Well, unfortunately I have to say goodbye too. Been doing other things, but now preparing for large scale animation next year. The plan was always Carrara. Carrara was top of the line. But not anymore. Found Blender. I never expected this to say, but Blender is much better as Carrara. Daz probably will never update Carrara anymore, because DS Studio is their main tool. I can understand that. Blender has passed Carrara long time ago and is updated all the time. So the distance will get bigger and bigger. Carrara will never have new plugins anymore. Blender has 26.000 addons and objects. And Blender is free.

I do not like the Blender interface and struggling with it, but this is because it has so many options. I have almost relearn animation again. When I found Carrara, I was impressed by it. Now I am impressed again by Blender. Carrara is still a good tool, but I think it is the end of the line (forever?) and others do improve. Blender YouTube has over 1 million subscribers.

I had my doubts with Blender because almost everything is different. But now I know the basics, my doubts for switching are gone.

I have had a good time here and the forum has always been very helpful. But it is time to move on unfortunately. I wish Daz would not have abandoned Carrara.

Fencepost52 said:

Hello, old friends!  I'm glad to see the forum is still here and there's lots of awesome work being published.  My "artwork" and inspiration seem to come when I'm at a low point in life and...well, I started up Bryce again and have pushed my nose deep into the software and re-reading old tutorials.  I guess the advantage in being named, Art, is that everything I do is a work of Art, but that doesn't mean it's any good. LOLOL

Glad to see you back! Best wishes to you! And nice abstracts here :) 

Rezca said:

@kyotokid -  Personal experience with Windows 10 has been about 85% positive here,  using it since almost after it came out. Other than the initial few months its never been much of a problem and Microsoft's never once taken control of my system or did things w/o permission,  and  my laptop's gone months without an update.  Its sitting there with the notification telling me there's one, but unlike on launch day I can postpone it indefinitely.  Yes, 'back in the day'  updates were mandatory, but that's history (I was still on 7 at the time so 'technically' never did anything w/o permission)

Desktop I've been letting it do the updates and despite what the Horror Stories claim its never forced a system restart in the middle of me working on something. Only ever had a problem directly related to a system update once and it wasn't a system bricking either,  and truth be told almost any company can put out a troublesome update on accident  -  MAXON's  first R26 update had half of the interface missing because the GUI files weren't fully uploaded to the build or something,  Paradox recently had their Launcher deliver false positives on mods being corrupted...

 

I've not moved on to 11 yet myself mostly because a few programs I use frequently have some 'issues' with it right now, or visa-versa. That's just me though,  and I know what works for me obviously may not work for others and personally, I have everything I need right now so I've not seen the point of investigating other OS's. My acquaintances sometimes tell me a Macintosh would suit me better because of my working with graphics so often,  but I'm comfortable where I am  and I guess that's the important thing:  Do what's most comfortable for you, not what others say is best. 

Didn't mean to ramble there but that's all I'm really going to say though since I've learned from experience that people can get quite "passionate" about their opinions and preferences regarding these things,  and I've historically not fared well in debates of any kind...

 

 

On a new unrelated topic;   I don't like the Search Tool in D|S.   Do a search for "Eagle"  and  'no products found!'   "Deep"   'no products found!',   "Deepsea"  'no products found!"   then just manually digging into the product tree and there's  Deepsea's Eagle.  According to D|S's search function, no such product exists. Oh, and I also have the DAZ Eagle 2.0,  but as far as the search tool is concerned there's no products with the word 'Eagle'  in them. Also Deep Sea Creatures, but there's no "Deep" text in anything I have either apparently! Get that with things too often for my tastes,  where its sometimes either overly sensitive with the search paramaters or is utterly blind.

..at the time of the free upgrade offer I still was running on 7 home Premium which means I would have received 10 Home edition which back then was literally like handing your system over to Microsoft as you couldn't even defer updates and had to abide by their scheduling. I didn't upgrade to 7 Pro until several years later, but by then 7 was running so smoothly and trouble free (and was still receiving security updates which are the important ones) I saw no reason to change as it was still supported by MS (even though they kept sending "nagwere" to "upgrade" to 10. 

Again I like things simple and W10 seemed anything but given thee then every 6 month update routine.. Meanwhile 7 Kept faithfully chugging along just fine for me with nary a whimper.

The whole issue with the Nvidia driver is something of a surprise as we've been on 471.41.for seemingly forever and when there was an update it was usually just the next driver version available.  I actually am five versions ahead 471, but now the minimum version has jumped to 517 which as I said above it means no more GPU rendering.  So, for now I'll just keep working with the 4.21.0.5 general release.

I have been poking around to see just how much of the rubbish features can be permanently uninstalled on W11 before  I can make any  decision.  There's even a relatively inexpensive  third party app that makes 11 look and feel more like 7 (yes it even gives you back the "real" start menu which can be moved off to the right  corner).  Again I don't need or will ever use much if any of the "fluff" that's included in 10 or 11. and thus would like to get rid of as much as I can as possible.  The one improvement with 11 is you disable auto updating and still manually install what updates you want or need. (Pro version only).   

One of the things I have also read is that 11 does periodic BIOS updates.  That's a big "No" for me. When I first began working with 7 the only times I got BSODs or instabilities was due to flawed drivers  or security updates that had bugs in which that MS would install during auto updates. That's when I switched to manual updating along with reviewing all update files each Patch Tuesday and have not had an issue  Given that experience, I certainly don't want them messing around with the BIOS or any other hardware settings as its not their system.  If I need a drive I'll keep going to the manufacturers source for the latest.

So far, It seems it will be a tonne of work to make 11 behave like an OS should instead of it trying to be some sort of "experience".  If I  want an "experience" I'll go to a theme park and ride a monster roller coaster. or something.

__________

As to Daz and searching I have never seen a more horrible setup than here in the Store, forums, and in the Daz programme itself.

The old  development company I worked for back in the 90s created one of the best most comprehensive search engines that was wsomewhat ahead of its time. far better than what Daz uses.  Our main products were medical journal libraries on CD-ROM (yeah I'm dating myself a bit) so they had to be precise as well as fully cross referenced. Given the nature of medical and scientific terms stored keywords for search matches had to be accurate. 

Sometimes despite the keyword or search term being one of the words in the product title, the search did not reveal the product. A few days ago I had to leave Daz and go to google and find it that way. Next time I'll note the specifics. But I do love the improvements especially the new headers fetured on the PA store fronts. For those of you who haven't noticed them check out  Amaranth's. There are many others but I picked her because she happens to be the source of todays Christmas freebie.

Also this often happens. I search a term it populates as 1 of two pages, click for page two and it repopulates with page 1 of 7 etc. All I did to replicate this was at the main page for the store, typed the word winter in the search field. Attached are the search results for page 1 (was 1 of 2 pages ) and the other screen shot is when I clicked for page 2 .

CHWT said:

Waiting for people to jump out and say "you all are holding a petty grudge against G9 / fighting a losing battle" etc LOL.

I actually don't see much buyers remorse. There are not many things that you have to buy unless you are a collector (or those who did have buyers remorse just stopped buying).

Anyways I hopped on for a test ride. Didn't love it, but didn't hate it either. I am sure I will pick up ALL the G9 merchant resources eventually, when they are at 70% off or more. Maybe a few characters which I really like, but it's not like I need G9. At least I am not convinced that I need it now.

I don't hate G9, but it is a huge pain to use so I do have buyer's remorse in that if I could go back I wouldn't have spent what I did when it first came out. Could be my fault for having had too many expectations to begin with. 

I just feel the whole unified character thing has just added too many steps to the process both in the character creation and the asset sorting for wardrobe pieces. Daz's search function isn't great as it is and I have so many assets I can already see what it'll look like if I buy more G9 stuff. It'll look like how I keep my socks: unsorted in a bucket.

Saxa -- SD said:

Hi, every once in a while stop in to see what Rosie is doing.  She's a cool cat. 

Saw this news this eve. Seem pretty sure you were a big fan of Alita Battle-Angel too?  Couldn't see anything in DAZ forum TOS against sharing it.  Fresh Alita Sequel potential announcement.

Oh Yeah! That sounds like a promise!!! :)

Thank You So Much!

...and Rosie says "Thanks" ;)

Hi, every once in a while stop in to see what Rosie is doing.  She's a cool cat. 

Saw this news this eve. Seem pretty sure you were a big fan of Alita Battle-Angel too?  Couldn't see anything in DAZ forum TOS against sharing it.  Fresh Alita Sequel potential announcement.

n_alexandru said:

That's odd, maybe there's a timeout after editing the files before they appear ? They show up for me, both on the page and when i go to edit the post.

I loaded the page with a different browser without logging in and they are there:

I've uploaded the zip here: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AhpnXywMA4U1mU4q-FenkOa6UBuX?e=Nu8k85 if it still refuses to show up.

 Thanks for link, got the updated one now then.

It's a forum glitch. If you go again to edit the 1st post, add a space or something so you can save the post again ... then hopefully it will once more appear for everybody to see.

This is glitch that has been happening for a long time in here.

Appreciate the positive response, Bunyip, ed3D, and UnifiedBrain. 

I have a theme idea which I hope people enjoy and find flexible.  I will post the basics this weekend, if not before.  Please send me any recent updates to our Daz contacts and anything they might expect from challenge coordinators.  I assume it is all pretty much as it has been, but better to make sure.  One thing I would like is to include animations and try to lure back Dudu et al.  Doesn't hurt to try.  So if it is OK with the Daz folks, I will probably structure it more like a previous hosting that had a prize for top still and a prize for top animation.  If anyone thinks that is a bad way to go, comment here or send me a PM message by clicking the little gear icon in the upper right of the forum page.  Based on this initial exchange, I am thinking the challenge should run through mid to late February at least, probably to the end of February.  Again, if anyone thinks that is a bad idea, comment here or send me a PM.

[looking for deer family] whitetail preferrably. Did intenret search and there is a buck at the R place. Might grasb that.  Would like doe and fawn as well. That one place that has huge $ signs has a deer family for $1099, and a bunch of other really nice models for $300, 400, 500, etc. I'm not a huge Hollywood production studio. 

Wow, I suddenly noticed that we can now search the forums! How long has this been? I can't remember seeing it before.

I think it is a wonderful addition to the site!

As far as how many PC's use linux it's not high. 3% so true.

@Ilena

Any data available on how much of the 3% of PC users ( running linux) are even interested in Daz studio and Genesis?.

I am certain that less than 3% of the entire global Blender user base ( Mac ,linux & Windows) have any interest in using Daz genesis characters with all of the other Character options available. and the dominant focus on hard surface modeling in the online blender communities.

we have a relatively small number of regulars who use the Blender forum on this  very site and I have only see one single discussion by one single user about using the linux version of blender with DS assets.   

What percentage of Daz’s resources should they divert away from their profitable versions to gamble on some linux version with Zero proof that there is even  a statisticaly  signifigant demand from the general gobal linux user base. 

And, very sorry but,  Daz employees can not pay for food & housing & College tuition etc  with canting  Daz forum screeds detailing peoples hatred of windows/bill gates.

@kyotokid -  Personal experience with Windows 10 has been about 85% positive here,  using it since almost after it came out. Other than the initial few months its never been much of a problem and Microsoft's never once taken control of my system or did things w/o permission,  and  my laptop's gone months without an update.  Its sitting there with the notification telling me there's one, but unlike on launch day I can postpone it indefinitely.  Yes, 'back in the day'  updates were mandatory, but that's history (I was still on 7 at the time so 'technically' never did anything w/o permission)

Desktop I've been letting it do the updates and despite what the Horror Stories claim its never forced a system restart in the middle of me working on something. Only ever had a problem directly related to a system update once and it wasn't a system bricking either,  and truth be told almost any company can put out a troublesome update on accident  -  MAXON's  first R26 update had half of the interface missing because the GUI files weren't fully uploaded to the build or something,  Paradox recently had their Launcher deliver false positives on mods being corrupted...

I've not moved on to 11 yet myself mostly because a few programs I use frequently have some 'issues' with it right now, or visa-versa. That's just me though,  and I know what works for me obviously may not work for others and personally, I have everything I need right now so I've not seen the point of investigating other OS's. My acquaintances sometimes tell me a Macintosh would suit me better because of my working with graphics so often,  but I'm comfortable where I am  and I guess that's the important thing:  Do what's most comfortable for you, not what others say is best. 

Didn't mean to ramble there but that's all I'm really going to say though since I've learned from experience that people can get quite "passionate" about their opinions and preferences regarding these things,  and I've historically not fared well in debates of any kind...

On a new unrelated topic;   I don't like the Search Tool in D|S.   Do a search for "Eagle"  and  'no products found!'   "Deep"   'no products found!',   "Deepsea"  'no products found!"   then just manually digging into the product tree and there's  Deepsea's Eagle.  According to D|S's search function, no such product exists. Oh, and I also have the DAZ Eagle 2.0,  but as far as the search tool is concerned there's no products with the word 'Eagle'  in them. Also Deep Sea Creatures, but there's no "Deep" text in anything I have either apparently! Get that with things too often for my tastes,  where its sometimes either overly sensitive with the search paramaters or is utterly blind.

RangerRick said:

...

In another twist, there are also people who are trying to claim their word prompts are copyrightable, which I find hilariously ironic.

...

We used to call some people celebrities but now they're "Influencers!"

We used to call people who made things hobbyists if they were just tinkering around for their own enjoyment, or craftsman (or maybe a trade specific name) or even artist but now they're "Makers!"

Now we have people describing (usually loosely) what they want. It may sound like hiring an artist for commissioned work or doing a Goodle search as someone suggested earlier in this thread. However, following this trend of ego stroking I suggest we call them "Imaginators!"

"Don't let people who actually did the work take credit for something you Imaginator'd!!"

Hopefully copyrighting "prompts" wouldn't hold up in court but stranger things have happened.  Funny thing is even if it did it would just protect the bunch of words fed into the AI/ML image generator and not the image that pooped out.

 

Edited to fix a typo and add:

I enjoy watching some youtube videos about people making dioramas and doing other craft-type stuff.  There's a few who use toys or models or scenery stuff like fake trees, fake grass, etc, add some lighting, etc and create some really cool things.  It doesn't matter that they're using purchased props for at least part of the work. It's still very impressive and enjoyable. 

...

In another twist, there are also people who are trying to claim their word prompts are copyrightable, which I find hilariously ironic.

...

We used to call some people celebrities but now they're "Influencers!"

We used to call people who made things hobbyists if they were just tinkering around for their own enjoyment, or craftsman (or maybe a trade specific name) or even artist but now they're "Makers!"

Now we have people describing (usually loosely) what they want. It may sound like hiring an artist for commissioned work or doing a Goodle search as someone suggested earlier in this thread. Howevver, following this trend of ego stroking I suggest we call them "Imaginators!"

"Don't let people who actually did the work take credit for something you Imaginator'd!!"

Hopefully copyrighting "prompts" wouldn't hold up in court but stranger things have happened.  Funny thing is even if it did it would just protect the bunch of words fed into the AI/ML image generator and not the image that pooped out.

Forum keeps eating posts and pictures 
I'm not looking for the hyper realistic, though I'd love to be able to do that, but for what it costs, I'd at least like it to look close to what I was meaning to buy.

barbult said:

Semicharm said:

Catherine3678ab said:

Semicharm said:

Catherine3678ab said:

Turbosquid has 2 pages free Christmas models too. We can't put links in here {because pages also have commercial items}.

They have wreaths, trees, socks for the fireplace, red hats, snowmen [and one that is very unfriendly looking with big black eyes and a stitched smile, and another one that looks like golf balls instead of snow], a Choco Santa Claus 6 {as in looks like a chocolate food item}, Gingerbread Cookies, a beautiful gold fashion cross pendant, etc.

Can you at least give a hint on how to find it? It's not listed anywhere on Turbosquid's front page and the first several pages on a google search only give links to marginally relevant "searches" for Christmas items on Turbosquid. I can find the item page for "Choco Santa Claus 6" but searching for other pages with a link to that page only gives one single "avent" page with only that one item on it.

Sign in first, then search for "Christmas" - then go to price and select 'free' ... 

Freebies that are available year round don't really qualify as limited "holiday giveaways"

I've never heard someone complain that freebies were available for too long!

That's not what I said... I've been here for years, and every "holiday giveaways" thread was about givaways that were only available duiring the holidays. If someone wants to have different rules this year, that's fine.

It may be that putting a models in a group "kills" the shells (4.21 with Win 10). I'm not sure but I can't find anything else which I did when the shells disappeared. And they did disappeared in *very* special way - they remained in the Scenes tab but were actually missing - when selected nothing appeared in the Surfaces tab and the effects from them were missing too (that's why I started to search for a problem).

(I have to remake a lot of scenes so cannot spare a time to confirm if it's correct or the reason is something else).

Edit: If someone really wants to try it - I forgot to write not just putting models with shells into a group but also exporting the group as a subset and then importing it into a scene (and there were two models into the group)

Makes it easier to pretend the customer base is happy with whatever is released. Any time, and I mean any time, someone does not like these downgrades, there's a certain person I am definitely not criticising(as that's against the forum rules) right on cue, telling them that they're wrong.

In addition to the weird search results, I've noticed for sometime now that the "Hide Items I Own" has been excluding items I DON'T OWN.  This has happened several times when I have searched the daily sales offers.  I now turn off the "Hide Items I Own."  Bests.