Putting away my artistic side
Ron Knights
Posts: 2,352
I haven't checked in here for months. I've recently decided to put a hold on my DAZ Studio pursuits. There are several reasons. I've never been happy with DAZ's decision to go the "techie" route with DIM. DAZ Connect is even worse. Copy protection is a bother. But I just don't like the way DAZ organizes stuff in Content Manager.
In addition, I know that my beloved Mac computers are not able to handle iRay. My Mac computers, and all Apple products, serve all my other needs. I'm not ready to consider buying a PC just for making art. I'm a Senior citizen living on a limited income. I need to consider my expenses, and judge the potential rewards.
DAZ recently jumped to Genesis 8. I'm sure there is better technology involved. But I still don't see any improvement in the overall offerings. I see very little Real World clothing. I don't want to do fantasy artwork. The PC Club has changed since I was first a member. The PC club offers the best value to people who are just getting started, or those who want to easily catch up with the next generation of Genesis, etc. The PC club has limited offerings for someone who's been a customer since the very beginning.
I needed room on a 2TB hard drive for my Genealogy work, and multimedia collection. I sadly deleted my DAZ Studio installations, but kept the original files. I miss my art, but just can't handle the limitations.
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2026 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
Sorry to see you go man. While I don't share any of your issues ( I don't use DIM, Connect or Macs), I do hope to see you back one day. Keep in mind there are many other ways to do 3d art without DS and DAZ. Take care!
You don't share some of my issues because you avoid the problems with DIM and Connect. Smart person! I might slowly get involved, in a small way, in coming months. I just can't go to the depths that I did before. I've had cataract surgery on my weak eye, and the new lense is set for Distance viewing. Next week, my right eye gets a new lens, and that will be set for Near sight. At least then I should be able to read the menus!
I use DIM just for software updates, I use Connect to download my content, I've never experienced problems. I already accepted the license agreement, I can qualify my experience as flawless.
...my work system does not have a net connection so I do everything via manual DL to a notebook transfer via USB stick and installation on the main system.
I have become somewhat discouraged lately as well due to the long render times in Iray.(as my GPU card only has 1 GB) and the fact most new content is being released with Iray only textures (it's harder to go from Iray to 3DL than the opposite direction). Furthermore as I only have 12 GB of memory (10.5 available after Windows and system stuff), CPU render jobs often dump to even slower swap mode since the open scene and Daz programme take a big chunk of system memory.
It is tough, as I've been in the traditional arts all my life but advancing arthritis (both bone and joint) has made it etremely difficult to paint and draw anymore (even my handwriting has become illegible to the point I sometimes have trouble reading it). This is a good part of why I got into 3D as without it I'd have no creteive pursuit (music was my other but again that succumbed to ol' "Uncle Arthur" as well). Due to my long time associations with the fine arts, I tend to create fairly involved, almost "epic" scenes which require a lot of system horesepower (I used to paint "big", on big canvases that measured in feet instead of inches, with a lot detail). I basically approach creating a 3D scene the same way as when I painted in oils.
Like yourself, I am a senior living on a fixed pension so I can't just drop 500$ - 700$ on a high VRAM GPU card or 2,000$ to build a new system. I definitely share your sentiments about the lack of real everyday clothing and have an older version of Marvelous Designer which is definitely servicable for my needs. I don't do fantasy either or horror, so that actually saves me quite a bit (though I wish the PC sale was in summer instead of always coinciding with Halloween). Yes, I still have remained a PC+ member as the freebies and discounts on DO releases as well as during certian sales still more than pays back for the cost even though I've been in this for about a decade. I also get an additional 12$ in savings per month through the coupons.
There is a bit of a silver lining, as I will soon be getting the memory upgrade I need to keep render jobs for from dropping to virtual memory and a slightly older GPU card which will definitely help with a lot of the preliminary work I do (character and subset proofs/test renders) and speed the process up a bit more.
Thanks fior \sharing your experience. I'm just starting to have some joint pain. I've had difficulty reading screens. I just had my first cataract surgery. But the inserted a new artificial lens that was set for distance vision. Next week they operate on the right eye, which will be set for near vision. Then maybe I can read the screens. Take care!
Sorry to see Ron go, hopefully you get outta your glut and jump back in.
I have also found my Daz Connect experience to be good. After accepting the license agreement there's no nags.
I'm perfectly happy still on Genesis 3.
Right after I started this thread, I noticed that DAZ Studio 4.10 was available. I just had to check it out. That lead me to a bunch of grief. I went to bed in the wee hours of the morning, and haven't even run DAZ Studio yet. I'm really exhausted from the first cataract surgery, and have the last one on November 7.
Thank you so much for your support. Its nice to know a few fellow artists appreciate my humble presence.
It's hard to walk away from a hobby. But I empathize. I've left a few behind.
Cataract surgery these days isn't as dreadful thing as it was when we were young. I went through cataract surgery last year. Overall it was a good thing. I used to be nearsighted and had to take off my glasses to read, but had to have glasses to navigate the world and watch television. Now I have to put on glasses to read and still need glasses to drive, but can navigate my house and watch television without glasses . Also, it was amazing how yellowed my biological eye lenses had become. During the week between surgeries I happened to notice that a stream of water from my kitchen faucet was crystal clear on one side but looked like piss on the other side. I spent a week alternately closing one eye and then the other to amaze myself at the contrast.
My new implanted plastic lenses work just fine except that a year on from the surgery I've noticed a slight haze around bright point lights in the dark. My doctor says if it gets annoying or noticeable in normal lighting they can clean the protein deposits off the lenses with lasers.
The only problem I had was getting used to one eye permanently focused somewhat far and the other focused to the mid-ground. But I used to wear contact lenses that worked that way and your brain eventually sorts it out and accomodates. The brain is an amazing device.
I totally understand what you mean about the contrast of vision. My left eye, with the new lens, shows a much brighter world. Yes, the surgery itself was uneventual and painless. There are just so many complications. They insist that I have someone go with me, and take me to the car. My Dad is 90 years old. He went with me for the first surgery, but the experience caused him a lot of pain. He just can't do that again. I live in a small city, and transportation is a challenge in this tyoe of situation. I'll be glad when it's over and I can see better.
Take care. Thanks for sharing your own experience.
Take care bro I am finding myself taking a break myself but then commish's come in and dont want to lose clients..
Bobvan, I admire everyone who is able to make a loving with their art. Have a fantastic day.
Not a living just some side $$ to build bigger machines...
Hey nothing wrong with that!
...that's what I'd like to do as I cannot afford newer (not even older than the latest and greatest) tech on my income. If I can get enough commissions I will finally be able to build my dual 12 core Xeon (older generation) 128 GB monster.
I wish you all the best.
...thanks. Decided to forego getting involved the "GPU Arms Race" as I call it and just build a beefy CPU rendering system with older server components as I also work with Carrara and like to create super high quality, "epic" level scenes in it and Daz/Iray (the latter which would need the memory resources of at least a Titan Xp if not a Quadro P5000). If I can get day+ render jobs down to several hours, I'd be pleased.
Not only that this latest version of DS is to yet sell more content for the most part. It would be nice to see decent render speed increases..
...I'd love to use dForce (finally real cloth draping), but my current system isn't up to the task until I get a couple upgrades.