Can you help me with a college project?
amandalp37
Posts: 29
I'm not sure were this should be posted, but i need help with a college project.
My name is Amanda Partenheimer and I have been using Daz 3D for the last 20 years and decided to use the program for my UX/UI (User Experience/interface Design) Design Class.
I am hoping some of you could answer some questions so I can use it on my project.
- How long have you used Daz 3D Studio?
- Do you use any other software with Daz 3D? (bridges, photo editing, or other rendering software)
- How easy or difficult was it to learn Daz Studio?
- Did you have to purchase a specific computer to use the application?
- How much money have you spent at the marketplace or other third-party sites for content?
- What kinds of bugs or errors have you ran into?
- Is there anything you would change about the application?
Thank you for your time.
P.S.: Moderators you can place this post into the approperate thread if you need to.
Post edited by Richard Haseltine on
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Moved to the Commons
Six years
Photoshop (not using the bridge), sometimes Unity (using the bridge), and sometimes Hexagon (using the bridge)
Most times I visit the gallery, I realise I am still learning... but I am much better than I was in 2019! My first render probably took a day to construct (and was awful!). 6 years on, I still discover new options and functions!
No. I started on a potato (good renders took days). I now use a machine I also bought for gaming (spec would have been the same without Daz)
I don't know in total, but I budget $10 week
Other than "insufficient memory" (which isnt a bug) I can't think of many... For "indie" software I find Daz to be very good.
From a UX point of view, nothing much (there are multiple base layouts and the panels can be shifted around beyond that). I might like better arrangement of panels across multiple monitors (I can't figure how to get that to work and am not certain it is supposed to anyway!) A change I would very much like to make would be how RAM and VRAM might be combined - but I think that would require Nvidia to alter their iRay software.
Oh... and sometimes I'd like a comprehensive user manual!
Probably about 16 years.
I ocasionally make freebies for use in DS and Blender in my modeler of choice. And some minor texture editing in FireAlpaca.
It has a pretty steep learning curve, and the lack of comprehensive, up to date documentation, does not help at all.
I didn't have to, I chose too because I wanted faster render times.
Probably somewhere in the $8K range. Though my spending has dwindled signifigantly in the last 3-4 years.
Just random crashes sometimes. But it has taught me to save often.
Yes, there really, really needs to be some up to date, detailed, comprehensive documentation.
How long have you used Daz 3D Studio?
4+ years
Do you use any other software with Daz 3D? (bridges, photo editing, or other rendering software)
Mainly, I use Photoshop (for fixing textures - not so much for postwork, which I almost never do); I also do light dabbling with Materialize.
How easy or difficult was it to learn Daz Studio?
I think it is very difficult to be a guru-level Daz expert; I've been tinkering for years and know only a tiny smidge that there is to know. There's a terrifying learning curve when you first fire up Daz and wonder what to do next. As others have mentioned the lack of up-to-date documentation is not great. However, the forums here were invaluable for learning. Everything I know I learned from the forums, and by trial-and-error.
Did you have to purchase a specific computer to use the application?
After a few weeks of dabbling with Daz on my main computer, I bought a gaming-spec computer which I used for a couple of years. At present I use Daz on a computer that I had custom-built by a computer shop for the purpose.
How much money have you spent at the marketplace or other third-party sites for content?
Somewhere around the GDP of some small nations. Seriously, while there are options for the budget-minded, (freebies, good-value sales) this can be an addictive and very expensive hobby.
What kinds of bugs or errors have you ran into?
The worst problems I've had were with new Daz upgrades. The biggest problems for me were the 4.20 upgrade, where I ran into a materials incompatibility issue that broke some of my favorite stuff but luckily a PA diagnosed it by the description and I was easily able to fix it; and 4.22 (release), which basically made Ultrascenery - a go-to item I used to use almost every time I used Daz - all but unusable. Otherwise the main problems I encounter on a more frequent basis are random crashes, and character-related duplicate formula errors and character-based PA glitches that cause issues with stock figures or other characters.
Is there anything you would change about the application?
I don't have any specific complaints or suggestions at the moment.
1 year, 10(ish) months
Very small amounts of GIMP (which I am not good at) and Paint to edit textures and perform minor post-work, such as splicing together two renders (my computer chokes when there are too many characters in a scene so I have to do a couple at a time). I use PowerPoint to format renders into graphic novel pages
I'm not great with new software, but I'd say very difficult. The learning curve is steep, and when something isn't working, it's hard to know what would fix the issue. Folk on the forums are kind and merciful and the only reason I have gotten as far as I have.
Yes, but in fairness, the computer it replaced was 12+ years old and hadn't been top of the line when it was new, so I needed a new one anyway.
Not comfy answering this one with a specific number. I'm not a big spender, though; income is limited and real life responsibilities have to come first.
Lots of crashes. Beyond that, it's hard for me to tell if something is a program issue or user error.
Honestly I think it's magic that home computers have advanced to the point that I can create semi-photorealistic 3D art on one, so on one hand I'm just grateful it exists at all. A user interface that caters more to people who don't already know what they're doing would be nice. And a better way to find your stuff... Smart Content is poorly named, and I have to navigate largely by the Content pane, using custom documentation I keep myself, which is time-consuming and a pain in the rear.
Good luck on your project! Hope you get an A!
...since 2007
...Gimp, PSP, Filter Forge, and occasionally Hexagon 2.x (64 bit)
...at first it was fairly simple as I have a lifetime of experience in the traditional arts, as well as spent a number of years in theatrical set design, blocking, and lighting.
However, when Iray came online it introduced a whole new learning curve that was more complex compared to 3DL (which in some ways was similar to stage lighting).. I am still wrestling with Iray's details and nuances. The tone mapping part I get as I've also been worked with photography, but dealing with lumens, temperature, subsurface scattering and the like makes it a whole new ballgame. I am disappointed that in the next full update of the programme that the 3DL render engine is being dropped.
I also find dForce to be a bit daunting given all the parameters involved . I do have dForce Companion which simplifies matters but ir is not "infallible".
Originbally worked on an Xp Notebook wiht r GB mmory. Five later as the progremme became more "robusr" I built a system dedicated to working and rendering in Daz and Carrara which I've updated as far as I could (It a bit long in the tooth these days but still does the job).
About the price of a nice basic small car.or one heck of a desltop "supercomputer".built around the 96 GB RTX Pro 6000 GPU and 32 core EPYC CPU..
-- misunderstood the question, thought it was just other stores than here as one site calls their store "Marketplace".
Currently , display driver crashes when running dForce simulations. along with "explosions even with dForce rigged clothing and hair.
...the ability to select larger text in menus,.(particularly Surfaces, Parameters, as well as the LIE Editor)
As I built a custom library/runtime structure, I have no opinion concerning Smart Content save for the fact it seems the database is still prone to crashing and corruption.
Oh, and as mentioned above, real documentation/manual. Video tutorials don't always cut it as it is much more convenient and expedient to have a PDF file open to information concerning the task one is working on..
What kinds of bugs or errors have you ran into?
None.
Is there anything you would change about the application?
No,
Nearly 7 years since 2018.
Blender + Diffeomorphic, ZB, Adobe Ps, Pt, Ds, Faceform Wrap.
Neutral... but certainly it took time. It took around 3+ years for me to become a bit more experienced from a newbie.
I didn't have to ....but I did upgrade my PC in 2023 to a robust one so as to expedite the rendering.
No exact number but at least > $50K up to now.
Rarely to be frankly. Lots of tiny bugs in DS are long standing there to which I'm already accustomed.
Others have already named a lot. One point from me is that : don't have too high demand from this freeware. Then you can be much more happier rendering.
About 20 years.
Cascadeur, Gimp, and occasionally Blender and Hexagon (oh, and I sometimes try working with a render with image to image AI)
Fairly easy, I was able to create decent renders after about 8-12 hours (but I already had experience with Poser. Carrara Studio Pro, Cinema 4D, Vista Pro, and Visual Nature Studio)
No, I use the same computer that I use for work (at home). I do Photogrammetry, Lidar Processing, and use other 3D software that also needs a fairly robust computer.
I'm not sure ... but probably too much. I try to keep my spending to an average of $30 a month. Some months I don't spend anything, others I will spend more (like if there is a new Genesis generation released).
Not real show stoppers, mostly just annoyances that have workarounds.
Scalable fonts in the UI!!!! Old eyes with a laptop screen make using DAZ Studio extremely difficult at times (I quit using it for several months, but eyesight has improved just a bit).
I think changing to Vulcan over Open GL would be a massive improvement.
If they won't replace Open GL with Vulcan, then improving Filament, especially how it handles opacity maps, would be a big plus.
Improving the animation tools.
Giving us full access to all of the features in Iray (i.e. motion blur).
I think having another professional render engine available in DS would be a huge plus (something designed for production environments with access to all available tools/options). Or, probably an even better option would be to have a full, comprehensive, and pro level implementation of USD. This would open up the use of other render engines and other software without writing and maintaining a bridges to various additional applications.
Yes, this may be old fashioned, but a real up to date manual would be HUGE! I recently started using Cascadeur, they have an extensive set of video tutorials as well as an outstanding manual. There is often critical information in well written manuals that can't be easily provided in a video tutorial.
Little over 9 years.
Blender, Substance Painter, ZBrush, Photoshop, xNormal, Marvelous Designer
I found Daz Studio very easy to learn. The shaders in 3DL not so much. They were counterintuitive for me. When Iray was added, that's when I started really using Daz Studio. Those shaders I found very intuitive.
Nope. Just the one I had.
Far too much. (if you need something more specific, DM me)
I regularly use the beta versions of the software instead of release to look for bugs specifically before they come out, so I've found a lot of them. All resolved at this point (generally before release). Examples include when they added License tags to the software, if you tried to add tags to something not in the store, it would just stop the program. It would close with no message or warning. Just gone. There was a couple issues with canvases I ran across. There's a plugin that causes crashing when you pose without selecting the body part in the scene tab first. A frequent bug that users run into is the interface getting messed up (going all white-ish with the words and menus messed up). This is user error though (happens when you update while Studio is still running in the background). Generally it's brokered content (including my own) I find errors with, but they get resolved quickly.
I'd like more robust animation tools and native avatar interfaces (like for VTubers)
One thing that may be of interest to gather is what users consider to be DS's unique selling points. To me, it's rendering quality and UltraScenery. No doubts.
Regards
Richard
A. I have been using DS for 18 years next month.
B. I use Photoshop and Blender but don't use the bridges.
C. I'm still learning :) But I found DS much easier than learning Blender or Poser, or any of the other programs I've tried over the years.
D. I started off with a laptop with DS 2.3 and DS 3, moved on to a desktop with the first DS 4, and a faster one when I switched to Iray.
E. Far too much. I think I could have bought a house.
F. The ever present 'Daz Studio has encountered a fatal error' . Since I upgraded to 128Gb of ram and a 11th gen i7 these have eased a lot. Plus the absolutely useless memory purging when you delete something from a scene. Oh, and the way the program can hang when TRYING to delete items. Drives me batty.
G. I wish there was decent documentation. I think Daz the company got very lazy there and we're very lucky that users are kind enough to help in the forums. Plus I want the program to purge its memory properly without having to close and reload. AND I want auto save.
Since the first public beta, in April 2004.
Gimp or Paint.net for image editing, a bit of modeling with Hexagon 2 from time to time, occasionally Bryce.
Not very hard to get started. Learning Iray after years of using 3DL was a bit of a challenge at first.
No, I used what I had at the time. The one I have currently is getting quite old though, and DS requirements will be taken into account when I replace it (I have no plan to spend thousands on a top-of-the-line GPU though).
Way too much. I used mostly freebies at first (I was a student then), then over the years I started buying stuff.
Lots of them with the early versions, but nowadays it usually works well for what I do.
Nothing in particular but I'm looking forward to seeing whatever new features will come with DS2025
Background: I am a retired non artist. There was a lot to learn about the application, the types of assets available (and how to use them), and basic art concepts (which I am still learning and rebelling against occasionally).
Good luck and happy rendering!
Oooh... Questions!
1- How long have you used Daz 3D Studio?
A: Approximately 17.675 Earth years. This is without accounting for temporal variations due to chronometric phase variance or progressive orbital oscillation within the galactic plane. Probably.
2- Do you use any other software with Daz 3D? (bridges, photo editing, or other rendering software?
A: Yes... Blender, SketchUp, Hexagon, Poser, Bryce, Nomad Sculpt*, Valance3D*, Sculptura*, MeshMixer, Photoshop, GIMP, Krita, Inkscape, Procreate*, Pixelmator*, Sketchbook*, UltimateUnwrap, Filter Forge, Kerkythea, ... That's most of them, not counting ones I have that I very rarely use for a specific purpose
3- How easy or difficult was it to learn Daz Studio?
A: I learned it a long time ago and I have a terrible memory... I think it was semi-decently-easyish to learn... I actually learned Poser first (via books and magazines), but with DS there were lots of wonderful helpful people here on the forums that shared their knowledge and wisdom when I asked questions.
4- Did you have to purchase a specific computer to use the application?
A: No, but over the years I've tried to buy a computer that is at least a little good at rendering... honestly they've mostly been mid-range computers... no expensive graphics cards or high end graphics capabilities.
5- How much money have you spent at the marketplace or other third-party sites for content?
A: That's classified information. Also I have no idea.
6- What kinds of bugs or errors have you ran into?
A: Mostly spiders, but they are arachnids... errors... lots over the years... the main issue I feel is that by the time I catch up to everyone else computer-wise, DS has gotten more complicated and I'm always rendering at the same speed... but the plus is most of the bugs that I've encountered are easy to deal with because they are old news by then.
7- Is there anything you would change about the application?
A: Quite a few things, but I gave up long ago on hoping for things I'd like to see implemented... I used to have a list somewhere (for surveys and stuff), but none of that every came to be (they weren't weird things, lots of other people wanted them too)... one of the things I'd love to see is a decent manual... I feel like once upon a time the community would have really come together to help make a good user manual, but I feel like that ship may have sailed over the past few years. It seems like most people are happy with random YouTube tutorials and paying for video courses (I'm not a fan of videos for lots of reasons).
Disclaimer: DS used to be a big deal to me, but for various reasons I'm only faintly interested it these days.
I was hoping you'd respond :D
☛ How long have you used Daz 3D Studio? About a decade.
☛ Do you use any other software with Daz 3D? (bridges, photo editing, or other rendering software) PowerPoint from Microsoft
☛ How easy or difficult was it to learn Daz Studio? In the beginning it was extremely difficult, but once I got passed the initial humps, it was extremely easy.
☛ Did you have to purchase a specific computer to use the application? Yes. My original computer took nearly a full day (24 hours) to render a decent scene and I couldn't use the computer for anything else because the render would crash. My next computer was designed for gaming even though I don't do any gaming. I can now render scenes in about an hour which is a significant drop from a full day.
☛ How much money have you spent at the marketplace or other third-party sites for content? Way too much! I average about a hundred a week. Some weeks more, some weeks less. Let's do the math ... $100 a week is $5,200 a year times ten years is $52,000. And since it's probably over a decade, I would estimate $60K
☛ What kinds of bugs or errors have you ran into?
1) Sometimes buying a package causes Smart Content to stop working and it is very tedious trying to find the offending file. I understand if I buy it from some place else, it's a chance that I take but if I buy it from here, the quality control should be better and it should not be happening.
2) Packages which haven't been used in a while sometimes seem to disappear and have to be downloaded again.
☛ Is there anything you would change about the application?
1) This would be a programming nightmare but it would be nice if we could control the render on a item level. I'm doing an illustrated story where cartoon characters come to life but they still look like cartoon characters. I have to do multiple renders and then overlay the renders on top of each other to get the effect that I want it would be nice if that could be done all at once.
2) A better editor. A lot of times everything looks fine in the editor but then I go to render it, problems are there. Then I have to try to fix the problem but without knowing if I fixed it because the problem is not visible in the editor so it is like orking in the dark.
I'll give one example. Clothing poke thru's. Sometimes those poke thru's are not visible in the editor so it is hard to correct them in you don't see them.
Ok, sorry to interrupt the flow here, but you can do this with canvases in one pass. Basically set up your canvases to render certain parts out separately and you can use those as alphas or to composite things together. They are very powerful. You can even do lighting canvases, depth canvases, AO canvases. They are super handy. I think there are some tutorials on YouTube that WP Guru has up. I might be mistaken about who did them, but I know there are some up.
Since I've already interrupted :D
This is for 2 causes. The first is that your render subD and your preview subD level don't match. The defaults on G9 for example are 1 for preview and 3 for render. This is done so as not to bog down your system while you're setting up your scenes. If there are HD morphs on the figures, this can cause pokethru you wouldn't see in the preview. If your render and preview subD are the same, you should be able to see any issues before rendering. The exception would be if Displacement is used on a model instead of Normals. Displacement will move the mesh, so it can cause pokethru as well, but Normals won't do that.
Ok sorry XD Back to you regularly scheduled survey :D
OP: I think this has demonstrated exactly why adequate documentation is required, and the answer could be "Read the manual, section 7.4.5.2a)" And that would be much easier for users. Regards, Richard.
...I've run into this issues from time to time as well . I always pre-check a scene in Iray View mode before committing to rendering. Everything will look fine there but once I launch the render then pokethrough becomes evident
That uses the preview subD vs the render subD. Preview is not a full render.
...would changing the Render SubD setting help. I've tried slightly reducing the scale of the cap but doing so visibly affects the hair base (Rasta Tails) as the default opacity of the cap is 0%.
How long have you used Daz 3D Studio?
Since it became available.
Do you use any other software with Daz 3D? (bridges, photo editing, or other rendering software)
Not really - I've played with GIMP and other photo manipulation programs at times, but nothing serious.
How easy or difficult was it to learn Daz Studio?
Basic functionality was quite easy; I'm still learning the ins and outs of advanced functionality.
Did you have to purchase a specific computer to use the application?
No - but once the Iray render engine was introduced I built a custom system (about 10 years ago) that I've since upgraded graphics cards and disk drives several times.
How much money have you spent at the marketplace or other third-party sites for content?
Roughly about what two luxury or high-end cars cost, spread over the twenty years. It gets addictive.
What kinds of bugs or errors have you ran into?
Not so much a bug or error, but the upgrade to Studio to suppoort canvases broke support for some image formats in Windows XP; the 'fix' was to upgrade thee OS to Windows 7.
Is there anything you would change about the application?
As mentioned by others - much better procedural documentation.
How long have you used Daz 3D Studio?
Just a couple of years. I started out with Poser from version 4.
Do you use any other software with Daz 3D? (bridges, photo editing, or other rendering software)
Yes, many. Zbrush, 3dsMax, Maya, learning Blender. Unreal engine and Marvelous Designer.
How easy or difficult was it to learn Daz Studio?
Not that hard.
Did you have to purchase a specific computer to use the application?
No, I am a gamer, so my system is a good one.
How much money have you spent at the marketplace or other third-party sites for content?
Not much.
What kinds of bugs or errors have you ran into?
D-Force frustrations, animation frustrations.
Is there anything you would change about the application?
An extensive manual.
Should. Make them both the same, and that should give you a true preview of pokethru on render. You'll need to do it to both the fgure and the thing you're fitting to it.
...thank you, upped it to 3 and that worked with pretty much no impact on render time..
Thank you everyone, this should be enough information for my final in 2 weeks!