Oh Stars, the downloads!
Boojum the brown bunny
Posts: 348
My goodness.. I have a real love/hate relationship with Daz3D's sales and bundles. I love all the cool things I can get at a great price, but, oh stars, the downloads. Today I bought the Hiro5 Bundle, DSON, and a bunch of the SciFi Bundle for Platinum members. 104 files to download and install.. *blink*blink* 104!
Now admittedly, some things can't be helped. Seperate installers for seperate programs makes sense. But, maybe Daz could find a way for DazStuido to import data from files rather than run a bunch of installers to get all the data inside of DazStudio? I would love it if I could just put all the DazStudio files into a folder, point DazStudio at it and it would take all the content and meta data and install it. And if there are duplicates it could ask me what I want to do with them.
For that matter, it could load all the file names into a panel with default settings and let me modify them on an individual basis if I wanted to do something funny with them...
I know that they can't do that with Poser, but they could do it with Daz Studio, Carrara, and Bryce.
So I have now downloaded the 104 install files for the things I bought today, and I am now starting the install process... *sigh* I'll be back in a few hours.
Boojum the brown bunny
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Comments
Some time in the hopefully not too distant future DAZ 3D will be releasing their download manager, which is supposed to be a help wiith installing. We understand that it will be free, and will only need to be downloaded once, and from then on is on your computer ready for use.
It is optional, so DIY people can still do things their preferred way.
That's pretty bad, I want to reset my full Itemized Downloads History so I can create a new folder and burn nothing but fully updated files to DVD's for safe keeping. I have over 200 old files hanging out in my downloads at this time and they will not clear for three months from the date of purchase. I have no idea how many files will be involved because like you I buy many bundles as well.
I'm not looking forward to this or the time involved. I do think in the long run it might benefit me as I move fully to DS4.5.
Oh gosh that sounds wonderful! Thanks for telling me, Chohole! A download manager would be perfect. *blush* I have to admit I'm a bit of a DazAholic. Most of my buys are from Daz3d so not having to individually download installers would be really nice!
Boojum the brown bunny
I think I read somewhere in the forum that someone wanted to have his "My Downloads" section cleared (sooner than the files would disappear on their own) for a similar reason, so s/he? contacted Support and they did this for him/her.
Don´t be so enthusiastic. We are waiting for this download manager for MANY months already and it does not look like it will be out anytime soon. Maybe DAZ Soon - and we all know what that means. :-/
I was told it wouldn't be ready until all the bugs are worked out of the store, so it could be a decade or so down the road.
If we could at least have the files as zip-files instead of installers, then that would save us a lot of hours. All this clicking trough every installer is really time consuming, instead of just select the whole bunch, right click and send them to a target directory, and then perhaps sorting and managing them there, before finally copying them to the DAZ directory.
We are currently testing the early version while the web team wraps up their side of the install manager. So it may be coming in the next month or so...Not exactly sure when it is scheduled, but they are working on and testing the early version of this.
Wow - that is a pleasant surprise!!! Just let them test it properly, no hurry. We want a working install manager, not another Magento-something.
One of my frustrations is the total lack of naming conventions that make any sense on the files, combined with somewhat arbitrary methods in bundling given files in packages makes trying to even know if one has all the parts necessary without a lot of unnecessary items near impossible. It would be nice if files had clear english names (not some truncated version someone thought up that makes sense to no one other than the originator*) as to what they are, with version numbers and some standardized way of defining software compatibility (poser, DS3, DS4, DS4.5....)
(*was going to say 'while smoking crack' but I'll be nice ;p)
Hopefully, these issues will get addressed at the same time as the installer.
Not to mention in the Downloads, I would LOVE, I say LOVE to have a filter allows you to only see PC or Mac files or only Poser or Daz Studio Files and one for DS 4.5 or later only files. This would make buying and downloading things for me a LOT easier.
Yeah, they used to have a filter allowing me to select only PC files, but that vanished with the new setup. I'm sure they are going to add it back in, however, because it seems like something a lot of people will want.
You know, I tend to be very eclectic in my tastes, but there are certain products that I am always interested in. Anything by Howie and Stonemason, for example. I think it would be totally cool to have a tab that showed products (newest to oldest) filtered by maker. Something like a "Watched Artists" tab. Under account settings you would select artists you are particularly interested in and their objects would show up under the Watched Artists tab. Maybe an option to email you when a particular artists products go on sale.
Boojum the brown bunny
Is this the filter you are looking for PC Only items: http://www.daz3d.com/shop/platinum-club-items
Shop by Vendor filter: http://www.daz3d.com/shop/shop-by-vendor
We don't have the watched artist in place.
I hope this is helpful.
No, DAZ 3D is in the process of changing to Zip files, which will not be OS specific.
I think I read somewhere in the forum that someone wanted to have his "My Downloads" section cleared (sooner than the files would disappear on their own) for a similar reason, so s/he? contacted Support and they did this for him/her.Thank you For the tip. I'll ask a few Mods which department I should contact.
No, DAZ 3D is in the process of changing to Zip files, which will not be OS specific.
Initially there seemed to be +/- for installer vs zips especially for new users who zips can be confusing for. Over time working with both I have to say I have become a big fan of zips in general. An installer that works with the zips to help the new users (and long-time users who the installer works for) seems the way to go. One of the nice thing about this is, people can write alternative installers, since zip files are a standard.. as long as the naming convention and structure becomes more standard.
No, DAZ 3D is in the process of changing to Zip files, which will not be OS specific.
It will be applyed to old products or only new products?
Good question, hopefully it will be retroactive as that is a big part of what has lead to this mess in the first place... multiple generations of standards leaving no standard.
It will be applyed to old products or only new products?ALL products are in the process of being changed over. They all will be when the manager goes live. I have Reset many items that I bought in the past and got the NEW zip version instead of the old Installer version. So yes all items will be converted, this is taking lots of time because they have a huge store of files to convert.
Yes, As Jade says. If you purchase or reset older products you will receive zip files and not exe files. It is easy to see the difference as with those which are already converted you will only get a zip, not option of a zip for mac and an exe for Windows (PC).
That´s why I still don´t understand why they are not releasing NEW items in ZIP format also. They will later have to change them all to zips, which is extra work and could have been avoided if they simply already released new items in zips. And if they aren´t doing that (for whatever reason), then why are they changing all those old items into zips? They should be consistent in what they do and either change both old AND new (means newly released) items into zips or they should change those old items in EXE files, like they do with new releases.
They change OLD items into zips because there will be (soon?) an installer but at the same time they don´t release NEW items in zips because there is not an installer yet... Does this sound like a plausible explanation?
No they changed the older items because there was problems with the newer Mac OSX and the older installers.
Once the Installer app is finalised, then you will see the general change.
Can't wait to the zip only transfer. Zip files are soooo much easier and quicker than those darn installers which all are different and so time and patience consuming.
Another wish would be to have readmes as textfiles instead of html stuff.
I still see a problem, the zips I've seen so far *do not* contain version information. This is a serious issue I believe. The zip files should contain version information in the name imo to facilitate keeping track of what version it is once it is in someone's library. Requiring using an installer that inspects a loaded library or zip file to determine if you have the 'current version' is going to be considered invasive by some people, and more importantly for me it detracts from my ability to repackage things for storage as I see fit and works for my environment. This for me anyways could be a *serious* problem, as I repack all of my files so I don't have to reorganize them every time I reinstall.
I am relatively sure that others are repacking their files also from what I've seen in the forums.
It would also be helpful if there was a changelog under support on the website so people could see what was changed between versions in any given file. Some changes, while helpful to the general populace could even be detrimental in specific cases, such as metadata updates that might overwrite custom metadata someone has locally.
Oh no! I thought I was done but I have hundreds more files I have to download! *laugh* I bought DSON, so now I have to go back through all the Gen5, Gen4, and Gen3 stuff I bought for Genesis! Like the M4/F4/D4/V4/S4/A4 for Genesis stuff! Oh gosh.. There has to be an easier way.
Boojum