?? Merchant Resources: Identification, Collection, Installation ??
Diomede
Posts: 15,388
I have bought quite a few merchant resource over the years, and used them just for myself. Now, I want to rearrange my content to collect and install my merchant resources to their own directory. Do all Daz Merchant Resources have the term "Merchant Resource" in the title? Would there be any other way to find them all? I use DIM to install my Daz purchases. I found quite a few by putting 'Merchant' in the DIM search box.
Any other constructive thoughts or suggestions?
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
Not all Merchant resources have it mentioned in the title. Some only states that it's a merchant resource in the description of the product.
No idea how it would be easiest to find them, except maybe do a search for Merchant resource in the store or go through all your products in your account.
Ouch. I hope there is a better way. Not all products in my account library have a product page. Some are older, and some have had the PA withdraw or dropped.
One thing that might help simplify it is that they are often specific to a generation: G8, 3 etc; so if you're not producing the specific generation product then they cease to be merchant resource.
Good point, @nicstt, stuff specific to skin shaders often has exceptional restrictions. I do have a few and so will be careful about the figure issue. I have more resources like bark, leaves, fabric patterns, and that sort of thing. I don’t think they have similar limitations. If a merchant resource for bark or hair has restrictions to a specific tree or hair style, I don’t recall it. In any case, worth reading the fine print - if I can find the fine print!
Dimension Theory, and ITextures have both produced Merchant Resources (off the top-of-my-head) so it might be worth checking them out - presuming the top of my head is as good at remembering as I hope. :) And also Destiny's Garden.
Be sure to open each product description and read it if it comes up in a search for 'merchant resource' as it will also bring up those that warn 'not a merchant resource' too.
i asked customer support last month about merchant resource skins, i asked specifically about using gen3 skin on gen8. they said there is nothing in the license to restrict it to a generation.
it can be if it says so in the product, many don't but some do
lol Funny... we all seam to keep getting different answers on this. I was told the same thing (At First) - that you could use G3 MRs on G8 characters:
But then I was told by the mods here that that was wrong. So I sent in another help ticket asking them if THEY were right or if the MODS were right. So their response was:
But then they followed up with:
It would be REALLY fantastic if there was consistency between what we're told.
The bottom line is - ask the PA who made the MR. DO NOT just rely on what customer service tells you on this matter - because obviously there is some miscommunication going on. I would say err on the side of caution and ask the PA.
Go to your Product Library and do a search by "Resource" and see if that pulls up more. I know that several of the merchant rescourses I've purchased just had "Resource" and not "Merchant Resource" in the discription or title. Make sure you read the info for each of those products carefully to make sure they allow the product to be used as a product creation resourse. :)
Good advce. Found a couple more, although one of them is unclear. I will contact the PA, if I can.
I always kept MR in a separate runtime. I download manually and install. I don't use DIM. So when I dl a MR, I just install it to my MR runtime. In my top folder, I just name it 'Merchant Resources'.. If it's just png or jpg images, I add them a folder under textures. Sometimes with the vendors name or like Fabrics, Skins, etc.. That way they're all in one spot where I specify.
when i sibmitted the support ticket i selected contact pa in the selection dropdown list.
dunno how else to contact pa
I believe that it is more in recent generations that MRs have been restricted to a single generation like G3 or G8. This is probably due to that fact that it is much easier to swap resources on those models compared to the different skin maps on G2, G, V4...etc.
Of all the merchant resources sold on Daz and other sites, I wonder how many of them actually make it into commercial products.
Yep, then you have products that were originally unrestricted MRs that later changed the licensing to non MR or using the Daz model of "Must be listed as a required additional purchase."
Of course, it must be ridiculously difficult in the case of morph packages for anyone to track whether or not their morph was partially included in someone else's commercial product. Skin textures might be a bit easier to identify. But, even those would take a lot of effort to track and prove.
Obviously, any artist can license their products any way they like. But, if I buy an MR, I do like the terms to be clearly spelled out in the advertising. And, my preference in purchasing will always be towards the packages with the least restrictions.
It would also be great if there were some tag in the installation file that would auto group MRs as the original poster suggested. I would think that could be something that Daz would require or add themselves when accepting an MR submission.
For what it's worth, my approach with my shader MR stuff is:
Use on anything sold at Daz, don't include as part of another shader product.
Anything more than that would be nice (like being mentioned) but not required.
The thing is, each type of product lends itself to certain use and limitations.
I wish DAZ would just add a database field they could use to flag items as merchant resources. This would make them easier to search for, and the icons could be displayed with a little badge to indicate their MR status. Also DAZ should not accept and resell MRs whose terms lock them to a particular character or generation. There's already too much confusion, and allowing random terms like that just adds to it needlessly.
Uuuh, it's not random, and no thanks.
In this case, I am trying to identify my merchant resources and make it easy on myself to find them again. I want to abide by the license, whatever it is in each case.
A related question that is getting discussed is what the license ought to be for using a merchant resource on other figures (or other props, or other...). I am fine with PAs specifying restrictions, and happy to abide by the license, However, as an aside, I do think some of the attempted restrictions on purchasers of merchant resources are absurd if downstream users have no practical barrier. For example, M4 and V4 skin shaders fit the uvmaps for some genesis products. What does it mean to say the purchaser of the merchant resource is authorized to use it in developing M4 and V4 products, but not for these other compatible genesis products? The merchant resource developer/purchaser has no ability to block subsequent users from applying the V4/M4 product to the other compatible genesis figures. I used V4/M4/Genesis as an example, but you can extrapolate to other figures that share UV coordinates.
Anyway, not my current concern. I thank everyone who has commented so far. Very helpful.
yes the limiting to one generation irks me if not specified
I bought some V4 and M4 MR skins as a base for repainting to Genesis 3 and 8 so I could create second skin clothing in Zbrush with polypaint and displacement
the later figures have a joined head neck torso so any second skins difficult without a base texture, I would also modify the skins but its mostly only faces heads and hands I would rework in gimp anyway
not at point yet of selling anything but needs to be cleared up sooner rather than later
otherwise I have to resort to LIE or Geoshells with opacity maps which is a right PITA
I don’t think there is a danger that I will be a PA any time soon. However, I do like to model more than texture or render. If I ever do put something together with worth beyond my personal use, it will likely be with some modified merchant resource barks, leaves, rocks, fabrics, pattterns, etc.
By reorganizing stuff that does not need reorganizing, I can put off doing chores that need to be done soon.
My point is, DAZ has a clear definition of the terms under which it sells a regular usage license, and it has a clear definition of the terms under which it sells an interactive license. It should also have a clear definition, one single license, under which it sells merchant resources. The PAs can decide if those terms are acceptable or not (and possibly take their MRs somewhere else), but there should be one set of clear terms for the buyer, just like for all the other types of products DAZ sells.
I don't mind paying for an upgrade license across generations. But, I think that if you've bought the product for previous generation(s), you should be paying a heavily discounted upgrade price to just have the same morph or skin set applied to the new generation. And, I don't think that terms should change retroactively...meaning, if I have an open use for a product for G3F, then buy the G8F upgrade, the artist offering the MR shouldn't change the terms from one generation to the next.
Oddly enough, is someone were to make a good open use, skin set that allows use for freebies (most say only for commercial character creation), they'd probably sell a lot. It'd be nice to have a go to freebie skin set.
I agree that a good set of MR license standards would be good. However, I agree with Wil that some products lend themselves more to open use, while others are generation specific. It's not a single solution. But, standards for each category could be set.
As to the OP...I apologize for not really addressing the issue of organizing MRs. Since there is no standard tag, it really falls to us end users to go through our product database and do the organizing one at a time. This is something that I really need to do as well.