What product do you wish you had bought earlier?
in The Commons
Hi everyone,
Allthough I had DAZ Studio on my computer for a while and dabbled a bit, only recently I really started working with it.
* What product do you wish you had bought earlier, and really helps your workflow or art?
For example I've found Scene Optimizer to be pretty indispendable, and wished I bought it earlier. So maybe there are more tools and products out there that really make a difference. What are your suggestions?

Comments
https://www.daz3d.com/studio-light-pro-iray-hdri-soft-light
I use it in almost every render. There's a version of this on his website, I have it from his website.
https://www.daz3d.com/pose-builder-for-genesis-3
Incredibly useful and I use it every day
Most products from this vendor are amazing
https://www.daz3d.com/riversoft-art
Especially this https://www.daz3d.com/bone-doctor-pose-control
I also could not live without fit control from zev0
This one ...
https://www.deviantart.com/heroineadventures/art/Iray-interior-camera-for-DAZ3D-Version-1-1-728244344
and it's free :)
Iray light manager I use often. I also use oots Iray pair hair shaders a lot from rendo.
There isn't such a product for me. I wish though that I had, when setting up Emiisive Lights, realized that changing from cd/m2 to kcd/m2 is much more intuitive for getting extremely bright lighting light what is often needed outdoors, even though most of the time I'd still using the Sun-Sky lighting in addition.
https://www.daz3d.com/n-g-s-anagenessis-2-revolution-306
I've been using it for 18 months; I wish I'd bought it on the day it was released. It is still my favourite.
A number of Zev0 products, although I have bought many since G3 on the day they've been released.
https://www.daz3d.com/iray-ghost-light-kit-2-307
And version 1 too.
A number of characters from various PAs; I'm not going to name some, as I may forget others. :)
... At rendo, OOT's hair shaders (think they're for Genesis 2, but work without issues on G3 and G8 products).
Um... that's a toughie as I tend to buy things that look useful as soon as they hit the store, so there's not much that I could have actually bought earllier in terms of DAZ assets since sometime back in the early days of DS4. That said, I really wish I'd broken down and bought an NVIDIA card before I did, as it's really improved my workflow. I also wish I'd started working with shaders earlier, and there's a product from the Renderosity store called Breast Jig, which automatically adjusts the positions of the breasts of female figures up through G3F to react to a simulated gravity force, that I now use constantly.
https://www.daz3d.com/iray-light-manager-pro
https://www.daz3d.com/boss-pro-light-set-for-portraits-promos
https://www.daz3d.com/look-at-me-pose-control
https://www.daz3d.com/simtenero-randomizer
https://www.daz3d.com/a-touch-of-dirt-for-iray
and another nod to OOT's Hair shaders at Rendo
Laurie
A lot of people talk up BOSS Lights, but I find Colm Jackson's lights to be more intuitive to use for setting up your own lighting schemes. Either one, though, is a lot, LOT easier than fighting with your Environment Map.
...NGS Angenessis II. wasn't very interested in NGS Angenessis I as I already had both Beautiful Skins and Skin Builder Pro3 which allow for creating different skin hues. However, NGS II adds details like improved textures and pores that make skin look more "natural" and help to eliminate the "rubber doll" look I get so much with Iray skins.
Map Manager
Hey great to see so many responses, I will go through them step by step, its cool to see what additions are useful to everyone.
This thread is a treasure! Products that I love are:
Greenless' shaders: https://www.daz3d.com/jgreenlees
Altern8: https://www.daz3d.com/altern8--skin-shader-system-for-genesis-8
And the most beautiful hairdo I've seen for men that still translates very well to today's standards: https://www.daz3d.com/lucian-hair (I also use it on M8 with my own created morphs and maps. Still hoping Littlefox will bring it back for newer generations!)
+1 for many of the already listed products.
Here are some more of my favourite products:
https://www.daz3d.com/genesis-generation-x2
https://www.daz3d.com/genx2-addon-for-genesis-2
https://www.daz3d.com/genx2-addon-for-genesis-3
There are quite a few other products and PAs that I adore but I don't want to make this list too long. :)
Thank you for recommending Altern8! :D That put a big smile on my face!
Expression Mixer
Iray section planes. I remember downloading them as soon as I watched the tutorial but it took me forever to get around with messing with them and I kick myself everytime i load them up for not using them sooner lol
I know its new so didnt have a 'wish id bought right away' moment but by far this is going to be my most used shader set ever lol https://www.daz3d.com/colorwerks-hair-shaders-for-iray
..very nice tool, but the downside is you have to work in Iray view mode which generally takes quite a bit of video horsepower (particularly GPU cores) to avoid refresh lag and crashes.
https://www.daz3d.com/simtenero-randomizer
This. If you ever want to make use of multiple morphs without manually fiddling with sliders, this is your tool. Easy to use, has a search bar on top of everything else.
I have to agree with the randomizer, that is something I have wanted for YEARS!
@silver btw the iray section planes are not a product but a built in feature of DS, not sure exactly when they first showed up though.
Yah I getcha, wasnt til i found that tutorial and the handy 3 plane setup they provide that I started using them so def kicking myself with that one lol
Currently kicking myself now; saw then in the Create menu; didn't get curious enough to click.
... Kicks self again.
《grumble, grumble》 Okay, let's see what this does... 《pause》 ... 《flips a table》