Official Release of Carrara 8.5 **Update - 8.5.1.19**

tsarist

How long is this extended?
Couldn't find the announcement

fixmypcmike

Staticdrifter, your 8.0 serial number will still work.

kakman

staticdrifter said:

I've been reading your posts today, and please don't take this the wrong way, but a lot of you are the very reason they get away with this. You let them.

Good point and I can not argue with it.

staticdrifter said:

You say well if its not in this one it will be in the next, but what if 9 turns out to be a loser?

Maybe I will skip that release or finally look elsewhere.

Does anyone here not realize that if you bought 8.0 during the 8.5 beta, like I did, you have actually lost functionality? They took away access everything dealing with 8.5 that I was already using. I don't even have access to my 8.0, let alone my 8.5. I not only have to pay to get what they should be passing along free, but they voided my serial numbers entirely.

DAZ may be many things, but I am sure they will correct the serial number snafu if you contact them.

I'll not back them in this venture. And I withdraw any recommendations I put my name behind.
Not only do they not gain my money, but they also lose the money from those I have influenced to purchase the software. I have close to 2 dozen people ready to buy, who were just waiting for the release of the Non-BETA version. I'll set them straight today. Oh, we'll not break them, we probably won't even matter to them, but I'll not stake my reputation on shoddy tactics. We are now, all of us to a soul, looking elsewhere for a 3D solution.

Sorry to hear that, but I can certainly understand how you feel.

Headwax

Dartanbeck said:

head wax said:

It's pretty useless for me.
And yes, no one made me buy it.

I'm really, really sorry to hear this, man. Truly.
I was one of those who have voted for this. But I was not alone. DAZ did poll us - asking what we'd like to see for the future of Carrara. This was back before the 8.5 beta was even announced. long before.
Some time after that, they had an open thread (no poll) asking what we wanted to see in Carrara 9 Pro. There were some really good responses. We were asked to "Not" clutter the discussion, but commenting on others' opinions was recommended. For the most part, if I recall correctly, it went pretty well for parts of it - with some really valuable 'wants' from the likes of Holly Wetcircuit, Kevin Sanderson, WendyLovesCats, and others. Many others.

no reason to feel sorry :) you're a good bloke and I love wjhat you have been doing for Carrara and I am jealous of your positive attitude.

BUT :)

we all come at Carrara from different angles.
Personally I'm looking for intelligent improvements to Carrara that make my life easier.

I use it to make images.
With lots of nice juicy DAZ purchased content.
I have 39 Pages in my product library.

SO

Computers as you know can handle very large scenes.
Quite often mine are now 1.5 gig.

1)Yet I cannot search correctly in the instances tab. I don't have a 'next button or a "previous", or "yes we found 52 examples of the instance known as Door"

2) I cannot re arrange my library folder to slip a new folder between two old ones.
Fenric cannot access that part of Carrara because of..... (?) could be wrong on this :)
As opposed to what you can do with the Poser library.
Carrara is supposed to be a lot better than Poser so how can this be the case?
If Daz wants Carrara to be all about content then they really need to fix this.

3) Poser has had a workable cloth simulation since the "Dark ages".
Yet Carrara's is just a toy.
Carrara is supposed to be a lot better than Poser so how can this be the case?

etc etc
etc etc

the improvements I needed personally were ones that to me seem the most common sensical (heh look up that word :) )

I don't mind giving Daz my money

. I just hope they earn it next time.....

I realise this is just my viewpoint. I bet a lot of people feel the same way.

kakman

head wax said:

Dartanbeck said:

head wax said:

It's pretty useless for me.
And yes, no one made me buy it.

I'm really, really sorry to hear this, man. Truly.
I was one of those who have voted for this. But I was not alone. DAZ did poll us - asking what we'd like to see for the future of Carrara. This was back before the 8.5 beta was even announced. long before.
Some time after that, they had an open thread (no poll) asking what we wanted to see in Carrara 9 Pro. There were some really good responses. We were asked to "Not" clutter the discussion, but commenting on others' opinions was recommended. For the most part, if I recall correctly, it went pretty well for parts of it - with some really valuable 'wants' from the likes of Holly Wetcircuit, Kevin Sanderson, WendyLovesCats, and others. Many others.

no reason to feel sorry :) you're a good bloke and I love wjhat you have been doing for Carrara and I am jealous of your positive attitude.

BUT :)

we all come at Carrara from different angles.
Personally I'm looking for intelligent improvements to Carrara that make my life easier.

I use it to make images.
With lots of nice juicy DAZ purchased content.
I have 39 Pages in my product library.

SO

Computers as you know can handle very large scenes.
Quite often mine are now 1.5 gig.

1)Yet I cannot search correctly in the instances tab. I don't have a 'next button or a "previous", or "yes we found 52 examples of the instance known as Door"

2) I cannot re arrange my library folder to slip a new folder between two old ones.
Fenric cannot access that part of Carrara because of..... (?) could be wrong on this :)
As opposed to what you can do with the Poser library.
Carrara is supposed to be a lot better than Poser so how can this be the case?
If Daz wants Carrara to be all about content then they really need to fix this.

3) Poser has had a workable cloth simulation since the "Dark ages".
Yet Carrara's is just a toy.
Carrara is supposed to be a lot better than Poser so how can this be the case?

etc etc
etc etc

the improvements I needed personally were ones that to me seem the most common sensical (heh look up that word :) )

I don't mind giving Daz my money

. I just hope they earn it next time.....

I realise this is just my viewpoint. I bet a lot of people feel the same way.

I know that I do AND then Some!

Headwax

I know that I do AND then Some!

:)

yes, you don't have to listen very hard to know that it is the general feeling....
sadly :)
mind you I am really looking to doing geografting - that's if I can do it in carrara
?

Dartanbeck

staticdrifter said:

I've been reading your posts today, and please don't take this the wrong way, but a lot of you are the very reason they get away with this. You let them. You say well if its not in this one it will be in the next, but what if 9 turns out to be a loser? Windows turns up a piece of trash at least every other upgrade. Poser isn't worth spit every other version. Paramount can't even keep an even stream of Star Trek Movies. Yet we keep paying for them hoping they will get it right the next time.
And, no, the version numbers aren't different to different companies, at the very least they should not be, as they were set up to meet certain standards of programming that the public could count on for information'

Don't even begin to try to quote my mistakes here, this is a you get the idea sort of thing:No... I'll certainly NEVER try to correct you on this. I have no real clue if all companies follow these conventions... but, now that you spell it out so clearly, I find that I do the same thing in my own endeavors - so... I truly believe you.

Staticdrifter, it was me and a lot of others. We answered a poll and all requested this update.
We were told before we ever tried any beta version that the final outcome would require payment. So, yes... it is our fault that they are continuing to work on Carrara. Like I said to Head Wax, another artist whom, like you, I respect completely. Head Wax and I have discussed many things, I have grown incredibly fond of his art (how can one not?), much like you and I have shared our progress and were really having some fun. Same with Kakman, whom I've also accidentally irritated. I do stand my ground. Perhaps a bit too much. Maybe I should just leave thing go sometimes. But this one I have to come in and urge a reconsideration.
The people that they have working on Carrara are excellent. Again. This is my very own opinion. I also feel, still to this day, how hard of a punch the economic crash did in places. Whole, wonderful companies that we needed and cared for... gone. Friends and families, Carrara artists, Cherry Factories, Horse Farms, Tractor service stations, Car dealerships... they didn't survive. Now there are way too many people running around asking if they can mow your lawn - blow your leaves.

DAZ 3D survived.
I was worried. I know I wasn't alone. I was lucky enough to have paying jobs all the way through. No matter what happens, people always need things made out of stone. My door will always be knocked upon. So I was fortunate to be able to buy stuff. Genesis was new. I bought into it. Why not? DAZ 3D has always pleased me with quality before... they certainly didn't let me down. There was one version of 8.5beta that screwed up your 8.1 (or was it 8.0 then?) preferences or something. Messed with Head Wax Big Time! Well I was lucky enough to read that before installing - so I didn't even keep the installer. Ever since, as soon as it was confirmed that it was fixed in that regard, I've been running the beta. I helped by replying to some bug reports, made a few of my own - which got fixed.

I feel really bad for Kakman. I could have - I should have noticed the problem he's having.
I felt so bad I looked back at some of my tests. I figured it out.
I never shoot images where that issue shows up. Those particular seems that show are always hidden - if not entirely, enough where the issue does not show.

I feel really bad for folks like you, whom feel like you're being hog-tied into buying features that you don't want.
I am not a DAZ 3D employee. They publish my stuff for me - but only if they think it will benefit the community and passes their strict quality assurance tests. Working with these people at a slightly different level, I just know... at least I think I do... because I Feel... DAZ 3D truly means well in all of this. It's a possible solution to get a software to be worthwhile having good people whom deserve a nice paycheck to continue to serve a relatively small community.
Aw, why am I saying all of this - you already know....
I guess I'm just bumming that you feel this way, my friend... all of you, my friends.

I have tested the betas. I have uninstalled 8.1, 8.5 beta, and replaced everything using the new DIM way of maintaining my DAZ 3D stuff. I have tested how all of that works before I would even think of doing it on my workstation. I was quite reluctant.

I know that I am "The DAZ 3D Cheerleader". So that when I say positive stuff, it's easily tossed away. But when I say that Carrara 8.5 is the best Carrara to date... I am not just cheer leading. I am making an observation. I love the work they've done to the tool tray, the new parameters tab. I love the zeroing. I've never even tried the graph editor improvements yet - but I really look forward to it. The new light shape avatars make it a lot easier to pick lights by looking into the scene, instead of the scene tray. The mip mapping is something that I know nothing about, except that we all new about it during beta, and talked about it some. I don't recall a single complaint - except that when we would try and open an 8.5 file in an earlier Carrara. Still... just set the texture maps over to sampling and all is good again.

The fact that you can get it cheaper was calculated ahead of time. They wanted us - the folks who are paying attention to Carrara news - to have a beneficial boost towards getting it cheaper. All along - supporting a software that we don't want to disappear. They have a good list of recommendations from some very different ranges of people - from animation to still art - to 3d modelers and those looking to make realism environments. The folks who responded to DAZ were really looking for Carrara to become incredibly up-to-date and performing at a high degree of excellence. Okay my wording is all weird. Life in my world has really been traumatic, happy, scary traumatic, painful, lost, happy, rinse and repeat for the past many years. I used to type and speak very clearly - now my words just shape themselves - whenever I can find them - and I find that I don't always make sense.

Dartanbeck, do you recall how enthused I was when I first came in board? I will just as enthusiastically decry Carrara from here on.

No, man...
Awe....

It is ultimately your choice. But I know, or have indirectly met many of the people that you think you're mad at. They are not sinister... believe me. They are people. Good people. Perhaps that's why so many of us just stick around. We don't just buy the stuff, but we hand out at the counter telling our neighbors all about our latest renders or models. It's because of the positive energy. DAZ 3D is made up of very good people. I love them.

I really hope that you can at least reconsider being upset about the release. All of the nice things I've said about it, imagine this:
I never ran the beta and I don't have the need to use Genesis at all.
I hop into Carrara 8.1 and take it for a test drive.
My first test is always grabbing a character from the content tab and set up lights and shaders. Let's get this thing to where I can render it. Pooh, no reflections. I do have the new Yosemite HDRI from another DAZ friend, Dimension Theory. So I bring that into the background HDRI area. Now is a great time to try the awesome suggestion brought up by another neighbor, Phil Wilkes. We're gonna go ahead an shoot a Gamma Corrected render, which will have Carrara launch into linear workflow. So let's make sure the ambient scene setting is 0% and turn on full indirect lighting and, with that HDRI in there, let's crank on the global illumination by checking the "Sky Light" box. Heck, let's just jam that Render button as is. T'will make a wonderful test render. Whoa... those lighting calculations didn't take long. Oh... this is really looking nice considering that we were just slamming stuff into the scene and quickly flicking our settings around. This version of Carrara is really, Really nice!

Get my point? The same sort of thing could happen with 7 and 6 as well. If you don't want to upgrade, I don't want to twist your arm so much that it hurts and you walk away. Stick with... see what 9's future brings. I know that you liked Carrara.

WendyLuvsCatz

Headwax/Andrew fully I get your view!!
I ONLY bought C8.5 upgrade for the FBX integration with iClone 3dxchange pipeline!!
not really impressed with Genesis in it though I do use it.
Genesis DOES work well in Daz studio and from there iClone for me which is where I mostly use it.
must say not so well in Poser 2012 either!

Dartanbeck

head wax said:

I know that I do AND then Some!

:)

yes, you don't have to listen very hard to know that it is the general feeling....
sadly :)
mind you I am really looking to doing geografting - that's if I can do it in carrara
?Don't punch me ... okay?
I don't think that geografting works in Carrara.
Head Wax, Kakman, Others,
I feel all that.
Never really cared for the search stuff - but maybe when we get it I can disable it and get my memory back from the indexer. The other stuff... and even geografting... Man, if I'm right, you'll be smiling on the release of Carrara 9 pro. Those types of things, I have a feeling, are fairly tops on the lists. Heck they may even have a working prototype with it working as we speak.

I don't have the latest Poser - but I noticed that it and Carrara are priced the same - close enough. Is Poser Pro really a modeler? Does it build trees, skies, mountains and animated volumetrics? I just don't know what it does - and I'm interested in looking into it. I think that having Poser, DS, Byrce, Hex and Carrara is a good thing. I personally only have been finding the time to really get into Carrara. And even that - I want more time.

You'll probably get dynamic cloth - I'm fairly certain of that. I got pretty good in Poser 5. But it was still very difficult to get animations to work out right. But you're right - it was there. And for stills, it's excellent! I followed a tutorial on how to make dynamic cloth models - and really got into it for quite a spell. Walk design too. The last thing I want to do is to belittle another software. Especially popular Poser that I haven't even tried!

Like I said though, there was a good list. I think you even saw, and possibly participated in it.

Headwax

Dart sayeth

We were told before we ever tried any beta version that the final outcome would require payment. So, yes… it is our fault that they are continuing to work on Carrara. Like I said to Head Wax, another artist whom, like you, I respect completely. Head Wax and I have discussed many things, I have grown incredibly fond of his art (how can one not?), much like you and I have shared our progress and were really having some fun. Same with Kakman, whom I’ve also accidentally irritated. I do stand my ground. Perhaps a bit too much. Maybe I should just leave thing go sometimes. But this one I have to come in and urge a reconsideration.

Never feel the need to apologise for your being positive.
So you are the Daz cheerleader that everybody talks about? Hmm I been wondering :)

Heh. But seriously, we all want Carrara to be different things for each of us. There's no argument in that at all.
I start work with it at 6.oo am every day. Three days a week I work till 8.00 pm at night. I have three hours off in the middle of the day for a surf etc. Three days a week I work with it from 6.00 am til 8.30 and then again from 5 till 8 in the evening. The other day I start work at 6.00 am and wpork with it till my wife gets the sh*ts with me.

My needs will be different perhaps to someone who uses it a few hours a week, or who wants to do animations, or is happy to render at 2000 pixels on the large side of their images, or wants to do photorealism, or who gets a warm happy feeling when they buy another pair of shoes for Genesis that isn't in their collection already....

Headwax

sorry dart just saw your post :)
be back soon and for wendy too :)

kakman

Dartanbeck said:

Same with Kakman, whom I've also accidentally irritated.

Absoultely NOT! While we may not see things exactly the same on this particular release (please note that there are a great many more issues that I have with C8.5 - but I am addressing them one at a time. This may seem like bad news to some, but I want C8.5 to be a success as much as you.

I think the misunderstanding stems from the fact that we only know each other through this forum and as it has been addressed many times before - sometimes things do not come across correctly in the written word, especially in a forum .

I have the utmost respect for you and consider you a friend (I hope that this is okay).

I happen to really like a good healthy disagreement and enjoy the give an take.

If I made you feel that I was irritated, I apologize, for this was not my intention or motivation.

I feel really bad for Kakman. I could have - I should have noticed the problem he's having.

That was not and is not your responsibility.

You have helped me so much, so many times, that there is no way I could ever thank you enough. I only contacted you first to see if I was way off base or what?

In fact, after our recent PM's I uninstalled DAZ, Carrara and all Genesis and Genesis 2 related content and reinstalled those items using the DIM because of your endorsement for the DIM AND I was not sorry at all!

Please check your PM, I had sent you a quick note earlier and I have a few more PM's that I am going to send you - if that is alright.

Everything is good with you on my end, I hope it is the same on your end.

Headwax

WEndy wroteth :

Headwax/Andrew fully I get your view!!
I ONLY bought C8.5 upgrade for the FBX integration with iClone 3dxchange pipeline!!
not really impressed with Genesis in it though I do use it.
Genesis DOES work well in Daz studio and from there iClone for me which is where I mostly use it.
must say not so well in Poser 2012 either!

ahh you are the salt of the earth how you are willing to play with different programs and try and get them to talk to each other :)

kakman

head wax said:

WEndy wroteth :

Headwax/Andrew fully I get your view!!
I ONLY bought C8.5 upgrade for the FBX integration with iClone 3dxchange pipeline!!
not really impressed with Genesis in it though I do use it.
Genesis DOES work well in Daz studio and from there iClone for me which is where I mostly use it.
must say not so well in Poser 2012 either!

ahh you are the salt of the earth how you are willing to play with different programs and try and get them to talk to each other :)

And no easy task is that!

Headwax

Dart wroteth

Don’t punch me ... okay?
I don’t think that geografting works in Carrara.
Head Wax, Kakman, Others,
I feel all that.
Never really cared for the search stuff - but maybe when we get it I can disable it and get my memory back from the indexer. The other stuff… and even geografting… Man, if I’m right, you’ll be smiling on the release of Carrara 9 pro. Those types of things, I have a feeling, are fairly tops on the lists. Heck they may even have a working prototype with it working as we speak.

I don’t have the latest Poser - but I noticed that it and Carrara are priced the same - close enough. Is Poser Pro really a modeler? Does it build trees, skies, mountains and animated volumetrics? I just don’t know what it does - and I’m interested in looking into it. I think that having Poser, DS, Byrce, Hex and Carrara is a good thing. I personally only have been finding the time to really get into Carrara. And even that - I want more time.

You’ll probably get dynamic cloth - I’m fairly certain of that. I got pretty good in Poser 5. But it was still very difficult to get animations to work out right. But you’re right - it was there. And for stills, it’s excellent! I followed a tutorial on how to make dynamic cloth models - and really got into it for quite a spell. Walk design too. The last thing I want to do is to belittle another software. Especially popular Poser that I haven’t even tried!

Like I said though, there was a good list. I think you even saw, and possibly participated in it.

Never punched anyone yet, not even the neighbour's wife ;)

I wrote a small blab on Carrara Café entitled Poser 2014 as a plug in for Carrara ;) It's a hard read as the formatting got stuffed.
Basically Poser 2014 is bad for Daz as it has a fitting room where after a little practice you can fit a lot of clothes to whatever figure you like.
It also has a fantastic fantastic morphing tool where you can make one mesh fit another, so add wrinkles, droop fabric etc. The tool is mesh aware so that one mesh will align itself with another . Poser's cloth room works pretty well. It has a pretty good comic style renderer. You can also take apart a mesh - eg cut of a figures head, then rerig it in the setup room and keep the morphs you started with - add it your library then bring it into carrara - can't tell you what I use this for but it's a gem.

For me Poser 2014 is a plug in for Carrara. It's worth every cent I spent on it.
It ups the game on Poser 2012 amazingly.

Sadly Carrara could be so much better if it took it's cues from Poser.
I think that possibly the developers of Carrara aren't spending enough time actually using the software. Could be wrong.
They probably don't have the time I have because they are too busy writing code ..... and doing the manual.....

It's like Govt documents that I have to fillout when people want to join the armed forces or get a driving licence etc.
The guy who designs the form never actually gets to fill it out ;)

Dartanbeck

Wow, really? I should really save up and try that! I forgot that they added all that stuff.
Um... Kakman... it kind of is my responsibility as a beta tester to try stuff out - and I did. I just really wish that one of us would have caught that issue while in beta. Overall though... I think 8.5 is what they wanted - to get Genesis native with Carrara. They actually gave us a bit more than that.

Wendy dear,
I totally agree with Head Wax and Kakman. You do the impos... the difficult - and you do it in such a "You" kind of way!
I love it! Big Fan!

One day I may even join you in iClone...

thing is, right now I truly wish that I could get some more Carrara time in. That's where it might be hard adding other stuff.
Adding Dogwaffle was an amazing addition! And I sneak in time for that. If I can use Poser to make stuff for Carrara, I don't see why I shouldn't try that too. All in all... I doubt that anyone could ever steal me away from Carrara Pro.
Here's part of why I like it so much

Kerya

fixmypcmike said:

Staticdrifter, your 8.0 serial number will still work.

But he can't use it - because there is no way to download the setup files for 8.0 or 8.1 at the product library.
In my Product library the files for 8.5Beta are still associated to my Carrara 8 Upgrade ...

DisparateDreamer

that's weird... Kerya, I am INCREDIBLY stupid. See, I bought Carrara 8, AND carrara 8 Pro. >_<;;;;;;;;;; (yes i pretty much bought Carrara 8 twice, blah) and both of those are in my downloads still. Are you saying that if i buy 8.5, my downloads for 8 and 8 pro will disappear? And i'll only have 8.5?</p>

Kerya

Did you buy them as upgrades to an existing Carrara 7?
Because that is what I did ...
I think Daz has a tendency to forget the upgrade products ...

kyoto kid

...this is why I still have a backup of the original bitrock installer.

Kerya

When I bought my new computer (last year) I downloaded the newest versions of the software and stupidly deleted the old installer ... and found out afterwards that I only got an expiring beta installer - which led to my deleting and never using Carrara again.

DisparateDreamer

hah... actually... i bought, 8 upgrade, 8 standard, and 8 pro.... but i got 8 standard refunded and put it towards the pro version if i remember right? Brain lapse. Many times over brain lapse....

sad thing is, i never even used 8 yet. I had installed it on my old computer which died half a year ago, but hadn't started using it yet when computer died...and on the new computer took me a long time to get it all reinstalled and stuff (gah all that content and backups from up to a year ago had also backed-up the virus/trojan and were all lost, so I had to reinstall everything from the past year), but was having issues with Daz Studio, which I have been trying to hammer out.... I haven't actually gotten back to learn 8 yet! or try the beta, tho I did "buy" the beta. I was really looking most forward to being able to use Genesis in carrara which made me eager to try it and have been reading the manual recently.

(Erm. That is the worst run-on sentence ever. I'm so embarrassed but too lazy to fix it)

Wish I could trade in my two versions of 8 for the 8.5.... my loss :( Tis the year of regrettable mistakes!

Well I don't regret everything I've been learning in DS the past year. I just wasn't able to focus on Carrara yet, and now a new update with the Genesis support I was waiting for..... and its totally unaffordable even with those discounts.

Guess I had better go play with V4 in Carrara 8 pro instead. :S

Kerya

I bet you would be good at Carrara hair! :)
And I was able to follow your sentence fine. :)

static

Kerya said:

fixmypcmike said:

Staticdrifter, your 8.0 serial number will still work.

But he can't use it - because there is no way to download the setup files for 8.0 or 8.1 at the product library.
In my Product library the files for 8.5Beta are still associated to my Carrara 8 Upgrade ...

Exactly, and I have tried the serials. They do not work. I tried every serial I have ever gotten for Carrara, two or three times each, entering them character by character, copying and pasting as text, . Nothing works. I have been shut out of Carrara.

Warning-- social-political rant--
I have been telling people about this same sort of thing for years. When manuals started disappearing and Physical discs were replaced with online media. I've warned that we would face these problems.
If a company runs out of bandwidth, or cannot show profitability in online storage, or a server burns up, you name it. There are all manner of ways to loose your investment in online media.
There are already thousands of computer software titles no longer, and never again, available on Physical disc and the moment they can no longer justify keeping these programs in the ether, we lose another piece of our culture. And trust me, the use of computers and the programs provided by them has become a 'global culture'.
We cry and scream every time someone destroys an old building, or an old tree that used to be the center of a playground. but computer files, programs? Who cares...
Well, I do. I will be able to show my grand children the games and programs that I used when their parents were babes. My son and daughter will not enjoy the same luxury.

You know, I still have PC games and Program languages that are on Physical media from back in the 20th century that I can still install, run, and make use of to this day, but a program I bought 6 months ago today, is totally and utterly useless to me with absolutely no recourse.

How can I recommend that to a friend and still call myself that persons friend? How can any of you?

This post will probably be deleted soon because of it's social-political nature. Someone will look at it, and decide it hurts the image of DAZ 3D and delete it for the good of the Community (read company). So if you have any desire to pay attention to what is going on around you in the world today, and want to start here, I suggest you copy this post to your printer, before it becomes so many free electrons.

Good Night, and God Bless.

DisparateDreamer

At the same time there are definitely benefits to digital media. Access anywhere in the world. I move, a lot. Almost every year. Often between countries. It's impossible to take all my cds with me. Or my books. I'm soooooooooo grateful for digital media that I can download again when I move. Of couse, that means that some stores that don't keep lasting content downloads (cough... cough....CP....cough) I won't shop at.... I lost too much money at that certain store, including programs- so I DO totally understand where your'e coming from. But even CDs and DVDs aren't fail safe. They have a lifetime too. And imagine my horror one time to discover in a box of CD I had packed that heat warped in transit. All but two cds in the box were completely ruined, and the other two wouldn't let me copy everything off of them and wouldn't always be read. So CDs aren't a perfect solution either.

As a prior military wife, and knowing that there are also soldiers who buy from Daz who are quite happy to be able to download content even when they are abroad and can't easily get cds sent to them- or have to worry about bringing it all back home- i have another reason to be glad for the digital era.
It is the way of things, to change with time. It could very well be that when your childlren grow up, they will be using entirely different machines that won't even read the old cds we have now. After all look how microsoft is pushing forward- discontinuing support for older operating systems. Xp, Vista... moving on. I'm nto too keen on that, as I have a computer that uses XP. But it's the way it goes. We gain some, we loose some.

Daz is much the same I guess. We loose some things...the better sales, the better communication, the better PC benefits...and we move forward with more powerful but more expensive program developments, increasingly costly sales, and less communication >_<;; It's annoying but I appreciate the programs and the content. Even the stuff that has gotten priced beyond my budget now. </p>

wow, did that sound....kind of positive? from me? Weird..... O.o

Kerya

Well - I like digital downloads (as long as I can download them later (cough ... CP) ...). Being on a different continent would make things difficult with physical delivery.

Anyway: I am contacting support now about the associated files to my Carrara 8 upgrade product - staticdrifter: I would recommend you do the same.

I don't think it is intentional, I think it is the usual muddled Daz chaos with new releases ...

DZ_jared

belovedalia said:

that's weird... Kerya, I am INCREDIBLY stupid. See, I bought Carrara 8, AND carrara 8 Pro. >_<;;;;;;;;;; (yes i pretty much bought Carrara 8 twice, blah) and both of those are in my downloads still. Are you saying that if i buy 8.5, my downloads for 8 and 8 pro will disappear? And i'll only have 8.5?<br />

No! Absolutely not. I think the problem stems with the fact that there were probably 30 'products' that you could purchase that would grant you Carrara 8.1 standard or pro. I'm wondering if on one of those products 8.1 was taken down and 8.5 beta was left up. If you purchased Carrara 8.1 and can't access the downloads to Carrara 8.1 from your product library then contact tech support with your order number.

ncamp

DAZ_jared said:

belovedalia said:

that's weird... Kerya, I am INCREDIBLY stupid. See, I bought Carrara 8, AND carrara 8 Pro. >_<;;;;;;;;;; (yes i pretty much bought Carrara 8 twice, blah) and both of those are in my downloads still. Are you saying that if i buy 8.5, my downloads for 8 and 8 pro will disappear? And i'll only have 8.5?<br />

No! Absolutely not. I think the problem stems with the fact that there were probably 30 'products' that you could purchase that would grant you Carrara 8.1 standard or pro. I'm wondering if on one of those products 8.1 was taken down and 8.5 beta was left up. If you purchased Carrara 8.1 and can't access the downloads to Carrara 8.1 from your product library then contact tech support with your order number.

I believe that the original poster said that he bought 8.1 while the beta was in progress and his 8.1 files disappeared. That should be as simple as filing a support ticket to get it fixed.

My 8.1 files are still available (as are my v6 and v7) along with the 8.5.

ncamp

3dOutlaw

Sooo...if you have not jumped yet, there is a 2 hour flash sale on gift cards.

If you were like me (non-PC) for upgrade, this would be a good process: Buy $50 gift card at $48, Buy PC at $24, Buy Carrara for $85.50 - PC Coupon $6 using GC = $29.50

Total OOP: $48 + $24 + $29.50 = $101.50
For PC upgrades (including PC coupon) = $77.50

...or you could buy a $100 GC for $92:

Total OOP: $92 + $24 = $116 (...but you still have $20.50 in GC for Carrara stuff!)

not sure what that would be for PC club...its getting pretty confusing

:)

murgatroyd314

tsarist said:

How long is this extended?
Couldn't find the announcement

Did I miss something, or has this still not been answered?