LeatherGryphon said:

Complaint:  Being too enthusiastic:  Arghhh..., today I received a package from Amazon. Yay!  One of the things in the package was a flat (half carton) of eight ounce aluminum cans of V8 Juice (a blend of tomato + seven other veggies juice) that I like to have on hand for breakfast (one can provides two 4 ounce servings).  The cans were in the cardboard flat and wrapped in heavy plastic shrink wrap.  I set the flat on my kitchen counter, grabbed my box knife (new blade recently installed), and swipped along the cardboard to cut two sides of the flat so I could tease the plastic wrap from the flat.  Unfortunately, I was a little too aggressive with my box cutter, and the blade was extended just a bit too far, and I sliced through the plastic, through the cardboard, and through the wall of one of the cans.  The juice is not carbonated but apparently the juice is slightly under pressure (temperature, deformity, or whatever) in the can and loves to be let free and spray when the opportunity arises.  What followed was a rush to discover which can was spraying, then remove it, wash it, and all the other cans near it, wipe up the juice that had accumulated in the bottom of the cardboard flat, and test all the other potentially sliced cans.  Luckily it was just the one can, which I emptied into a mug and put into the refrigerator for the next two day's breakfast.

Interesting Discovery:  After reading the link to the decription of V8 Juice above, I noticed that the type that I buy (Low Sodium V8) not only lowers the sodium by 70% but is also a source of potassium which I also need to avoid leg cramps.  Cool!

...thankfully it was a can and not your fingers or hand 

Seen eough box cutter mishaps having worked in warehousing and shipping for two decades.

wsterdan said:

FrankTheTank said:

I asked HelpDesk to weigh in on it, so we can put it to rest one way or the other. Also for clarity, I also don't actually use Mimic. I assumed that Lip Sync found in the 32bit version of Daz Studio was part of Mimic, but now that I think about it, thats not really relevant. I use the Lip Sync that comes free with the 32bit version of Daz Studio. I use the DMC files included with that as part of Daz Studio. I've never installed Mimic, I've never agreed to a Mimic TOS, only a Daz TOS. So the DMC files I have are part of Daz Studio. So I think it should be up to Daz how I use those DMC files and not the TOS for Mimic 3.0 or whatever which I have never used. But in any case, I'll see what they say and let you guys know. 

The 32-bit DAZ Studio lip sync is still "Mimic". DAZ, if I understand correctly, licensed it for the 32-bit DAZ Studio and never did for the 64-bit version, though they did for their other 64-bit Mimic plug-ins and products.

By they way, I did finally get a response from the help desk yesterday. They said that we can share the DMC configuration files "unless they get a takedown request from the publisher", also they said they notified the forum mods as well that we can share the .dmc files,  so I will attach mine here for G9 based on the suggestions mentioned in the thread in case anyone needs it.

Product Suggestiuons was originally a "things I'd like to see", but of course the response was often "well, what about ..." so it naturally generalises to an in-search-of forum.

There is obviously a misunderstanding of the Forum section label "Product Suggestion".
Many users as well the adminitrators treat it as some kind of lost and found section, while I understand it literary as a request for items, I'd like to see here in the store.
So, with all of my requests, that I've posted in the past, I already did the researches before.
Many suggested items I already own or they look quite outdated.
My hope is mostly, that some vendor might feel inspired and pick up that idea.
In this case, my request has been rooted in watching yt videos about homes designed by Frank Loyed Wright, Richard Neutra or Donald Wexler.
And I know, that some few examples already exist, but I am looking foreward to new stuff.

Complaint:  Being too enthusiastic:  Arghhh..., today I received a package from Amazon. Yay!  One of the things in the package was a flat (half carton) of eight ounce aluminum cans of V8 Juice (a blend of tomato + seven other veggies juice) that I like to have on hand for breakfast (one can provides two 4 ounce servings).  The cans were in the cardboard flat and wrapped in heavy plastic shrink wrap.  I set the flat on my kitchen counter, grabbed my box knife (new blade recently installed), and swipped along the cardboard to cut two sides of the flat so I could tease the plastic wrap from the flat.  Unfortunately, I was a little too aggressive with my box cutter, and the blade was extended just a bit too far, and I sliced through the plastic, through the cardboard, and through the wall of one of the cans.  The juice is not carbonated but apparently the juice is slightly under pressure (temperature, deformity, or whatever) in the can and loves to be let free and spray when the opportunity arises.  What followed was a rush to discover which can was spraying, then remove it, wash it, and all the other cans near it, wipe up the juice that had accumulated in the bottom of the cardboard flat, and test all the other potentially sliced cans.  Luckily it was just the one can, which I emptied into a mug and put into the refrigerator for the next two day's breakfast.

Interesting Discovery:  After reading the link to the decription of V8 Juice above, I noticed that the type that I buy (Low Sodium V8) not only lowers the sodium by 70% but is also a source of potassium which I also need to avoid leg cramps.  Cool!

Semicharm said:

Cybersox said:

AsuCafe said:

It's all a game. To get amazing discounts, you first need a premium membership, accumulate a lot of tokens on Mondays or Tuesdays, buy specific items every few days to trigger the discount, and finally, five carefully selected items and one item with a half-price code are chosen.

I really enjoy this money-saving game. In my country, saving money is a virtue. Now I'm considering things more carefully. Besides whether I actually need this, I also hope artists can earn enough money. I don't need to chase the biggest discounts for artists I like, but the expensive hardware is ruining everything. My SSD can't hold all the new stuff I bought, and my computer crashes frequently while rendering. I'd have to stop shopping here for a whole year to save up for a new computer.

 

You might want to try getting an old-school external harddrive and keeping your product libraries there.  More reliable than SSDs, the speed difference is fairly neglibigle in terms of search and loading times, and tons more storage for the same dollar even though the price for an 8TB model has gone up from around $129 to $200+US in the last two years. 

I'd noticed an improvement going from a hard drive to a SATA SSD, back when those were relevant. The Gen 4 M.2 SSD in my new system is considerably faster than that. Given the number of random files Genesis figures load, my DS libraries would be the last thing I would put on a hard drive. However, I don't install every item I buy. I download the product zip files to the hard drive and only install the items on the SSD as I use them. I find that to be a better balance of speed vs storage cost. 

In the past 10 years, I've had problems with three hard drives, one outright failing. Only that first SATA SSD gave my any problems, and it was at least five years old by then. I'd transfered everything over to a new SSD without any trouble. A decent SSD will last quite a while. I wouldn't trust any with QLC chips as a main drive though. Drives with TLC chips were reasonably priced when I got mine, but the price of all of them have gone up since then.  

The price of everything computer related has gotten crazy, as the major manufacturers are unable to meet the demand for all the AI datacenters and everything I've read says that's only going to get worse before it gets better, if ever.  That said, with HDD'syou can get 8TB+ in a single drive for the price of a 2TB on an SSD, which makes them a a far more economical choice for expanding storage, and definitely cheaper than buying a whole new computer.  As far as reliability  goes, I've been running multiple harddrives for the last 20 years and I've had two HDD drives fail in all that time, one within a year of purchase.  By comparison, I've had 2 SSD drives fail in the last 10 years, one of which held my then-current copy of DAZ studio... but since all my libraries were broken down across several externals I didn't lose any of my pre-built scenes or characters.  SSD's are technically more reliable for portable use due to the lack of moving parts, but are more likely to fail due to power and firmware isues, and then there's the fact that flash memory has a limited number of cycles.   

richardandtracy said:

garrett_3d said:

So, if @richardandtracy suddenly disappears from the forum, we know the reason why 

Agreed, not feeding cats the second food is demanded is a capital offence in our household. Regards, Richard

You're the lucky one. I'm expected to feed Lucy BEFORE she starts to demand food 

Cybersox said:

AsuCafe said:

It's all a game. To get amazing discounts, you first need a premium membership, accumulate a lot of tokens on Mondays or Tuesdays, buy specific items every few days to trigger the discount, and finally, five carefully selected items and one item with a half-price code are chosen.

I really enjoy this money-saving game. In my country, saving money is a virtue. Now I'm considering things more carefully. Besides whether I actually need this, I also hope artists can earn enough money. I don't need to chase the biggest discounts for artists I like, but the expensive hardware is ruining everything. My SSD can't hold all the new stuff I bought, and my computer crashes frequently while rendering. I'd have to stop shopping here for a whole year to save up for a new computer.

 

You might want to try getting an old-school external harddrive and keeping your product libraries there.  More reliable than SSDs, the speed difference is fairly neglibigle in terms of search and loading times, and tons more storage for the same dollar even though the price for an 8TB model has gone up from around $129 to $200+US in the last two years. 

I'd noticed an improvement going from a hard drive to a SATA SSD, back when those were relevant. The Gen 4 M.2 SSD in my new system is considerably faster than that. Given the number of random files Genesis figures load, my DS libraries would be the last thing I would put on a hard drive. However, I don't install every item I buy. I download the product zip files to the hard drive and only install the items on the SSD as I use them. I find that to be a better balance of speed vs storage cost. 

In the past 10 years, I've had problems with three hard drives, one outright failing. Only that first SATA SSD gave my any problems, and it was at least five years old by then. I'd transfered everything over to a new SSD without any trouble. A decent SSD will last quite a while. I wouldn't trust any with QLC chips as a main drive though. Drives with TLC chips were reasonably priced when I got mine, but the price of all of them have gone up since then.  

It is now up to 61.6% load. I mention it because for today, you can look at my time stamps and get an idea how long it is taking to load. In the future, I think the forum just lists date. But for now, you can see minutes. It took 17 minutes to advance another 4.8% of the load.

Cybersox said:

You might want to try getting an old-school external harddrive and keeping your product libraries there.  More reliable than SSDs, the speed difference is fairly neglibigle in terms of search and loading times, and tons more storage for the same dollar even though the price for an 8TB model has gone up from around $129 to $200+US in the last two years. 

Agreed, 8Tb game drives work quite well for expanded storage and backup. 

magikhs said:

Speaking of Sansa Stark: I came across this 3D Sansa not long ago. Beautiful and very realistic, innit?

(Picture removed because it breaks the display options of my monitor)

I LIIIIVE for these GoT characters. What a moment in time, that show was. And Sansa I think was my favorite. Queen of the North! ^^

Great picture. But please try to learn how to insert picture links properly, as there is (was?) supposed a limit to the size in which the picture is displayed here in the forum.

AsuCafe said:

It's all a game. To get amazing discounts, you first need a premium membership, accumulate a lot of tokens on Mondays or Tuesdays, buy specific items every few days to trigger the discount, and finally, five carefully selected items and one item with a half-price code are chosen.

I really enjoy this money-saving game. In my country, saving money is a virtue. Now I'm considering things more carefully. Besides whether I actually need this, I also hope artists can earn enough money. I don't need to chase the biggest discounts for artists I like, but the expensive hardware is ruining everything. My SSD can't hold all the new stuff I bought, and my computer crashes frequently while rendering. I'd have to stop shopping here for a whole year to save up for a new computer.

 

You might want to try getting an old-school external harddrive and keeping your product libraries there.  More reliable than SSDs, the speed difference is fairly neglibigle in terms of search and loading times, and tons more storage for the same dollar even though the price for an 8TB model has gone up from around $129 to $200+US in the last two years. 

Nice looking reference image. 

It's probably going to be difficult to find a skin with the thunder / glowing cracks effect.
Not sure if it helps, but here are some skins that could possibly work as a base that come to mind:

https://www.daz3d.com/se-veira-for-genesis-9

https://www.daz3d.com/isana-strange-details-add-on
https://www.daz3d.com/dax-avalange (Dax has lots of different alien types)

https://www.daz3d.com/pendragon (Pendragon also features lots of unique looking alien/fantasy/creature like skins).

https://www.daz3d.com/pn-thalyn-for-genesis-9

https://www.daz3d.com/planetary-smuggler-hd-for-genesis-8-female

https://www.daz3d.com/izaro-sharu-and-bodysuit-for-genesis-8-female

https://www.daz3d.com/lie-skin-blends

https://www.daz3d.com/twiztedmetal (Also often has interesting and unique skins)

https://www.daz3d.com/maddelirium

https://www.daz3d.com/fpe-hd-fantasy-skins-aquatic-for-genesis-9

https://www.daz3d.com/ndfp-akhane-for-genesis-9

https://www.daz3d.com/fenixphoenix (FenixPhoenix has some interesting skins and skin-effects).

V3Digitimes also has some really cool skin shader effect bundles for fantasy/alien skin:

https://www.daz3d.com/fantasy-skins-for-genesis-81-bundle

https://www.daz3d.com/fantasy-skins-for-genesis-8

Not sure if I'm allowed to post direct links to other sites, but you can also check out Hellfyre71 on the other popular store for Daz3D assets, same with Maddelirium.

I would search either for an alien or a demon for a base skin for something like this.

You could then either draw the lighning effect using Photoshop/Gimp or Affinity yourself or use some readily made lightning effects:

https://www.daz3d.com/rons-lightning-fx

https://www.daz3d.com/rl-bring-the-storm

Drawing over seams is often challenging, but you could use something like 3DCoat or Blacksmith3D (which I think is freely downloadable now) to stamp or draw them directly on the figure. And, if you're just doing a single render/portrait and not a series or visual novel or comic, then you might also be able to draw the lightning on in post using some gaussian blur effects. Another option is to pass the render to an AI tool or even ChatGPT and have it enhance it with the lightning, but that entirely depends on how you feel about AI post-processing.

If you can't find lightning brushes to your liking, you could possibly also use things like cracks or something. But I'm sure there are several free photoshop brushes (and other app brushes) for lightning and cracks or even scars that you could use for something like this.

If it doesn't have to be lightning you could also use tribal LIE textures and make them glow using emissives:

https://www.daz3d.com/savage-beauty-lie-makeup-for-genesis-9

I did manage to find one character on a Daz3D asset store that has skin with lightning effects. I don't own the character so no idea how good it is, but a quick google for "AGD Lyra 9 for G9" should make you find her easily. 

Two other characters/options I came across, but you'll have to google to get to ""Bodypaint for Genesis 8 Female" and "Mamba for Genesis 9 Feminine".

By the way, genesis 8 skins can be used on genesis 9 either using the packages that use a skin-suit trick, or converted to g9 using either 3DCoat or Blender to bake the G8 skin onto a G9 character. I often use the baking trick to go the other way around (G9 skin to a G8/G8.1 character).

Sorry I can't be of more help.

I could see the image, it's not hosted on the forums so won't be the attachment thing. Probably some sillyness like imgr being blocked in the UK. I have attached it here for anyone that cannot see the original - converted to jpg since the forum does not allow webp attachments.

Richard Haseltine said:

If you feel a post is out  of place please report it to the forum mods, who are the ones to decide. Please don't indulge in discussions of what can or cannot be posted.

Posts arguing ober what people should or shouldn't say have been removed.

nullvoid808 said:

Well, unless I've missed something, there's this 68 page chonker of a thread "Daz Studio and Linux" https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/60901/daz-studio-and-linux#latest
Sorry, I'm not in those mines myself, so I can't summarise their findings, but there seems to be some success.

Thanks. I actually did a search before asking but I didn't not see that particular thread.  It's looks like it will provide some answers. 

@csaa
I would have thought the last place to come for peace and tranquility would be a forum.

The problem with using statements like "signal-to-noise" is that in professional terms, "signal" is all that is desired while everthing else is "noise" and completely unwanted.  I could never assume that the only thing everyone else wants to hear is what only I have to say.

The fact we humans continue to make "noise" is because we're human beings, not robots (well not yet, anyway).

In the DAZ store, I used to have a filter that only showed the products that I owned within a search.  I don't see that anymore.  I can show the things that I own within a search along with the things that I don't own, but that is not the same.
Is there a way to search for only the items you own, within a search that I am missing?
Thanks!

tdc said:

I can't even post the number of issues I've encountered. I do know this much: I will NEVER update Daz ever again. It's almost like the developers forgot about certain extensions or couldn't care less. Scripts don't work. NONE of my costly purchases weren't found or won't load. I have spent days trying to find answers.

No one should be expected to waste a week to figure out what's gone wrong. No update on any software should have issues finding its own files. Why do DAZ scripts not work? Get this (see attached) every time I try to use a DAZ script. 

• SEARCH DRIVE (s) for Files... does not work - get error
• Scan Known Directories for Files... does not work - says can't find any
• Migrate Old Content Database... Not sure what this does, seems like nothing
• Import Mapped Directories... Does not work, though I have mapped directories; there is none in the list.

Using the AI to find answers? Good luck with that. It literally contradicts itself and - for example - says to go to a menu item, then to a submenu item that is not even listed. It's like it doesn't even know what software I'm in!

GOOD WORK! Maybe invest in some QA? You know... test it out before release? Never have any other issues with any other software updates. Updating Daz is extremely HIGH risk, and you must expect MONTHS of downtime. 

The only solution is to uninstall Daft6.

Different versions of Daz Studio do not share settings, so you will have to tell it where your ciontent 9and database) are in Edit>Preferences>Content>Content Directory Manager. This is not new behaviour.

Daz was up-front that plug-ins will need to be modified and recompiled to work in DS 6, this has been reiterated in alomst every discussion and I thought was in the release notes. Scripts may or may not work, depending on what they do and how they do it. That chnage is unavoidable if Daz is to move to a newer, still supported version of the Qt framework (which will then open up the path for other much requested  features).

I can't even post the number of issues I've encountered. I do know this much: I will NEVER update Daz ever again. It's almost like the developers forgot about certain extensions or couldn't care less. Scripts don't work. NONE of my costly purchases weren't found or won't load. I have spent days trying to find answers.

No one should be expected to waste a week to figure out what's gone wrong. No update on any software should have issues finding its own files. Why do DAZ scripts not work? Get this (see attached) every time I try to use a DAZ script. 

• SEARCH DRIVE (s) for Files... does not work - get error
• Scan Known Directories for Files... does not work - says can't find any
• Migrate Old Content Database... Not sure what this does, seems like nothing
• Import Mapped Directories... Does not work, though I have mapped directories; there is none in the list.

Using the AI to find answers? Good luck with that. It literally contradicts itself and - for example - says to go to a menu item, then to a submenu item that is not even listed. It's like it doesn't even know what software I'm in!

GOOD WORK! Maybe invest in some QA? You know... test it out before release? Never have any other issues with any other software updates. Updating Daz is extremely HIGH risk, and you must expect MONTHS of downtime. 

The only solution is to uninstall Daft6.