No encrypted for me.
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I think you misinterpreted my intent, I was saying I would be paying less (in dollars) for an item of less value (ie because it is encrypted). I was not refering to the production costs, but I would imagine the encrypting package process to be entirely handled by DAZ, and would actually be pretty cheap.
G3's facial bones allow much, much more realistic expressions than those of the previous generations. That, and that alone, was what made me start using Genesis 3. If someone could replicate that functionality in Genesis 2 I'd go back to using that generation more often. The generations before that have too many other issues with their layout and posing to compare favorably with Genesis 2 and 3 at this point.
Gianni isn't actually encrypted but there are some extras that are encrypted at a massive discount,
Is this planned to be the norm from now on? Or are we still moving towards encrypted at full proce? The system isn't so bad as it is right now, but I can't for a moment imagine it staying this way. As Havos said, super discounted encrypted content is okay because it's not worth much in my mind, but I'm not buying it now because I'm fairly sure it's going to ramp up to full price. Will next month's figure(s) be encrypted?
Any chance on any confirmation on plans moving forward? You were pretty upfront with the weekend's releases.
Daz's burden of proff is that their stuff is being pirated, that is fairly easy to verify, most of the piraty sites you can even see how many times something was downladed. So them saying "we are instituting a bit of DRMy stuff because our stuff is being pirated and we don't like it" has the evidence that stuff is being pirated
On the other hand you saying they have instituted DRM in an attempt to make Daz studio only work for encrypted content and disable content creation for all but a select few is backed up by what exactly?
How about the burden of proof that DRM will do anything to stem the tide of piracy, given past evidence suggests DRM doesn't actually do much?
Stuff is always being pirated. It sucks. However, there's also just as much evidence that DRM doesn't stop piracy, and that customers hate it.
I don't know how much I buy into this walled garden idea because as you said, there's simply no proof. It could just be that someone at Daz actually thinks this DRM will work to stop piracy.
The numbers thing is interesting. I can find out how many times lets say V7 has currently been pirated in one place, which isn't the whole figure if there is some sort of dastardly super evil paysite villain somewhere. However I have absolutely no idea at all how many copies she's legitimately sold, which makes the one pirated figure sort of useless to me.
Ok, bit the bullet again (.45 this time ...) Based on the success of installing on the smaller laptop I went ahead witht emain laptop, using manual install. First thing that made me smile was it telling me that it had found and was uninstalling DS 4.9 ... er, no - it WAS 4.8 that was there. But nevermind that. Install finished without issue. Started DS and it looked like it was all going the same way as before. Except ... no smart content, or rather very, very limited content. Poked a little bit and some more appeared.
Thought I'd give DS a cycle to try again and ... it crashed on shutdown. On restart did a db reset (which told me something failed on epxort depsite me syaing no to the exporr user data, so don't really have a clue what it was trying to do!) Doing the re-import now and it's been at 100% for past 10 minutes and I suspect it will remain so until it is finished in quite a few more minutes as there's a lot for it to import! ;)
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Metadata import complete, and all looks to be well
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There have been some really way-out-there ideas of what people think is going on. I realize that most of the fears and horror stories are connected with games and music and such. I've seen my share of stuff of this stuff in one form or another, but I try to take things on a case by case basis.
I have a subscription to Mudbox, Maya, and Adobe Photoshop/Lightroom. I have to authorize my computers with Pixologic and for 3D Coat. I have an easier time registering if I'm online when I do Modo, Allegorithmic and other products. I had Substance Painter on Steam. I'm used to it. I even expect to go online to do certain things. It's not a hassle. I've never had a bad experience with any of them. Occasionally, Pixologic needs me to do a bit more footwork. No big deal. And maybe it's no big deal to me because I don't let it be.
I tried working with the Connect only products over the weekend to see what all the hoopla was about. I could export, I could reimport. I could save out scenes, subsets, files of all types. I could create duplicates of user-interfacing files to change and do what I needed, save and reuse them. The particular scripts I have are working fine. I tried out the new Smart Content and while I have much to learn to do whatever I choose to do, I'm finding it very interesting to work with.
I see people say that they're being prevented from doing things in Studio; I just don't see what those things are. There's no impediments to doing morphs or ERC, certainly nothing stopping production of textures or poses or much else. Perhaps there are some things and I haven't run into them. I don't know; people don't say much more than generalizations. I'm sure there are bugs, but they need to be logged to be addressed.
So that's been my experience thus far, no real mess, business as usual.
In one of the other threads (or maybe in this one, I've long ago lost track) there's a post from DAZ_someoneorother saying that the ExP morph system in V4/M4 can't be used in Connect, because of the new and different way Connect creates its new parallel content folder structure. And a lot of people still use V4/M4. The only way for them to still be able to use that content is to keep it in the original content folder structure.
Usability isn't just "can I use it in Poser?". Usability is also having a desktop and laptop that you would like to use the content you buy on both. Usability is wanting to be sure that when your current PC bites the dust and you replace it (or upgrade major components) that you'll be able to still use your content. With the new system, there's no telling because policies can be changed at any time to be implemented not just on future content, but retroactively for all content you've purched so far. That's the problem with this kind of system. The content you buy isn't really yours. It can be locked in any manor Daz wants, whenver Daz wants, however Daz wants today and the way in which you access it and the means by which you access it and the terms under which you access it can be changed at any time for any reason or no reason at all. Daz said not long ago there were no plans to release encrypted only content. That's changed now. What will be changing tommarow? It's one thing to not know the terms of use on purchases in the future. It's another thing to not know the future terms of purchases today.
A while ago when drm was floated as a potential future possibility it was suggested that encryption eventually expire and items would cease to be encrypted. I still think that might be a compromise ... Encrypt during a debut phase but eventually unencrypt. After all from talking to pa's most items are sold during initial debut right?
Then they'd probably have to raise prices to compensate for lower sales, due to all the people wishlisting for when it becomes unencrypted instead of buying right away. Sorta like happened to the new PC items ... well, that was one of the reasons given when it changed to PC+.
I know I'd be one of those not buying unless/until it's decrypted. No DRM infestations for me, tyvm. I already kill it on my music and ebooks whenever I find it. That way I can be sure when my system borks again or I buy new players and readers, my backups and the stuff I bought will still work.
I find it really interesting that in the time since DAZ announced they were going to start encrypting content, they've released about a half-dozen videos on their YouTube channel highlighting all the supposedly wonderful things about DS 4.9: the Smart Content, the ability to purchase content in-app, the renderer improvements, the animation tools, blah blah blah. However, in not ONE of those videos does DAZ even mention the DRM, let alone explain how it's implemented, how it will affect the average user, or why it was even necessary, given DRM's less-than-inspiring history. Doesn't it come across as kind of deceitful not to give people the full story when you're trying to entice them to become or remain customers at DAZ these days? And yet DAZ continually asks us to trust them.
So here I am, hours after my database went belly up on me, requiring a reset as evidently some conflict between a corrupt old DIM metadata was giving me repeated errors. I have been unable to reach my Connect installed content without tedious workarounds as I couldn't restore the metadata without a login since there's nothing to re-import evidently.
Now I'm logged in but I have to click on each individual item to 'install' it as it can't see what's already been installed. At least I don't have to re-download it all, but still not convenient.
This is within the first week of working with the new paradigm. Don't have any encrypted content as there's been none that's truly 'free' and I'm not going to pay for DRM locked content. Pity nobody thought of making an encrypted test item so people can see exactly what they can and can't do with the new content. I wonder if the workarounds would even work with encrypted content. All I can do is try to guess based on the info Daz has given us.
I doubt Daz can guarantee I'll never have another database problem, as anyone who ever used a computer would just point and laugh. So I expect I'll be dealing with this again someday.
Perhaps they are suffering from the delusion some folks (whose names usually end with the letters "IAA") have that DRM is the rule not the exception, therefore no need to mention it because "everybody knows that".
I'm not singling you out, so please don't feel that way.
There are many 3D modeling programs that use a proprietary file format that only the programs they sell can even read, let alone open and modify.Autodesk's suite of creation tools come to mind immediately,though they aren't the only ones that use a proprietary file format. This is why there are so many compatibility formats used in exporters for 3D art programs. It seems that everyone has their own file format they use for their programs because they all want to save data in a different way that best suites the needs for their programs. Daz Studio also has many of these formats available in their file exporter, just as these other 3D creation tools do. You would be right in claiming that some programs offer more variety in the export formats they offer than others.DS does have a number of the most common ones that don't require that we buy a separate license for.
Daz COULD have simply announced that they were altering their file format in a way to better suite the needs of Studios data structure. That really would have been no different than what we have had in all versions of Studio anyway. You can't open a DS formatted 3D asset in very many other programs. There just aren't that many other programs that want to use the duf or other DS file formats. This would have avoided the whole "encryption is DRM" discussion.
Daz chose to instead be very transparent about the whole decision to encrypt some files that weren't encrypted already. Yes, many of your DS files have been encrypted for years. .I see this as a very trust worthy decision on their part. They didn't try to hide anything from the very start. For very obvious reasons they can't go into great details as to how the encryption system works. That is a standard policy though. Your bank will not give you the operational details of the encryption system they use to secure your bank account either.
So, when you ask me if I trust Daz to not lock me out of the 3D assets I have purchased from them at some some time in the future. I will say yes, I do trust them. I do not believe that Daz will ever lock me out of any thing that I have legitimate access to. They ( Daz ) have given me every reason to trust them because of the actions they have taken in regards to this change.
Not sure what you're saying -- ExP morphs can't be installed with Connect, they need to be installed with DIM or manually. What does that have to do with being prevented from doing something because of encryption?
Or they simply tried to get ahead of the inevitable s***-storm that would have ensued had people discovered that their assets WERE being encrypted and DAZ hadn't said anything at all -- kind of like the backlash Smith Micro got when people discovered they were getting locked out of Poser. That's CYA, not honesty.
I'm still trying to figure out how. You don't need to login to access non-encrypted content. The metadata is all sitting in the Data/Cloud folder if you need it. How were you locked out?
I couldn't find any way to force it to reacquire that metadata. I could use the content by going through folders but when I went to reimport metadata nothing showed up. Trying to use the cloud folder as a runtime was... Tedious as hell.
You and I have very different veiws on what constitutes honesty.
What I remember of the post (wish I could find it to make sure) stated that the way ExP morphs work is incompatible with the way Connect now rearranges the content folders. I suspect the ExP initialisation procedure can't understand the encryption. The only way to get them to work is to not use Connect for every figure that has ExP morphs, and all the morph sets themselves.
Honesty is what you do simply because it's the right thing to do, regardless of how difficult or costly it may be -- it's something that comes from within. CYA, however, is merely damage control and is driven by external pressure, and I've seen nothing from all this to suggest it's anything other than CYA. DAZ simply doesn't want to get tarred-and-feathered (metaphorically speaking) in addition to sparking a customer exodus.
And I'm still trying to get an answer to my earlier question: what is Plan B if the encryption is busted wide open or if sales tank? The allegedly increasing piracy situation that supposedly neccesitated DRM will presumably still exist in either case, so what will DAZ do if their Plan A fails? I'd really like to know.
It has nothing to do with encryption. Remember how V4 and all her morphs had to be installed to the same runtime, and if you had more than one runtime it wouldn't work right? That's why they don't work with Connect, because it installs each product to its own separate folders. That's the opposite of what Cris was asking -- rather than encryption interfering with the users' ability to do something, the way the product was constructed interfered with the ability to install it using Connect, which is why it needs to be installed with DIM or manually. So this is an example of Daz foregoing encryption so that the users can continue to do things, not an example of encryption preventing the users from doing something.
I asked this in another thread, but it went ignored (probably got missed in all the activity). I'm also adding a few more questions maybe someone can answer.
I usually don't upgrade DS until I buy something that really needs the most current version. I don't buy much anymore because the new stuff won't work in Carrara. I did buy the V7 bundle over the weekend--the price was too good to pass up, but I haven't used it much yet. It's always been the price point that motivated me, not the method of download; however, now I have to factor in download method and future usability.
Yes, at this point it needs to access the internet once to validate that it is connected to your account.
No.
There will always be a free version. It might not always be the Pro version, but given how successful that was, I doubt it will change.
I can't say "yes" with absolute certainty, but I'd love to see DAZ try to put a price tag on it again after the way they burned everyone who paid for DAZ Studio 4 Advanced and Pro, only to give it away free to everyone about two months later. Now THOSE would be some interesting sales numbers.