I have to wait until my data plan cycles (tomorrow) before I can upload my render; once I hit my bandwidth limit (which typically is about four days into the billing cycle), I get throttled back to damn near dial-up speeds!  Meanwhile, it’s five o’clock (well, five-till; close enough!), and there’s a Martini in front of me (and a little to my left; thank goodness I’m at least semi-ambidextrous -- well, for the important things, anyway!), and that means it’s time to move on to Round 2!

The pull:

2963 – Colors for Love Me Hair (Love Me Hair is for V4)

37 – Giselle for V4 (How convenient!)

1724 – Gamine (G3F; that one’s a little freaky-sounding, I don’t know…!)

6574 – Cozy for Day Dreamer (G3F)

Victoria 4 and Genesis 3; I haven’t done anything with V4 in ages! 

*Sigh*  Whatever….

UPDATE: While searching for the Colors for Love Me Hair package, I discovered an entire order that I somehow neglected to download!  From August of 2015!  Thirty-three items, mostly hair and hair textures.  (Practically all Platinum Club, too, so you know I got some really tasty deals on them!)

You can blame the Martinis if you want.  I am.

A MAJOR CAVEAT TO THE WORK-AROUND: 

I discovered today that 32bit Reality 4.3 passes the Render to 32Bit LuxRender, which then crashes while loading the scene on my 64Bit Operating System, says "Bad Server allocation".

=>Therefore, you have to manually click and open the 64Bit Lux Render, and use it to open the file created for the 32Bit luxRender by the 32Bit Reality4.3 plugin : (

(I can perhaps remedy this by switching the 64Bit lux Render into the 32 bit folder, but have not tested this theory yet).

UPDATE (TODAY4-1-21): Yes, I successfully switched out the "lux" folder within the 32bit Reality (within Programs x86 folder), and replaced it with my 64bit "lux" folder (that I collected from Programs folder).

=>TEST: I SUCCESSFULLY RENDERED VICTORIA-4 AND VICTORIA-6 WITH 64BIT LUX LAUNCHED VIA THE 32BIT REALITY, BUT CANNOT RENDER VICTORIA-8 (JUST HER EYES SHOW UP).

I don't know... I still prefer to buy content from here, using standard currency... I have no interest in cryptocurrency of any kind... etherium, bitcoin, dogecoin... meh.
Releasing content via NFT seems like a slippery slope toward creating scarcity for digital things, while the Daz 3D ecosystem thrives with unlimited copies sold to users under a non-exclusive software license, and published artists that make products to support those products. 
The strength is in numbers of people with access to the same content, purchasing additional content to suport that content... like digital clothing, and texture sets released for that clothing.
Imagine if there were only 5 copies of Victoria 9 that were released as NFT unlocks. Only those 5 lucky owners of the edition would be able to use the base figure... and everyone else would have to use some other alternative, or hope that someone resells one of those copies... but support for that scarce figure would be close to zero. Same for clothing... or environments, props, or whatever else.

Mark_e593e0a5 said:

Charlie Judge said:

I'm not seeing any orange banners or any messages, even though I own one of the bundle items (dForce Pride Flags). Shouldn't there be an extra discount on the Dapper Bundle for owning one of the items ???

You do get an orange banner if you have purchased some of the recent 8.1 characters. Not just one, but quite some. 

I've only purchased Victoria 8.1, Michael 8.1 and Cleopatra 8.1; so, I didn't get an orange banne for that. But we ordinarly get some discount for already owning item that are in a bundle. However, this time there doesn't seem to be a discount for that. I'm not sure if thatwas an error or not. 

Muneman said:

Can the mods clarify how the $20 coupon will work? It's not straight store credit, so it feels like there's going to be some pretty strict criteria for it.

But that said, the bundle comes down to $23 with all the discounts applied. That's not a bad price, especially if that ends up being a good coupon.

There's some discussion of the coupon in the sales thread, but no comment (yet) by the mods.

The small print on the promo says that it can't be used to buy gift cards (i.e. you can't simply turn the coupon into store credit). Like all coupons, it can't be combined with other coupons. Those are the known limits.

There's speculation that it'll only be good for one day. I've seen nothing so far to either support or confirm that, but it wouldn't hurt to assume that that's the case. So if you plan to be away from your computer on April 5th, then it might not be for you.

No other restrictions are mentioned in the promo, so in theory you would be able to use it on new items, PC+ items, Fastgrab items, etc. I think that if DAZ later announce that this is not the case, that, for example, new items are excluded or you can only spend it on selected DAZ originals, then this would rightly be seen as bait-and-switch, and there would be a lot of very unhappy customers. I like to think that DAZ are smart enough not to do this, but that too is an assumption. Of course if you do get the coupon and DAZ then announce that it can only be used to purchase selected items for Victoria 3 at full price, there's always the 30-day money-back guarantee.

Hm-m, good question. I don't recall what the tutorials came with, but I don't think it included the full SubDragon, unless there was a special bundle at some point. Anyway, if you have the full version, that batch file should be included. You need the full version to be able to use the morphs.

There is one gotcha that might trip you up if you are installing through Connect. The Subdragon is one of a handful of products that use the ExP generator (others being Victoria 4, Michael 4, Kids 4) that apparently cannot be installed through DAZ Connect. I always use DIM, so I cannot say if there is a workaround other than installing with DIM.

Years ago, it was possible to rearrange your runtime folder so that (for example) all of Victoria's clothing was in one folder, all of Michael's clothes in another. Is that still possible?  I'm going nuts trying to find all of the items that go with any given figure.

Thanks!

Do these also come with Micro-detail maps?

I've got Victoria 8.1 and she does, though it's not explicitly mentioned in the description on the product page, Haven't seen it mentioned on any other product pages for 8.1 characters either, though I asume it would be a package-deal if you buy a character with the PBR shader already applied.

barbult said:

Leonides02 said:

V3Digitimes said:

@Leonides02 : you are right, the tile should be different from each surface. I was aware of that. The thing I can try to do is to see if there is a way to have a multiplier for the tiles (so that you take the initial tile and multiply all the surfaces by the same value, this way you keep the proportional tiles, but you don't have access to the exact value. Maybe with a check box (allowing either to be absolute, or relative).

This is a good idea!

In that case the defaults would be...

 

Head / Lips / Ears @ 0.36

Neck @ 0.5

Arms @ 0.54

Legs @ 0.93

 

(I think?)

 

@Leonides02 I don't see a Neck surface on Victoria 8.1. On V8.1, Neck seems to be part of the Head surface. Are you using a character with a different UV?

I see these proportions:

Body 70 = 100%
Head 30/70 = 43%
Ears, Face. Lips 25/70 = 36%
Arms 38/70 = 54%
Legs 65/70 = 93%

I meant "head" - the neck is included. :)

certaintree38 said:

RangerRick said:

 

My concern is that some legislative body will conflate ownership of the token and controlling ownership of the rights to the digital content

I'd like Daz to indemnify us against any financial obligation which may arise from someone else obtaining an NFT for an asset we've purchased then trying to get additional fees out of us for using it.

I don't see the point of NFTs, so please don't misunderstand me. I am not supporting them.

But from everything I've read, you would not have to pay royalties to someone because they own an NFT of a digital model that you happen to use. The royalties are only paid for the sale of that copy of that model, not every copy of that model. So if someone makes an NFT of Victoria 8, and you use your own Victoria 8 that's not NFT, you do not have to pay royalties. I don't think you'd have to pay royalties for using an NFT Victoria that you own either. Just the initial purchase price. Royalties would ~only~ come into play if you sell ownership of the NFT, when a portion of the sale price would go to the original creator.

...it can also happen with an accurate "likeness".

For example back to that "editorial use" clause on many models sold at a certain pro 3D site I mentioned earlier.  This is placed on models that involve a known "brand name" and/or is an exact fiathful reproduction of a trademarked product such as a Zamboni™, Steinway™ piano, or bottle of Coca Cola™.   To use these meshes, even in 2D renderings for other than an educational or journalistic purpose, such as a commercial work like say, a graphic novel, you have to request permission from the company (not the model creator) that owns the logo and name which may or may not involve royalties or an agreement that involves a fee.  In film and television this is occasionally waived as it is considered "free advertising" (also known as "product placement").as long as the item is shown in an neutral or positive light.

Many freebies of such items will usually have the "not for commercial use" tag on them 

Only a few hundred to a few thousand DAZ customers read the forums.

I like that toon 3D style and plenty of other toon styles.

I like realism too but I never use it except to occasionally see how much further DAZ 3D or it's PAs have gotten in that respect. I recently bought Victoria 8.1 and Michael 8.1 for that reason. However, it never fails that when I go back and look at what I thought were the most realistic DAZ characters ever after a few months they look toony to me.

Charlie Judge said:

I'm surprised that we didn't get a day when all PAs were on sale at the same time. I'm pretty sure all the past MM sales had one.

We definetely had of those. We also had almost daily Flash sales that stacked very well with all MM promos. And even had a couple of flash sales that offered a very nice large selection of PC+ items for 0.99

Non PC+ related, "Today Only" was something to consider. I remember offeringS of a free Victoria (even up to 8) with a purchase, free gen3 PRO bundle buying a couple of bonus items (that required little to nothing to actually pay les than 1.5 each).

This year we had too many exeptions, expensive triggers and were asked for blind faith. Sure PCFAD are nice and all, but is mostly hit or miss, taste or things that one may consider nice but don't actually need. Most of my wishlist items are "this is nice" and while the price now is good i would prefer to spend my money one thing i need instead of 2,3 or even 4 i don't.

Also, i missed to pull the trigger on my cart on one item this week, i was hoping for a catch up even if it would cost me a little more, but nothing 

And let's not forget. We had 3 proper core character bundle releases with nice WEEK long promotions.

Because it is totally possible to use PBRSkin on Victoria 4 if you want to (I did it during the test stages). One day someone can play with a Genesis 2 figures and want to use PBRSkin on it.  And then he will be able to use the manager. In my promos I have converted some Genesis 8 figures who initially were Iray Uber. I said compatible with "any existing Iray skin based on the PBRSkin Shader". And you can set up any figure with the new PBRSkin shader.

edit: The same way its ancestor, Ultimate Iray Skin manager was also compatible with any generation, but for Iray Uber. And yet, Iray Uber appear only with Genesis 2 or 3 if I remember well. For the rest, people converted their skins to get Iray Uber if they wanted to use this (on that time) new shader.

V3Digitimes said:

What you have to now is that if your figure preceed (look at the SKU) Victoria 8.1, there is a huge probability that they don't use PBRSkin..

Nothing prior to G8.1 uses PBRSkin, so why is your script advertised as being compatible with figures going all the way back to V4?

You can try to do that. Actually this Albany figure would have required "Ultimate Iray Skin Manager", the version of the manager for "Iray Uber" released a few years ago (because on that time, since PBRSkin did not exist, the shader was very probably Iray Uber). But yes, you could also do it using the PBRSkin manager, but remember that the texture set was basically not made for this shader (so no way to warranty good results).  And depending on how the figure was made, you can 'loose' some maps when you apply Daz PBRSkin shader.

What you have to now is that if your figure preceed (look at the SKU) Victoria 8.1, there is a huge probability that they don't use PBRSkin (and therefore become compatible with the old Ultimate Iray Skin Manager, and not Ultimate PBRSkin Manager). On the contrary, most 8.1 figures after Victoria 8.1 should use PBRSkin and be compatible with the new product (you may have to apply to the eyesocket the Daz PBRSkin shader on a few NON Daz Original Figures - Daz Originals all work, my next update should allow to ignore eyesocket if this is the case). Consider Victoria 8.1 as a good time boundary.

I would love to see more period correct props, vehicles, clothing, hiar styles and architecture. Especially for the 1930s through to the late 1960s. The kind of stuff you would see in a Norman Rockwell era illustration.

Also more similar stuff for the Victoria era & USA Civil War.

Aren't there also some PA characters that claim to be for G8.1, but don't use the PBRSkin shader? I haven't purchased any G8.1F characters other than Victoria 8.1, so I don't know. People in the forum have complained about characters being released as "8.1" that don't use the PBRSkin shader.

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/477756/real-8-1-or-masquerading-as-one/p1

Oh yeah sorry, all figures after and including Victoria 8.1!! A always forget this. This is one of the the reasons why I had to update Ultimate Iray Skin Manager (the older one for Iray Uber) to be compatible with 8.1.

Victoria 8.1 loads with PBRSkin shader, but Genesis 8.1 loads with Iray Uber Shader.

RangerRick said:

My concern is that some legislative body will conflate ownership of the token and controlling ownership of the rights to the digital content

I'd like Daz to indemnify us against any financial obligation which may arise from someone else obtaining an NFT for an asset we've purchased then trying to get additional fees out of us for using it.

I don't see the point of NFTs, so please don't misunderstand me. I am not supporting them.

But from everything I've read, you would not have to pay royalties to someone because they own an NFT of a digital model that you happen to use. The royalties are only paid for the sale of that copy of that model, not every copy of that model. So if someone makes an NFT of Victoria 8, and you use your own Victoria 8 that's not NFT, you do not have to pay royalties. I don't think you'd have to pay royalties for using an NFT Victoria that you own either. Just the initial purchase price. Royalties would ~only~ come into play if you sell ownership of the NFT, when a portion of the sale price would go to the original creator.