Encryption isn't the real problem with 4.9...
in The Commons
...the real problem is that the only added innovation is the supposed ability to buy and download stuff faster and easier. I don't know about others, but I wasn't having trouble with this.
4.9 serves only as confirmation that no new creative tools or functionality are coming to DS.

Comments
"Where is my content?" is apparently one of the main complaints DAZ Customer service recieves, so they tried to address that with Connect and improvements to Smart Content and Categories. That doesn't mean other improvements or features won't be coming in future versions....
For those not interested in Connect or Smart Content (like me ;)) 4.9 can simply be considered as a "fix version" since it includes a new version of both 3delight and Iray with a good numbers of bug fixes.
Greetings,
I regret that I have but one upvote to give...wait, we don't even get upvotes. :-/
Along with the typical corollary, VERY much in evidence these last few days
It's been an SMH day, and I liked your post, and I couldn't just click a 'Like' button to express it...
-- Morgan
Except we aren't being asked to buy the new version. And it fixes bugs. And it offers some speed improvements.
I mean, FilterForge went from version 4 to 5 recently, which would cost me money. The improvements are mostly invisible and the impact of not upgrading is mainly 'newer stuff might not be compatible with my version.'
<mum>
I dont use "smart" content and I have no problem finding my files but just to give things a try, I purchased enough to get the 3 free "connect only" items. Now, those seem to be the only things I cant find. I did the offline procedure since they never showed up as available. That seemed to go fine for a moment. They appeared for a glimpse and then can no longer be located by any means other than windows file explorer. The smart content sorting for anything other than alphabetical seems way off as well.
I don't have problems either, and never use smart content or categories. But I've been using DS since the first public beta ever released, so I've had time to get used to the way the content library works (and didn't have the choice anyway ^^)
LMAO!
same here, no problems finding files and I don't use DIM, smart content or meta data.
Well they did the whole Iray thing a while ago. Was kinda a big deal.
Still, I, too, would have preferred better dynamics over the worst people on planet earth when it comes to organizing a database telling where my content has to go from now on.
What are they under alphabetically as I cannot find them either and the offline method is broken in the beta apparently, I did try it, I have posted in about 6 places about it and no wiser,
yes everything else works
Why encryption in the first place?
Why would the files be located anywhere else other than unencrypted content?
I stupidly added a few things to my cart last night just to get the 3 free files only to find out later that they were encrypted and could only be downloaded in DS 4.9, wouldn't be downloaded to my content directory as normal, won't work in Poser and likely other programs. I've not downloaded them and don't plan to ever download encrypted files that won't work with other programs, I use Carrara 8.5 Pro, Hexagon, Blacksmith3d Pro among others. I'll be filing a help ticket to customer sales for a refund on the few files added to the order last night and kiss the fee ones goodbye.
They're probably saving the good stuff for 5.0.
G4? Animationtools? Nvidia PhysX? Genesis platform as plugin in Modo, C4d, lightwave, blender, max,..
Marvelousdesigner plugin?
Ah well, May be they got 3d World 's attention and the look of 3d users back again.
Until then we keep wallets closed and learn other goodies, but that's my personally.
I gave up on smart content long ago on the grounds that it's slow and clumsy and I often found things difficult to find. Also, it won't work with third party content. I can whiz around the content library in seconds now I've had a bit of practice.
The only problem I have with 4.9 is that I've re-aranged my content duf files so I can find them easily and quickly. I don't want another system of content (dis)organisation.
Cheers,
Alex.
I have a fuzzy, inappropriate analogy, therefore your point is worthless.
The new ones didn't show in smart content at all until late last night, after the umpteenth try at manual installation (that was my only option as they never showed as available in Daz). I had been looking in in the product and category areas and they werent being there and then after the last try, they showed up there. Then they were in smart content as expected, Just not sorted as should be. Even alphabetically they dont sort correctly. The Daz Connect items are at the end of the installed items regardless what sorting is applied.
I also tried to open the "smart" pane and the content pane to create the link as suggested but that doens't work either.
Greetings,
It was in response to this:
Which is EXACTLY the mindset of
It's an essentializing fallacy, and also related to catastrophizing as a form of negative thinking. You'll find that these changes are simply not that huge. There's nothing to fear here, and no reason for the visceral reaction.
DAZ 4.9 is a point release, in addition to the things you find objectionable, it fixes bugs, adds features to address their most common customer service complaints (inability to find content folks have bought) and upgrades the rendering engines.
This (referring to ease of installation and finding content)
is just not a valid argument against something that DAZ has repeatedly and openly said is their #1 customer issue. Customer issues are not typically from the people who post on the DAZ forums. It's the much larger number of users who have never, and probably will never, come to the forums or post on them, that DAZ is trying to solve problems for. And, as a company with a large number of prospective users, who they should be solving problems for.
So yeah. It's an appropriate analogy, and the point is not really worthwhile. They said, in essence, 'This problem doesn't bother me, so it doesn't bother anybody. The changes aren't ones I'm interested in, so no changes in the future will ever be ones I'm interested in.' If you read something else into it, I respectfully disagree.
-- Morgan
Yeh, they're encrypting content becuase it will help users.
I totally get that.
Greetings,
Perhaps if you could read what I'm actually saying, not what you wish to believe I'm saying...? I understand tempers are running high, but that's when we should be MORE careful with our reading, and understanding, not less.
-- Morgan
I just found the statment "4.9 serves only as confirmation that no new creative tools or functionality are coming to DS." Somewhat amusing given that we just got a new render engine less than a year ago.
I'll be honest, I don't use smart content or meta data either, I've gotten used to the basic content library, not to mention I have a bunch of self created helper files that I'm too lazy to create metadata for. This update doesn't do that much for me, but its free and it didn't break anything, so it's no skin off my nose.
Daz made changes because of customer comments - I get the change and would have found Connect interesting without the DRM.
That is what I am referring to. DRM was not required to make everything else work; indeed they changed the way it was being implemented very soon after the release of the first beta. From automatically encrypting everything, to only encrypting Connect only items which they had no plans of releasing.
I do not get how the encryption can help users; when it's done well, it rarely gets noticed by users (my netflix for instance). But the majority of times, users suffer, pirates briefly welcome the challenge.
... I say briefly, because it doesn't take 'em long to crack the implementations.
So my apologies if I didn't make myself clear (it wasn't my intention to offend), but I stand by the comment; DRM was not a requirement for everything else. I don't know if DIM transfers the files in an encrypted format, but Connect could have that implementation, that wouldn't make it DRM. Despite claims from Daz, this is a version of DRM; less restrictive than many, but it has all the functionality, and going forward who knows what will change?
We certainly don't, as even if Daz has no plans - the release of the Connect only items at the same time as 4.9 was released - show that plans most certainly do change: or in this case move from idea to reality as required.
In 4.9's favor, I notice that my renders don't crash. My system has a single 4GB GTX970. So it is being used for screens, not just rendering. With 4.8: according to the logs, memory allocation was a problem. First pass always asked for 8GB, so that would fail. Succeeding smaller requests would succeed or fail depending on the amount of other stuff going on in my computer. Eventually failing back to CPU if necessary. But VERY often on fail back, the program would crash. So, I would shut off all other applications. Stability improved, but sometimes still the renders would fail with a full crash of DS 4.8. Log showed that this always happened right after trying to allocate Video card memory and failing back to CPU only.
So far with 4.9, that has not happened. At least that bug seems fixed. For my workflow it was a biggie.
Much smarter heads are engaged in the DRM discussion. My understanding is that Daz has said, no retroactive encryption for all the stuff I have bought so far. So I guess I don't see the downside to 4.9. Am I missing something?
better having old 3D3light and Iray versions and DS4.8 then installing DS4.9 with all the trouble written here at the forum threads.
And, I never used smart content and I never will, even it works not with 3th party products and by the way, I also have some of my conent still under studio 3 back from DS3 times, I do not know if I get in trouble when installing 4.9 so I will stay at 4.8
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What happens with the installed content? I still have some of my content under Poser Formats studio3 back from DS3 times for example, will the installation of DS4.9 have any influence on this content? Means, will the installed content work as it works right now?
Cosmo... I installed 4.9 and started it. First thing you see is a screen that opens that says log in or work offline. I clicked "work offline" near the top and "don't remind me again" near the bottom. After that it looks and works exactly the same as 4.8. Everything is still in place as it was.
Hope that helps :)
Don't say that EVER, I live in California dammit!
The content already installed will work exactly as it worked before.
Encryption is a huge problem...
E.g. it was possible to use clothing clones provided by daz studio to create morphing clones. Now they can prevent such things, meaning we have to buy even more stuff that should be included by default (actually it is kind of included, we can just no use it without changing a few lines of text, which they prevent now by encryting it).