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Boy this place is diffrent now.

LarryLarry Posts: 19
in Daz Studio Discussion

Boy this place is diffrent now.  Just bought a new I9 system. Was trying to down load every thing I got from Daz over tthe years. Figure I would restart fresh and load every thing in an organize manor.  But I notice alot of stuff I got over the years are no longer around now.  I mean I down loaded the newest daz system bu I see it does not come with any base models now. Just tune stuff now. But no real base models. What happen to this place ?
 

Comments

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 110,490

    Did you download the Genesis # Starter Essentials, currently five generatons, the original, 2, 3, 8, 9 - they changed numbering mid-way so that the Genesis and Victoria/Michael numbers matched. Beyond the Starter Esentials there should be a lot of other sample content and ready to render scenes.

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 27,010
    edited June 7

    Yes, there are still base human models for every generation of Daz character.
    Things have changed a lot around here (Daz store), but they have not eliminated the base characters.

    Edit:
    Things that come to mind about changes:

    • Some vendors have left the store and many product went with them. If you purchased those now inactive products, they are still in your product library and you can still install and use them.
    • Lots of vendors were assimilated from other stores. and lots of their old products were brought into the Daz store with brand new high SKU numbers, so don't be fooled into thinking that every high SKU represents a recently created product. Those old products were not given a readme file or metadata for Smart Content, so watch out for that, too. Also be careful to not re-buy something your bought already at the other stores. 
    • An Editorial License was added, that limits your use of the products. I don't think new products are getting editorial license any more, but check the license category for older products you want to buy. It should be shown on the product page.
    • Optional Interactive licenses and 3D printing licenses are required to be purchased, if you use the product for those purposes.
    • Standards have changed. Nudity is allowed in store products and promos now, but still not in the forum.
    • Product prices are higher. Discounts are often higher which compensates.
    • Memberships have changed (two different tiers now) and membership prices are higher. Evaluate the different prices and perks. Members often receive higher discounts in sales.
    • Some sales have floor prices, where no matter what discount percent they advertise, they  will not let the price drop below a certain amount. Watch out - sometimes these floor prices actually make the product more expensive than it is actually advertised for on the product page. 
    • There are "Tokens" now, where you own a token for dollars spent. You later can use the tokens to discount a future purchase. The number or tokens you get per dollar spent depends on your membership tier. Tokens expire and tokens cannot be used on certain purchases. The discount percent per token actually goes down when you use more tokens at one time! 
    • Fast Grab is gone and replaced by Outlet Store and Quick Grab store. The included products are low priced for several days and then bounce back to regular price. Prices in the Outlet and Quick Grab are not discounted by other sale discounts or tokens.
    • Prices on the product page and prices in the mini cart often won't reflect what the price in the "real" cart is. Always check prices in the real checkout cart.
    • Daz has just released Daz Studio 6 to allow customers to render with NVIDIA RTX 5000 series GPUs. Daz Studio 4 will never be able to render with 5000 series GPUs but is still available and they say it will remain available. Many users are experiencing problems with DS6 at the moment. Daz is investigating and working on the issues.
    • The Daz Gallery is currently disabled and has been for some time. There is no info about why or when we might expect it to come back or in what form.

    What hasn't changed:

    • Daily ads still have typos, missing fine print, and coupons that don't work until customers point out the failures, moderators report it, time passes, and Daz (usually) fixes most errors. Be careful when shopping to see that you actually get what was advertised. Usually the sales are so complicated it is very difficult to understand if you ARE being charged the "right" amount.
    • Excellent PAs are still selling excellent products in the Daz store.
    • Everything you buy stays in your product library. As of now, we can still download and install anything we have purchased.
    • Daz Install Manager (DIM) is still an excellent tool for managing and installing your Daz store purchases.
    • Daz store search is still poor, in spite of having gone through a big update. Google search will usually be more helpful.
    • There are at least three addons to the Daz Store to help you shop: Ati and Overdrawn's Daz Deals, Utilitarian's bookmarklet, and junk's Chrome extension (available in the Chrome store). I find all of those useful.
    • The Daz forum is often a good source of help and information.
    • The Daz help center (customer service) is often too overwhelmed with too many tickets to respond quickly or helpfully. They are usually better with Sales tickets than Technical tickets.

    Richard: I spent time and thought writing this. Please don't delete it! If you disagree with something I have said, let's negotiate and edit. 

    Post edited by barbult on
  • mindsongmindsong Posts: 1,762

    barbult said:

    Yes, there are still base human models for every generation of Daz character.
    Things have changed a lot around here (Daz store), but they have not eliminated the base characters.

    Edit:
    Things that come to mind about changes:

    ...

    This is a pretty good summary of the status-quo around here as I see it as well. Thanks for the time and balanced perspective.

    I would add that in both the store and forums, there is a more 'corporate' feel - less 'warm' and personal than in days gone by - less fun for me, and I mostly lurk now - but maybe I'm jaded just got used to the place so it's not as novel as it once was? Prolly the nature of any growing maturing organism (DAZ grows up too)...

    best,

    --ms

  • brainmuffinbrainmuffin Posts: 1,314
    • Paging in the forums works now. No more need to post a "bump" message to correct it.
    • Reality is gone.
    • I still miss maclean.
  • csaacsaa Posts: 1,017

    mindsong said:

    This is a pretty good summary of the status-quo around here as I see it as well. Thanks for the time and balanced perspective.

    I would add that in both the store and forums, there is a more 'corporate' feel - less 'warm' and personal than in days gone by - less fun for me, and I mostly lurk now - but maybe I'm jaded just got used to the place so it's not as novel as it once was? Prolly the nature of any growing maturing organism (DAZ grows up too)...

    I would add, as someone who joined and got active around the CV-19 lock downs, about the changes here in the Commons that I've noticed.

    Back in the day, when folks posted, they'ed share an image, one two or half a dozen. The renders really brought home the point they were trying to get across. Now ... it's a wall of words. For a community built around visual arts, that shift was a big let down for me. Maybe people  flocked to the Gallery or elsewhere to share their renders.

    I also noticed a change in the tenor of discussions, more polarized views about the enfant terrible, the annoying fly flitting around people's mindspace. For a while now it's been Generative AI. From time to time the issue of nudity flares up. Sure, Daz upped its photorealism game, but at these heightened levels of "wow", people probably felt more disappointed when their personal renders came up short. Who did they blame? Anyone and everyone -- meaning Daz Studio, the PAs, the mods etc. -- but themselves.

    When I started out, folks were helpful and the discourse in the Commons was filled with tips, ideas and inspiring renders. The pandemic was hard and everyone was stuck at home. Daz was a great way to find solace and community. Now, absent that common, globe-spanning duress, I guess we're back to sniping and picking each other off. 

    Hmm. I don't know. Maybe I'm getting sentimental with the passing years. Maybe those halcyon memories and early impression I have about the Forum weren't really so warm and fuzzy. 

    OK. That's my rant, an exception to the rule I try follow: i.e. Silence is Golden. I was just a dumb engineer before I stumbled on Daz and 3D visual arts. Who am I to lay claim on the truth?

    Cheers!

     

  • BejaymacBejaymac Posts: 1,984
    edited June 12

    I think what the OP is refering to was DS2 and DS3 having two versions for you to download, one was the full version the other was the no content version, as the full versions came with a lowpoly version of V4 and enough content to build a "beach volleyball" scene.

    Now every version of DS4/6 is the no content version, but as soon as you add DS4/6 to your account you get a hell of a lot of content added to it as well, Default resources, dynamic resources as well as the Starter Essentials for all 10 Genesis series figures.

    Post edited by Bejaymac on
  • Ron KnightsRon Knights Posts: 2,612

    What happened to Maclean? He is/was one of my favorite vendors.

  • chris-2599934chris-2599934 Posts: 1,958

    csaa said:

    Back in the day, when folks posted, they'ed share an image, one two or half a dozen. The renders really brought home the point they were trying to get across. Now ... it's a wall of words. For a community built around visual arts, that shift was a big let down for me. Maybe people  flocked to the Gallery or elsewhere to share their renders.

    I wonder if that's because on sites like Facebook and Reddit, people have got used to just pasting an image into their chat whenever they want one. The Daz forums are still partying like it's 1999, so you have to upload an image, find it's url then insert it into your post. Life's too short.

  • jmucchiellojmucchiello Posts: 1,503

    Ron Knights said:

    What happened to Maclean? He is/was one of my favorite vendors.

    Their last new item was in 2020. I'd like to know as well. They were a fav of mine too.

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