No encrypted for me.
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There are other applications that read duf other than the ones you have listed, if you look back in this thread some are listed, I mentioned Blacksmith3D, although you are right in that not many 3D apps can read them, but it is unfair to dismiss Cararra and Poser (via DSON). I have also written my own apps that reads them.
However, for me at least, the most important thing that can read them is ME. Human readable files are human readable for a reason, and it is at times very handy to look into them, be it due to a bug, trying to understand them, or whatever.
That said, new users that only ever use DS, and would never have the wish to peer into the internal workings of the app, would have little or no reason to read the files.
Most of my use is not with Daz content...I do a lot of creation of content (much more than I have put up anywhere). None of that is/will be encrypted and all the duf files are still readable. User created/non Daz store content is not affected in any way. The DSON importer for Poser has always been a hack...for reasons that don't need to be delved into, again. Carrara seems to have a snail's pace dev schedule...but eventually it will have access (no, that's no help NOW).
Several Daz_ folks have hinted at there being a way to access/read the dufs, at some point in the future, within Studio. And that there are api ways of doing most everything else that required reading the duf.
All that said, though...I don't really like this direction. But the amount of misinformation, sheer speculation and just unfounded nonsense has gotten to the point being able to keep quiet about.
Your last statement is very true, but uncertainty breeds this sort of over-reaction. I don't blame Daz for it because they themselves apparently don't know where DS is heading, saying the future of encrypted content will be based of how sales go. And I'm somewhat ashamed I have contributed to some of the general negativity and cynisism. Many artiists are very passionate about their work and the tools they use, so their reaction is kind of unstandable.
Absolutely there have been a lot of paranoia, hysterics, and end of the world predictions in this thread. What frustrates me is that some of that has been a distraction from the main thing some (and only some) of us are objecting to, ie encryption.
The 4.8 zip may still be in DIM's downloads folder (can't say for sure as I made a copy of mine before installing 4.9, just in case).
Yes there is a lot of free flowing FUD ( Fear Uncertainty & Doubt) going around right now. No question about it. The important thing to be aware of here is that this time it's NOT originating with the actions of one or a few forum members having a rant but by the actions of DAZ3D. Early on in the beta of 4.9, various employees of DAZ3D came into these forums and made assurances that there were no plans for encrypted only content in the future and then what do we see on DAY1 of 4.9's availability but ENCRYPTED ONLY CONTENT! So, given that , can you really blame people for thinking the worst?
Quite simply, there's been a breach of trust, legitimate users are being penalized for the actions of software pirates, and we are getting something that we don't want shoved down our throats.
DRM has never resulted in happy customers and it's never stopped piracy. Neither has creating a " walled garden". No matter how pretty you make that garden, one can still see the walls. Not many people like walls-especially creatives.
...but that was not expected with the AoA Advanced Lights and effects cameras which are listed as 4.8 compatible and still in the store, but have several features that no longer work after ver 4.6 (and the Graphic Art Cameras do not work at all).
Skin Builder Pro is not a morph its a system of scripts with it's own UI. The concern is will these work on encrypted files as that sees to be the way new content is heading (especially when I read in the FAQ that in the future all new content might only be able to downloaded through Daz Direct.
And now, according to what I've read, in another thread one of the moderators said that Daz is going to release some paid content that is encrypted only, "to see how it sells".
So much for the statement "There are no plans to release encrypted-only content at this time."
This is happening too quickly for that statement to have been true, even as it was said.
If I'm wrong, I apologize to all moderators. I hope that one of them will correct me.
I realize that it is only a small minority of customers that are voicing their concerns here on the forums, but how many others agree with us but don't bother to post?
...also not pleased with the idea having to sign in to use the programme or newer encrypted content. I avoid going online when working on a scene or rendering as it competes for processor and memory resources (and I've seen FF, particularly the newer versions, bloat to almost 1GB in memory).
A lot of us don't have 32 or 64 GB or memory as we have slightly older systems. Just running Windows alone leaves me with 11 GB of useable memory which when rendering a large scene can disappear real quick, dumping the process into "glacial" swap mode.
...Autodesk is heading that route with 3DS Max
...I kept saying the same with 3.1 Advanced as rendering in 4.0 would routinely crash on my old system at the time.
I appreciate the efforts that have gone into making content delivery and content management faster and more efficient in DAZ Studio.
Quite frankly, the development of DAZ Install Manager (and DAZ Connect) have been life-savers for me personally.
The way content installation used to be (especially on a Mac) was time-consuming and terrible. Installer VISE... and BitRock after that, were so bad, that I would burn hours on installation alone. By the time I had everything installed, I would be too exhausted by the process to even use it creatively. Often times the mac installers would even stop working when newer versions of the mac operating system were released, or they would no longer remember where content was supposed to be installed (at the start of every single install), or would be so confusingly packaged that they would install incorrectly (creating a nested content folder inside the content folder for instance).
Boy was I grateful when Install Manager came along. Suddenly, I could queue up my entire purchase history, check for updates, and install without having to babysit installers manually. At this point, I think it would take me over a month to install all of my licensed content the old manual ways... I have 13,215 installed products in DIM, and still growing. It's simply no longer practical for me to reinstall everything manually.
With some new purchases this weekend celebrating the release of DS 4.9, I picked up some of the latest "free" encrypted content, and am going to give them a try tomorrow. I'm also going to try installing some non-encrypted content from outoftouch that I purchased through DAZ Connect, and see how installation through DAZ Connect compares to DIM.
I'm still very concerned about this new trend of encrypted-only content though... I really don't like working with black boxes.
I am also doubtful of the encryption.
I have been able to fix stuff that didn't work right by going into the duf and tweaking.
The idea that I will lose that ability seems less than positive.
And I will admit that I have a kneejerk reaction to disliking encryption and DRM, so I will hold off on updating to 4.9 until such a time as my reservations are...taken care of...
Moved from the materials update thread
...so is it named "IM00013176_02_DAZStudio48" and is the .dsx file needed? I thought I manually DL'd a backup a while back from my Library page, but cannot seem to find it anywhere.
"IM00013176-02_DAZStudio48Win64bit.zip". The .dsx is not needed for manual installs AFAIK.
...thanks, got it.
Also did find I had a backup of 4.6. May install that to the other drive so I can use the AoA effects cameras and flagging for SSS with the Advanced Lights. As I mentioned, I don't do much with 3DL anymore since those were crippled in 4.7.
You can work offline -- I think you only have to sign in once. Working while connected last nite -- Iray render -- did coincide w/a hard freeze of my computer. First one in a long time. (I'm running Windows 10.) I'm not sure that the freeze and 4.9 are connected, but that's the last program I had open, and closing it preceded the freeze.
That said, installing content thru DS is convenient, even though it takes awhile. Better than DIM, which hasn't worked for me in months and months. But the Connect stuff goes into a new library, not my old one.
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Plain morphs referred to Growing Up, Skin Builder is the script that uses its own data or works on applied materials (and so doesn't care whether the preset that applied the material was encrypted or not, or even whether the material was applied through a prset or by making settings in the Surfaces pane). Nor did you express a concern about whether they would work - you said they wouldn't. There is more than enough concern being raised without adding hype to the mixture.
Does a cinema say it doesn't trust you when it asks you to show your ticket? Is the store not trusting you when it wants your credit card, and wants you to enter a PIN? There are people who cheat, the rest of us are, to a greater or lesser extent, inconvenienced as a result - but that doesn't mean that we are being regarded as cheats.
Sigh.. do a search for "daz3d lynsey" and you will be disappointed.. Has the encryption been cracked already??
You don't have to go online to use the program if you don't use encrypted content.... and even then, you only need to sign in once when you download the encrypted content, after that you can work offline.
I wouldn't be surprised, it's been a few days already. Maybe they simply found a way to generate decryption keys.
That was one of the first 3 released, and for a short time was available unencrypted.
Good point, I forgot that they may not have needed to crack that one. Searching for one of the files released on second day would be a better test.
I suspect they went around the encryption rather than cracked it, as there are numerous problems with the Lynsey morphs in the teeth and hands that have needed fixes (Yep they have needed to release fixes, lol), which sounds like they have exported it and made a hatchet job of it to say the least. There is no evidence that the encryption was broken to achieve it, even the uploader of poor pirate man handled Lynsey, has stated he was installing and reassembling the products to get around encryption. He's going to be a busy little pirate with products with 100s of settings. You think with that dedication it would be easier and more lucrative for him to actually just become a content creator. EIther way it's going to be a lot more work than just shunting through a zip file.
Actually yes, they are saying that. But here's the thing, I generally never have to worry that they won't let me see the movie if I show them that ticket. With this I have to always wonder what changes to my system might cause it to require reauthorization, and what chance there might be of some glitch or server outage might cause that to fail. Not to mention how I might be without connection at the time and thus end up waiting days before I can log in to reauthorize everything. I'm not just being asked to show my ticket, but to be ready to potentially show it again and again indefinitely. Or more like I bought a dvd, and instead of just showing my receipt as I leave the store (which most stores don't require as they regard it as looking too distrustful), I have to have it ready to show whenever I get a new dvd player.
(All this without the kind of security benefit to myself that a debit card pin provides, nice of you to try and pull a fast one trying to equate a measure for customer protection with one meant to protect a company from their customers.)
Another matter is that the protections you mentioned have generally worked well with minimal inconvenience to customers. The same can not be said of DRM. And this DRM takes away the valuable feature of having a human readable file that can be adapted by the end user to suit their needs instead locking it to suit DAZ's view of how the content should be.
The thing here is we've had over a decade of open format files and a certain level of trust at most of the stores and now DAZ is pushing a closed format encrypted content model and seems to be heading towards a future where Studio will end up being only usable with encrypted products purchased from this one store. And please don't drag out all the 'we don't have plans to do that' statements. Daz has already proven those statements mean nothing to them.
I just got my library set up on a new laptop, by the simple method of copying it. But if DAZ has their way, I'll be hoping the server was up and not running slow as it reauthorized everything in my library. (Ask anyone who's dealt with EA, Ubisoft, or Blizzard about how much fun it can be waiting for the server to authorize you.)
So if I never want to use Daz Connect can I just delete it's entry or will that cause problems? I realize that it could be added back later. I use DIM now and Manual Download for backup.
Had me worried there - it would have been truly disasterous if the encryption was already broken!
Remember that the pirates have had months to look at the encryption and ways to break it already. The beta was released in October (or was it November?) last year, so they have had amply time to look for ways of either breaking the encryption, or look into extracting encrypted content in a way that it is not crippled.
You should probably set it to something so in the future if you do decide to use it , you will know where your stuff is going.
If you don't want to use Connect you just don't login.That's really about it.Connect works similar to DIM in this regard. You login to download stuff from your account.If you don't want to use one or the other, just don't login to whatever one you don't want to use.