A question on installing DS to a new system
daveso
Posts: 7,918
I would assume if I purchased a new computer system, and then downloaded and installed DS 4.11, I could then redownload all of my purchases to this new system using DIM and have a beautiful fresh install of everything?
Also ... would you install DS to the SSD drive or mechanical hard drive. My thought is to buy a 1TB SSD. Should be ample room for OS and maybe DS ... but I would prefer to install all the products to the mechanical. Or would it really matte rmuch where DS is installed and cut back to maybe a 512gig SSD to save some bucks.
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
You would need to back up your copy of 4.11 and any plug-insfor it as DAZ has moved on to 4.12
Yes.
Many people have the application on SSD and the content on mechanical drives.
i am on 4.10 now and have avoided 4.11 .. as I'm not willing to try to run it on my old system... and now then, 4.12.
@daveso, If you still have the DIM downloads folder on the the external drive, you can connect it to the new computer. If you're retiring the old computer, just leave the external on the new one. If not, it will still be faster to copy the files from the external to your new DIM downloads folder on the new drive than to download everything again. Unless the new computer has your Libraries installed to the same location, (i.e. D:\My Daz 3D Library,) you'll still want to install your content via DIM.
@jetsmart is mistaken, at least for the moment. 4.11 is the current release version; 4.12 is still in beta. It is impossible to predict when 4.12 will be released, though I don't think it will be nearly so long between 4.11 and 4.12 as it was between 4.10 and 4.11.
But he does make a good point. If you want to upgrade to 4.11 with the new computer, regardless of which version is the current released version, it would be a good idea to download and archive the 4.11 files now.
Create a backup folder, (on your external, if there's room,) and download the files from your Product Library here. Besides the DAZ Studio 4.11 file, you may also want to download the bridges for GoZ and Photoshop. And if you have purchased plugins for DS, there may be updates for those that you'll also want to download. (I have 4.11 specific files for Measure Metrics, (including Figure Metrics,) Mimic Live, Decimator, and the Dynamic Clothing Control. I also have several other plugin that haven't needed to update with the new releases, like LAMH, for example.)
still to 4.10 if you can find it, 4.11 has annoying bugs, where the scene control buttons and scene frame won't show fully, if you have a monitor resolution of 1080p and render settings to 1080p, and if you disable 3delight in the installed plugins window, iray won't work and Daz will just give you a error message saying the renderer is already in use
The view controls, in their default position, have been lost under the adjacent pane group if the Shader Mixer/Shader Builder panes are docked with the Viewport at lower resolutions - if you noticed it only in 4.11 that probably indicates that you had a different layout active in the different versions, perhaps because you were compaing General Release with Public Build.
If you place your content on an SSD, it will load noticably faster than on a mechanical drive. However, the loading time from a mechanical drive is neglible compared to rendertimes, even when you use a beast GPU.
Also keep in mind that you probably rarely use most of your content. Some assets you may use regularly, other assets you may use barely once a year. So, is there a point to placing the rarely used content on an SSD, instead of using the relatively expensive storage for programs you regularly use to boot up faster? Does loading the assets you do regularly use warrant that cost?
It depends on the size of your Daz library, but it can quickly go over 100GB
Another option is to use a Seagate Firecuda Hybrid drive for content. It is a 1- or 2- TB drive with a small SSD as a buffer. It is noticably faster loading files compared to a standard HD, although slower than an SSD. If you wait for a sale, you can pick up a 2 TB drive for about $75.
great advice. I think I really need to startover. Had problems with DI:M a short time ago ..all kinds of files missing, etc ... another story. So it would be better to begin anew.
Right now I'm rendering iray with CPU. its a bit chuggy, to say the least and limits my scene composition. Cyperpower has a deal now if you buy an SSD you get a 3TB HD free. hard to beat that.
I got The Beast from them. Almost three years ago, now. I got a free 512GB SSD and a $100 Visa Gift Card. Which is to say their deals vary, in part, I suspect, due to various manufacturer deals to them. If you bite, look at the overall deal, not just what they toss in for free. I still have a keyboard and headphones I'll never use that they included free… And do a Google search for coupons. I found one for 5% off after I configured my computer. May not sound like much, but when the system in 3-grand, 5% isn't bad.
I'll put it down to a bug, in 4.10 the scene and control's alway's resized and fitted into view, with or without the side panel expanded or not. docking the control's does'nt work either, the control bar will still be hidden by the side panel when it has been expanded
I'm pretty sure that's because you didn't have Shader Mixer and Shader Builder docked with the Viewport in the layout you used in 4.10 - people have been seeing this for ages, pretty much since the Viewport became a dockable pane.
you are correct, but its still kind of semi bug, it is caused by having the shader mixer pane tab above the scene window next to the viewpoint tab, in 4.10, then upgrading to 4.11, and to fix it, you just have to remove the shader mixer tab, and add it again, then stops working again after you restart Daz
I wasn't arguiong anything but the time at which it appeared - it has been happening a lot longer than just sicne the first 4.11.x.x Public Build. Perhaps something else has changed to tip your layout over the edge, so that it has become an issue where (for you) it wasn't before.
I have both DA and my content on a mechanical 3TB drive. Yes, it takes a second or two for things to show up sometimes, but given that this is a hobby and not my primary income source, that's more than acceptable. Overall, its still pretty snappy.