No encrypted for me.
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There is an important caveat here. The files on the Connect server are compressed (Gzip) so the MD5 Hash will only match if the files for the product in your content directory are also compressed. (Which you can do within DS or in an external program.)
Oops, sorry -I did remember to add that in my other post on this feature.
Can i use textures in external programs and edit them in photoshop if i buy encrypted content?
I have to agree, I never ran across one that charged for access. But then perhaps they require that when you actually try to download. I never tried it. I have in the past went looking to find out the size of a product zip. Something the Daz store does not tell you (I found the pirate copies searching for this info). And sometimes I wouldn't have bought something if I knew it was say 2+ GIGS in size for example. So I began to check the sizes of a few items and compare if I wanted this product or that. And in the end the file size was the determining factor if the products were similar.
So I can understand Daz's feelings with all of the products out there for download like that, however DRM is not the way to go about it. And in the end won't curb piracy. The pirates will still crack and steal, it only drives your honest users nuts. And those pirates you are worried about? 99.99% of them would never buy in the first place. If they couldn't pirate they would go do something else. Not pay. The people that pirate will never pay plain and simple. The sales are not going to go up by implementing DRM. I have seen this tried over and over again by companies throughout the years, and it never actually helps sales. The only thing DRM does is help appease investors. Or content creators that have a DRM mindset (movie studios for example) and insist upon it.
Yes you will, though your log file may show errors. I admit I haven't tested, but theya re still separate .dsf.enc files in the Data\Cloud\1_#####\Data\Pub\Fig\Item\Morphs\Vendor\Product folder. It's possible, as I haven't tested, that the CMS would complain but that's easy enough to check (just download as mall morph package via Connect in 4.9/4.9 beta) that you don't have via DIM and see what happens if you move some or all of the files.
Only native files - .dsf/.duf and script - are encrypted. Textures files are still plain image files, albeit in the \Data\Cloud\1_#####\Runtime\Textures folder.
Are the files that DAZ Connects downloads encrypted, or am I to understand from Spooky's comment, that the offline package is a normal zip, but some of the content files within the zip are encrypted? I ask because my runtime sits on a very fast M2 SSD drive which makes loading content really fast, however this drive is only 256GB, which is relatively modest by modern standards. Consequently I do not install everything immediately, but when I actually need it (this also prevents smart content from bloating with many products I currently do not need). However I do download the zips with DIM, and move the zip file to another directory, often with the promo shots so I can easily browse what I own when looking for a character, outfit etc I need at a later point. On occasion I will open the zip to look at the quality of the textures, before I install it, something that was not possible in the days when products were exe files. Will I still be able to look at DAZ Connect textures by opening the offline package file before installation? Or are the jpg, png etc also encrypted, and only unencrypted on installation? If the duf, dsf etc files are encrypted in the delivery file, that is less of an issue, as I would have no reason to want to look at them before installation.
I used to work in IT also, and had reason to look into this, so I can say that for every warez site charging a fee, there's a hundred that don't -- and that's where all the pirated DAZ, Rendo, RDNA, etc., content lives -- on the free sites. At most, a warez site will require you to create a free account to see the actual download links, and the vast majority don't even do that -- click on a Rapidgator or Keep2Share link or a torrent and away you go. This stuff isn't difficult to find, and anyone trying to charge a fee for it is simply passed up in favor of someone (or rather, LOTS of someones) who are making it available for free. These people are driven by peer recognition or the thrill of it all, not by financial gain.
Note that even these sites are likely to carry masses of adverts, so they earn money from that. Also they host the content on file sharing sites where they get a slice of income from anyone downloading the stuff with premium accounts. So even the so called free pirate sites, are still earning money from stolen content, even when they are not charging directly for access. The torrent sites will also carry adverts.
You know what: you're absolutely right -- I had totally forgotten that in addressing the notion of warez sites charging people for access to download the pirated content. Perhaps I should have said that the individual pirates themselves appear to be driven by the thrill or peer esteem, judging by the ranking systems they all seem to employ. The people running the hosting sites, tho', ARE an entirely different matter: they're facilitators and aggregators, but typically not the people who actually purchase the content itself with the intent of redistributing it.
The idea that people are going on pirate and torrent sites that don't also know to block absolutely every element they don't have to kind of makes my brain hurt, though. I don't even go on normal sites without having every page element I don't need blocked v.v Also while the torrent sites are getting money from it the people posting tend to be doing it for recognition/thrill/wanting everything shared as a sort of group subsidy, if that makes sense - at least that's my understanding of it.
That said while torrents and things are undesirable I'd be much more worried about people who are actively scamming Daz and reselling. If someone buys my thing and then shares it to the world for free then I'd probably be sad, sure, but if someone stole it from me and then sold it themselves I'd be way more pissed. I still find it confusing that the effort is going towards the former and not the latter. Sure both are bad things but is it really worth the bad PR and potentially burning so many customers just to stop the small fry and leave the big ones unaffected (or having the better versions of your own product, since theirs will be unencrypted) ?
p.s. Richard if you're the mod editing my posts you are an awesome mod for subtle adjusting rather than just trashing things because there was some random element that was bad in a post or quoted~
OK thanks, I guess I could install with DAZ Connect, zip up the contents to move elsewhere, then uninstall if I do not need it immediately. A bit more work, but doable. One of the things I do like about DAZ Connect is that all the files for a particular product are held in a single directory structure, much better than mixing them all up like the current position.
I would like the Connect file structer a lot better too - if it wasn't split via SKUs and actually had some sort of name reference for me to tell folders apart visually.
I don't really get this. The character isn't loading with these morphs dialed in, is it? Can't you simply not use them? I don't use the Emaciated morph a whole lot either, but I don't worry that I won't be able to strike it from the Earth if the file is encrypted.
I remember in the beta encryption thread the encryption of future base meshes was being discussed, and one of the DAZ guys (maybe Spooky, I am not sure), said that whilst he could not guarantee it would not happen, there would be little commercial sense in encrypting a base mesh that was being given away for free. Remember DAZ wants both current and potential future PAs to develop content for any new mesh, and letting them look at it in full detail would make a lot more sense, even from DAZ's perspective alone.
Personally I hope we just don't see a Genesis 4 female for a very long time. G3F already feels a bit rushed in the face of G2F and hasn't had time to be rounded out (especially since half its characters are essentially clones) but the real issue is that the thing I feel is holding characters back now (in terms of realism Iray etc that Daz is pushing) is not the character but the hair.
I would much rather Daz focused their efforts on a new type of hair system that could keep up with even the Genesis characters rather than a tiny incremental new generation of figures that doesn't work with the past lot. Maybe that's not feasible, I don't know. But just continually releasing slightler newer versions of the same stuff doesn't feel like a long lasting business model. You need to innovate into new areas. I don't need to buy another Victoria even if she is slightly prettier and so encrypted or not, I'm not going to do so nearly as often. If she is encrypted, then why would I want one a tiny bit better when I have a perfectly functional one I can edit completely?
If you're going to encrypt things and make them Studio only, make something that's actually completely different from what the many other stores (and your own) are selling unencrypted which are soon going to become vastly preferable to many customers.
I would put my money on a Genesis 4 in June 2017, but we can only wait and see
I definitely wouldn't bet against you, but I also don't really see the appeal to buy into that.
V4 was the best thing ever (apparently) so that's fine. Genesis didn't really look much different but brought super unifying technology which was really awesome for not having to buy separate characters and having them work together, etc. But there were male/female issues and so Genesis 2 replacing them made sense too. But then Genesis 3 came out really quickly and offered ... what? Some better bends, better face rigging, and less detailed topology unless you happen to be a Daz approved HD maker. I'm still buying some of them because I think they look good, but... I don't think I could be convinced to go for another incremental improvement that was also encrypted to boot.
I agree with pretty much everything you said there
Yes, but the better bends, in particular, is what many people have been asking for every time a new figure appears. The topology does not keep details from being added. You don't need HD for that all the time. It really depends. A lot can be done with normals and displacement. We have come miles forward from V4 and I, for one, am truly glad. All things considered, she is a great model who has stood the test of time, but people have higher expectations and they are, for me, being met by the newer models.
No, I completely agree that the models now are way better than they used to be - although the gap between G2 and G3 seems much smaller than the previous generations. My main point is that the characters now are getting slightly better than the previous ones, but the other elements needed for the scene are starting to lag behind. Most notably hair (this isn't an artist problem but the technology we currently use.) The hair models we have now look nice but ... they almost never compare to the realism even older characters were offering, and trying to do things like lying down or making a specific hair wet is just no. So often the hair dictates the scene (at least for me) rather than the other way around.
I don't have an easy answer to this either, but if there's going to be an all new encrypted Studio-only generation, I'd rather see something that tackles the other elements to provide a complete picture, rather than just let's start over with a new generation and some small improvements to an already amazing looking model.
I now live in a town that thinks 2Mbps upload and 15Mbps download are high speed. I can not use any software as a service and the whole download the content you need as you go is a non-starter. I'm fine with Daz offering the Daz Connect as an option for those who want it, but if the day comes that I can't download and install my own zip then I guess Daz and i are travelling separate paths.
You don't have to download the content you need as you go, you can download whenever you normally do. And you don't have to download the whole product if a few files get updated.
It was asked "why" early on in this thread, DRM was bad...this about sums it up for me. There is no benefit to the legit end user in this, only possible downsides. (many already mentioned) Already decided not to upgrade, and am taking a wait and see position for how it all pans out. I am a little sad by it all, as I am/was a big fan, and an offsite vendor of compatible products.
Just slapping the forum gremlin to bump start notifications again