How do you go about making a puchase and begin using It?
dandukro
Posts: 0
I have looked high and low, and I can not find anything that simply gives the steps (ie.: Step 1, Step 2,...) on how you go about making a purchase of a Daz item like an article of clothing and then load it onto your computer so you can use it.
Is there some list of simple instructions (that are error free and work 100% of the time) that walk you through the process? I've run across many threads where people have had uploading issues, and I don't want to go through those hassles.
I'd like to start making purchases, but until I know how to save them to my computer so I can use them in Daz I won't be buying anything.
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Using the DIM (DAZ Install Manager) is the simplest way to install products that you have bought in the DAZ 3D Store to DAZ Studio.
I take it that it is just downloading and installing that you are not familiar with, and not actually buying content? Did you download and install DAZ Studio, and also the free content that comes with it? Have you looked in your My Account > Product Library area to see what is available, that is where any purchased items (free or not) appear?
Daz 3d makes it very easy for you
First of all go to the store and "purchase" Daz Studio 4.6 (It is free)
http://www.daz3d.com/products/daz-studio/daz-studio-what-is-daz-studio
Then go to the store and "purchase" the DAZ Install Manager (DIM) http://www.daz3d.com/install-manager-info
THe Install manager, once set up correctly will then do everything for you on any future content that you buy from the DAZ 3D store.
Click on some of the buttons on that 2nd link I have given you and you will find out all about it.
DIM installs everything to where it is suppose to go so there is no guesswork involved at where stuff is located. If your unsure where to look for it you can review the readme that will give you the file list. To get to the readme from DIM just click on the information symbol next to the product name. I think there was a tutorial on how to make purchases on DAZ. I'd have to ask. I know my wife did one but not sure where it's at.
If the file list in the readme doesn't show where it was installed to, you can always find where the files were actulally installed by clicking on the carat arrow at the far right of the file name under the installed tab in DIM and then select 'show installed files'..
Charlie
If you really want to start at the beginning, view it as going to the store. When you see an item you want, you add it to your (shopping) cart. When you have everything you want, click on My Cart at the top of the page and it will show you everything in the cart and how much the total is. You now have a chance to delete any items that you have added that you changed your mind on. If you are satisfied with the contents, click on the go to checkout button, which will take you to the area where you pay and simply follow the directions. It all ends with the option to download by Download Manager or manually.
Thank-you all for responding.
I have bought many things online, but never intangible things that simply go into menus on my computer.
It was a harrowing experience for as soon as I started the upload a message came up the my Install Manager needed updated even though I had only had the software a week. It also didn't update on its own quite right, as something associated with Photoshop did take. Seeing as how I don't use Photoshop, I'm not going to sweat the issue right now.
After much anguish and trial and error I have begun to play around with the item I uploaded. However, today I botched something up and I don't know how to fix it.
Attached is a picture of what I'm referring to. It is a suit with a visor. Again, after much experimenting, I was able to make the visor transparent, and all seemed well. As I dabbled more, I must have clicked on something wrong, because when I started to do additional learning renders, suddenly the person's face would always appear as if it was horribly distorted behind the visor (middle image). Mind you all looks proper as it should be when composing (left image). I then noticed that even when I applied a different shader, the facial distortions were still there as if they were now actually part of the visor and helmet surfaces (right image).
If I hide the visor as an element, then the person's face is again perfectly normal.
Any ideas on what the heck I did wrong and how to get it back to normal?
Will I need to uninstall the clothing item, buy it again, and reinstall it?
I have even gone so far as to shut my computer down and fire it up again in the hopes that the default settings would return, but alas that has not worked either.
Is it possible that you accidentally changed the Refraction parameter in the "Surfaces (Color)" pane instead of the Reflection parameter?
I do it accidentally on occasion because it has a similar name and is nearby in the huge list of parameters. While I haven't really used it intentionally, it should presumably have an effect similar to that (like looking through a glass of water at something, it will be distorted more or less as the light bends depending on the index of refraction of the glass, water, or whatever material you are looking through.
(EDITED to correct name of pane)
What you say has a slight ring of familiarity to it. How do you go about undoing such a mishap?
Whoops, sorry, I said "parameters pane", but meant "Surfaces (Color)" pane. With the Surfaces selection tool active, click to select the glass, and in the "Surfaces (Color)" pane, locate the "Refraction Strength" parameter, and set it to zero (drag the slider or click on the number and type 0).
@dandukro
No, you never need to buy anything again, it is in your My Account > Product Library, and it stays there for good, and you can re-download again it at any time.
Is that the Nano-Suit you are using on Genesis. You appear to have made part of the suit transparent that is not supposed to be transparent. In DAZ Studio, to select a surface, use the Surface Selection Tool from the top toolbar (Alt+Shift+M). When you have the texture area that you want, left click on it, and it will be selected in the Surfaces Pane as well.
No matter what you have done, you can always delete the Nano-Suit from your Scene pane, and reload it again. There is no need to download the item again from the store.
This is a very complex item, which uses shaders, and it can be difficult to use, especially for a new user. There used to be a readme file available for it on Artzone, but I will try to find a link for you.
@dandukro
Have a look at this thread too.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/19938/
When you first load the Nano-Suit for Genesis (is that what you are using?), it comes in at a very high resolution.
Go to the Parameters pane, General > Resolution Level and set that to Base instead of High resolution, it will make the suite easier to work with.
Select the suit, and in the Parameters pane, you will see a Morphs label. Click on it, and you will find two morphs, Hide-Helmet and Hide-Visor, you can use these to change the appearance.
Sean & Jimmy
Yes, it is the Nano-suit.
I tried reloading it, and that changed nothing.
The visor is supposed to be transparent, but maybe the other surfaces are not. I wouldn't know that without trying.
Where is the Surfaces Pane? I tried looking up instructions on finding it, but every reference was useless and the guide doesn't say how to get to it..
If I right click on the glass I get a list that has "Select Surfaces with Value". From there I can get to a Pick Property list that has refraction in it, but clicking on that does nothing. There is no putting in a value option.
Yea! I found the pane. You have dig for it under the Windows function at the top. I changed the refraction, so the visor doesn't distort nearly as bad. However, the surface still appears to have a slightly irregular (bumpy) surface to it when it should be flat. What parameter could be adjusted to correct for that?
On a side note, my DSLR cameras always let you know what the default settings are for any function. Can an option be selected so that the software will do the same regarding parameters?
Any of the panes that are available inside DAZ Studio, can be got by going to Window > Panes (Tabs), they are all listed alphabetically.
What layout are you using that doesn't have the Surfaces pane visible? To change the Layout, go to Window > Workspace > Select Layout, and you could try some of the others (NOT the beta one).
Using Help > Home, will lead you to a screen that has many useful learning tools for DAZ Studio, and there are also lots of free videos by Dreamlight that you can download from the Store her too.
As for layout, I'm using the default that comes up when you open the program.
I noticed the surface of the visor is not the only one affected. The surface of the mouth covering portion (The person is O.K. behind it.) still appears as if a huge flattened nose is pressing against it from the backside. It seems as if the previous visual refraction distortion has been integrated into the helmet surface itself.
There are two types of things, bump and displacement, that could be causing this (if it isn't just caused by an image in the diffuse or another parameter and it really is bumpy). The parameter names are:
Bump Strength
Negative Bump
Positive Bump
Displacement Strength
Minimum Displacement
Maximum Displacement
If you just want to turn everything off so the surface is smooth, just make sure Bump Strength and Displacement Strength are both at 0% and you're done. If you wanted to actually use one or both of those options but just control how much, then the location on the object of the bumps are controlled by an image selected for each of the two parameters (where white and black correspond to higher and/or lower bumps), and the height/depth of the effect is controlled both by the percentage of those two parameters (I would just set them to 100%) AND by the corresponding negative/positive (for bump) or minimum/maximum (for displacement) parameters, whos default values might be too tiny to even see an effect with..
Of course, it is possible that what you think are bumps are actually something else from one of the numerous other parameters available, so if that doesn't do the trick, let us know.
I am unclear if you fixed part of it but not all of the distortion problem, or if the issue came back or you thought it was gone but no longer believe it is. As I don't have the product and can't see your settings, I'm not sure if I'm helping or not.
There may be multiple surfaces you need to fix; perhaps the visor is one surface and the nose piece is a second, etc. In which case you would need to set the refraction to zero for all of those surfaces, not just one. If surfaces are very close together or very small or your computer is just slow to respond, it can be very difficult to select the correct surface, so you might think you have changed one but if you double-check you might have selected something else that looks similar. Temporarily zooming in might help the selection process. You can also choose the surfaces from the dropdown menu in the lefthand part of the Surfaces(Color) pane instead of trying to click on them, which might also be easier, plus you can see a list of all surfaces which might help.
However, rather than having to manually change a whole bunch of surfaces individually, you MIGHT be able to just select the main top level object in that list to change everything at once. if you wanted to eliminate refraction on every single part of the suit, which in this case seems reasonable, that could be done. It might not make sense in other circumstances though.
I see options for copying surfaces. Do you suppose I accidentally copied the person's face surface onto the affected portions of the helmet?
Sean,
I've discovered all that you talked about (selecting surfaces manually, and what not), but unfortunately it is a no joy on each try.
Do you suppose I could send Midnight_stories (the creator of the item) an e-mail to see if they have any advice on restoring the suit?
I don't think that will be necessary. Two things you can try first (but make a backup copy of your scene first, so you don't have to worry about loosing any work!)
Option 1: Have you made any modifications to the suit that you don't want to lose? If not, you could simply delete it from the scene, then load it again from your content library and (if appropriate) Fit To your figure again. That would be about the easiest possible fix, and you wouldn't have to worry about figuring out what changed.
Option 2: If you think the problems are only with the surface(s) in the faceplate, you could temporarily load a 2nd copy of the suit into your scene, then in turn select each surface you want to reset to the default and copy it from the temporary default one on top of your current one's surfaces. That would allow you for example to reset only the faceplate (if it's it's own separate surface) to the default without affecting all the other surfaces that you might have made modifications to and wish to keep. Of course, that is assuming the faceplate really is a separate surface.
It also might help us if you could select the faceplate surface and take a screenshot of your surfaces(color) parameter settings, maybe we'll notice something you haven't noticed yet.