No encrypted for me.
This discussion has been closed.
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
© 2025 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
To this topic? I won't buy 3D content that's been impaired by encryption and/or DRM because I won't pay to be punished for other's offenses -- the claimed justification for doing this to us has to be more than just a side issue.
Try resetting the content DB with a Connect based library... Have fun with that if you're offline. Technically anything not encrypted is still usable... but it sure isn't easy. I can't say about the encrypted, I don't have any. Perhaps someone who does could check if the encrypted products need 'installed' metadata to function or if you can still get the same limited functionality by going to their folder?
The fact that there are insufficient provisions for users that can't be online at all times is a problem for me. (At least the old library system had the ability to re-import metadata while offline and when reimported it didn't treat the product as needing to be installed on top of that.), I'm still looking for a way to automate restoring my library to 'installed' status during the brief periods I do have a connection on my laptop. Currently I'm click click clicking my way through products one by one. And while the encryption isn't at fault for this as I have no encrypted products, the underlying structure of the DRM is making this far more difficult than it should have to be. The biggest annoyance is I can't even say it's a bug. This seems to be 'working as intended' to use a phrase for this kind of issue.
Agree some protection is better that none at all; Daz will decide if what they have done was worthwhile, or has actually even been any protection at all.
However, Daz needs us, not the other way round - there are other sources of products, and other software - I use Blender for instance. Utlimately, I can chose to buy some or all of my wants (not needs) from Daz, or I can chose to go elsewhere.
Daz has added many features for its software, this one I have trouble seeing as an advantage for me. I can't concern myself with what other people make of it, only me.
If Daz Connect only items are half the full price of current ones, would I think differently? I don't know for sure, but I doubt it, as DRM in these circumstances, effectively turns an item from a bought one to a rented one - and I don't know how long the duration of the rental is.
If I'm renting, I want to know up front the duration, and what the renewal options are.
Then why have the import/export feature at all?
Why just Published Artists?
Once again, why only Key Published Artists? What about those of us who would like to learn scripting for DAZ products?
In other words, DAZ doesn't know diddly squat about how they will handle this. You appear to have been sent out in front of the firing squad with the assurance that none of the guns are loaded, but since the unloading procedure is merely on paper, untested, you could be dead in a few minutes. Very brave man?
Are you The Boss? What if you are fired or drop dead tomorrow? What then?
I double checked on this a bit and while the actual files themselves can't be moved around you can still organize content inside of Daz like before (except for the encrypted only content). So most of the content for now will still be manageable from the content library side of things. This probably isn't helpful for you if you are moving the files themselves though.
As more and more content becomes encrypted only, the actual files will become more and more immoveable.
NO, I wouldn't be happy. No encryption and no G3 content. I use Carrara and Poser, in addition to other programs. I stopped purchasing characters with G2F&M. With a 32-bit laptop, using IRay is not an option. DS4.8 will be the highest I go for Studio. I gave up on Hex, Bryce, and Carrara being advanced a long time ago. I'll just sit in in my little corner of the world and work with what I have or get from another site. I have recently bought some M3, V3, and D3 items though.
My relatives who live just outside a prison that does have walkoffs always leave their vehicles unlocked with the keys in the ignition. This makes it far less likely that escapees will try to enter the house and harm people.
I had the same thought. Right now, out walking the streets or going about their business, there are criminals amongst us. We don't know who most of them are though and they don't wear signs. So the easiest thing to do is lock everyone up, guilty and innocent alike, just to be on the safe side. If we simply treat everyone as potential criminals, then we could completely eradicate crime altogether! And it saves us the hassle of having to identify and track down the real criminals.
There. I solved crime
.
Oh my.
Extreme, and it would just relocate the crime. :)
I've only invested in the G3 characters because, well I'm a packrat collector with a bit of disposable income and just wanted to see what it was all about. Not really impressed, characters mostly white pretty bland but I support the artists and some look ok. Not upgrading to 4.9, seems like too many issues. I have so much BEAUTIFUL V4 textures and have been on a mission converting the textures and characters to G2, and since other content stores still support V4 even for iray I'm up to my eyeballs in V4. Just waiting for the point that DAZ sell connect only content because that's where DAZ and I will have to part and besides, there's other fish in the sea.
Corporate silence continues with Hexagon and Bryce too. In fact, whenever any particular thing you want or need is met with corporate silence, then you should assume that it's not being done. And I'd even go so far as to say that if the corporate silence has formed a "Cone of Silence" around the entire product (Bryce, Hex), then you must assume that the product is approaching the end of its life span.
And on to Day 3 of the new login required system restricting my content usage...
I know I can use it by navigating through the cloud folders but I get no smart content functionality that way. And some expansions seem to be unable to find the files from the product they expand, likely because Studio doesn't think they're installed.
My options thus far seem to be:
1. Reinstall my content in the brief times I have connection to the internet. A tedious process even for a small library.
2. Reinstall everything from backups. An even more tedious process as I then have to remove copies from the cloud directory to keep duplicates from eating all my free space.
3. Give up and just not use Daz content on this system till I can finish 1 or 2.
I don't have enough space on this machine to tie up a large section of it holding backup installers for my whole library, and given that the products are still fully downloaded and in place I should be able to tell it to forgo looking for an update and just work with what's already there. However since Connect wants that check-in so it can make sure I still am allowed to use that product, I'm stuck. And again this looks like how it should be in the new system. There's a lot inconvenience to me, but nothing showing any instability or unpredictable behaviour in Studio. I've put in a ticket for how it seems to slow down after several 'installs' and I explained the rest of the issue, but I hold little hope of a simple solution.
I would be surprised if any of the Hexagon and Bryce developers still worked for DAZ. If not, then short of dragging back the old guys on a contract basis, it would be very hard for someone who had never worked on them to come in and do the necessary enhancements.
This is correct. Oh.. and most physical locks don't work. Last I read, some 70% of locks are still bumpable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock_bumping
Deterant's generally block stupid stuff and prevent little kids from gettin gup to no good.
I have serious doubts that DRM will change anything, or result in more profits or sales in any fashion.
Whoa.
Anybody breaking out of prison will not just need transportation; they will also need a change of clothing and money, therefore a certain percentage of escapees will consider breaking into the nearest houses anyway, even if there's an unlocked car in the driveway.
So if you live near a prison, you should probably home carry.
Yeah, OT, I know. So I'll add this:
It's not so much the fear of encrypted content or DRM (but it IS, yes it is DRM). It's because you have to install "one-at-a-time" and as somebody else has outlined, if the Connect database gets wacky-whoo-whoo for any reason, you end up having to install everything all over again. One. At. A. Time.
User inconveniences are not my cup of tea, so I'm suddenly getting into the habit of looking at anything in my cart and removing those things that don't let me install via DIM.
I'm also resisting the temptation of buying something because it's a 75% off Connect item, or because it's a free Connect item when you buy another item. I have my dignity.
No, but this thread is filled with people bragging about how much they've spent here and how they're going to cut back on spending or shop elsewhere over something that nearly none of them have actually experienced any problems with yet. It's been six days since this began, we simply need to give it more time and address any actual issues before people talk about "taking their toys and going home".
:sigh:
I said that because I thought it would be better for all parties to cool down a bit and get back to actually having legitimate questions asked and answers given. Things like "do I have to sign in to DAZ using Connect every time I want to use my encrypted content?" rather than "can we take legal action against DAZ and/or get a refund if they go bankrupt and I can no longer access the detective coat I bought four years ago?"
I agree. But why does DAZ have to be silent about that? Just make 'em free and tell us, "these products are at end-of-development and are being offered on an 'as is' basis, without any warrantee or guarantee of any kind." [sarc]Good communication is just too hard, I know... [/sarc]
Well the new login required for things that don't need it is throwing a real monkey wrench in my studio usage. Right now at least nearly everything I've tried in hopes of somehow actually fixing my issue keeps hitting login screens with no 'do this offline, i know the files are there' option.
I'd love to hear from anyone with encrypted content if that can handle my specific situation (product already installed, offline, database reset, metadata restored but not seen as 'installed') any better or if it's less usable than the unencrypted stuff. I just wouldn't ask anyone to reset their database to check. Even if I had a connection on the laptop it'd be a tedious process to fix.
Actually, the last time Daz really broke their store, I rage quit the place. I went from spending thousands $$$ here to spending a trickle. Most of my money since then has gone to Renderosity, and RuntimeDNA. I might add that content I buy over in those places is often better than what I can find here, and generally comes with better texture work. Daz would now be a healthy $5k up if they hadn't botched it all up. (I can't even remember why what ticked me so much either.)
So apart from core products, and some of the better vendors, I try to avoid Daz's store.
In this case, I'm not upset about encryption. I'm upset about Daz altering my install and work flow. (The time tell people not to use directores for installs was years ago. Now is too f*cking.)
You can still organize your content how you want by dragging and dropping shortcuts from the Smart Content panel to the Content Library panel. I am reinstalling my content now using this method to get used to it and try and get a little more organized. It's not exactly the same as the manual folder method we're used to, but it's quite similar.
So you're still not shopping here even though you can't remember why you left in the first place? uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
LOL, truly internet forums are where common sense goes to die.
And if smart content or connect goes down we're dead in the water with links until they start working again. Not so with files. So there's that.
btw I have other reasons for refusing to upgrade to 4.9 that are nothing to do with DRM, but that would be off topic (and probably speculative).
Arguing over which word should be used to describe the offences is not relevant, and was in fact sidetracking the discussion of the topic.
Anyone will be able to write scripts, but I would expect Daz to work with the PA script creators so they can modify any existing scripts that get broken by the new system. Rob has, as he can, been working on the scripting docs.
Silence does not necessarily imply that no work is being done. As I recall the DS change-log went quiet before the public betas of 4.8 and 4.9, because of Iray and Daz Connect, but that certainly didn't indicate that development had stopped, as witness Iray and Daz Connect (whatever your view of their usefulness). I'm pretty sure soemone, Rob I think, did make some comments in one of the DS Beta threads on developments towards Genesis 3 support in Carrara - I can't recall if he also mentioned Connect support though.
From what I have read and understood if you have intermittent connectivity your best bet might be to install everything via DIM, use Batch Convert to make sure that all of the files are compressed, and then go online and install using Connect (remember that you can multi-seelct items to install). That should alrgely copy the files from the local isntallation, only needing to use the connection to validate them and download any files that have been changed in the time since your last DIM download. I'd try that wih a small batch of items first - especially as you want to keep disc usage down.
That's pretty reasonable. There was silence long after Bryce6 and it was pretty obvious that Bryce was done and dusted. I said so with conviction.
And then all of a sudden Bryce7 was coming out. So no, you must not assume.
Having said that, Bryce is now done and dusted.
...I (and most likely others here would) find that supposition just a little offensive and just as much a "if, this..." statement.
I am on a very tight fixed income. I have to weigh out whether I can justify even a 10$ purchase based on how much use would it get. Even so, when I've seen instances where Daz content was pirated, I reported it.
To a PA, downloading a pirated file would be akin to someone stealing say, 20$, from you or I. Thus, "Sticking it to Daz" really means "sticking it" to people who are not much different than you or I. PAs don't make a whole lot of money at this, especially in light of the time and effort along with the cost of the tools it takes to create, test, and package said content.
Petercat's comment:
...would be an excellent test to compare which version received more sales. Maybe Daz should try this. I wouldn't be surprised if some customers who purchased the encrypted version wouldn't ask for a refund, then turn around and purchase the unencrypted one.
My comment about "corporate silence" was directed at Hexagon, Bryce, and to a somewhat lesser extent, Carrara. But now that you raise the issue, I guess it could apply to "features" such as Connect. Yeah, I'll go along with that.
But to my direct point in that post, the silence on Hexagon and Bryce have gone on for more years than I have thumbs. In fact, I would need to use multiple thumbs and multiple fingers to count the years of silence for either of these two products. That should not be acceptable to any reasonable person. Especially in the absence of a statement made to inform the user community that these products are "as-is" with no warranty promised or implied, and an appropriate caution that they could stop working in part or in whole with a future update of the operating system or other software.
The silence on Carrara, while not quite so long, has been longer than the last DS lifecycle (DAZ Studio 4.8). This too is an unreasonable length of silence.
With no other information available and no official corporate statements to guide paying customers (whether paying for the software or the content, we are paying), what are we to believe? Does DAZ expect us to hold out hope indefinitely; to stay on software that is no longer cutting edge? Is that a reasonable expectation when other companies in this industry provide semi-annual, annual, or "dotted annual (1)" updates for their other software?
Corporate silence of any extreme length of time bothers me as an ethical issue. It should bother everybody, including employees, executive management, and officers of the company being silent.
(1) My term as a musician. A "dotted" note should be played for the length value of the note plus half of that value. So a dotted eighth note would be equivalent to three sixteenth notes tied together. Likewise, a dotted half-note would be held for the length of three beats.
Hence, "Dotted Annual" = 18 month.
[Bold Emphasis mine]
...that is my concern as well since the encrypted products are Daz Originals which the PC+ gives members a price break on.
...so I wonder if they'll do the same to Modo since they acquired The Foundry.
...well, not an option for myself as I find Blender's learning curve (just for the application itself) to be akin to free climbing El Capitan in a blinding snowstorm.