stick with 4.8 or go to 4.9 whats y'alls plan and why?
StratDragon
Posts: 3,274
in The Commons
I am looking for insight to see why people on 4.8 will stay on 4.8 or why people will upgrade or have done so.
I'm sticking with 4.8 as I do not like what I'm reading on the forums about the directions Daz appears to be going with content, advertising and lack of integration tool sets for anything not Daz and the apparent lack of support for legacy products. That is a personal opinion, not an absolute and not an attack, I am looking for other options.
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Comments
Currently staying with 4.8, but using it and 4.9 Beta side by side.
The main reason is that 4.9 ist still way too buggy at the moment to seriously consider changing to it. I have no problems with DC; as long as content is being offered in DIM Format as alternative, I am fine with it. And even then, the way DC installs, I still can easily shuffle around the files the way I need them, because it's basically just like looking into a ZIP folder, just unzipped and sorted nicely by product number. If DS would go DC only, I would have no problem with that, based on the 4.9 Version of the programm.
Encrypt is a different horse, and I will vote with my purse on that topic.
So, I intend to switch over to 4.9 once the bug situation has improved. Whenever that will be. ;-)
I will also stay with DS 4.8, I don`t trust 4.9 right now. So many people have written problems here, okay other people wrote they haven`t got problems, but if problems are possible (and not less so it seems) I will stay where I am.
I'm in the middle of a bigger project now, and do not want to screw things up, so I'm sticking with 4.8 for now. In my experience it's best to wait a little with a major upgrade anyway. Let the initial bugs come to surface and be fixed. I will upgrade to 4.9 eventually, in a month or two. I read a lot about improvements, and I really like the fact that DAZ is doing something to reduce piracy. It's always very sad to see new items pirated only a day after their release, hopefully the new system will make this harder.
I went with 4.9 because I know that I will want some of the new models and items as they come out, so why kid myself. Plus I always want the latest stuff...like it's somehow better.
One thing about encryption does give me a little pause. If it is tied to my machine...and I think it is...then I will always have a worry in the far back of my mind. What happens if Daz is no longer there and I have to get a new machine. There may be other things I should be concerned about, but I'm blissfully unaware of them.
And I understand that Daz and the PA's need to protect their work.
Daz has been taking a beating lately. But I really think they are a decent company. They make the best models. And they often give them to us at deep discounts. If they make a mistake on an ad, they always seem to honor it. I remember there was one product...I think it was Scott...where it said if you bought this product you would get an extra amount off Micheal 7 when he was released. I think it was a mistake as that part of the ad was later removed. But Daz still gave the discount to those who had purchased Scott before the discount was removed.
And then they give studio away for free. (I did pay for the original Studio Pro, but hey,....I still can't complain over all.)
I see no reason not to move to 4.9 so long as:
You don't have a lot of custom categories
You have a reasonably robust system
If you want to avoid encryption, you have to avoid encrypted products no matter what version you are using, so I see no point in worrying about version.
DS 4.7 with DS 4.9 public build +beta
carrara lol
I have moved on to 4.9. Reasons:
- updated render engines (specifically IRAY).
- Better content management options. I have never used categories, so I had nothing to loosse there.
- Very useful integration of my DAZ store purchases directly in DS. I can access and find things I have purchased easily and access things like readme files directl;y from DS. This is useful even for my old libraries that are still arranged the way I like it and I am used to (but I can now quickly go to connect find the corrsponding entry and see when it was updated or look up the file structure.
- Access to future models and conatnet that might not be compatible with older versions
- encryption is a non-issue for me
ciao
TD
I have installed 4.9 to get the new models, but nothing is sorted in alphabetical order in the Content Tab and it is taking me ages to find anything. I don't use Smart Content much either.
I am going to stay with 4.8 until that is fixed. I can't waste time searching for things.
4.9, I'm all for moving forward : )
Sticking with 4.8 for as long as I can,
Reasons; I don't use DIM or smart content and have everything set up as I like and know where everything is. Don't need content management options or DS trying to catagorize anything for me.
I don't use either render engine, so the updates are of no use for me
While I am all for DAZ trying to protect it's assets, I have no interest in encryption in my products.
I dislike the whole idea of DAZ connect
I am in the middle of a big project. I would have re-tweak all the Iray skin settings if I switched to 4.9, so right now I'm thinking of waiting until I finish that series before I upgrade on my main computer.
I have a second DS installation on my laptop that I only use for testing occasionally. I don't have much content installed on the laptop and I don't have any user categories. I upgraded that laptop installation last weekend to 4.9 and it all went smoothly. I'm not worried about DAZ Connect or encrypted content.
I'm sticking with 4.8 for now, mainly because I never jump on the bandwagon of newly released software until a couple of versions in. Just to be safe that all the bugs are ironed out. I do use Iray, but I'm on a laptop without an Nvidia graphics card so everything renders slow as mollasses, so I doubt the tiny speed up in 4.9 would make any difference for me anyways. When I do eventually move on to 4.9 I will be working offline, and since I don't use DIM/Smart Content I won't be using or buying any Connect only content.
there is only one thing right now, what could lead me to DS4.9, that is the fixed SubD Algo and Geometric shell issue in combination with visibility if using "catmull clark - legacy" and that is a thing I am very angry about, it was I think 9 or more month ago since I first let DAZ now about this error in DS 4.8 and now they come up with a new version in which this issue is fixed. Well, why no update in the last months for DS4.8????? I am so angry about this behaviour by DAZ I can`t tell.
No doubt about these facts and that is exactly why I use DAZ Studio but some things I do not understand like the thing with my posting on the SubD Algo rythm for example. They do not made an update for DAZ Studio 4.8, no, the say download the new DAZ Studio 4.9 in this the error is fixed. Well, I let them know about this error months ago and no update in these months for DS 4.8. These are things that make me angry. Also the fact that you have no option to go back to an older version.
The last time I have tried it it did not work. I tried back from DS 4.8 to DS 4.6 and even with a download link from the DS support team this did not work. It allways installed DS 4.8. Also with with the install exe for DS 4.6 it was allways DS 4.8 that was installed. AND I GOT THESE install exe from the DAZ SUPPORT TEAM and did exactly what they have written.
4.9 - I dont like product encryption, but as mentioned, you wont be able to use encrypted only products in 4.8 anyway if it comes to that.
When my new computer is ready I will start clean with 4.9 and probably use Daz Connect (I really like DIM but why not try something new) as long as someone can tell me exactly how to put my Connect content on my E:/ drive which will be a 2 TB mechanical disk, my c:/ drive is only 500GB SSD and will be strictly for OS and program install. I have never had an issue with upgrading Daz Studio and I have never had an issue with my computers being online, and I can't give an opinion on whether one version is better than the next without trying it first. Also I don't have a crystal ball to see what DAZ will do in the future so I will keep using a new version of studio and if and when it gets to the point everyone seems to be so worried about (Encrytion of all products and control of products) that's when I will decide where my 3D path will lead, until then life's to short to stress!
I upgraded to 4.9 for one primary reason: iRay. My Win8.2 system (or even if I upgraded to 10) were incompatible at 4.8. Now, did DAZ hold my fix hostage to force an upgrade? Maybe, but that's the software biz. Now I can learn iRay I don't care if meshes are encrypted, and 4.9 loads my legacy Poser-compatible stuff just fine ( install alll non-DAZ products to a poser-friendly directory on an external drive). No, I don't use poser.
In some respects, I think all this is a tempest in a tea-cup. I have long accepted that change is the only constant; I had to accept SAAS if I wanted to advance in Photoshop (previously used Paintshop Pro). If, in the long run, my experience is better, it's all good. I like making pictures, I can't be bothered creating a unique and proprietary directory structure. I accepted the Poser-type format, I accepted the DIM format, I have considerable content, but don't spend days finding a product.
Resistance is futile. Make pictures, be happy... this is not a conspiracy to control your life.
I accidentally upgraded to 4.9 beta a while ago. Ian now using 4.9. I am not enamored with it but I have my categories the way I like it and don't want to change. I am frustrated by studio installers constantly wanting to put things on c drive
Not hard enough to stop, or significantly slow down.
I'm tring 4.9 atm; I have backups of everything; lots of em. I have not logged in via 4.9 and it is blocked from communicating. I'm due to restore from a disk image in a few days, so when I do, I will either revert to 4.8, or as long as 4.9 hasn't tried to do anything bad - I keep an eye on what it gets up to.
I will be sticking with 4.8 for now. Iray is my first choice in render engine, but I haven't hit any of the errors rendering with it that others have had. I probably won't consider upgrading until I hit one of those errors that the 4.9 version apparently fixes. I won't be buying any products that don't have the option for manual install or DIM either. No DAZ Connect only products unless they are freebies that I already have enough stuff in my cart to qualify getting.
That being said, I don't have anything against 4.9 for political or emotional or whatever other reasons most people have. Mine are purely laziness and a propensity for procrastination. I like the status quo of everything on my system as it is and don't see a reason to upgrade yet. It took me months before I upgraded to 4.8 so I could give Iray a try. I had tried it for a couple of weeks under the beta version and hated it. I found out I loved it under 4.8 once it was released after a few months once all the houpla died down and all the biggest bug fixes had been fixed. I'll probably do the same with this version. After all the houpla dies down and I have everything backed up and safe, I'll give it a try once I know I have everything in place and set for me to go back to 4.8 should I find that I wish to go back. I'm also currently trying to get 4.8 to work in Linux so I can make the move completely away from Windows and I would rather do that with a version of DS that I know the ins and outs of to make sure everything is working the way it should. I have a self imposed deadline to get that done and I just don't have time to upgrade DS right now when, at the moment, everything works just the way I want it work.
I am happy with the new features of DAZ Studio 4.9
The most important thing for me:
I can search for a specific category of products and see both installed products and uninstalled products in the same window.
More examples how 4.9 makes my life so much easier are explained here:
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/69942/guide-how-to-search-for-your-content-inside-daz-studio-4-9#latest
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I'm staying with 4.8 until the issues with custom category migration is fixed in 4.9. I really want the IRAY fix for SSS, but I've spent tons of time setting up my custom categories and I'm not going to go forward until I'm confident those will carry forward to the new version. Until then I'll just manually adjust to compensate for the SSS problem in 4.8 Iray. I won't be using connect - but since you can turn it off, that's not a deal breaker for picking up 4.9. I won't buy any DRM'ed stuff, but that's not a Studio issue anyway, so again not a roadblock to using 4.9 (yet?).
4.9 my custom categories tranferred with no issue, I did not need to re-import them. I see improvements with iray espcially in regards to skin
I've gone to 4.9 and I didn't have any problems with my custom categories being converted.
I started off with an open mind about the DRM protection but my experience with the three freebies has made me wary of buying any. I couldn't find them in the content library and someone in another forum told me they only show up in smart content. This is not what the readme files say, they say that the content can be found in specified library folders, but it wouldn't be the first time readmes contained the wrong information.
If this is correct that they are only in the so called "smart" content and they can't be categorised then I want nothing to do with them. I've bought a lot of stuff over the years and I rely on my categories to keep track of it. If I can't categorise stuff I'll probably forget I've got it and never use it.
Latest Update: I've now been told that you can find the contents in the Product view and you can categorise them from there. The library folders mentioned in the Readme files are apparently an error that is being investigated.
That removes my main objection to Daz Connect format. I have had bad experiences with DRM in the past but I'm still keeping an open mind on this.
I tried the 4.9 beta back in the beginning of December and it butchered my custom categories in ways I'm seeing other people report who have tried to move to the 4.9 release version. I backed up my user data prior to using the 4.9 beta so it wasn't a big deal to roll back to 4.8, but now that's not really an option (all my 4.8 plugin files have been replaced with 4.9 versions by DIM), so I'll wait.
For me, 4.8 forever. I have sorted everything into custom folders and I don't want to monkey with any of that. I say forever but DAZ needs to come up with something better than "we integrated DRM!" to get me to change. Maybe some day they will add some feature I actually care about, then I'll reassess upgrading.
Well, seeing that I am a BETA tester, I have upgraded to 4.9 and even if I was not a tester, I still would have upgraded to 4.9 because I have no problems with any of the new parts of 4.9 including Direct Connect and Encrypting. I also use IRAY exclusively. I encrypt all of my finished projects and I do not see what the big deal is that everyone is having with encryption. I like Direct Connect and this type of application is the new age..The wave of the future is rental software. Take a look at adobe..I rent photoshop and dreamweaver. There are no more upgrades available without renting, so if the Direct Connect is moving in that direction, well it is the wave of the future. Besides,as far as I can see, you still have purchased the Direct Connect content, it just means that you will get continual upgrades as they come along and the heavy software of the content will not have to rest on your hard drive. I really do not see DAZ going to rental content anytime soon, if ever, so why worry. The way I look at it is that we are getting a 3D software application that is very powerful and intuitive for FREE! Who else does that? Can you imagine what DAZ Studio would cost if you had to purchase it? I know, because I purchased it in the beginning and it was not cheap. Now it is FREE!! So, all I have to say is "you go DAZ"!! I will always keep up with the upgrades, because every one of them is a boost for my creativity. The only problem I have is buying content rather frequently at 2 to 3 hundred a pop...did anyone mention DAZ Aholic
Anyhow, I love all you guys regardless of your pro or con opinions
Me too had backed up content from the external I use to my 4T back book up on my tower, created a restore point prior to installing 4.9 (still have my 4.8.59 installer backed up too) and in case all failed had made image back ups of my machines...