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I seny you a PM.
4.8 until it becomes impossible to use 4.8 due to driver or OS updates.
I don't want an integrated storefront, I don't need a replacement for DIM and I don't need a SQL database to obfuscate the physical locations of assets (Categories, Smart Content, whatever buzz word they use); I just want a program that allows me to make art. That and only that. I want it to concentrate on what's important to artists, not what's important to DAZ.
And, of course, I don't want anything that facilitates DRM.
I can answer that one. It mean she had that avatar on the previous site, which did allow animated avatars, and so the link is taken from that data base and still works. Those who didn't have avatars prior to the move have their avatars now on a different hosting database, which doesn't allow for animated avatars. So any new avatar you added would unfortunately still be static, as it would go onto the newer database.
I'm currently using 4.8, but I do intend to upgrade eventually. The only hesitation I have is that the last major update (from 4.7 to 4.8) somehow managed to wipe out all of my CMS data, so I lost every bit of metadata I had. Re-importing didn't give me any of my custom data (though I did import the 'custom metadata', it just seemed to be ignored) and all of the corrections and changes I had made to existing metdata had been returned to default.
So, before I upgrade I want to make a decent backup of that first. Then we'll see about those shiny Iray improvements.
Oh, OK. No problem, just wondering....off to do renders...
My avatar used to crack his whip until the change of forum when my avatar was deleted along with thousands of others. After I reuploaded it it didn't work anymore. Now it's my understanding that animated gifs no longer work unless your avatar survived the changeover.
Be aware that if you keep with 4.8 and use iray, all the new characters will not look right for you, as the material settings will be made for the current incarnation of iray, which is in the 4.9 release.
Rawn
Alternatively, if you upgrade to 4.9 only a few characters will be updated for the new Iray settings, while the vast majority of your catalogue probably hasn't been updated yet, from what I've seen on my Product Updates.
Understood, and it will be something that I shall take into account with my future buying decisions, but this is really a mess of DAZ's making. imho The iRay fix should have been 4.9; the DRM 5.0.
Anyway, your stuff is so good that, provided it isn't DRM'd (and so unbuyable for me), I am happy to manually adjust the materials to fix them if necessary.
[Edited to clarify DRM reference in second paragraph]
Very little from what I have seen. I have an embargo on pre-DRM Day character updates anyway; like 4.9 itself, they just don't get installed.
Thanks for the warning Rawn. Don't buy any new characters... got it!
There really are not that many releases with the iray that shipped with 4.8, and many have been updated (I know my stuff has and so has daz's..and a few other pa's as well). The catalog for the current iray settings is already larger than was available for 4.8, and only will grow.
As a pa we cannot create content for a version of iray that does not exist anymore...it makes no sense.
I absolutely understand that it makes no sense to make shaders for old versions, but even if most of them have been updated, they don't appear to be being offered via DIM:
I would say that it's not so much the shaders issue that causes concern. Shaders can always be adjusted to match what the individual artist prefers anyway. Of more concern is the fact that the iRay renderer shipped with 4.8 can apparently crash on certain types of content. I have not encountered this, nor have I ever seen a proper explanation of the issue or the content that is affected. It is possible that if I were to encounter it then that would either force me to change to 4.9 (unlikely) or find a different item to do the job.
To my simplistic way of thinking the rendering engines should be plugins (as they are not written by DAZ anyway) that can be updated independently of the main application, but that's getting off topic and into the realms of speculation ...
Divorcing the render engine from the program would likely add a layer of potential instability and possibly use more system resources.
Just speculation on my part though.
Indeed. Just like adding a storefront module, or inline decryption. Still, as you say we must be very careful not to speculate.
Staying with 4.8, doing the less I can in it, exporting to OBJ the freebies I am interested in and, as soon as MakeHuman and/or manuelLab will have appropriate functionalities and content, move to greener pastures.
Sticking with G2, 3Delight and DS4.8
...hmm guess I'll uninstall the Josie7 update I just got then as I understand it was a skin texture upgrade for 4.9.
Like others have mentioned, I've spent a fair amount of time Adjusting skin shaders for Iray, not quite to the degree that people in the Fiddling Iray Skin Settings Thread are doing (as I don't do portraits or close ups), but still put a fair amount of work into it and am pleased with the results
All of the Daz figure updates have both a DS4.9 and DS4.8 version of the material presets.
...so the she shouldn't look bad in 4.8?
Reality IS a kind of plugin separate render machine, so it can be made without Studio going bellyup.
So the rumours I've heard of problems caused by Reality and/or DS updates aren't real? Good to know.
I have to fight with G3F and its shortcomings, I have no nerve to fight with DS4.9, too
I urgentley need a computer update, but I won't make it untill next year. Till then, I'll stay with 4.08. This gives me time to watch the 4.09 development. Maybe we'll finally have a 5.00 version next year, that I could have as a fresh install on a fresh computer. Maybe I'll just stay with 4.08. We'll see.
Well here's my spin on it. DS 5 will probably have the same features as 4.9 so 4.8 will eventually go out of date and all new content will gear towards it. No one likes to change but you can't stop it, it's just the way of life. You can get away from it for a while but eventually you will have to change and closing the eyes isn't going to make it go away. You could go to poser but Daz is no longer support that for all it's new figures, so you be left with V4 and M4 which is really old technology now, still OK, but I prefer the new figures, personal choice don't kill me. Will complaining make any difference, No never has, the only things that influences big companies is dollars so you have to let your wallets do the talking, and that will ultimately make the decision. For me you have to continuously keep moving forward or you will get left behind.
...true, change is inevitable but "keeping up with the Jonses" is not always what it's cracked up to be. I've been there. If it were, no one would bother using archaic items like pencils, brushes, paints, ink, clay, wood, cloth, metal, glass, stone, or silver coated paper anymore. However in this digital gotta have it now world, many still choose to use the old "tried and true" media and will continue to do so for decades, if not centuries to come. The need to express oneself is not limited by the tools, the tools are ony limited by the lack of imagination and resroucefulness. Creativity transcends technical progress.
Back to the matter at hand, there's also the point that some of us here have invested quite a small fortune in this "artform" over the years. I for one am in an extremely limited budget. I am not about to throw away everything I already worked hard for and struggled to attain just because it isn't shiny and new. So Gen 4, Genesis and G2 may no longer be the "slickest" looking or greatest thing since sliced bread when 5.0 and Genesis 4, 5, or 6 are rolled out. Crikey seven years ago I created an 8 year old child and a teen character out of tall buxom ol' Vicky 4 because there was not Gen 4 child or teen character at the time.
If I can still make pics with the resoruces I currently have that evoke an emotion in the viewers' heart, That is all I care about. In my veiw, it means I "still got game".
I remember one former community member here who still used Posette when Gen4 was all the rage and Genesis was about to be released. This person did some incredibly marvelous work with her that stood up to if not rivaled what people with the latest models were doing.
To me that is not getting left behind, it's moving forward.
I have 4.6 and 4.8beta installed and I'm happy that I can tinker with both. If I upgrade to 4.9 then I guess that I will lose the option of switching between different versions. I dont have a GPU graphics card in my PC and dont have the option to upgrade as the bios is locked, also I dont see a new PC on the immediate horizon.
I'm also not keen on having control and ownership gradually fading away into the sunset.
...also, the AoA effects cameras and Advanced Lights still work as they ar supposed to in 4.6. For me that is a major issue as for 3DL work I find them indispensable.
In 4.7 something with the Shader Mixer was changed which crippled a number of the Cameras/Lights features
Just because DS 4 has now reached 4.9, that does not mean the next release will be 5.0. My bet would be the next version being 4.10.
I remember one of the DAZ guys mentioning that a full version will probably arrive when there is a need to change the underlying SDK. When that happens 5.0 will arrive, and I suspect a number of DS 4 plugins will stop working or need to be updated, much the same as what happened to DS 3 plugins when DS 4 arrived. I would thus be disappointed if DS 5.0 arrived with no significant new features, as it would likely break a number of things without adding any real incentive to upgrade.