But why are you thinking about Filament, or a new rendering engine?

Maybe they're just making Iray another 5% faster?

It would be huge to change render engine. Basically all materials would become instantly obsolete. Unless I'm missing something?

I would guess because of this in the Public Beta change log.

Oh wow!
So...are we talking about this next Daz 4.13 already?
I don't understand what that means! I guess the property translation of Iray materials means we don't need to rebuild the whole library?

But why are you thinking about Filament, or a new rendering engine?

The response by DAZ was to 2 comments wherein the central concept was Real-Time Rendering.  
If you've ever worked in or modded game production, and made changes to animations, physics, textures and so on, and then watched your character move around in Real-time with your changes...well the idea of IRAY even improving 100% or 200% isn't enough.

For many users, until we see 30fps min with physics, for probably many users, there will always the push and dream for next big step. 

IF Daz was referring to Filament...then am sadly much less excited about this hint.  
Was hoping for an official bridge to an existing render solution porting all the morph types, or something like that.
A synergy between DAZ & Company X.  

DAZ does real quality stuff, but quality takes time with bugs & evolutions that just naturally happen along the way.  
So implementing something that is reportedly designed in great-part for ligher-weight mobile Android systems, doesn't really make me feel warm & fuzzy about chances of Higher-Quality rendering with Filament...for many years to come anyway.  
Possibly it's scalable for more advanced systems?  Lack of any amount of showcase vids indicates earlier-stage development.  Unless I missed something?

Can see why DAZ would consider the Filament route.  
Until a game engine advances a market-place of products as high a quality as DAZ, feel we users are stuck with sticking with this or that environment. Or making the enormous amount of time to migrate assets.  
Am speaking from the the POV of all the morphs and PBR-Iray Mats/Shaders in DAZ.

At this rate I'm going to have buy two 3000Gen Titans in Q1-Q2 2021.   Cos can't wait that long.

But would  for Daz to surprise me!

I wouldn't mind being able to experiment with real-time animations. Nowadays it's something I don't even consider because it would take way too long with my hardware.

But even having something that would render with a high-quality GPU a picture we now need 1 hour for in 1 minute would be fabulous!

What I would love is a bridge between DAZ and UE 4/5 that converts all the beautiful Iray materials automagically into Unreal. 

Also, "Groom" there real-time hair looks incredible compared to our curve-based hair even in real time.

https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/tech-blog/an-early-look-at-next-generation-real-time-hair-and-fur

That is real-time?! Oh wow!!!!

That hair looks incredible, much much better than the ones we have in hours-long renders!

Not a UE shortcoming

Wow, and that was UE4!

Honestly, those characters look even better than Iray.

I don't understand the worries about quality-loss.

I would be very happy to have that kind of quality with a real-time engine in Daz. Oh wow, I could make a whole story in one day, instead of weeks/months!!!

Did Daz make any announcement of a change to the password policy for Install Manager? The Install Manager change log is utterly useless. All it says is "Source maintenance" for the last 8 updates. Where is the Install Manager password policy documented? The documentation center says only to use your store account email and password. But now it sounds like people are not able to use the store account password in Install Manager any longer. Are there different password policies now for the store and Install Manager?

Source maintenance gets used to cover things that are secret - Iray and dForce for example - as well as actual source maintenance. Given that Daz Central uses the DIM code it's fairly easy to guess in retrospect what some of those entries cover. But, as I said above, DIM isn't the thing doing the authenticating so the changes would not have been in the DIM change log even if it was wholly transparent.

But why are you thinking about Filament, or a new rendering engine?

The response by DAZ was to 2 comments wherein the central concept was Real-Time Rendering.  
If you've ever worked in or modded game production, and made changes to animations, physics, textures and so on, and then watched your character move around in Real-time with your changes...well the idea of IRAY even improving 100% or 200% isn't enough.

For many users, until we see 30fps min with physics, for probably many users, there will always the push and dream for next big step. 

IF Daz was referring to Filament...then am sadly much less excited about this hint.  
Was hoping for an official bridge to an existing render solution porting all the morph types, or something like that.
A synergy between DAZ & Company X.  

DAZ does real quality stuff, but quality takes time with bugs & evolutions that just naturally happen along the way.  
So implementing something that is reportedly designed in great-part for ligher-weight mobile Android systems, doesn't really make me feel warm & fuzzy about chances of Higher-Quality rendering with Filament...for many years to come anyway.  
Possibly it's scalable for more advanced systems?  Lack of any amount of showcase vids indicates earlier-stage development.  Unless I missed something?

Can see why DAZ would consider the Filament route.  
Until a game engine advances a market-place of products as high a quality as DAZ, feel we users are stuck with sticking with this or that environment. Or making the enormous amount of time to migrate assets.  
Am speaking from the the POV of all the morphs and PBR-Iray Mats/Shaders in DAZ.

At this rate I'm going to have buy two 3000Gen Titans in Q1-Q2 2021.   Cos can't wait that long.

But would  for Daz to surprise me!

...so what is this "Daz Central"? (manually DLd a few items I just got in offline mode)

Beta of a new content manager, primarily aimed at new users. There's a thread about it in the commons: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/407131/beta-for-dazcentral-your-new-content-manager/p1

...so what is this "Daz Central"? (manually DLd a few items I just got in offline mode)

Near as I can tell, this doesn't do anything useful.

The only feature I need is the ability to determine if a product has been updated since I last downloaded it.  i.e. a remedial level of revision control that has been availble planet wide for the last 50 years or so.  Heck, even putting a version number on downloaded files would be incredibly massively horrifically monsterously valuable.  I CRAVE THAT.

DIM already does this, for installed content and for content with the zip (or at least the matching .dsx file) in the Downloads folder.

I don't and most likely never will use so called 'smart content' as it requires the maintenance and sorting of materials as well as a duplication of the existing database (the file system).   It also suffers from massive clutter so.. meh.

The file system isn't a database, which is the whole point - the CMS (of which Smart Content is only a part) allows organisation without moving fiels around, which means things can be duplicated (placed in more than one category) for a minimal amount of additional data.

Maybe I'm wrong... does Daz Central handle normal use of Daz Content?  Namely moving files around and sorting content?

 

DIM can't natively import foreign data of any kind! Was clearly never designed to. In fact, it still cannot properly handle DAZ Bryce (tm)  or DAZ Carrara (tm) content zipfiles after 5 years! (and yes, even *this* makes sense to me, however much I don't like it).

Admittedly I don't use Bryce or Carrara much, but I've never had problems installing their content with DIM.

In a word, it doesn't work. Never has, really - at least for native B/C content. Some power-users swear by it for the DAZ/Poser content that they use in Carrara, which bears mention. Given that this new tool is based on the DIM core, perhaps Carrara/Bryce will benefit and get some attention here too. (anyone know if DAZ Central has menu/install options for Bryce or Carrara or Hexagon? Any success in using them, if so?)

I disagree.  DIM, from the beginning, was intended to be and built to be program agnostic.  Packages for products that don't use the standard DS/Poser content locations need to be set up correctly -- I know I encountered many Bryce packages that were set up incorrectly.  I reported them and they were fixed.  I wouldn't be surprised if someone tried to install a faulty package and concluded that DIM couldn't do it, but AFAICT it can.

I love DIM for the download management for these tools, but manually install from there - especially now that I customize my stuff so much anyway. The point is that DIM is, has, will be, and probably should be DS oriented - as this is clearly DAZ's core business direction.

To remake my original point (without snarkiness), can you get DIM or DAZ Central to install a hivewire or rendo zipfile? Do you expect this functionality in the near future? The question is valid, and still hasn't really been answered. I won't count on it as I review the placement of this new resource in my toolkit. And that's OK.

DIM can.  Obviously it can't download from other stores -- I can't imagine Rendo or HW or any other store letting Daz3D build that ability into DIM, let alone the work on their end to feed the data into DIM.  But some content creators at other stores have provided DIM-compatible zip files (if the brokerage allowed it), and many end users have created DIM-compatible zips for products from other sources.  There are several PA products here to assist in doing so.  While DIM will install metadata if it is present, it isn't required.  As for DazCentral, I don't know how it installs things (which is a showstopper for me personally, being a control freak) -- we've been told it uses the DIM core, but given that it launches DS and shows the product in Smart Content, I don't know how it handles products without metadata, or products that don't have the DS/Poser content format.  I recall it only showing DS and Hexagon (although it picked up the paths for Bryce and Carrara from my DIM settings), so it presumably is set up to work with Hexagon.

Are you speculating that there's a large number of silent users that have tried and really like the new DAZ Central tool, and haven't experienced any of the problems described in here?

No, I think that problems installing and finding content are still the biggest issue new users face.  There are a lot of these in the New Users forum, and there are probably a lot of new users who don't use (or even know about) the forums and submit help tickets about it.  I definitely got the impression long ago that it was the single biggest source of customer support tickets.  I don't know if that's still the case, but it seems to have been the driver behind developing DIM, and then Connect, and now DazCentral, so I suspect it still is.

Absolutely. In my TL;DR comments, I do actually acknowledge this, and acknowledge DAZ for their choice addressing that future. But it is clearly not intended or designed around the needs of veteran users (who would frequent any of the forums). That's fine, but it wasn't clear who DAZ meant when asserting 'we heard your voices' in the announcement. I assumed they meant us.

Yes, I agree completely -- the thread title and first post should have made clear that this was for new users.  It's certainly not "your new Content Manager" for me, and I think it won't fit the needs of most veteran users.

some good points/corrections - I must of given up before the DIM issues were fixed.

thanks for the response/thoughts.

--ms

Near as I can tell, this doesn't do anything useful.

The only feature I need is the ability to determine if a product has been updated since I last downloaded it.  i.e. a remedial level of revision control that has been availble planet wide for the last 50 years or so.  Heck, even putting a version number on downloaded files would be incredibly massively horrifically monsterously valuable.  I CRAVE THAT.

I don't and most likely never will use so called 'smart content' as it requires the maintenance and sorting of materials as well as a duplication of the existing database (the file system).   It also suffers from massive clutter so.. meh.

Maybe I'm wrong... does Daz Central handle normal use of Daz Content?  Namely moving files around and sorting content?

If DIM remains an option, I don't see myself ever using Daz Central.

The primary reason I use DIM is because you can right-click on an installed package and get the list of installed files and their location.  I got so old that I can no longer count on knowing where stuff is just because I had installed it myself.

lol - oh you don't know how much better it makes me feel to read that last line. (misery/company, etc.)

not a good trend, where my mind seems to be going!

yeah, I'm OK sticking with DIM to keep my core zipfile collection current and consistent. I hope they don't lobotomize it with parallel features as they tweak the apparently shared core with DAZ Central, but I'll take any improvements with appreciation...

cheers,

--ms

 

DIM can't natively import foreign data of any kind! Was clearly never designed to. In fact, it still cannot properly handle DAZ Bryce (tm)  or DAZ Carrara (tm) content zipfiles after 5 years! (and yes, even *this* makes sense to me, however much I don't like it).

Admittedly I don't use Bryce or Carrara much, but I've never had problems installing their content with DIM.

In a word, it doesn't work. Never has, really - at least for native B/C content. Some power-users swear by it for the DAZ/Poser content that they use in Carrara, which bears mention. Given that this new tool is based on the DIM core, perhaps Carrara/Bryce will benefit and get some attention here too. (anyone know if DAZ Central has menu/install options for Bryce or Carrara or Hexagon? Any success in using them, if so?)

I disagree.  DIM, from the beginning, was intended to be and built to be program agnostic.  Packages for products that don't use the standard DS/Poser content locations need to be set up correctly -- I know I encountered many Bryce packages that were set up incorrectly.  I reported them and they were fixed.  I wouldn't be surprised if someone tried to install a faulty package and concluded that DIM couldn't do it, but AFAICT it can.

I love DIM for the download management for these tools, but manually install from there - especially now that I customize my stuff so much anyway. The point is that DIM is, has, will be, and probably should be DS oriented - as this is clearly DAZ's core business direction.

To remake my original point (without snarkiness), can you get DIM or DAZ Central to install a hivewire or rendo zipfile? Do you expect this functionality in the near future? The question is valid, and still hasn't really been answered. I won't count on it as I review the placement of this new resource in my toolkit. And that's OK.

DIM can.  Obviously it can't download from other stores -- I can't imagine Rendo or HW or any other store letting Daz3D build that ability into DIM, let alone the work on their end to feed the data into DIM.  But some content creators at other stores have provided DIM-compatible zip files (if the brokerage allowed it), and many end users have created DIM-compatible zips for products from other sources.  There are several PA products here to assist in doing so.  While DIM will install metadata if it is present, it isn't required.  As for DazCentral, I don't know how it installs things (which is a showstopper for me personally, being a control freak) -- we've been told it uses the DIM core, but given that it launches DS and shows the product in Smart Content, I don't know how it handles products without metadata, or products that don't have the DS/Poser content format.  I recall it only showing DS and Hexagon (although it picked up the paths for Bryce and Carrara from my DIM settings), so it presumably is set up to work with Hexagon.

Are you speculating that there's a large number of silent users that have tried and really like the new DAZ Central tool, and haven't experienced any of the problems described in here?

No, I think that problems installing and finding content are still the biggest issue new users face.  There are a lot of these in the New Users forum, and there are probably a lot of new users who don't use (or even know about) the forums and submit help tickets about it.  I definitely got the impression long ago that it was the single biggest source of customer support tickets.  I don't know if that's still the case, but it seems to have been the driver behind developing DIM, and then Connect, and now DazCentral, so I suspect it still is.

Absolutely. In my TL;DR comments, I do actually acknowledge this, and acknowledge DAZ for their choice addressing that future. But it is clearly not intended or designed around the needs of veteran users (who would frequent any of the forums). That's fine, but it wasn't clear who DAZ meant when asserting 'we heard your voices' in the announcement. I assumed they meant us.

Yes, I agree completely -- the thread title and first post should have made clear that this was for new users.  It's certainly not "your new Content Manager" for me, and I think it won't fit the needs of most veteran users.

After being bought by new owners, WalMart began locking behind glass several items. In order to make a purchase, customers would have to locate and wait for an "associate" to unlock and retrieve the item so they could stand in a separate line and purchase those items. WalMart may have avoided losing money through theft, but much of the difference was lost by longtime customers deciding to shop elsewhere, not to mention the ill will it engendered.

Bean counters and suits will insist on DRM, but artistic types are not like normal people (which is why they are the first to be rounded up), and they will reject/resist these moves whenever feasible. Learn from history: DRM fails, one way or another.

This is not a DRM tool. These diversions are distracting from discussion of what is being offered.

Please pardon me. You mentioned DRM, and I quote: 

"I'm pretty sure that DIM and Daz Central won't introduce some kind of DRM - they are dealing with plain zips, albeit with a particular structure - but I wouldn't bet on  there never being a return to DRM (I get sent links to the industrial-scale warez sites that are leaching on Daz content)."

and that is the only reason I said anything. I was not attempting to distract from the discussion.

 

DIM can't natively import foreign data of any kind! Was clearly never designed to. In fact, it still cannot properly handle DAZ Bryce (tm)  or DAZ Carrara (tm) content zipfiles after 5 years! (and yes, even *this* makes sense to me, however much I don't like it).

Admittedly I don't use Bryce or Carrara much, but I've never had problems installing their content with DIM.

In a word, it doesn't work. Never has, really - at least for native B/C content. Some power-users swear by it for the DAZ/Poser content that they use in Carrara, which bears mention. Given that this new tool is based on the DIM core, perhaps Carrara/Bryce will benefit and get some attention here too. (anyone know if DAZ Central has menu/install options for Bryce or Carrara or Hexagon? Any success in using them, if so?)

I love DIM for the download management for these tools, but manually install from there - especially now that I customize my stuff so much anyway. The point is that DIM is, has, will be, and probably should be DS oriented - as this is clearly DAZ's core business direction.

To remake my original point (without snarkiness), can you get DIM or DAZ Central to install a hivewire or rendo zipfile? Do you expect this functionality in the near future? The question is valid, and still hasn't really been answered. I won't count on it as I review the placement of this new resource in my toolkit. And that's OK.

Are you speculating that there's a large number of silent users that have tried and really like the new DAZ Central tool, and haven't experienced any of the problems described in here?

No, I think that problems installing and finding content are still the biggest issue new users face.  There are a lot of these in the New Users forum, and there are probably a lot of new users who don't use (or even know about) the forums and submit help tickets about it.  I definitely got the impression long ago that it was the single biggest source of customer support tickets.  I don't know if that's still the case, but it seems to have been the driver behind developing DIM, and then Connect, and now DazCentral, so I suspect it still is.

Absolutely. In my TL;DR comments, I do actually acknowledge this, and acknowledge DAZ for their choice addressing that future. But it is clearly not intended or designed around the needs of veteran users (who would frequent any of the forums). That's fine, but it wasn't clear who DAZ meant when asserting 'we heard your voices' in the announcement. I assumed they meant us.

I could see and look forward to advanced features being added over time to address many of the installation process subtlties, but DAZ _RawB clarified the current intent, and now many of us can move on, knowing what DAZCentral is, and how we might integrate it as it matures.

Thanks for the response, and I'm gonna leave this topic, as the horse I beat is long-dead.

The best of success to those who embrace this this new utility. Options are always appreciated.

cheers,

--ms

 

DIM can't natively import foreign data of any kind! Was clearly never designed to. In fact, it still cannot properly handle DAZ Bryce (tm)  or DAZ Carrara (tm) content zipfiles after 5 years! (and yes, even *this* makes sense to me, however much I don't like it).

Admittedly I don't use Bryce or Carrara much, but I've never had problems installing their content with DIM.

Are you speculating that there's a large number of silent users that have tried and really like the new DAZ Central tool, and haven't experienced any of the problems described in here?

No, I think that problems installing and finding content are still the biggest issue new users face.  There are a lot of these in the New Users forum, and there are probably a lot of new users who don't use (or even know about) the forums and submit help tickets about it.  I definitely got the impression long ago that it was the single biggest source of customer support tickets.  I don't know if that's still the case, but it seems to have been the driver behind developing DIM, and then Connect, and now DazCentral, so I suspect it still is.

I don't think anyone is wilfully withholding an answer to the question about third-party content, ...

Here we disagree. I think they would very much *like* to give an answer that they simply can't afford, given the limited resources available to them. Probably the right call, but be honest about it. By-and-large, this is a super-reasonable community of really smart people who can both handle the reality of trade-offs.

... but I doubt it has been tested so it's waiting on someone giving it a go.

I would counter-speculate that nobody in the dev group has been explicitly tasked to work on the ability to import native renderosity/hivewire zipfiles into the DIM or DAZCentral core. really. and I get that, but the assumption that there's already something in there to 'give a go' ... hmmm. nope. not buying it. makes no sense. I''d love to be wrong here.

Don't forget that Daz Rawb said above that DIM and Daz Central are the same base core, so I doubt this is a matter of development costs (and I'd hold out hope that cool stuff added to DC will find its way into DIM too).  ...

DIM can't natively import foreign data of any kind! Was clearly never designed to. In fact, it still cannot properly handle DAZ Bryce (tm)  or DAZ Carrara (tm) content zipfiles after 5 years! (and yes, even *this* makes sense to me, however much I don't like it).

And getting useful content and smart-data for foreign data into the DAZ database took Riverdside Art months of work and study according to his/her own product backstory. I'm sure those development costs were quite substantial to them.

Per @mrinal's salient description of the complexity of this import capability, I would disagree that development costs aren't relevant here, and a counter that it has *everything* to do with development costs, and rightly so. It may still be worth doing (for existing customers), or it may never be worth doing (for new customers) - it's a complex ROI estimation, but I can't, without some common-sense-based push-back believe the idea that it's already in the core and we just need to wait for the code to mature. Not without some substantiation (anything hint/indication all would be welcomed). The existing DIM options and natural market tensions don't align with this representation of the current situation.

Re: DIM<->DAZCentral symbiosis - I also sincerely hope the improvements in the core are bi-directional - double win for DAZ too. Based on the early returns, I'll continue to watch with a cautious eye, saving my older installers as we go.

... I think the "you" who "spoke" would eb the silent(ish) group who use the content and applications but don't post on the forums.

Are you speculating that there's a large number of silent users that have tried and really like the new DAZ Central tool, and haven't experienced any of the problems described in here?

Sounds like another beer-bet to me. A good many of the folks in this thread that have tried this new tool and had problems are some of the most DS-savvy veterans in our user-community. These are the best of the best, and many are blue-blood DAZ supporters to the core. The early returns are mixed, but it is a beta.

All I have to go on is market forces and the comments in this thread, but I know how I'll be betting.

I'm pretty sure that DIM and Daz Central won't introduce some kind of DRM - they are dealing with plain zips, albeit with a particular structure - but I wouldn't bet on  there never being a return to DRM (I get sent links to the industrial-scale warez sites that are leaching on Daz content).

I don't even know where to start on this (I sure they won't but bet they will), other than appreciating that the data-theft is a real problem to which I have no good answer.

What I want with my data (import/export/control/flexibility), is exactly what makes the data so easy to steal. I think the "grey line" will always be making it hard enough to not be easy to steal, while making it easy enough for legit customers like me to still reach our intended cross-platform data-transfer workflows and goals. It's a tough one for sure, and it's tough for everyone in all of the content and media-based industries.

There's a fascinating dynamic in the broader marketplace, where the "have's" can and do pay, and the "have-nots" filch and steal, and the "in-betweens" define the dynamics of battleground each day. Open-source, I-tunes, phone-services, DAZ free app w/paid content - all trying to establish their footings in a very very fluid context. I'm sure it will all look very different in 10 years, and yet somehow it will be the same :)

What's encouraging is the ever-rising invoice number count each day in the store, which indicates to me that many other honest and good people like us are still paying fair value for quality goods and services.

cheers,

--ms

hi guys, I just make a clean start because I would like to keep libraires better organized (I started using the default library for everything, not a good idea); after first erasing everything from DIM then from disk and registry I discovered that somehow the new DIM installation kept all my settings, even Daz Studio, Photoshop and maya installation paths (into Applications tab) and custom libraries I created before unistalling just to see how they worked and how to organize.. I searched the registry carefully before reinstalling and I'm pretty sure I removed everything, but my settings were there already..

I also gave a try to Daz Central for ten minutes, I just logged in and check.. maybe it stores settings online?

Anyway after reinstalling a few stuff I also discovered that my Smart Content data was full of old stuff, all references poiting to non existant files. I had to reset the database and build it again.. I don't think it's normal.. is there an help page where are reported all daz used paths? I don't think I missed something because I also doble checked on my secondary PC but you can't never know..

And about the current question: is it normal that in Losts and Found I now have Genesis 3 Starter Essentials and a Michael 7 character? I remember them being categorized.. I'm attaching a screenshot..

This is Camilla for Aubrey 8 in the Long Tunic and Skirt Outfit and Dolly Hair. I used one of the walking down stairs poses from ROG and put her in the ROG Red Crow Inn. Then had to find Mesh Grabber (deleted by DAZ Central) and fix some poke through on the knee. The tunic was very shiny, so I messed with the Surfaces settings (something I hesitate to do, but a plastic look was just wrong. 

Camilla is lovely. The tunic has a 'dickie' insert. The simple shoes are like heeless shoes. Very interesting. It is not listed as dForce, but I applied dForce to the tunic and long skirt and did not have any more issues with them, than I might with an official dForce outfit. The tunic and skirt both have adjustment morphs. 

Found my install paths for downloads were reverted to my C: drive. And only because of a major Windows 10 update today. My drive was maxed out. Thanks. It took a bit, and finally found a slew of 'Custom' paths added to my DIM that were not there yesterday. Deleted them, uninstalled today's downloads, and reinstalled to my F: drive.

Now, how the heck do you uninstall DAZ Central? I don't want a program that is going to override my paths and preferences behind my back.

Mary

Thanks for posting this! I have fought long and hard to get a working content archetecture on my d drive, the very last thing I need is what you just described! Not going on my main PC render machine! I would consider trying it on my mac but....Daz didn't even say it was coming to mac soon;) to bad cause it looks cool.

I don't think anyone is wilfully withholding an answer to the question about third-party content, but I doubt it has been tested so it's waiting on someone giving it a go.

Don't forget that Daz Rawb said above that DIM and Daz Central are the same base core, so I doubt this is a matter of development costs (and I'd hold out hope that cool stuff added to DC will find its way into DIM too). I think the "you" who "spoke" would eb the silent(ish) group who use the content and applications but don't post on the forums.

I'm pretty sure that DIM and Daz Central won't introduce some kind of DRM - they are dealing with plain zips, albeit with a particular structure - but I wouldn't bet on  there never being a return to DRM (I get sent links to the industrial-scale warez sites that are leaching on Daz content).

If DIM remains an option, I don't see myself ever using Daz Central.

The primary reason I use DIM is because you can right-click on an installed package and get the list of installed files and their location.  I got so old that I can no longer count on knowing where stuff is just because I had installed it myself.

This is priceless. DAZ hasn't yet produced a good Content Manager. postgresql cms still doesn't work on a Mac. Now you're introducing DAZCentral which won't work on a Mac. Has DAZ stopped supporting Macs? Shouldn't you get one product working before moving onto a replacement?

PostgreSQL does work on the Mac, though there have recently been some (fixable) configuration issues that seem to affect new installs.

 

Plugin installation/update support could have been added to SmartContent. V4/M4 capability and content development is pretty much frozen wrt Daz store, so once installed via DIM/manual don't require further maintenance. Doesn't justify building an entire "parallel" product for it.

Yeah, I don't think ease-of-use is the point of this, but rather DRM.

ding ding ding...

You can't ding ding ding something that plainly isn't correct, and has been confirmed to be incorrect.

In my read, I didn't see any overt confirmation of that. When DAZ_RawB writes something like "No, DRM will never be part of the new DazCentral system", then I'll raise my cynical eyebrows and admit that "hmmm, they weren't trying to smuggle it in again, silly me..."

(FWIW, I understand and even support the DRM motivation, but as an honest customer that saw the 'Connect' fiasco unfold, my response isn't exactly unprovoked)

But let me offer a beer-bet that cynically predicts that DRM *will* be integrated someday - as will direct store purchasing features - both fine by me. Just note that I'm betting in favor of DAZ's interests, not the user-base's.

You on?

exactly who asked for this? anyone?

I could see this as a good long-term strategy for DAZ and its future customers, but I honestly don't think the voices in these forums were asking for this 'feature' over other improvements  - e.g. clean DS shutdowns, animations that load the way they were saved, BVH loading/saving that works, etc...

Of course I understand that priorities are likely to differ and the future is not the past, even if for its own sake. The natural tension of the marketplace continues. Vote accordingly.

I would recommend to the mothership that manual downloads and DIM remain enabled over the long-term, else another 'connect'-like event is likely to be looming should that change.

Never did see an answer to the multiple questions about Daz Central and ... 'foreign' content. This continued silence is likely to become an answer in itself.

--ms

It is for new users who have trouble with the options in DIM, as explained above. Since it uses the same system as DIM (just with a streamlined UI, as explained above) it will presumably not do anything with content that isn't set up to work in DIM - I dion't know if it will work with the small number of items from other sites thata re set up to work with DIM, though.

Excellent idea! Good thinking on the part of DAZ.

Per my comments ("good for DAZ and future customers"), I *can* see the logic/motivation of this tool. And FWIW, I use and like DIM for my download management.

But... As I stated in a recent previous post, when you tell a veteran userbase/audience in the first 4 lines of a forum announcement that 'We heard your voices', then a few posts later describe the tool as 'being designed for new users', the flurry of commentary that it has generated in this crowd doesn't surprise me at all.

This product simply was not designed for 95% of *us*. And that's fine and it's good to for us to know.

And I think it's safe to assume that my interests in using it to import foreign data probably won't be found here, even if they never actually answer the question - it's implied. New users won't need that. Fine.

I'm pragmatic and blunt, which often comes across as mean or vindictive when I sense hidden agendas or plain BS, but in most of my commentary, deleted or otherwise, there are usually truths that might be worth discussing. I just don't wrap 'em with a pretty bow anymore.

--ms