Just like the title says, I suppose.

When I visit the websites of other popular software (Blender and iClone come to mind), there's usually a whole section devoted to what they're working on. Daz seems to have the philosophy of keeping its users entirely in the dark. Doesn't that strike everyone as strange? I'm sure we'd all like to know (among other things):

• Are improvements being made to strand-based hair?
• Is a real-time render engine coming to Daz?
• Is Genesis 9 is coming? What improvements iz Daz working on?
• Are changes happening to Iray / skin materials to increase render realism?

These are just off the top of my head. Now, I'm sure Daz is working on these things, so why don't they tell us so we can get excited? I don't understand their philosophy of keeping everything a secret until it suddenly appears in the public beta.

What else would you all like to know Daz is working on, and be updated on its progress?

 

Would I like that?  Sure.  Not as much as I'd like to know if and when we might get a Covid vaccine, but it's on the list.  A roadmap would be nice.

Daz is not a huge organization, though.  They're trying to bring out improvements to DS, but their resources are limited, and I'm sure that the lockdown forced some changes in their development methods and timeline.  They rolled out Daz Central, and that's not been *cough* an unqualified success.  I'm sure they're working on things, especially animation.  I doubt that real-time rendering is a priority, but IDK.  SBH, probably?

Genesis 9 is probably on their minds, and the thing most likely to be keeping them up at night.  There's a lot more involved than just rolling a new character.  G8 is already excellent, and works with the assets from previous generations.  Some of the things people are talking about in terms of improvements could break backwards compatibility.   That would be a very tough pill to make their loyal customer base swallow.  Would it be worth it?  Maybe not!

As far as realism, a lot of the problems are on the user end, and it's not even something all of Daz's customers are particularly fussed about.  It's doesn't necessarily help produce better art, either.  There's always a need for an excuse for producing crap, and for some people it's "lack of photorealism". Whatever, I guess.  However, just yesterday, we got Anise, which was created within Daz's current capabilities, and it's very, very nice and, I hope, a sign of greater and better things to come.

In the meantime, there's a lot to do with what we have, and I'm still working my way through it and trying to learn.  That's my priority.  I hope to someday create the ultimate naked Vicky in a temple with a sword render.

I may have Carrara but I don't use Dim or Daz Central.  I install everything manually ... 

Same here.  I buy mostly Poser format content, put it in its own folder with added keywords, then link it through Carrara's browser.  Search via Windows Explorer/Ctrl-F, preview via P3DO (mostly great mocap previews).  

I may have Carrara but I don't use Dim or Daz Central.  I install everything manually, being as mostly I use Bryce, with Poser as a plug in (old poser.  P8, normally)

Hi all

I'm just in the process of transferring Daz Studio to a new computer, updating from 4.10 to 4.12 as I go. So, I load DS onto my new computer, d/l DAZ central and Studio 4.12, and so far so good. In Central, "Daz Studio Assets" shows up all my purchases with the option to install, so I start doing that from the bottom up. So far so good.

So far, so good. Since 4.12 seems to install with G8 already in the library, I  d/l Genesis, G2 and G3 starter essentials - all seems ok, but for some reason G3 Female figure is missing from the library? 

Am I doing something wrong?
 

The nightmare continues.  After several days of having no products and finally re-pointing at the cms in my roaming directory, i at least got my old products back.
But now... every new product i buy and install (through DIM, I'm not trusting DC enough to install it) won't show up in Daz Studio until i close, re-open, and then manually install the product through the content tab.
And then... just when i thought it couldn't get worse, today I bought and installed UltraScenery, and although it shows up in the product list, it simply says "File not Found" and does not offer the "Install" option at all.  When I reimport metadata (which i notice now uses DC, even though I didn't install it), it tells me it failed and ends.
Daz... what [...] are you doing about this?  It's been WEEKS.  You've destroyed my ability to find my products, and I am terrified of re-installing and losing all the paths in my scenes.
FIX... IT.

Please don't use hard breaks to add a blank lline - it makes it impossible to insert a reply mid-quote without fiddling with the HTML, and the default style will give blank liines anyway.

What path did you change? The database is in the %AppData%/daz3 3d/cms/contentcluster/ folder byt default anyway so I'm not sure why Daz Central and other methods would disagree.

Theer's no point in installing through DIM and then through Daz Connect - you just end up with duplicated files. It does sound as if either DIM is not communicating with the content management system or, possibly, as if the content paths are not matching between DIM and DS. If you look in the Installed tab in DIM do most products have a tick next to them?

As far as I know UltraScenery does not yet work with a Connect install. What do you mean when you say that the metadata uses Central? Are you looking at the /data/cloud/metadata/ folder? That is used by Daz Connect, not Daz central (which is just a nother way to do Install Manager-style installs). What tellls you that it failed - the metadata import or the installation of UltraScenery?

Scenes use relative paths for content that was in a mapped content directory - otherwise they wouldn't be portable.

Hello. Hope everyone is well during all this crazy history we're living through.
My question is pretty much what's in the subject.
I installed the new DAZ Central and noticed the only apps listed are DAZ Studio and Hexagon. Couldn't find a trace of Carrara anywhere. 
Am I missing something, or should I just stick with DIM to manage Carrara's installation, content, etc?
Thanks

I bought something, then clicked to open the DIM, and I was taken to the download site for DAZ Central. I am on a Macintosh, and the Macintosh version is not yet available. I closed that web page and started up DIM on my computer. Perhaps its a blessing that a Macintosh version of DAZ Central is not available. Supposedly, there will be one later.

No, what they (stupidly) have done is taken the DIM install option out of the post checkout page and snuck in Daz Central where it would have been using the same buttong that DIM has /facepalm.

You'll have to manually go to your order and then use the DIM option from there, or just go to DIM and check there. 

Yay, Daz Connect part deux /smh

That sounds as if your non-default paths have been set back to the defaults by Daz Central. Check them in Content Directory Manager - Edit>Preferences>Content tab.

DIM disappears, so do I.

I trust DIM to do what it says. I have al sorts of reservations about Smart Content, and now DazCentral.

DIM, as an acronym works; it's meaning is succinct - and it does manage my installs.

Daz Central sounds (and behaves) like big brother.

Studio 4.9 felt like Daz was trying to force something down my throat; this feels the same.

Daz Central is DIM with a simplified interface and option tree, for the benefit of new users.

It quite clearly isn't, when you consider all the reports and issues folks are having. Not to mention (ok I have) all the blatant dislike.

Dislike has nothing to do with whether it is the same under the hood, the issues people have been having mostly relate to paths - the fact that Daz Central appears to overwrite custom DIM paths with the defaults is in fact evidence that it is the same code at heart.

There seems to be noting simple about it.

I don't get it; Dim presents the products I haven't downloaded; those I have but haven't installed; and, those installed. That is simple.

I can't help thinking (taking at face-value, Daz's reasons), that Daz are using a software solution to fix a communication problem - or lack of communication in the form of viable instructions. Not that DIM requires many.

Documentation doesn't stop people from being confused, sadly - it just gives the people who try to help them a reference (and, sadly, a manual for others to tell the confused to read - with added adjectives)

If you can't figure out DIM, how the hell are you going to figure out how to render anything.

 

1.  It's just evidence that it changes your paths.

Not that we need evidence, since we have word, but using the same setting does imply it's likely the same code

2. So this is the reasoning behind  the lack of documentation?  And here I thought it was lack of concern.  At least it's better than "it's for your own good".

No, that was a comment in reply to your saying what was needed was better documentation rather than a simplified UI/UX.

That was someone else, although I agree with them.  

What's simpler about the user experience of having to go into Content Management and having to put your path settings to the way they were?  What's simpler about only being able to download one product at a time and having to wait to download the next one?  And how is it simpler for us who use DIM and get our preferred options deprecated?  And the option of opening DS with the brand new item you just downloaded is just silly, unless you make scenes with only a single naked character.  I mean, what if the person bought an outfit?  How does this make their experience simpler?  Why not put more emphasis on going through the beginner tutorials that are already there?  They're just one more thing that Daz put in and then dropped.

In the meantime, the built-in browser is broken, and no longer works with the Youtube videos.   And I'm not sure what that plug-ins page was supposed to be, but something is supposed to be there, and it's not.  TBF, the individual product pages work.  Why add new things while leaving others broken?  It will just be one more bit of detritus once it, too, inevitably breaks and doesn't get fixed.  Not that it's not already breaking people's installations and being the reason they're forced to work with DIM differently.

I recently installed DAZ Central and it really messed things up for me.  I have since deleted it and using DIM I uninstalled all of my content.  Now when I install resourses through DIM, on some files there is no link to DS.  When I try load a charachter, I see the thumbnail image but when I load it I get a message that say the .duf file does not exist.  When I right click on the file and select browse to file, the files are actually there where they are supposed to be. Why does DS not know that?

DAZ Central really messed me up.  I have removed it from my computer but now when installing through DIM there is no link to DS.  The files are where they are supposed to be but some can't be loaded by DS. When I right click the file and select browse to location, it is there but DS says .duf file does not exist?? It does not make sense to me.

Oh ho ho!  I am so GLAD I found this thread!  I too was wondering why Daz Central was being forced down my throat.  But when I saw that DIM was still working, I stayed with that until I had more information on Daz Central.  From what I gathered so far by reading this thread, it seems to be a thing to avoid.   I do NOT want to lose selective downloading, nor bulk downloading.   As others mentioned here, they like to download only what they need out of their purchases to save on HD space.   I am in the same boat.  I just recently pulled all my V4 stuff my hard drive, but since it is stuff I bought already, I can alway put it back on if I need it.   I was recently thinking of going overall of the purchases that I don't regularly use and remove them from my system.  The DIM made easy work of this.  Overall it was an excellent download manager and it did it's job well.  For me it was pretty easy to follow and figure out, even when I was a new user.

I get the idea behind "change" to attempt to make things better, but to release something when it seemingly doesn't work, as stated above, is nothing short of ridiculous, yet it happens far too often out there.  But then the idea to force it upon someone isn't fair at all.    I am going through this issue with DeviantART right now as they totally redid their site.  At least we were warned though, but still, now  I have to relearn the whole site all over.

But I just have to pat myself on the back this time in that I did some research in regards to Daz Central before I ended up destroying my Daz Studio set up with it.   So I am with the naysayers here, I am going to stay with DIM.  Simply because it works alright for me.

And another thing...if Daz wants to fix something so badly, why not fix the horrid search engine this forum has?  THAT has been in need of fixing for a VERY long time.   As it is, I end up using Google instead starting all my Daz Forum searches with...well, "Daz Studio Form...."  That proves to be better than searching within the Daz Forums.   But I digress, I know that is another topic of discussion that belongs elsewhere.

Geo

It doesn't list Daz Central as an option, which is surprising as I understood that anything that had DIM or Central options would have both. However, it does appear to be Poser-only so that may be the reason - it is material settings that use the Poser Material Room and there isn't a way to translate those to DS. If you use Daz Studio  think you should request a refund.

I picked up this product:

https://www.daz3d.com/plushies-dexter

No problem with this, but I have an issue with the addon:

https://www.daz3d.com/dexter-expansion-1-softies

Daz Central can't find it, even though it lists that it's there.

I did locate it in the content library, and while the image for the product exists, it seems empty. I look in the file folder and everything is there as far as I can tell (still a newbie,) so I don't understand why it's not showing up, and why I can't do anything with it. 

I did uninstall it and reinstall it. I haven't tried manually adding it. 

I bought something, then clicked to open the DIM, and I was taken to the download site for DAZ Central. I am on a Macintosh, and the Macintosh version is not yet available. I closed that web page and started up DIM on my computer. Perhaps its a blessing that a Macintosh version of DAZ Central is not available. Supposedly, there will be one later.

This is a freakin mess. Got a new PC. Moved some external drives around. And am trying to re-install DS on one of my machines. Apparently I can only do it through Central, and it's not working. Won't even complete an install. Is there a direct link to install DS?? Central is broken.

Did you install it using Daz Central? I f so open Daz Central and it should show a button "Open" click on the down arrow and it will show "Uninstall" just click that and it will uninstall.

Hey,

I come from a background of software development, and I'm looking for tools that are similar to Git and Backup, but for Daz Studio.

Functionalities I need:

1) A way to cloud backup all my project files so that I can recover it easily in case of HDD failure.

2) A way to collaborate as a team with another 3D artist (like git), where we can stage, commit and push changes to a central repository, and the other part can fetch and pull these changes. Dependencies should be handled automatically.

As explained collaboration is tricky but for version control I just use git. The .duf files are binary so you can't do the things you can with text files but you can save different versions and even fork projects pretty easily.

Hey,

I come from a background of software development, and I'm looking for tools that are similar to Git and Backup, but for Daz Studio.

Functionalities I need:

1) A way to cloud backup all my project files so that I can recover it easily in case of HDD failure.

2) A way to collaborate as a team with another 3D artist (like git), where we can stage, commit and push changes to a central repository, and the other part can fetch and pull these changes. Dependencies should be handled automatically.

Hello, It would be nice to filter shop, by more criteria.

Specialy find addons that I don't have fort my products, would be very helpful.

P.S.

Im very glad for new DAZ Central, finally I can see genesis versions for all my products :-).

Please continue developing this tool and expand filters :-D!

Thank you.