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  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,168

    Thanks for the FBX to new Poser tip, Wendy.  I acquired the new Poser several months ago and have opened exactly twice.  Have been regretting the spending.  Maybe this will give me a good reason to revisit.

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,168

    Getting very concerned about Misty.  Is anyone connected through another site or social media?  She hasn't posted in the Commons Forum complaint thread yet.

     

    Get Well, Misty.

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,202
    Diomede said:

    Getting very concerned about Misty.  Is anyone connected through another site or social media?  She hasn't posted in the Commons Forum complaint thread yet.

     

    Get Well, Misty.

    she doesn't do social media, hates Facebook surprise

    if cannot see cannot chat anyway

    I do hope she is OK heart

  • Bunyip02Bunyip02 Posts: 8,594

    Last activity was 22 August

  • I even downloaded Skype as used to chat to her there but no activity from anyone since I left so deleted it again devil

  • SileneUKSileneUK Posts: 1,975

    I had terrible problems with SKYPE once the virus started locking everyone down.  So I just use WhatsApp for PC. I can't do video calls with it like with the phone, but it is easier to have a message conversation and send photos back and forth on my 27" screen.  Need to keep phone connected to WA and your WIFI.

    MISSING YOU MISTY!!! heart

    crying Silene

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,202
    edited September 2020

    she has not been on Twitter since December either, I don't follow her but she is easy to find

    my Twitter rarely used I only follow 3D and news sites

    Post edited by WendyLuvsCatz on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,551

    I have a feeling that she's been instructed to give her eyes a break for a while.

    I, too am wishing her the best and hoping for a speedy recovery!

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,551

    On the Game Mod note, when the Neverwinter Nights community had a plethora of custom content available for the game a new team arose: (CEP) the Community Expansion Project, who gathered what they thought was the Best custom content and consolidated it into one set of mod files, so that module (game) designers could use a consistent package of custom content that's easily available for everyone in one place.

    The CEP is still alive with the newly released Expanded Edition. CEP has evolved with the massive amounts of custom content being made throughout the years. Custom clothing, armor and heads (models) along with the bazillion creatures, custom environment tiles and interactive (as well as static) objects along with some of the helpful scripts and other configurations. If you're going to design an adventure for folks to play, adding the CEP to the module opens up an enormous wealth of extra content making it easier to get exactly what you want your adventure to have in it, while also giving the players more options along the way.

    This also spawned other such projects like the (CMP) Community Music Project, etc.,

    Getting the new Enhanced Edition almost accidentally pulled me into getting back into modding the game - but alas, I'd rather be working on my Carrara movies projects!

    Still, as I'm letting my computer render I have been firing up this lowly laptop and running through the official campaign again. What fun! My Rosie character just completed the main official campaign and is now beginning the second expansion pack: Hordes of the Underdark. I really don't get much time at all to play, but it's fun to have the opportunity now and then.

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,202
    edited September 2020

    I honestly cannot afford this hobby blush

    well I can Carrara stuffs but now they are bringing out 3 slot graphics cards that all the DAZ studio stuffs will eventually need

    Post edited by WendyLuvsCatz on
  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,168

    I honestly cannot afford this hobby blush

    well I can Carrara stuffs but now they are bringing out 3 slot graphics cards that all the DAZ studio stuffs will eventually need

    As per a Stezza recommendation, I intend to protect an installation of Carrara as an earlier Windows program.  At least I know I will always be able to model, rig, texture, etc. in Carrara.

  • TorquinoxTorquinox Posts: 3,310

    Iray has made Daz a serious hardware treadmill. My answer, in that case, is to get a graphics card good enough to do previews (some flavor 1660 comes to mind) and maybe pick up one or more extra computers to use as render slaves. Then I can just let the CPUs do the rendering. It's hardly ideal, but could even buy refurb workstations for that - as an alternative.

  • I just cannot keep upblush

    everything new from DAZ disappoints me when I realize it's all too much for my machinescrying

    and I bought and upgraded one too but not enough as don't have the average DAZ user budget surprise

  • TorquinoxTorquinox Posts: 3,310

    I just cannot keep upblush

    everything new from DAZ disappoints me when I realize it's all too much for my machinescrying

    and I bought and upgraded one too but not enough as don't have the average DAZ user budget surprise

    I feel your pain! I combat all that by mostly sticking with older products and I actually never upgraded from 4.10 .

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,168

    I don't think it is important to keep up if you can create stuff you enjoy.  I know I enjoy the videos Wendy makes, and I'm always super-impressed with the animations that Steve K makes with V4/M4, and Andrew mesmerizes with the Kids 4, and Dart seems to be all in with Genesis 1. 

    I seem to skip generations.  I went from the Poser figures to V4/M4 to Genesis 2 and now I am steadily building a library of Genesis 8 stuff.  When the next Daz figure comes out, I'm sure I will get the intro just to see what is going on but after that I will probably skip most of the first version unless there is some feature that is mind-blowing.  I will stick with the generation 8 stuff I have until they work out the bugs.

    As a side project I am making entirely new stylized figures for a comic.  I am so frustrated with the breakdown of civil discourse that I could scream (remember what my old job was).  I know some of those folks used to get along despite being in different parties.  I think a comic strip would be a way for me to poke at the various forms of insanity I've noticed since I left. 

    Was I really all that stood between 'muddling along' and complete collapse?

    Oops, went off topic there.

  • at the moment I am using the DAZtoUnreal bridge to send G8M and F over in Xurge clothing

    it still looks good

    and UE4 at least seems to run OK on my rig

  • StezzaStezza Posts: 8,051

    and here's me still using LoRenzo & LoRetta lol yes

    and not giving a fig wink

  • Stezza said:

    and here's me still using LoRenzo & LoRetta lol yes

    and not giving a fig wink

    yes well those with the 3090 cards can boil their FIGJAMdevil

  • Steve KSteve K Posts: 3,234
    Diomede said:

    I don't think it is important to keep up if you can create stuff you enjoy.  I know I enjoy the videos Wendy makes, and I'm always super-impressed with the animations that Steve K makes with V4/M4

    (blushing)  Many thanks.  The thing I've learned is that the story is what we should be after.  I once attended a lecture by the head of the Drama Dept.at Rice University.  He took a short scene from a Harold Pinter play and had three student actors do it several different ways.  Same dialogue, different blocking, tone of voice, body language.  I was kind of stunned, it did not look like the same play.  He said the "play" is not in the text.  No, I can't do much like that, but the idea is to try different camera angles, poses, etc. Great fun.

  • TorquinoxTorquinox Posts: 3,310

    Cheers to what everyone has said! If getting a new machine, I do think it's prudent to get a current Ryzen chip with as many cores as fits in the budget. Carrara will be happy with that. laugh

  • Steve KSteve K Posts: 3,234
    Torquinox said:

    Cheers to what everyone has said! If getting a new machine, I do think it's prudent to get a current Ryzen chip with as many cores as fits in the budget. Carrara will be happy with that. laugh

    I'm also thinking about a new machine, although no hurry.  I'm curious if the Ryzen is preferred for price or performance or both vs. Intel.  I've always used Intel based machines, most recently custom built around a Core i7.  Carrara runs pretty fast on them, typically 10sec/frame of 1280x720 animation +/- (no fancy lighting).

     

  • TorquinoxTorquinox Posts: 3,310
    Steve K said:
    Torquinox said:

    Cheers to what everyone has said! If getting a new machine, I do think it's prudent to get a current Ryzen chip with as many cores as fits in the budget. Carrara will be happy with that. laugh

    I'm also thinking about a new machine, although no hurry.  I'm curious if the Ryzen is preferred for price or performance or both vs. Intel.  I've always used Intel based machines, most recently custom built around a Core i7.  Carrara runs pretty fast on them, typically 10sec/frame of 1280x720 animation +/- (no fancy lighting).

     

    Currently, latest model vs latest model, Ryzen is both. Intel appears to be having some sort of issue while AMD had some sort of revelation. It's weird, but nice to see AMD out front for a change cool

  • Steve KSteve K Posts: 3,234
    Torquinox said:
    Steve K said:
    Torquinox said:

    Currently, latest model vs latest model, Ryzen is both. Intel appears to be having some sort of issue while AMD had some sort of revelation. It's weird, but nice to see AMD out front for a change cool

    OK, thanks, I'll ask my builder about it, I've been doing business with him for a long time, lots of confidence.

     

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,551

    I have an extremely low budget - always have. So I use previous generation hardware when I build my computers. My Second Gen Ryzen 2700 has eight core and hyperthreads to 16 threads, which renders very nicely in Carrara.

    You can see it rendering in real time, a fairly busy scene with many LoRez Masked Superheroes 29 seconds into this video. You can see it whizzes along:

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,551
    Diomede said:

    I don't think it is important to keep up if you can create stuff you enjoy.  I know I enjoy the videos Wendy makes, and I'm always super-impressed with the animations that Steve K makes with V4/M4, and Andrew mesmerizes with the Kids 4, and Dart seems to be all in with Genesis 1. 

    I seem to skip generations.  I went from the Poser figures to V4/M4 to Genesis 2 and now I am steadily building a library of Genesis 8 stuff.  When the next Daz figure comes out, I'm sure I will get the intro just to see what is going on but after that I will probably skip most of the first version unless there is some feature that is mind-blowing.  I will stick with the generation 8 stuff I have until they work out the bugs.

    Agreed. It can be frustrating (at least for me) that I can't really shop at Daz from the "Latest First" list, but I've been having a wonderful time digging into all of the Genesis 1 and earlier content. With Materialize and other apps, I can make Normal maps and new textures for these older products to meet my needs, and Generation 3 and 4 clothing has been a lot of fun with Genesis 1. But Diomede's right. As long as I can use my Carrara tools to create or edit stuff into something I enjoy the ride is completely worth it. 

    Diomede said:

    As a side project I am making entirely new stylized figures for a comic.  I am so frustrated with the breakdown of civil discourse that I could scream (remember what my old job was).  I know some of those folks used to get along despite being in different parties.  I think a comic strip would be a way for me to poke at the various forms of insanity I've noticed since I left. 

    I look forward to seeing it! :)

    Diomede said:

    Was I really all that stood between 'muddling along' and complete collapse?

    Yep! 

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,551

    at the moment I am using the DAZtoUnreal bridge to send G8M and F over in Xurge clothing

    it still looks good

    and UE4 at least seems to run OK on my rig

    Awesome!!!

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,551

    I just cannot keep upblush

    everything new from DAZ disappoints me when I realize it's all too much for my machinescrying

    and I bought and upgraded one too but not enough as don't have the average DAZ user budget surprise

    That's one of the things that helps keep me firmly planted in Carrara. My first Carrara machine was a (then new) Core2Duo machine and I was thrilled with how quickly I could get Carrara to render compared to anything else.

    I did buy SickleYield's plugins so I can turn Genesis 2 and 3 clothing into Genesis compatible stuff, which works fairly well. But with the clones from Daz for all of the previous generations, only going back as far as Generation 3, those older clothing sets seem to really work well auto-fitted to Genesis. 

    The thing that made it hard for me to go from V4/M4 to Genesis 1 was that I liked the Genesis 2 shapes so much more. But when using Genesis 2, I can no longer use my (by now fairly large) Genesis 1 clothing without a lot of work around.

    So following your advice to grab GenX2 has made all the difference in the world for me. I am amazed at how well the Genesis 2 and 3 shape morphs transfer over to Genesis 1 - and Genesis 1 is the one that is fully supported in Carrara, so everything just works!

    So now I often find myself leaving the store filter on "Newest First" and start from the last page and work forward - not always, but quite often. The store has some real gems from those previous years! But then again, your collection is a bazillion times larger than mine, so maybe you already got all the good stuff?

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,202
    edited September 2020

    oh believe me I have a lot of legacy stuff

    it's just seeing stuff like the new wondrous horde creatures etc that makes me feel so sad

    knowing first of all I cannot afford that bundle

    then if I could all the work I need to do to use them in Carrara because with my hardware no way I can render them in DAZ studiosurprise

    oh I would get them in thanks to Philemo and Misty heart

    Carrara native will even render them faster and nicer than iray too yes

    but yeah the money I spent so far this PA sale was on RDNA legacy stuff!

    D|S being free is one of the biggest scams ever

    it's a huge money trap 

    on hardware as well as content 

    Post edited by WendyLuvsCatz on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,551
    edited September 2020
    Torquinox said:
    Steve K said:
    Torquinox said:

    Cheers to what everyone has said! If getting a new machine, I do think it's prudent to get a current Ryzen chip with as many cores as fits in the budget. Carrara will be happy with that. laugh

    I'm also thinking about a new machine, although no hurry.  I'm curious if the Ryzen is preferred for price or performance or both vs. Intel.  I've always used Intel based machines, most recently custom built around a Core i7.  Carrara runs pretty fast on them, typically 10sec/frame of 1280x720 animation +/- (no fancy lighting).

     

    Currently, latest model vs latest model, Ryzen is both. Intel appears to be having some sort of issue while AMD had some sort of revelation. It's weird, but nice to see AMD out front for a change cool

    I'm a fan of AMD. I loved my Athlon FX, loved my Zambezi 8 core and now I'm loving my Ryzen. I agree that it's nice to see AMD having such major success - but I think they've always made a great processor, even if benchmarks and the likes would make it look as if they don't stand up to intel. Quite often, those differences in benchmark graphs might look huge on paper like that, but feel entirely different when actually working on a machine. For example, my Core2Duo was suposed to blow away the dual core AMD on Rosie's computer, yet Windows and everything else seemed a lot zippier on hers. 

    When it comes down to it, todays computer parts are amazing. I can't ever afford much, so I always look to what was good before this newer stuff came out. My GTX 1660 totally rocks for me, but I'm not a gamer, nor am I an Iray/Octane user - but I do use DaVinci Resolve, and those renders are lightning fast.

    Intel vs AMD - Either choice will ROCK Carrara. I now have 64GB RAM, and can report that to be massive overkill. I'm glad to have it. When I had 16GB RAM using Windows 7, I never felt a need for more. 32GB would likely be all we need for Windows 10 for Carrara, while we'd still likely be happy with 16GB.

    To help put this into perspective, using my existing tower case and power supply, which is still fairly new, my new Ryzen 2700/ 64GB RAM/ GTX 1660 6GB/ 1TB M.2 SSD machine cost me about $1,000.00 USD to build, including Windows 10 64 bit Home - Full version (not OEM).

    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • you seen the Nvidia prices for those 30## cards blush

    my older still more powerful dedicated Win7 Carrara machine now has no graphics card at all

    the Win10 only faster due to running Octane but often I get faster cleaner results using native anyway even on that one as any emitters you lose any gains from noise.

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