How Bad Is DS 4.9 For Me?
RCDeschene
Posts: 2,816
Okay, with everyone and their grandmas belly aching over the who DRM implementation, I have to ask in all sincerity: why should I personally care? This whole thing seems to mostly effect the people who like to mod and rearrange their purchased content, none of which I do and simply work with defaults. I'm just a user who buys stuff that looks neat, build characters/scenes, and render. Simple as that. So, with that, I'm just curious as to how and why is the new technology in DS 4.9 bad for me?
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You can use 4.9 without DRM, so nothing in 4.9 is bad for you as far as I can see.
I'm not personally keen on the focus on smart content, which I find is really slow, nor do I need some of the features like buying stuff in store.
You have to decide for yourself how you feel about DRM. I do not personally care for it. I pick up the items when they are free or with purchase, but I have not installed anything DRM. I am waiting until the content is something I will be forced to install. Right now, none of the DRM content is an essential must have. So I have given it a pass on loading it up.
1. Contrary to what seems to be popular belief, not all modding of content is restricted. Connect only, encrypted content can't be edited...but even that isn't as 'bad' as it sounds. The DATA file can't be edited, but textures and such can be, presets can be created for new materials, etc (all the things most modifications were in the past).
2. Connect content can't be rearranged. It is now in a new format...everything for a single product is in one folder..each product has its own. Simple. That does require things like a database and 'shortcuts' to have the 'user facing' files appear in some sort of order...but those are rearrangeable.
3. If one does not use Connect and sticks with DIM or manual installs...very little has changed (yeah, a bunch of CMS improvements/fixes and new categories/organization of default locations...but that's been a constant for every version update since before 4.0 came out).
4. Many fixes and improvements to both Iray and 3Delight.
It puts barriers into using other stuff. Now if you never use Carrara, huzzah!
There have been several fixes of content that the community has developed when Daz or PAs have been unwilling/unable to do so. These would be impossible with encrypted content.
That's just off the top of my head. Now, if you don't mind the hassle of avoiding Encryption-only purchases, and you avoid using Connect, then hey. 4.9 is faster and fixes some bugs. That's how I'm enjoying it.
...so can one wrok in 4.9 without ever having to go online or use Smart Content at all? Really don't care to have my library/runtime structure get messed up.
Correct, it reads installed content the same way 4.8 does.
You even can use DAZ Connect to download unencrypted content to the DAZ Connect folder, and then move around those content files as you would do from an unzipped download file, if you don't mind breaking Smart Content and Updates for those files you moved around. I've tried that with the 4.9 Beta, and it works perfectly fine. It's not supported or recommended by the DAZ peeps, though, so if you mess something up while doing that, you'd be on your own.
EDIT: What I'd strongly recommend, though, is - if you have created custom categories, make a backup of cour content database. Even if you are not using smart content, the categories are stored in the DB and in case the DB changes don't go smoothly for one reason or another, you'd loose all your hard work of categorizing.
I'm biased away from DRM; the internet is full of examples of where it has gone wrong. It doesn't always do so though. I don't know of any benefits to customers, only that it at best it doesn't negatively affect their experience.
I'd recommend reading up on DRM, then making your own decission. Note I say DRM, DRM uses encryption - encryption is great and essential for the internet experience.
As others have said; it can be avoided - and if you make backups of 4.8 first, it's easy enough to revert. Personally (ignoring the DRM for the moment), whilst the improvements to the render engines are good, I don't like the drain of resources other aspects that are not related to Daz's main functionality. The store front, and Connect; we've been advised it is very small, but I prefer it to be none. We don't have that option.
... Well we do, stick with 4.8
Only going by the thread title.... It will kill you and molest your pets. And it's full of fat and nicotine.
Only the pets? Don't I get to be molested before I get killed, at least?
Possibly, depending on what boxes you check before downloading.
As much as I despise DAZ Connect and am not happy about the encryption, I like DAZ 4.9 otherwise. Rendering is faster and slightly less resource intensive. I don't use the "Smart" library system at all so the only issue I had was I needed to remove/re-add my Content and Runtime directories because DS didn't properly see them (a 20 second process). It forced me to install the CMS system (earlier versions I could cancel out of that part of the install) but as soon as everything installed, I ripped it out easily. DS opens whining about not finding the CMS system, but otherwise DS works fine.
Clarification - I don't use the DAZ Content Library or Smart Library organization. I just have my Runtime and Content folders mapped in DS. All my organization is due to me moving things around manually. DS 4.9 thought I didn't have any content in them so I removed/re-aded them. I can't speak for (or against) the safety of upgrading to 4.9 if you use DAZ Content libraries with meta tags, et. al.
"Gateway" Sale...LOL
Hey - my $0.02 - I didn't even know Daz 4.9 had DRM and encrypted files until I read it in the forums. Ha! I run Daz on two machines (one for building, one for rendering). I have loads of third party products installed on both machines. It all works just great. No issue for me at all.
I really like 4.9. A Lot! Smart Content is now at least "mildly intelligent". 3Delight renders look noticeably better (at least to my eye). I find the store search function inside 4.9 works way better than the store search on the website. I think 4.9 is great.
Yeah I'm loving 4.9 so far. Also no problems with encrypted content :)
Nope, not loving 4.9. I hear it's a horrid gossip, not to mention a sock thief!
So that's why folks are whisper behind my back. Guess I'll give up ever finding the socks I though my dryer ate.
Doesn't sound that bad afterall :D
Seriously though...
I had been using DS 4.8 then DS 4.9 beta before the 4.9 Release. Everything looked to be fine. I've not used 4.9 or the new 4.9 beta yet... been to busy in other threads trying to make some sense of this all. I can't brag about rendering time since I've only recently started to take the time to learn Studio even though I've been installing it since at least DS 2.9. This is because I'm a Carrara 4 Pro thu 8.5 Pro user without G3 support or encrypted content support, not that I'd want the latter. I buy content for use in Carrara and recently some for use in in DAZ Studio only.
Sorry...back to your question...
Present day... for what you describe you should be fine as long as you realize that you may only be able to use the content, as is, in Studio 4.9 and above only. Note that non-encrypted content can be downloaded from DAZ via DIM, DAZ Install Manager, which will place the purchased content in their appropriate places, categories, and is available to other programs with the exception being Genesis 3. DIM also provides updates to not encrypted content.
Future day...who can say. I hope that DAZ and DAZ Studio and DIM are around for a very long time. I can't say the same for encrypted content.
"Simple as that"
FYI:
I'm currently using basically the defaults, for now. I've not rearranged anything yet but some do *need* rearranging in order to be more easily and faster to find. Like you I and many others buy stuff that looks "neat".
Daz already has a plan for if the company goes away, that they will provide a way to decrypt the content.
...well, I only use the "classic" content pane as I have a lot of old content that was installed before the DIM as well as content from sources other than Daz that doesn't have metadata. Also not fond of the fact that the Smart Content pane takes up so much display space. I've done more than enough manual installing of non Daz and freebie content over the years that the process is second nature to me. Hence, there is little if any reason for me to use DC at all. I could actually turn the CMS off altogether if I so choose. Granted it doesn't take a lot of resources to run, but at the same time, I don't see it enhancing my workflow much at all.
Absolutely hate the lost real estate from the Smart pane. The multitude of tabs force it to a minimum adjustment size (at least in the beta). Then there's the wasted horizontal band from the"login" button...
Well if you like fast food and cigarettes...
Yeah, that's the other thing. I really don't want DIM on my computer anymore as the only way I can get it to work right is to have it installed in my C: Drive which takes-up quite a bit of memory, given the 2500+ (and growing) worth of content metadata I have in my Product Library. With 4.9, all I needed to do was manually install DS and let the DAZ Connect install everything else onto my external hard drive without creating any extra AppLocal files in the process.
The log-in button is sharing a line with other bits of the UI, it isn't creating a new empty line just for itself (and log-in is shorter than its old label of "DAZ 3D Store", which is how it appeared in 4.8). Overall the pane is actually now narrower at its minimum than the Content Library pane, I believe. If you aren't wanting to drag-and-drop to to or from the Content Library pane (to create shortcuts or to add to categories) you could dock them together to save space; you can also click the tab when the pane is open to collapse the whole pane group down to a row of tabs along the edge of the interface; and of course you can always float the pane and show/hide it at need.
The downloads folder could be moved from within DIM, the manifests and thimbnails folders can be moved by editing the configuration file - C:\Users\YOU\AppData\Roaming\DAZ 3D\InstallManager\UserAccounts\Account.ini on Windows
So far I haven't encountered any problems with the usual Daz Studio 4.9 functionality. It runs as smoothly as 4.8 ever did, and there are some very noticeable improvements with Iray rendering as well. For some reason, I haven't been able to download via Daz Connect yet. It had an install button, but the cursor just changes to a text input icon when I try and click on it and doesn't seem to do anything, so I think there are still a few bugs to be ironed out.
From a user experience though, it's perfectly fine and does the job well. Being able to shop for compatible items simply by clicking on related figures is actually a really nice touch, and makes finding what you want even easier than using the store in my opinion. Just be aware that you might need to still use DIM to get the thing in the end.
...for some, two of the four main food groups.
...so I could move it to the D: drive then? It's beginning to use up a lot of space on my C: drive as well (the smaller of the two)
However, if I did so, how would I rewrite the .ini file then?
You need to put the paths (using / not \ as the folder separator) in the override entries, which are already theer bu blank. Mine looks like
OverrideManifestDir=F:/DIM/Manifests
OverrideThumbnailDir=F:/DIM/Thumbnails
To move where it downloads to you would change the "DownloadPath=" line to the new, desired location.