Acquisition vs Usage
nelsonsmith
Posts: 1,337
Just out of curiousity, what would you guess is the percentage of items in your product library that you've actually used in a render? Considering that I've probably done less than 30 serious renders since I started with Daz3d and that I have almost 1800 items downloaded, and at least a 1000+ that I have no immediate plans to use yet and haven't . For me that comes to about 0.83 % of the items I've purchased that I've actually used in any significant way, which may still be slightly high, because there are some items that I like a lot that I tend to use repeatedly.
And yet I still find myself buying items usually for some render I have in the back of my mind that I want to do, and will eventually get around to when I get the skills, or the time.
Is this the definition of an obsession?
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2025 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
I pretty much try and render everything I buy at least once,even if I don't post the render, then I don't feel like I'm wasting my money. The only exceptions for me are freebies, those I will vacuum up like a hungry, hungry hippo even if I can see no concievable use for them.
Since I manually install everything, it helps me in knowing what all I have installed over the years. I would say I have loaded 95% of what I have into a scene. Unfortunately many scenes don't make it to a serious render for one reason or another and I love having saved scene files to revisit later and some of those become serious renders down the road. I have a pretty good idea of the kinds of scenes I like to render, so I tend to be picky on what I buy based if I think I will actually use it or not.
I have often wondered the same as you on the Acquisition vs Usage deal also seeing how much some buy in the forums, LOL
This is a funny topic because I was going to ask this question some time ago. I know the percentage is small, but will probably grow over time.
Another point is what that difference is between items that were costly verse free and how many were just thrown in as opposed to needed. There's some stuff I have, I am sure I will NEVER use.
From the product, I've paid money for, it's pretty high (I usually don't buy unless, I need it for something in the first place), but since I get most of the freebies offered unless they are textures for things I don't have or things for characters I don't have, there are a lot of freebies, may even be most of them, I haven't used (yet). And there are probably some things I will never use.
I'd say around 30% that I actually used, another 60% that I have plans for within the next year or so, and the remaining 10% is the "it looks nice, it's cheap, and I might find some use for it at some time in the future" category. :)
Many of my renders are inspired from " let's have a look what I have and never used" and then one thing adds to another. Not all of that makes it to be public though. Sometimes things come with a bundle which I don't know if I ever use them but I try to shop only for stuff I will use. I got behind though during PCsale in October...
You mean to say we are expected to use what we buy?
There are some items that I bought specifically because the item itself gave me the idea for a render I had no intention of doing.
Some items I buy because I could see a future need for because of interest in a genre or theme. There are some items that I've bought that simply did not work as intended, and I didn't feel like going through the hassle of returning. I find that I've slowed down considerably on characters unless the character is amazingly unique in some way and that now I'm buying more apps that make the things I do have look and work better.
Still I can remember the time when I foolishly thought that I would be happy with Daz3d for some time with a mere 100 items.
I know, right? When did that become a thing? I thought we were just supposed to collect stuff, and there was a prize for who could accumulate the most gigabytes. *Smacks head* Rats! I've been doing it wrong all along.
I have a number of things that were acquired because they reduced the price of something I wanted below the cost of the two items uncombined. Though I do usually try to pick those things based on what I like or will use.
There are freebies I have NOT picked up because I can't imagine ever using them. Lots, actually.
I try out 90% of everything I buy within a week of buying it. That doesn't mean that it makes it into a render. As for freebies, the only ones I use on a regular basis are my own and I think I'm one of the very few that actually DO use my freebies :P. I don't consider these purchases a waste....at some point I'm going to need something that I'll be glad to discover I already have.
Laurie
i was just thinking about that. I have used probably less than 25%. I wanted to start from day #1 and do a render with everything I've purchased here... I will porbably croak before I finish.
Plus I've purchased as much from several other vendors over the years.
Uhhh... does it matter if all I do is load it up and stare blankly at it???
I have now 1800 products and if you weed out the freebies that I got to get them out of the DAZ freebie list, and there are plenty of freebies I actually wanted and use too, maybe 1200 products are left and of those I'd say I've used 100 products tops.
To avoid spending an inornate amount of time waiting for renders or setting up scenes for renders that are just too much for my current computer, it's mainly a matter for me buying a computer that has 32GB or more of RAM and and one of those newest Pascal video cards...and that ain't even being considered til end of summer.
So I'd guess I've used about 5.5% of the products I've got.
...edit...ahem correction of English
LMAO!
Given sales and such, it somewhat behooves one to try to anticipate stuff you might actually use down the road, stuff that's not easily kitbashed or done another way.
The trick is how well you can DO that...
Ahhh planning for purchases. Why bother? I mean, its totally understandable if your a professional working with the business budget, absolutely. But if youre a hobbiest like myself, why not get something if it looks fun? I mean, after all, anything in any of these stores can be used for whatever render purposes you want, right? In the end, its not been my failure to shop effectively thats led to my lack of rendering over the past year its been my lack of creative inspiration thats been the killer.
Wait! What - crack open these pristine, hermetically sealed zips and actually install them? But - but - won't that decrease the collectable value?
I've probably loaded and made at least one render of over 80%. Actually using the content on a meaningfull render - maybe 30% of the products, and some only for one or two props or a single texture.
On the plus side, it's not like anything here goes bad with age, so just tanking it for future use works for me.
I\ve had to outright forbid myself from buying any scifi or steampunk stuff. Not until I finish my current projects, I say. I do kind of screech and hide when a really good spaceship appears though.
I've been acquiring a lot of things, but mostly through bundles. If I was to buy the stuff I was going to use seperately, the price would be about the same as getting it through bundles. So might as well get the extraneous things, even if I don't end up using them.
I'm guilty of having used only a fraction of what I have available. I never know how inspiration is going to strike or what I'm going to use, so, much like an actual library, my content library remains mostly in reserve so I have what I need at my fingertips when I need it, or available to browse through for ideas and to pick and choose and try different things. Sales, budgets and content usage rarely line up, and since purchase after the need don't work out too well, that means purchases of predicted use items before I need them make more sense.
I'm not sure I want to analyze this too deeply.
I do collect certain things... For example, I own many more adult male figures then I probably will use, some of which in hind sight, aren't that well made. I like male characters though, and sort of enjoy collecting them. But some of my early purchases lack discernment. Probably wouldn't pick up the umpteenth character using the same merchant resource if I had been more aware. But at the time, those characters seemed unique and new.
I have recently started only buying stuff I think I will use though. There are only so many sci-fi cooridors I need for example. I also relaly don't need any more pretty female characters. Especially with Genesis 4 most likely to to be out soon. I don't need more gen 3 females.
This is a great thread. .I guess its something i never thought about. Though its interesting that you all have so much content and only use a small portion of it. I can't fathom that..lol
I can tell you I am like most of you I have $1000's tied up in content. in fact I have 91 pages of paid content on my Daz account not including 25 plus pages of freebies. a not to mention other stores and freebeies. I got as well. But I can honestly say I use everything at least once in a year and many items I will use over & over. mostly skydomes environments SoI properly use 90% of my content within the year. I guess because I like to make silly animations it afford me to use much more of my content assets. I am weak I admit it I pretty much buy anything bright and shiny that I know I will use in an animated film. But sorry I won't buy that ~> @g3
Same here. I've rendered all but 3 of my bought characters. However I have hundreds of freebie characters I've not rendered. I don't really count the freebies though.
However I've probably only rendered about 1/4 or less of my bought "non-characters" that I have (props, furniture, animals). I need to work on that.
I was just paging throught the G3M list that I don't own and I was very surprised how long the list is. Yes, I already know that only very well paid people can keep up with all the new G3F content produced so no surprise for me there that list is at least twice as long.
From that I also sort of get the feeling Genesis 4 will be out this year too but I will be majorly disappointed is it doesn't include some sort of dynamics compatibility upgrade for the models and DAZ Studio for clothing, hair and things like fat and muscle (and be exportable via FBX to game engines) given what these newest video cards can do. Well that and the fact that I think Mika was the last of the 'spyed' character morphs and parameters seen by other people in earlier released DAZ products.
That said, I could spend a year buying theme clothing like oriental and others that I only have bought a small sample of in the M4/V4 and Genesis generations but for some of it I'm not educated enough about authentic style varients to be 100% sure of oriental and other clothing styles actually worn vs DAZ-land only altered styles like I can with western clothing. I would like a tag on clothing and other products 'authentic replica' sort of like those sports jerseys us guys often overpay for. And there are a lot of architecure collections too but the really good ones I usually put off because they are not DAZ Originals. I guess I'll have to model some of those myself on an as-needed basic rather than building a somewhat complete library like a 'real business' would do.
Me too! I just did a quick count and am really embarrassed to say how much content I actually have, and that's not counting freebies. Lets just say I could probably render something new for the next 20 years......
I will say that I have stopped buying a lot of things and am trying to buy only things that I don't have and will use, and I have started to methodically go through my content and do at least one render of each item.