AsuCafe said:

I can't believe I haven't bought any of them yet. These ships and vehicles are so exquisite. Although I don't work with military themes, I really want a few of them. I hope I can get one in time.

I don't know why it's closing, but anyway, good luck.

same, but unfortunately none of it is genres I use, don't do military or such stylized toon

(only semi toon, though I do use 3DU Gramps occasionally but always just as is in his overalls without a shirt, never any other clothing as part of the narrative of a channel I have,)

the products themselves look awesome  and I wish you well

Is there a way to have the store show me items I don’t have that are required for items I do have?

(I’ve picked up some bundles that include items that require items not in the bundle.)

Similarly, is there a way to have the store show me items that are add-ons for items I have?

My biggest library gap - and the number one reason I look outside of the Daz shop for items to adapt or kitbash - is historical buildings, props and clothing. Anything that allows me to tell a grounded story as opposed to be stuck rendering fragmented fantasy scenes.

Urban city environments and residential housing of the Romans, Ancient Greeks, Meso-Americans, Endo Japanese, Imperial-era Chinese, Ancient Egyptian and early Semitic and Sumerian populations. I think we have enough monumental architecture for most of those civilisations, but it's difficult to tell a story in temples and bath houses or on streets of gold. Thankfully, some of Enterables' Daz+ releases this year have been filling this gap. They may not be Stonemason detailed nor entirely authentic, but they're very useable. I wonder if Daz are using our store searches to inform what they put out as Daz+ - if so, you can probably blame me in part.

But it's the clothing gap that is the most glaring to me. The clothing we do get tends to be sexualised over everyday for the ladies - either in fantastical ways or, when subtler, with a far too modern aesthetic. For gents, it can be even worse if they're not a warrior or king. Can get by on historical Asian, middle-Eastern and Medieval European clothing, but authentic Ancient European is very sparse and pre-colonial American - particularly South American - is practically non-existent. I buy clothing from CLO-SET to fill the gaps, although there's a noted lack of any historical South American clothing there too. I've been trying to dress an Inca character all year and have been through my entire clothing library several times. Nothing is suitable, and I have a lot of clothing. The cuts are simply nowhere near close. I've the shaders needed several times over but not the models!

What's most frustrating is that I'm not looking for absolutely perfect - clothing, for me, only need be good enough to evoke an era without looking like Comic Con does Tinder cosplay. And be varied enough that not everyone has the same clothes on.

Lala-Rabbit has put a few nice outfits out recently. I'm still missing https://www.daz3d.com/dforce-lala-ethnic-costume-for-genesis-9, which is probably my must-buy before the end of the year.

Richard Haseltine said:

Morph deltas are not loaded until the morph has a non-zero value. It is the name and group (so it can be displayed in the Parameters pane) and the links (so that it responds correctly to chnages in other properties, potentially triggering a vertex load) that are kept in memory at all times.

Yes, resolving the links will have an impact on figure responsiveness - and setting them up does impact load times, though DS was updated several versions ago to improve that (especially with regards to erroneous set-ups) so it is desirable to reduce the load where possible. You can make use of content directory sets to help - have a directory set with all shapes installed and use that for character building, then switch to a set with the minimum selection installed, load your figure and allow DS to install any missing (Daz store) products.

Richard, as always, thanks for your responsiveness! That's unfortunate to hear about the links but I appreciate the info. Unfortunately, it sounds like this is not something DAZ3D wants to solve so I'll have to live with Turbo Loader/Content Manager for now. My current Genesis 9 stats from Turbo Loader should give you an indication of why (and if product managers from DAZ ever read these posts) an idea of why the current solutions are less than ideal and I would love some functionality added to DAZ in the future to assist folks:

Products: 1265, Morphs: 46,631, Checked Morphs (enabled in Turbo Loader, I.E. not renamed extensions): 43,203, Unchecked Morphs (disabled by Turbo Loader): 3,428  

This doesn't take into account all the products I have not installed for Genesis 9 because I would possibly never use them or the PA has not properly setup stage 2 and stage 3 morphs and I removed the product to prevent it from always starting active when I load Genesis 9. Having to manually manage (by Content Manager or Turbo Loader) this many assets for each scene is a terribly inefficient and frustrating experience. Hopefully my feedback might make it to the right people who are willing to offer some other 1st party solution here.

Thanks for your time Richard and here is hoping this is something eventually addressed!

There isn't much to it.

Start with a 6-year-old HP Envy PC that my Dad bought for me. It has a humble mVidia 1650+ with 6GB RAM,

Place a monitor on a rolling desk at my powered recliner.

Across the room is a 55" 4K TV that is connected to a mini PC and a QNAP box containing 4 hard drives and 40TB (I'm too lazy to try calculating it right now.)

The apartment is a mess, full of stuff.

I live in a humble apartment in a Senior citizen building.

(Image removed by mod)

**** Edited to add a more appropriate image ****

Richard Haseltine said:

I am a little worried for the sanctity of Ron's original vision if my atypicaly heavy tail gets too close to the art supplies.

We can hope that you learned your lesson last year, and you keep that tail away from all canvases this year. We can hope. There is always hope... 

morrisonmp said:

I appreciate the information. Unfortunately, "Refresh" doesn't seem to do anything when I click it. I still have to do that weird database refresh every time. As you said, I do not install while DAZ is open. 

And I figured I was just out of luck with the Lost and Found items. I understand the basics of setting up install folders and getting 3rd party items into the content library, but I do not feel technically skilled enough to monkey around too much with the "under the hood" parts of DAZ.

DIM is probably the most straightforward of all of these.  The most important thing is to make sure that DIM is set up correctly i.e. your Daz content is going to the appropriate folders and the database is in the correct location.  Click on the gear on the upper right corner and check the configurations of the installations.  Next, go to Daz studio and Daz Studio Preferences, and Content Manager, and make sure Daz Studio can see the installation locations.  When you install via DIM, Dim retrieves a zipped file, decompresses it, ideally doles out the contents to the appropriate locations such as geometry info to data, textures to Runtime>Textures>specific texture folder, sends a file to the shared Daz 3d> Install Manager>  Manifest files where DIM looks to figure out where and if a product is installed, adds files to Runtime>Support which include the product name and image, and I think lets the CMS know that this product exists in your inventory.  When the locations are wrong, this breaks down.
 
The Lost and Found is a bit more complicated. Products generally end up there because they don't have the proper metadata or broken metadata. The repair is suprisingly simple. The first thing to try is to delete and reinstall the product because sometimes the the installation garbles the metadata.  Other products such as products from other stores may have no metadata.  I suggest learning a little familiarty with selecting the lost and found item, right click on the product, edit metadata, and setting the item to be for a prop for Genesis 8 female for example.  There are endless Youtube videos on how to do this and set up DIM if you would like some visual examples.  We can supply those.  It is all reversible and shouldn't be too scary.

LeatherGryphon said:

Complaint:  Remember my landline phone being on the fritz?  Remember me saying that the fix-it guy couldn't come until Jan 2, 2026?  Remember me saying that the phone company (Kinetic) sent me a notification on my cell phone giving me the opportunity to advance my fix-it appointment to one of three earlier days?  Well, I answered that text with a reply indicating my preference of Dec 19th (YESTERDAY) but got no confirmation.  Then a day or so later, I got another text from the phone company saying that the 19th was taken and gave me a list of two other days before the end of the year.  OK, I selected the earlier one and sent my reply.  Again, no confirmation.  Well, I got curious so I went directly to my phone company's website, logged in and checked the status of my trouble ticket, they still have me scheduled for Jan 2, 2026.

I've done my due diligence and verified that the problem is NOT my phone (I've used two different landline phones), and it's NOT my internal household landline connections, I've come straight off their fibre modem and still cannot get a dialtone.  All I get is "beep...beep...beep..."  I get my Internet, my streaming TV, my home wireless LAN, and my phone via the fibre modem.  Everything works, even incoming phone calls, but I cannot get a dial tone to dial out.  When I was 10 I had a tin can & string phone system that worked more reliably.

I have Kinetic/Windstream and my internet bill has went for $30 a month 10 years agoo to $80 a month. In September they tried too rais it to $100 a month but I guarenteed them I'd be switching if they did that.

Morph deltas are not loaded until the morph has a non-zero value. It is the name and group (so it can be displayed in the Parameters pane) and the links (so that it responds correctly to chnages in other properties, potentially triggering a vertex load) that are kept in memory at all times.

Yes, resolving the links will have an impact on figure responsiveness - and setting them up does impact load times, though DS was updated several versions ago to improve that (especially with regards to erroneous set-ups) so it is desirable to reduce the load where possible. You can make use of content directory sets to help - have a directory set with all shapes installed and use that for character building, then switch to a set with the minimum selection installed, load your figure and allow DS to install any missing (Daz store) products.

I own quite a few of your products. Your boats and ships are particularly brilliant and an excellent way to bring a hisotical authenticity to a river or sea scene. Toon Square is a favourite too - I don't render toon, but with some new shaders, your Toon Square models are fantastic as working-class British buildings. I hope you'll continue to sell somewhere because your work is absolutely blooming fabulous and very much unique in the Daz world.

richardandtracy said:

Just want to say "Thank you for everything.". In my view your Teuf-Teuf is the best 2CV model I have come across, no exceptions. I love your AVS and dearly wish I had sufficient imagination and ability to use the rest of your product line to their best. All the best with your new direction, but don't be a stranger. Regards, Richard.

The Teuf-Teuf is hands-down one of my favourite Daz products. It's fantastic!

That is disappointing to hear, but thank you for giving us the warning. Some vendors just disappear or remove products with no warning. Your courtesy is appreciated!

Gogger said:

[Edit - Double Post] FWIW - the textures are easy enough to load in Photoshop and modify, but I did a double render composite with one of those renders having the handles and such opacity set to zero.  There is something about ANTFARM products, I love them as-is, but almost always get a flood of my own ideas for customization  too.

I customized "my" Snowcat, too. I wanted blue (not rescue vehicle) with snow. It only came with red that had snow.

Complaint:  Remember my landline phone being on the fritz?  Remember me saying that the fix-it guy couldn't come until Jan 2, 2026?  Remember me saying that the phone company (Kinetic) sent me a notification on my cell phone giving me the opportunity to advance my fix-it appointment to one of three earlier days?  Well, I answered that text with a reply indicating my preference of Dec 19th (YESTERDAY) but got no confirmation.  Then a day or so later, I got another text from the phone company saying that the 19th was taken and gave me a list of two other days before the end of the year.  OK, I selected the earlier one and sent my reply.  Again, no confirmation.  Well, I got curious so I went directly to my phone company's website, logged in and checked the status of my trouble ticket, they still have me scheduled for Jan 2, 2026.

I've done my due diligence and verified that the problem is NOT my phone (I've used two different landline phones), and it's NOT my internal household landline connections, I've come straight off their fibre modem and still cannot get a dialtone.  All I get is "beep...beep...beep..."  I get my Internet, my streaming TV, my home wireless LAN, and my phone via the fibre modem.  Everything works, even incoming phone calls, but I cannot get a dial tone to dial out.  When I was 10 I had a tin can & string phone system that worked more reliably.

Yeah, the refresh that I mentioned is just little thing to tell Daz to go and fetch the data from the CMS again as apposed to using the cache (what it remembers from the last time it fetched it). Worth trying tho since it would not have had any negative effect.

One other thing to look into is that maybe DIM has been unable to connect to the CMS, or has somehow been configured to use a different installation. That could explain the issue altho it's not likely to have happened outside of something deliberate or weird. To check this, when you have DIM open, check the little icon in the top-right, between "Help" and the cog - make sure that is bright and when hovering over it the popup says that clicking it will stop the CMS - but don't click it. You just want to make sure that when running DIM that it can launch the CMS and connect to it.

Then to make sure you are using the correct settings: In DIM, click the Cog -> Advanced Settings -> Installation tab.  Then in Daz Studio, go to Edit -> Preferences -> CMS Settings.

The "Cluster" in Daz Studio should point to the same path as the "Content Database Base" in DIM and the two port values should be the same.

If they are different it sounds like you should change the DIM ones to match the ones from Daz Studio.

Also, I am assuming that you do not have any popup errors about failing to connect to the CMS/Database in either application.

joanna said:

My first thoughts is: why this is the last time I'll buy?

Is it because I have no money? Then nothing.

Is it because I'm quitting Daz? Then nothing.

Is it because I decided not to shop at Daz anymore? Then nothing.

Is it because Daz is shutting down its store and store only? Then it'll all depend on my budget and deals. But I'd be most likely busy downloading the file packages, so I can used the products even if I switch PCs in the future etc.

Honestly, I can't think of a scenario whether I'd be picking something on Daz for the last time. I have a lot of products already (not as much as some real old timers, but still :) ), and recently I've been slowing down with my purchases (mostly because of the prices and expensive buy-ins), so I'm more likely to get what I currently need or really, really like, but it doesn't mean a month from now there won't be something to excite me again and spend more than I planned (like during the PA sales or even member festival).

to answer one of your questions, I do plan on stopping purchases here the end of the month, 31 December. Why? I have too much and I use too little of it, plus I spend way too much here over my budget. When I look at my spend I get butterflies in my stomach, but just for a moment.  

[Edit - Double Post] FWIW - the textures are easy enough to load in Photoshop and modify, but I did a double render composite with one of those renders having the handles and such opacity set to zero.  There is something about ANTFARM products, I love them as-is, but almost always get a flood of my own ideas for customization  too.

My first thoughts is: why this is the last time I'll buy?

Is it because I have no money? Then nothing.

Is it because I'm quitting Daz? Then nothing.

Is it because I decided not to shop at Daz anymore? Then nothing.

Is it because Daz is shutting down its store and store only? Then it'll all depend on my budget and deals. But I'd be most likely busy downloading the file packages, so I can used the products even if I switch PCs in the future etc.

Honestly, I can't think of a scenario whether I'd be picking something on Daz for the last time. I have a lot of products already (not as much as some real old timers, but still :) ), and recently I've been slowing down with my purchases (mostly because of the prices and expensive buy-ins), so I'm more likely to get what I currently need or really, really like, but it doesn't mean a month from now there won't be something to excite me again and spend more than I planned (like during the PA sales or even member festival).

DAZ Install Manger SHOULD add the metadata which populates the Smart Content tab. I usually install stuff while Daz Studio is not running so perhaps there is some issue if that is not the case for you. You could try right-clicking and hitting refresh to see if that makes them show up.

Then there a separate issue where products contain uncategorised items (which get put in lost+found) or do not show up at all (tends to be the ones that were migrated from other stores in bulk). Items that are in lost+found will likely need to be manually categorised by yourself since that was not done by Daz when the product was submitted (pretty sure PAs have stated that Daz handles the Metadata not the PAs themselves).

If you login to your account with Daz Studio (either because you use the Premier features and/or Daz Connect) that can replace the paths where product icons are stored from within the /Runtime/Support folder(s) to the cloud folder. This can break some images sometimes and I don't think you can fix it easily without explictly removing the Daz Connect stuff and then re-installing with DIM.

A while back I did do some testing/QA for a potential product which would have helped users to fill in the gaps and fix issues with metadata but unfortunately it never made it to release :(

I have been using DAZ for a while now and some things are still very confusing.

1. Installation and the SmartContent Tab

1a. When I install items using the DAZ Install Manager, those items do not show up in my SmartContent tab. The only workaround that I have found is that I have to right click on the SmartContent tab and select "Content Database Management." From there I have to check Process Metadata Queue & Re-Import Metadata. Once I do that, the items will show in SmartContent (usually). This doesn't seem to be a normal problem. I have asked this question before but I hoped maybe someone might have some new thoughts/advice for me.

1b. Related to 1a, above, my SmartContent tab is a mess now. Several items are duplicated, several have missing images, and some just seem broken. I have previously done a full system wipe and re-loaded everything and this did not clear up this issue.

2. Does anyone know if it's possible to get items to move items from "Lost and Found" into the established categories? I have so many items that are entirely only found in my Lost and Found at this point, that it's become unmanageable.

The Content Library tab is so un-intuitive that I don't use it unless I have to (for 3rd party products I've installed). I know that some users create their own libraries/folder structures, but every tutorial I've watched on that process seems to say that it's not only complex but also very easy to break and make things even worse than they are now. 

Please, if you do have some advice for me, explain it like I'm a 5 year old. 

Thank you in advance for any help you can offer.

memcneil70 said:

I have to thank DAZ for the 20% off sale on Gift Cards today. As I was checking to see if my VISA card balance could handle it I realized I needed to PAY the balance off now. So with that done, I was able to purchase a $500.00 gift card for $400.00 along with two new items, also had the gift and my $2.99 calendar item in the cart. That will go on next month's bill. And my flatmate fought with the DAZ store to get me a $200.00 gift card just two days ago. So this was a great way to be set-up for the new year coming. So long as I don't spend it all in the first week. 

One thing I noticed as I reviewed the 'Still New' items, that many of the lower items were not marked as NEW and some were released back in June even.

That's a great budget to have during the Christmas & New Years sale cycle! And how nice of your flatmate! :)

To your note about the Still New items, the sale page says "Catch-Up with 6000 Items" and there are even some outlet store items (for $0.99) in the list...

...Any two Still New releases count for the Cheery Savings promotional (20% off cart / gift cards) so people can use those outlet store items as buy-in if they wish.

Though if someone is building a big cart of Featured Artists items it's still worthwhile to test the price of including one Debut New due to the extra 10% from that.