outrider42 said:

NotAnArtist said: stuff

...

Daz is raising prices on digital goods that already existed before the crisis began. Goods that were already on their servers, and some goods long before a downturn happened.

...

How is a 2.5 times increase on an old digital good defensible? While there may be a limit of Daz users, there is no actual limit to how many digital goods Daz can sell. If 100 million people wanted to buy Victoria they can do so. There is nothing stopping them as long as the website doesn't crash. But 100 million people cannot buy a high end GPU, because they don't exist in that number. There is a genuine supply and demand there. It is not my problem that Daz does not have 100 million users. Maybe they need to do a better job expanding their customer base.

...

Also, I don't blame the PAs at all. They don't make these sales up. They can only approve of what products go in what sales.

Wow, your points wipe my points! Maybe I just have some 'love' left over for the Daz team, or maybe I'm insane. I mean, me, defending a corporation?

Seriously, I think my point was that I assume the PAs also get paid more from sales of their old products when they're sold for more, same as the new stuff. I love the PAs, so that's who I felt I was defending. If the corporates get all the booty, I'm out'a here!

I would love the Daz techies as well if they'd provide us with something for higher quality rendering that wouldn't put many of us in debt, though. There are people working on iray, why not give some love to Filament as well, considering the increasing stress we're under? It would help ALL of us in one way or another, PAs included, as I've already been redundant about.

Thanks for your comments. I stand corrected, or at least a bit tilted :)

You can load the Victoria 4 content through the Content Library, you don't have to use Smart Content - just remember that it will appear under Poser Formats, not Daz Studio Formats.

outrider42 said:

NotAnArtist said:

I guess I should have made my earlier points here more in the form of a question. Is it a shock that prices go up in economic downturns? Everything else has gone up, why all the complaints??

Again: There are other, more supportive things that could be done for customers like us, while the prices do necessarily remain higher.

Make changes to the software so that we can be more productive with it being less expensive to do so. This is the only thing they could be doing to compensate for our "misery" with inflated pricing.

As I said earlier, I've been working with an old, weak machine. I don't care what the prices of props are because I have little reason to buy them as long as any possible use of them is so extremely limited by the cost of rendering!

I have finally put together a small machine to replace my old, overheating one. It will only handle musical hobbies. It will not handle iray or several tools any better than my old one. Why should I spend money on an outrageously expensive system? I'm only a hobbyist!

I'm frankly amazed at the complaining over prices in this thread. It's like some here are more addicted to buying things than they are to creating things! My only wish is for Filament to be made as fast yet attractive as it could be, and my purchases here will remain at minimum until that happens.

I'm looking at the larger picture, because we're heading for some possibly very bad times.

Prices on Steam are basically the same as they have been for, oh, 10+ years. So I don't buy this argument for one second. These are DIGITAL assets. When you buy gas or food that is product with a finite distribution, and it all has pricing coming from the components that make them a finished product. 

Daz is raising prices on digital goods that already existed before the crisis began. Goods that were already on their servers, and some goods long before a downturn happened.

Now perhaps the rent went up for Daz. I can get that. But again, as I said earlier, if this was just one thing it would be accepted. If the prices went up a little bit, it would be accepted. But the prices on offer are not even close. We are talking a 2.5x price increase on grab bag items.

2.5X!

That alone outpaces the rate of inflation. Then you add all of the other stuff on top of that, and it gets to be pretty outragious.

You cannot spin the discount being less than some previous discounts in similarly structured offers as the price rising - the base price on these items has not, as far as I am aware, increased. That doesn't mean you cannot comment on or complain about the offer compared to previous offers, but it is not a price rise.

How is a 2.5 times increase on an old digital good defensible? While there may be a limit of Daz users, there is no actual limit to how many digital goods Daz can sell. If 100 million people wanted to buy Victoria they can do so. There is nothing stopping them as long as the website doesn't crash. But 100 million people cannot buy a high end GPU, because they don't exist in that number. There is a genuine supply and demand there. It is not my problem that Daz does not have 100 million users. Maybe they need to do a better job expanding their customer base.

And if most people are hobby users, who is going to get hurt more by an economic downturn? Are people going to skip gas or food to keep buying digital goods?

Um, no. Descretionary spending is the first to get pulled back in any downturn. 

So in reality, can Daz truly afford to raise prices? I don't think so. But as I also said earlier, the success of the sale will determine the answer.

Also, I don't blame the PAs at all. They don't make these sales up. They can only approve of what products go in what sales.

NotAnArtist said:

I guess I should have made my earlier points here more in the form of a question. Is it a shock that prices go up in economic downturns? Everything else has gone up, why all the complaints??

Again: There are other, more supportive things that could be done for customers like us, while the prices do necessarily remain higher.

Make changes to the software so that we can be more productive with it being less expensive to do so. This is the only thing they could be doing to compensate for our "misery" with inflated pricing.

As I said earlier, I've been working with an old, weak machine. I don't care what the prices of props are because I have little reason to buy them as long as any possible use of them is so extremely limited by the cost of rendering!

I have finally put together a small machine to replace my old, overheating one. It will only handle musical hobbies. It will not handle iray or several tools any better than my old one. Why should I spend money on an outrageously expensive system? I'm only a hobbyist!

I'm frankly amazed at the complaining over prices in this thread. It's like some here are more addicted to buying things than they are to creating things! My only wish is for Filament to be made as fast yet attractive as it could be, and my purchases here will remain at minimum until that happens.

I'm looking at the larger picture, because we're heading for some possibly very bad times.

Prices on Steam are basically the same as they have been for, oh, 10+ years. So I don't buy this argument for one second. These are DIGITAL assets. When you buy gas or food that is product with a finite distribution, and it all has pricing coming from the components that make them a finished product. 

Daz is raising prices on digital goods that already existed before the crisis began. Goods that were already on their servers, and some goods long before a downturn happened.

Now perhaps the rent went up for Daz. I can get that. But again, as I said earlier, if this was just one thing it would be accepted. If the prices went up a little bit, it would be accepted. But the prices on offer are not even close. We are talking a 2.5x price increase on grab bag items.

2.5X!

That alone outpaces the rate of inflation. Then you add all of the other stuff on top of that, and it gets to be pretty outragious.

How is a 2.5 times increase on an old digital good defensible? While there may be a limit of Daz users, there is no actual limit to how many digital goods Daz can sell. If 100 million people wanted to buy Victoria they can do so. There is nothing stopping them as long as the website doesn't crash. But 100 million people cannot buy a high end GPU, because they don't exist in that number. There is a genuine supply and demand there. It is not my problem that Daz does not have 100 million users. Maybe they need to do a better job expanding their customer base.

And if most people are hobby users, who is going to get hurt more by an economic downturn? Are people going to skip gas or food to keep buying digital goods?

Um, no. Descretionary spending is the first to get pulled back in any downturn. 

So in reality, can Daz truly afford to raise prices? I don't think so. But as I also said earlier, the success of the sale will determine the answer.

Also, I don't blame the PAs at all. They don't make these sales up. They can only approve of what products go in what sales.

You already have the clones you need for that - they are what enables AutoFit, and you can AutoFit Victoria 4 stuff to Genesis (load the Victoria 4 iem, fit it to Genesis, and set Victoria 4 as the original figure) and then AutofIt the Genesis version to Genesis 8 Female (fit the covnerted item to Genesis 8 Female instead of Genessi and select Genesis as the original figure). Searching the store for autofit wil find most of the add-ons, which handle transitions not suported by the base content or aim to work better than the defaults.

To explain in slightly more detail: Victoria 4 products are usually not compatable with G8F. Because Victoria 4 is an extremely old character. The name "Victoria" is just the name that is used for the first core female figure of each new generation. As in Victoria 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 8.1. If you are new to this I would recommend sticking with the Genesis 8/8.1 figures since they are the most current and probably the easiest for a new user to work with. Genesis 8 Female has many add-on characters for it, including a Victoria 8/8.1. The G8F Body morphs that you linked to are ONLY compatable with G8F not Victoria 4.

Victoria 4 was released in 2006.

Genesis 8 Female was released in 2017.

Entry: 11

Title: Get away from her you b%$#t

Artist:  Bunyip02

Link to WIP: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/7274496/#Comment_7274496

                     https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/7277826/#Comment_7277826

Credits: Victoria 4 - https://www.daz3d.com/victoria-4-2-base
             Trendy Baby - https://www.daz3d.com/trendy-baby
             Aussie Girl Outfit - https://www.daz3d.com/aussie-girl-outfit
             Tatiana Hair - https://www.daz3d.com/tatiana-hair
             Aliens Power Loader - https://www.vanishingpoint.biz/freeitemdetail.asp?FreeItemID=44
             Alien Queen - Sixus1/Antares
             Sci-Fi Hangar A - https://www.daz3d.com/sci-fi-hanger-a

Comments: Aliens

Hi, I'm brand new at using Daz3D.  My question at the moment involves the ability or lack thereof to combine products meant for different figures.  If I buy a clothing package meant for Victoria 4 (which I'm given to understand is a very popular figure to build products off of), and a set of poses meant for Genesis 8 Female, is it competely impossible to combine features from these two products on the same model?

In general I can understand some products being prorietary to others.  My puzzlement is coming from the fact that, again, Victoria seems to be a "standard" figure to use as a basis; but if products based on it are incompatible with ones based on Genesis 8 Female, and vice versa, that seems like a pretty big restriction.  This for example seems like a fairly standard product; is it incompatible with anything made for/using Victoria?

spuddy - thank you. No fisheye, rectangular 180° Bryce camera but yes, of course, you get distortions at the borders. The pole of the signpost in the HDRI is also not round. I fiddled long with Michael's distortion and matching the cast shadow with the one from the pole. Victoria is in the centre of the picture and the proportions therefore correct. Getting the shadow colours to match with the one in the HDRI also took me quite a while.

I find the haze line at the horizon an improvement but think it is a tad sharp. But I know it can be very difficult to have the haze fade upwards correctly. I hope you know that the Cumulus cloud height also controls the haze, even if the clouds as such are disabled.

The second one Waiting for the Turtle looks great, I think the colour of the rather shallow water matches the ground perfectly - and where the water gets deeper at the lower right corner really makes it look perfect - unfortunately, this makes it somehow less eye catching.

mermaid - thank you.

Novica said:

Here's an article for you. Note this last paragraph (fun statistics)  Article

Daz 3D has created the most artist-friendly digital marketplace, paying nearly $100 million to its global network of contributing artists. Users of Daz Studio create more than 20 million images and animations annually. With over 3 million downloads, Daz continues to drive efforts at the forefront of digital identity and expression.

Daz is a subsidiary of Tafi Co?  I would think it was the other way around.  Anyway, going on 4am and I have to get some zzz's and then do yard work all day. We're have 78-80 degree days in Feb and beginning of March, it's crazy, going down in the 30's at night but last night/this morning. Currently 51 degrees. So yard work and off the computer, but I'll check back in periodically. Sitting out most of MM except the 4.99 stuff.  How do you guys feel about that Knight series dragging on for FIVE weeks? 

History

Originally a part of Zygote Media Group, a general purpose, application-agnostic broker of 3D content, Daz 3D split off as Digital Art Zone[7] in 2000[8] to focus on supplying content for the Poser market. The company no longer uses that name, and does not treat "Daz" as an acronym for it.[9]

In 2016, Daz 3D spun off Tafi, a 3D-content company intended to focus more on the game developer market.

The first Poser products I bought came from Zygote (DAZ) and they were for Poser 3 just before Poser 4 came out and before Victoria came out

Do you think it affects the base figure G8M, or a specific variable loaded with it?
I first observe the phenomenon with a ready-made character that I use more often.
 
In the females, other abnormalities have developed over time.
Example:
No matter which G8F I load, I get the message G8F female not found, but available.
checking the settings used always shows the same thing.
instead of just loading the used body, head and base, Victoria's head and body is always at 100% and needs to be set to zero to see the loaded morph.
I compared this with another DAZ user who doesn't see this happen.
in addition, two unloaded morphs are loaded, which also have to be deactivated.

often, when loading a purchased pose, the character gets an evil face, uses no expressions have been loaded, a lot of adjusted parameters of the mimic and additionally one or more mimics have been installed, the ones that disfigure the face the most.
a reset of the face is usually ineffective, and it takes a lot of time to set everything to zero, since many things are dependent.

Deleting morphs and expressions is also not a good idea, as loading a previously created sceene leads to countless error messages that are looking for the affected morphs even though they were not used

Greetings Gerald

spuddy - very nice entry (inspired me), beautifully rich vegetation. A tiny bit of haze towards the horizon could probably help to blur the sharp water-sky line.

My first entry.
Title: Wide View
Used: Michael and Victoria, Hyper Textures Expansion (from Daz 3D), Illhorn HDRI (comes with Bryce 7.1)
Note: Camera FOV 180°.

Honzo said:

Well, now in smart content, V4 and M4 both show up as warning icons, and clicking on them loads an information window but not the figure. Yeesh. How can I make them behave like regular figures in the menu?

Because they are old figures with Poser product structure.

Victoria 4.2 was released in 2006 and Michael 4 was released in 2008. The first references to "Smart Content" can be found on DS 4.8.0.59 change log, and that was in 2015

Those figures are meant to be loaded from "Poser Formats" in your Content Library under [name of your product library]\Figures\

Leana said:

Richard Haseltine said:

Items for Victoria 4.1 will work on 4.2 - the differences were not, as I rcall, major. Even Victoria 4 items should work.

IIRC the main difference between V4.0 and 4.1 was that V4.0 had all morphs preloaded in the cr2, like V2 or A3, while V4.1 used INJ/REM morphs like V3. The eyebrows bodypart might have been added with 4.1 too, I don't remember if it was 4.1 or 4.2.

The main differences between V4.1 and 4.2 were the switch to Exp system for morphs, and the addition of the male morph.

I can't recall whether ExP was 4.1 or 4.2 - I thought 4.2 was more a service pack than a major overhaul. The eyebrow bone was certainly 4.1.

Richard Haseltine said:

Items for Victoria 4.1 will work on 4.2 - the differences were not, as I rcall, major. Even Victoria 4 items should work.

Yeah, but they don't.

Richard Haseltine said:

Items for Victoria 4.1 will work on 4.2 - the differences were not, as I rcall, major. Even Victoria 4 items should work.

IIRC the main difference between V4.0 and 4.1 was that V4.0 had all morphs preloaded in the cr2, like V2 or A3, while V4.1 used INJ/REM morphs like V3. The eyebrows bodypart might have been added with 4.1 too, I don't remember if it was 4.1 or 4.2.

The main differences between V4.1 and 4.2 were the switch to Exp system for morphs, and the addition of the male morph.

Items for Victoria 4.1 will work on 4.2 - the differences were not, as I rcall, major. Even Victoria 4 items should work.

Here's something I created for a fanzine. I definitely spent too much time making this, but it was a learning experience to try recreating the coloring effects/processes of comics from the 1970s-1980s. My workflow is pretty standard: Original renders created in Poser Pro 11 with the Comic Book Preview. I then clean up and composite the work in Clip Studio Paint. I used a new toolset for this that I purchased from the Vintage Texture Supply Co., KraftTone. KraftTone is a set of brushes designed to duplicate the look of old comics. It's an interesting set of tools that has a lot to offer. I'm just scratching the surface with this stuff, but I think this mostly came out okay.

Figure is Victoria 4 wearing the Red Sonja costume by TerryMcG.

I don't know if the shading tone dots are going to reproduce well here, or not.

Are you using it on Victoria 4?