Official Release of Carrara 8.5 **Update - 8.5.1.19**

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Comments

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,258
    edited October 2013

    not a C8.5 issue a Carrara issue in C7 too
    Chohole has NEVER had ANY version of Carrara on her computer before or presumably Daz studio so needs to do it once to unlock frozen morphs esp if scenes saved from Poser as she is likely to do
    I personally experienced this phenomenon on my desktop when I first installed Carrara before using any figures in DS

    Post edited by WendyLuvsCatz on
  • fixmypcmikefixmypcmike Posts: 19,583
    edited December 1969

    Sorry for the confusion -- I wasn't aware of the issue with frozen morphs on 4th Gen figures. But that's not a C8.5 issue -- if you didn't have that problem in C7/7.2/8 I imagine it wouldn't be necessary for you in 8.5.

    If you wish to use CMS-driven features in Carrara, but don't want to install DS, CMS can also be installed with DIM.

  • NeilV_1NeilV_1 Posts: 442
    edited December 1969

    Sorry for the confusion -- I wasn't aware of the issue with frozen morphs on 4th Gen figures. But that's not a C8.5 issue -- if you didn't have that problem in C7/7.2/8 I imagine it wouldn't be necessary for you in 8.5.

    If you wish to use CMS-driven features in Carrara, but don't want to install DS, CMS can also be installed with DIM.

    How about us that would like to do away with CMS driven features and get rid of the tab that uses it (I loath Smart content) like I can in DS I would much rather not have any programs that use CMS on my system. and yes I do have multiple versions of DS installed and DIM.

    At the moment I just ignore the Smart content tab and I access my DS4 content vie the content tab.

  • JonstarkJonstark Posts: 2,738
    edited December 1969

    NeilV 1 said:

    At the moment I just ignore the Smart content tab and I access my DS4 content vie the content tab.

    Me too.

  • FenricFenric Posts: 351
    edited December 1969

    No, you don't need to use DS to initialize the 4th Gen figures for use in Carrara.

    That depends on what you mean be "need to". If you want Aiko 4, Hiro 4, Stephanie 4, Girl 4, Guy 4, or Reby Sky to work properly then yes, you really do.

    The "DzCreateExpFiles" batch file simply does not work correctly for Carrara. So, if you don't use the DAZ PowerLoader to initialize the morphs then you will see a condition where the morph dials all stop responding: they will only flip between 0 and 1, they don't do anything, and continuing to work will get you "An Error has Occurred".

    You have two ways to avoid this: always create the figure fresh from the CR2, or run the DAZ Studio PowerLoader.


    It would appear that DAZ has been so kind as to remove the old forum archive. We had several coordinated troubleshooting sessions, and it became very clear that Studio initialization was necessary.

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,989
    edited October 2013

    Sorry for the confusion -- I wasn't aware of the issue with frozen morphs on 4th Gen figures. But that's not a C8.5 issue -- if you didn't have that problem in C7/7.2/8 I imagine it wouldn't be necessary for you in 8.5.

    If you wish to use CMS-driven features in Carrara, but don't want to install DS, CMS can also be installed with DIM.

    hya could someone give me a step by step at downloading cms?
    a search in my product library and Daz products for cms CMS gives zilch

    thank you :)

    Post edited by Headwax on
  • fixmypcmikefixmypcmike Posts: 19,583
    edited December 1969

    head wax said:
    Sorry for the confusion -- I wasn't aware of the issue with frozen morphs on 4th Gen figures. But that's not a C8.5 issue -- if you didn't have that problem in C7/7.2/8 I imagine it wouldn't be necessary for you in 8.5.

    If you wish to use CMS-driven features in Carrara, but don't want to install DS, CMS can also be installed with DIM.

    hya could someone give me a step by step at downloading cms?
    a search in my product library and Daz products for cms CMS gives zilch

    thank you :)

    If you install DIM it will automatically install CMS, or if you install DS from the .exe it will install CMS. I don't know if the Carrara 8.5 .exe installs CMS.

  • fixmypcmikefixmypcmike Posts: 19,583
    edited December 1969

    Fenric said:
    No, you don't need to use DS to initialize the 4th Gen figures for use in Carrara.

    That depends on what you mean be "need to". If you want Aiko 4, Hiro 4, Stephanie 4, Girl 4, Guy 4, or Reby Sky to work properly then yes, you really do.

    The "DzCreateExpFiles" batch file simply does not work correctly for Carrara. So, if you don't use the DAZ PowerLoader to initialize the morphs then you will see a condition where the morph dials all stop responding: they will only flip between 0 and 1, they don't do anything, and continuing to work will get you "An Error has Occurred".

    You have two ways to avoid this: always create the figure fresh from the CR2, or run the DAZ Studio PowerLoader.


    It would appear that DAZ has been so kind as to remove the old forum archive. We had several coordinated troubleshooting sessions, and it became very clear that Studio initialization was necessary.


    Sorry, my mistake, I didn't know it was a pervasive issue.

    The old forums are at forumarchive.daz3d.com

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,989
    edited December 1969

    head wax said:
    Sorry for the confusion -- I wasn't aware of the issue with frozen morphs on 4th Gen figures. But that's not a C8.5 issue -- if you didn't have that problem in C7/7.2/8 I imagine it wouldn't be necessary for you in 8.5.

    If you wish to use CMS-driven features in Carrara, but don't want to install DS, CMS can also be installed with DIM.

    hya could someone give me a step by step at downloading cms?
    a search in my product library and Daz products for cms CMS gives zilch

    thank you :)

    If you install DIM it will automatically install CMS, or if you install DS from the .exe it will install CMS. I don't know if the Carrara 8.5 .exe installs CMS.

    thanks fixmypc
    !
    I installed daz studio and now have cms installed on my e drive.
    do I need to point it Carrara ?, or point Carrara at it.? They are on the same drive which is not my root drive.


    thanks again

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,583
    edited December 1969

    head wax said:

    I installed daz studio and now have cms installed on my e drive.
    do I need to point it Carrara ?, or point Carrara at it.? They are on the same drive which is not my root drive.


    thanks again

    Nah... Carrara picks up the DS libraries itself.
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,583
    edited December 1969


    If you install DIM it will automatically install CMS, or if you install DS from the .exe it will install CMS. I don't know if the Carrara 8.5 .exe installs CMS.
    Perhaps it had something to do with my uninstalling CMS while keeping DS installed... but I think DIM did install the folders that contained CMS setup, but it didn't install it - possibly a preferences thing?
    I had to go to Program Files x86 > DAZ 3D > DAZ3DIM1 > cms
    Inside that folder is an installer for CMS, which installs nicely in 64 bit format at Program Files > DAZ 3D > Content Management Service
    Then I went into that folder and double-clicked the ContentManagementServer.exe and away it went! Before doing that stuff, cms wasn't running in my "Services" in Task Manager. I'm on Windows 7 64 bit
  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,989
    edited December 1969

    Nah… Carrara picks up the DS libraries itself.

    thanks Dart,

    I am at work so cannot look for myself but will play when I get home

    so..... CMS will run when I start up my machine automagically now it is installed?

  • de3ande3an Posts: 915
    edited December 1969

    Fenric said:
    It would appear that DAZ has been so kind as to remove the old forum archive. We had several coordinated troubleshooting sessions, and it became very clear that Studio initialization was necessary.

    Sorry, my mistake, I didn't know it was a pervasive issue.

    The old forums are at forumarchive.daz3d.com


    When was the last time you checked http://forumarchive.daz3d.com ?
    It appears to be down.

  • frank0314frank0314 Posts: 14,094
    edited December 1969

    You may need to refresh the page. I had to do it twice before it came up

  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited December 1969

    It is still there and working, however it does sometimes take a couple or 3 goes to actually get connected to anything other than a blank page. I just tried, used the back button and then tried again, eventually got the archive on the 3rd go.

  • de3ande3an Posts: 915
    edited December 1969

    Frank0314 said:
    You may need to refresh the page. I had to do it twice before it came up

    It is still there and working, however it does sometimes take a couple or 3 goes to actually get connected to anything other than a blank page. I just tried, used the back button and then tried again, eventually got the archive on the 3rd go.

    Wow! It's working worse than ever now.
    When the archive first came online it worked well (except for the lack of displayed images). It was responsive and usable.
    Then something happened, and every page was delayed about 30 seconds before loading. Usability was greatly diminished.
    Now you need to keep reloading the page over and over untill you finally get it to display. And there's still a delay before any page will load.
    You need to be pretty desperate to have the patients to look something up now.

    I wonder why DAZ can't give a little attention to the archive server, and at least make it marginally usefull.

  • araneldonaraneldon Posts: 712
    edited December 1969

    de3an said:
    I wonder why DAZ can't give a little attention to the archive server, and at least make it marginally usefull.

    It doesn't sell content.
  • FP_b647bf2daeFP_b647bf2dae Posts: 38
    edited October 2013

    On one hand congratulation on the 8.5 release, on the other hand the 8.0 was released in 2010, now 3 years later we got to 8.5 as paid upgrade...
    Where I see the biggest work done is that it supports new daz contents...hmmm, hard to justify the paid upgrade IMHO, but who I am to argue.

    I used carrara very little since I upgraded to 8.0 so I will likely just skip this 8.5 and perhaps wait for some crazy christmas deal. If it never comes I will just wait another 3 years for carrara 9 to see if it has any bigger improvements more in the line with the industry. I still remember the excitement when I got version 5 - this was also the version I used for majority of my work.

    With the full price I paid for carrara 5 + all the upgrades 6, 7, 8, I spent a pretty huge chunk of money on carrara. It is time to break the habit.

    So long Carrara, it was a pleasure and exciting way along, but I sadly feel no reason to pay for minor upgrades.

    Post edited by FP_b647bf2dae on
  • JonstarkJonstark Posts: 2,738
    edited December 1969

    Oscarko, Daz has stated target date for Carrara 9 is the 1st quarter of next year, might be best to wait if you're not dying to use Genesis1 (there are other improvements in 8.5, but you're right Genesis support is the main one). Even with the long development cycle to get 8.5, there are still a few kinks with Genesis1 (as other form members have mentioned, the geo-grafted genitals don't work right for Genesis, and although the autofit works pretty well, on those occassions where there is still some pokethru it's harder to correct than it was for V4 M4 when it does happen) and it seems that Genesis2 doesn't have an autofit that will work in 8.5, so we really can't even say that 8.5 has 100% Genesis capability, though it is mostly there.

    It is strange that Carrara 9 is so quick on the horizon (per Daz) when 8.5 took so glacially long to appear. Maybe they've already done a lot of the development needed for 9 and just held it back to give 8.5 a release which would get Carrara users buying Genesis content?

    IMO the one thing Carrara 9 has to have to be successful is a workable dynamic cloth solution. If it doesn't have that in 9.... bad times indeed...

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,989
    edited December 1969

    IMO the one thing Carrara 9 has to have to be successful is a workable dynamic cloth solution. If it doesn’t have that in 9…. bad times indeed…

    yes without it they lose me I'm afraid

  • FP_b647bf2daeFP_b647bf2dae Posts: 38
    edited December 1969

    Thanks Jonstark, yes I will wait and see about the C9. I am with carrara since 2005 when I bought cheap the already old version 3.0 and upgraded to v.5 and at that time it has been for me the most promising affordable software that could in few version became a competitor to the big ones.
    In 2013 it looks more like planned obsolence and it begs the question what was the big plan in buying complex software development like hexagon, carrara or even bryce. Probably daz management is asking the same question now and weighting the pros and cons of pulling the plug.
    I am particularly sad for hexagon death as it was so close of being what Silo had become years later, hexagon had a huge jump start by years of development yet missed the modelling wave completely. Now it is a software where you are holding your thumbs every time you do a complex operation like boolean so it wont crash.
    I am not bitter, just sad. Carrara 5/Hexagon gave me the crash course in 3D modelling and I actually made my investment back few times over just as a hobby with few side jobs. I still believe carrara approach is spot on as a learning tool, but it sadly stays that way and you simply have to quickly move into industry favorite applications to keep up - which means you probably should start with those industry applications in a first place. So close and yet so far.

  • Rich GellesRich Gelles Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    I would not be expecting a major dynamic cloth solution from Carrara 9 as Dynamic cloth is such a difficult item to develop in the 3d world. Even some of the more expensive 3d applications do not have what i would call a easy and robust cloth simulation.

    When you have a 3rd party develop like "marvelous designer" charging a lot of money for a one trick pony like dynamic cloth --you know this is not easy to develop .

    And it seems that the Bullet Physics engine has certain limitations on cloth simulations so trying to leverage that is not exactly the path either.

    Daz certainly does not have the programming resources to pull this out of the their own design --and it goes counter actually to their business model when you think about it.

    So my guess they would probably go with some sort of Opitex like solution where they can have content sales to "pay" for a 3rd party development partner and share some content sales.

    Rich

  • CbirdCbird Posts: 493
    edited December 1969

    I don't know if anyone from DAZ is still reading this, but now that many of us have spent money for the "Genesis" upgrade to Carrara how about labelling at least new store products with whether they work in Carrara or not. The new creature morphs and their HD version are a great example. If we all have to buy them and test them out to see if they work or not, then we should be getting free like your other beta testers.

    The common theory here is that DAZ only wants to sell content, but it sure isn't Carrara users they want to sell to.

  • araneldonaraneldon Posts: 712
    edited December 1969

    It's a little bit funny that the main selling point of Carrara 8.5 is Genesis compatibility but none of the Genesis content (or any content really) is marketed as compatible with Carrara.

  • Rich GellesRich Gelles Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    This has been one of the missteps for DAZ and the Carrara community --- There is a lot of content that can be used Carrara but no one will ever take the chance to try as it is not labeled as such. A lot of things like buildings , plants and such are labeled only for poser or daz studio but have obj files and as such I bet a lot of that stuff could be used ----it might not have a clean setup on install but certainly I think they are short changing the Carrara users and themselves by not digging a little deeper at their own content and try and make more things labeled as at least useable in Carrara.

    Rich

  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited December 1969

    I have said for a long time that we somehow need to persuade the PTB that both Carrara and Bryce users do actually buy "normal" Daz 3D store content, as well as program specific content.

    Heck I have a store History that covers many many pages, but I only ever make renders in Bryce (and now maybe Carrara as I start getting to grips with it) and have done so for the last 15 years, which my purchase history will bear out.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,583
    edited December 1969

    Well...
    there's a bit more to it, I think.
    First of all we, as Published Artists, list the compatibility of our products - and then DAZ does, too...
    The thing that has been fairly clear (to me) about Carrara, is that you just get to know that nearly everything works with it - as far as models go. The fact that they don't come with Carrara shaders is the only thing keeping them from being deemed: "Carrara Compatible".

    It has always been up to the Carrara user to understand what you can do with it - and it has been set up to be able to do a lot.

    There are really no hard and fast rules, but most anything made for Poser that is not cameras, lights, or made specifically for Poser-exclusive features, with load in just fine. It used to be that they'd load in just fine - but look like plastic. It's much better now. At least with DAZ products.

  • CbirdCbird Posts: 493
    edited December 1969

    I don't mind messing with shaders, but with things like morphs I don't think we should have to buy, try, and return. Why do they bother to ask for Carrara users as beta testers, if they won't then label the products?

  • dysamoriadysamoria Posts: 9
    edited December 1969

    About every six months i come back here to see if DAZ has gotten their act together, only to find that, no, they still have not. i continue to be somewhat surprised that there are even users and customers any more.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,583
    edited November 2013

    dysamoria said:
    About every six months i come back here to see if DAZ has gotten their act together, only to find that, no, they still have not. i continue to be somewhat surprised that there are even users and customers any more.
    I'm quite certain to disagree with this for many, many reasons.

    First, I'm sorry if you're waiting for a particular feature or fix that isn't developed yet. Not that I have anything to do with it, but I can feel you pain if you need something specific and the development cycles just never seem to touch on it. But...

    DAZ 3D has been doing some remarkable stunts within the 3D scope of CG. Although it may be somewhat invisible at the moment, due to our (PAs) needing time to work in everything that's going on, and taking advantage of the new technology that's literally been 'given' to us, I see how DAZ Studio development, which has been enormous, is going to feed into Carrara in very essential and powerful ways. And I'm not talking just the obvious "Dolly" support by including Genesis - even though that development is a huge part of the magic I am talking about.

    No need for a bridge of any sort, though how similar things are beginning to intertwine, it wouldn't surprise me to see something like that in one of the next few development cycles, the duf format is a lot more useful than it looks from the outside. It is beginning to allow much of the inner working of what has been going into the latest DAZ Studio Pro to seep in to Carrara.

    Carrara 8.5 was meant to give us Genesis compatibility. I see that some users are displeased with that idea. But they did it. Adding what it takes for Carrara to remain useful as a product for DAZ to maintain as a software offering is truly what Carrara needed to remain in development period. Now that the whole nightmare of two years in development is brought to an official release frees up some of the development to get cranking into Carrara 9. This is incredibly exciting.

    DAZ 3D is a very strong component in assisting folks to delve super deep into 3d art and animation. To deny them that is truly not right. To say that they don't deserve their huge following is also incorrect. Behind the scenes, DAZ is laboring away. Making use of some of the latest and greatest methods for working with what many refer to as "Dollies". Well it's these human figures that put DAZ 3D in the superstar category of this field as a vast program which allows people to go in any direction they choose. Simple hobbyist activity can provide great fun at very low cost. DAZ 3D continues to give away their Pro Studio, with a wealth of tools for creating professional figures and support products. Anyone can do this easily with simple instructions provided by DAZ 3D or they can simply pop in one of the finest human 3d figures, which they got for free, along with an amazing free studio, dress it up and give it a pose and some background elements to create art. DAZ has always been a leader in helping people get what they need, one way or another - but usually by offering them discounts far beyond what any of the other 3d companies provide.

    Even if a person uses nothing but free stuff, they can still assemble an artistic scene. But looking around at the cost to go further, and I'm amazed at what they have, are and will accomplish. DAZ 3D = Digital Art Zone in Three Dimensions. And that it is.

    Surprised I'm still here? Surprised I'm defending DAZ 3D?
    They have done so much for me and many others here, where would one assume that we would go?
    Someplace that charges more money for less quality?

    As far as Carrara goes, 8.5 Pro is by and large my favorite version to date. Not because of what Autodesk, LightWave, or Blender are doing - but because of what the developers at DAZ 3D have done to it. It was my favorite software to use before. They made it better, and it's still my favorite.

    Sorry... ranting again. I guess you like what you like. Period. Nothing else on the market can do what Carrara can do. And DAZ is certainly trying to make it better. I can hardly wait to see what's up their sleeves right now.

    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
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