files in my products at Rendo (how lo lower render times using the complex skin share in Poser, Etc. ) and each time I was told to remove the "excess" info from the files beach use "no one reads these". Even when I stated that I did, as do several other artists I know. I prefer read me files and/or off instructions- I save every one of them in a separate drive for when I need them.
+1
Video tutorials vs Manuals". Kind of like "Command line vs Menu" interfaces. Or "Centralized vs Distributed" computing. Neither is completely satisfactory but both have their place. Anyone who refuses to recognize this, simply doesn't have the experience to argue convincingly.
+2