NEW! Novica & Invited Guest Contributors Tips & Product Reviews Pt 6
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Novica, I have had my DS 4.9 database corrupted 3 times already - twice on one computer with DS 4.9 release and once on another computer with 4.9 Beta. The content isn't lost but the Smart Data is messed up in various ways. Once I lost ALL categories, even Daz default ones. I have reset the database twice. I am suspecting that having DIM open and doing stuff at the same time DS 4.9 is running could be a problem. I am not going to do that anymore. We'll see what happens. The new features are nice, but there are some serious bugs still in there. And don't get me started on the quality of the Daz Connect metadata! OK, well I'm already started. Take a look for example at Selfie Stick. All the hirez and lowrez materials are lumped together with identical icons and file names. You can't tell them apart. Now I am understanding your need to look at Daz Studio Formats section to see the vendor's folders. The vendor had them nicely arranged in separate folders. We can't see that now. Daz has made it unusable. Well, time for yet another bug report...
Edited for spelling - built in spell checker isn't too smart.
Thank you, Brave souls, for venturing into the Dragon Queen's lair and filing bug reports.
Daz_Rawb asked me to chit chat with customer service, so I'm not changing anything until I see if they need something. I'm going to just continue to use 4.8 and only have to redo two outfits. Which made me think- everything you do in 4.8 is changed in 4.9 (but not vice versa) so why the heck didn't I just do it in 4.8 to begin with????
Wait till you get Barbult's bill, lol. She has me beat in repetitions, so she gets the prize. Determined lil' sucker! I can just see Customer Service..."Oh man, HER again!"
Are you dealing with the same person each time Barbult? How fast are they responding?
I'm pretty sure I did not have DIM open at the same time as 4.9, but I can't swear to it. I know I NEVER had 4.8 and 4.9 open at the same time. Once I installed 4.9, I didn't even crack 4.8 open.
And yes, using the Daz Format and the vendor folders is the way to go when customizing I think. Working great for me!
Probably true!
It is not a very satisfying experience. I get some random person out of about 4 different ones each time. It takes 2-4 days to get any meaningful response. Half the time they misunderstand, in spite of me giving specific steps to reproduce the problem and annotated screenshots to show it. Then we have to go back and forth for several days as I try to explain the problem again. I think they have so many reports to deal with that they only spend a few seconds looking at each one and don't read carefully. The worst was when they told me to reset my database and a day later DAZ_Spooky posted on the forum that that was a wrong and he is still trying to come up with a solution. Over half of the bug reports never get fixed and I never get any feedback after "we will forward it to the bug tracker". But it is the only option I have to try to get something fixed.
Well you have more patience than I do. I sent them all the information (not much to tell, simply used Categorize and put in Category. No, studio was not open during DIM. No, 4.8 not running same time. I'm not even going to reimport any data as I'm not using 4.9, so that was good to know. Thanks! Keep us posted when (IF) you get any satisfaction from their efforts.
I'm headed to the barn, taking extra stall shavings- temperatures in the 20's (so real feel even lower.) Stetson wears two blankets when it's cold, one fleece then the quilted one on top of it. They are in the barn and out of the wind. Pensacola had 73mph winds yesterday that tore off some roofs, gutters, and metal buildings were torn apart. Winds are gusting to 30mph but we have power of course, unlike the folks up East. That's some blizzard- West Virginia 30+ inches, DC 15+ and growing... yuck. Give me palm trees in the winter!
Hello, working on first cup of coffee. It is "a tad chilly" outside, huddled up next to the 'Rendering' computer for some extra warmth, lol.
I'm not sure I totally understand what I had read in the beta threads, tho I think there was something about the Daz store 'classification thing' taking preference over user made ones (I don't remember if it was custom Hacked Meta Data Black Magic, or what you used Novica). I think it was something being looked into as there was no setting to use the 'user' made classifications instead of the daz ones. And there was some mistakes in the Daz ones.
I have a few things that are gen-7 that also show up in the "Not so Smart Tab" when G2F is selected. (Oh that's cool, it's backwards compatible" - 'Click' - Error appears on screen) lol. That reminds me, I need to ask a Q in the DIM thread. My memory is not what it use to be, and to protect myself I had put some stuff in the "Ready to install" tab in DIM, until it's 'classification' is addressed. Oh, and by the way, that was in 4.8 before 4.9 went 'Live' (some stuff just has bad meta data).
BTW (forgetfulness moment). I really like the outfits you have on Lynsey and Uma page back. I gather that was stuff from the Gia 7 bundles (and also sold separately). May I ask, how end-user-friendly was that stuff to use?
This time round, I decided to not go Pro (first month of the year bills), so I don't have either of the outfits.
I did purchase Gia7 (basic), Uma, Briley, Zoe, Elisse. Along with Ireland Hair and Medieval Princess Dress for G3F. I've been a tad busy in Hexagon and have not done much at all with the stuff purchased yet.
Sure! here's some
Ya know Rich, two years ago that is almost exactly what Pensacola looked like. We had two days of freezing rain and it was half an inch thick! Your render is gorgeous and quite funny!
BTW, I got back from the barn at 9:20pm, about 40 minutes ago. I got there and Stetson was laying in his stall, had not eaten a thing, didn't get up to greet me- a big UH OH combination. Long story short he's okay after $350 of vet assistance. The temperature was already in the low 30's and I had to walk him for an HOUR before the vet could get there. It was amazing after she worked on him (tubes in nose, adding oil and water in tummy, etc and no it wasn't colic.) He was back to being himself twenty minutes after she left, trying to find food in the stall. I gave him soaked hay and he ate it without problem (she said it was okay, wanted him to have it.) So I am headed to bed.
Again folks, if you haven't voted in the Because I Said So! contest, please do before Daz midnight. It will be tomorrow before I announce the winners.
Invited Guest Contributer
Here's the Legacy UV product for Gen 2 Skins to Gen 3 currently at Rendo, that Novica and I were talking about. The first image is Cassia on Nathalie for Olympia 7 and Lilith Applied to Karen 7. The second image I applied Ariadne for V6 to Gia 7.
I'm very stoked to at last have a product which will allow me to use more 3delight optimized skins for Genesis 3.
Yippee! I'm right behind you in buying it. Applying all my Gen2F to Gen3 is going to be great! It's an interesting product. (CaymanStudios)
BTW, for a V4 skin take a look at Zaira. LOVE those eyebrows, it's got a really good closeup. Only $3.11 at 74% off. She's the only thing I bought in the sale.
I really like this tool. It is really easy to use and works pretty well. I hope this vendor releases a male version pronto and a version if possible for v4/m4 and Genesis conversion.
For you Genesis 2 Female fans (which is the figure I mostly use) note that in the Actor view (when you click on Genesis 2 Females in Content Library) Darby (LY Darby) has a huge mole on her face. SHE DOES NOT.
You folks who know how to create categories, skip this. It tells how to do that.
Creating Categories
I'm continuing categorizing my females in 4.8 (got sidetracked with 4.9, NEVER AGAIN) and if you do that alphabetically, it's a shame you'll be jumping all around to find the A's, B's, etc because some are by vendor initials, some by studio name, etc. If you can't find one, you can always ask.
I got a PM from someone who is afraid of messing up their files (in 4.8) when categorizing. Let me go over this again, it is SO easy. This is in Content Library. We'll do the Genesis 2 Females category, but you can do props, scenes, whatever you want to name something. See my TIPS at the end for the way I do this, I'm going the simple route for this example.
Content Library>Categories. Right click>Create A Sub Menu. (Let's do Genesis 2 Females)
Go up to DAZ Studio Formats>Daz>People>Genesis 2 Females>Character>click on a folder. Let's use Adrianna.
Right click on Adrianna>Create A Category From>This Folder And Sub Folders (if there is more than one folder. You want the morphs, materials, etc.)
You'll get a Categories dropdown, and you simply click on Genesis 2 Females (the folder you created.)
Done! But if your Studio crashes, you want to have your work backed up
Backing Up Your Categories
I go to Smart Content, to the small menu at the top right corner. Click it and you'll see Content DB Maintenance (DB is Data Base).
Select "Export User Data."
TIPS: I create a Genesis 2 Female main folder as described above. However then I >right click and Create Sub Category> Characters and that's the folder I select when I grab the gals from the regular section at the top. (Daz Studio Formats>etc) I open each folder and select ONE image to drag to the Genesis 2 Female (main category we created) so all that is under it are images of my characters! What's nice about this- you get to pick the image you want to represent your gals! Another tip: Do that one at a time and after you have put them under Characters Gen 2F, right click on the image and rename it to JUST YOUR CHARACTER. Many will have !!!!!ApplyHead and will not even have the character's name. If you do several, you might forget who is who and waste time going back.
I don't have them all, but for Genesis 2 Females, if you want to try Categories, and are using the DIM and want to know quickly who some of the Genesis 2 Females are, here's a quick start as to who to install, and where you can quickly find them in Daz Studio Formats (CONTENT LIBRARY.)
In the Daz Studio Format for Genesis 2 Characters, here's the folder location. If it only says their name, that means it's a straight listing, they aren't tucked under different initials or vendor name. I think I did get most of the Victoria 6 gals as I went through looking for Genesis 2 Females.
Another reason I'm listing these is so you can request to see any of the ones you don't have!
The easy ones are Adrianna, Alani, Alessa, Amalthea, Ambie, Amelie HD, Anemone, Aneta-Victoria 6 (I may have added that Victoria 6 part), Aria, Ariadne, Ashley, Ava.
The A's that are playing peek-a-boo are:
LYFW Adrienne- she's on down in the L's and listed as such.
Aileen is under Lyoness. While you're there, grab LY Alysanne.
Aiyana is FWSA
Alora G6 is FW Pixie.
Anabelle is Silver.
Aspen (For Gia) is Morris.
Astrid is FR Astrid and listed as such.
what the heck is going on with Aave's discount of 90%? Be sure and see the scrolling banner for a few of her products with that deep discount! (There's only one I don't have.)
Just so everyone knows, it's like Barbult says, it takes days for customer service to respond. Nothing yet. And yes, the Zendesk is a disaster, you can no longer see your old requests that may or may not have been answered.
Yes, you can see your old requests, but they are kind of hidden. Click on your name up in the upper right had corner of the help desk page, near Submit a Request. I drop down willl appear that lets you select My Activities. My Activities are your old requests.
I tried that before I posted- and there was nothing there for me!
That is strange. I have a whole long list. You didn't change your email address recently did you? I did that several months ago and lost access to every help request I had ever written with the previous email address for my account. My help request to fix my access to help requests yielded no help at all.
I'm having these 3 items removed from my store January 31rst so I thought I'd give everyone one last chance to get them. They are almost 3 years old and I want to keep my store fresh. This is a great opportunity for anyone who has yet to try an Aave product with those awesomely easy to use morphs......I know I had hours of fun playing with the morphs while I was creating these outfits!!!!
Barbult- you're a genius. Yep, it was an email change.
Aave- that is SO generous of you! Like I said, there's only one I didn't have, and I have almost all your products. The fluidity of the material movement, the fantastic poses and the way the material drapes around the legs- WOW. I still remember you coming on the thread and helping me out when I got stuck with user error- love ya!
I'm doing some renders of products bought over at Rendo, how do you folks organize your other site purchases in the studio? I'm afraid to NOT install them the way they're set up, but I don't know how changing a product name will affect if the file paths recognize each other. For example, if these are under Genesis 2 Females>Vendor Name in Content Library, if I tack on REN at the end of it (in the studio, using right click and rename) will it still work fine for the folders that are under it / installed already?
Speaking of installing (ugh) I'm in the middle of downloading a lot with DIM on the new computer, decided to go ahead and download and not wait to categorize, as it's taking me too long to do that and I can't render what I want to do. I'm still on Genesis 2 Female stuff so I have no males installed, and I was on characters so didn't have any hair. So away I go.
The nice thing about DIM is the little "i" information icon that lets me zip straight to the ReadMe. Otherwise, the clunky method of looking up the SKU to go to the docs is STUPID. I also love the three tabs, paricularly the installed section. Which got me thinking- using Connect and downloading, where is the convenient list that shows you what's installed? Simply looking at grayed out images isn't going to cut it. I did buy the Detective Bundle ($5) and THEN I noticed it was encrypted only (2/3 products) and I'm sure I will accidentally buy a few more, so I need to find out where the installed products lists are.
If I had paid more than that, I would be returning the products as I'm not doing encrypted only. It was a habit, I forgot to look first- but I certainly haven't forgotten how to cancel products and any that I mistakenly buy which aren't SUPER deals, will get cancelled. I don't want encrypted only, I love DIM and the ease of finding things for my of workflow. Speaking of which:
TIP FOR NEWBIES: The DIM's installed section can help you zip along when doing scenes. It's super fast to go find something using that "i" in the installed section. Go there, because it's already installed and then you know it's in the studio already! Click on the i, go to the ReadMe, and see immediately where it's located IIn the Content Library, this will really speed you up!
LOL, I have to fess up- it took me a couple months to notice/try the "i."
Have you seen the wonderful Gianni 7 renders over in his thread? Much better than the promo shots. He's a hunk in his thread shots!
Daz changed the Detective Poses to encrypted and didn't say a word. Richard answered someone's question in a thread, and that's all I can find on it. And remember, "most buyers" don't surf the forums. A blue popup banner had better be forthcoming like, NOW, telling people.
I think it was always advertised as being encrypted. The fact that it showed up unencrypted for a short time for some people was the mistake, I think.
Good. I downloaded the drm free version.
I finally got around to trying something I purchased right at the end of 2015: The Artist's Nook. Since this is just a set of props, I had to find a room to put it in, so chose Collective3d Portrait Vignettes Contemporary 4 which is a simple room corner. I added a genesis male at the drawing table and for fun added some of my own art to the easel canvas and the drawing pad. I have a spot I do artwork in, but it's no where near this neat and clean!
The first render is Iray and the second is 3DL. The Iray was very slow for some reason (both the nook and the vignette come with Iray materials) while the 3DL was reasonably fast. I used the bright light set from Architectural Lighting Rig for the 3DL render. An odd observation I made was that the drawing on the pad (which is a primitive plane set on top of the prop pad) rotated 90 degrees in the Iray render, so I had to pre-rotate it to get it right. The 3DL render did not have this problem.
Overall it's a nice set with lots of props that can be used in other scenes. You can also swap out the props and use others you may already have.
(click for larger images)
As long as you don't rename anything under the data or the Runtime/textures (or Runtime/Geometries for Poser content) folder, you are fine.
I am always renaming and moving folders - because I am adding the artists name and sometimes even things from Daz are not ending up where I am going to find them (still using tree view and no smart content).
Agree with Kerya. Caveat: I'm NOT using 4.9 so don't know if it will affect stuff like smart content and the like, as I ONLY use the Product Library (folders). But you can rename ANY PRODUCT FOLDER in DS to what you wish. IE get rid of vanityfolder names, rename "JoeBlow_SexyGreenBarelyThereOutfit_ReallyHot" to "Sexy Green Outfit" etc.