Novica & Forum Members Tips & Product Reviews Pt 13

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  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895

    @donovancolbert   I'm rather liking today's blink sale so far as putting ANY new release in the cart. Getting 70% off that UltraScenery Australia Bundle was sheer joy  :)  But I know what you mean about most of the sales these past weeks. I got the 37% off gift card and bought things that day to get it, but have only used it a couple times so far (the Australia Bundle being one of them.)  The next blink sale will be soon, I noticed it change around 9am Central but I wasn't online exactly at that time. I didn't get anything from Stonemason, got Linday hair bundle. Going to be offline for awhile but will check for the blinks. 

  • KharmaKharma Posts: 3,214

    Darn I missed the Australia bundle discount, but did get something froom V3Digitimes store for 70% off

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895

    And now it's Herschel's turn :)   @Kharma  Sorry you missed that bundle. sad   That was really the only thing on my wishlist I had been waiting for. I haven't played with Ultra Scenery yet, I've got to get off my duff and give it a try. I've seen the masterpieces everyone else is posting.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895

    I'm going to try the masks by Arki (current Blink artist.) This every two hour thing is a bit annoying. Okay, a lot annoying. But at least we're getting 70% off. Coupled with the 37% off gift card a few days ago, it's quite a good deal. 

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited January 2021

    River Bend

    Keep an eye out for Toyen in the Blink Sales. If they are in it, I recommend River Bend.

    What I am not particularly fond of- in Scene, there is only one item, which is the entire scene. Everything is one big group.

    In the scene, some of the smaller individual items don't show up well with the normal view. For example, those white flowers.  However, if you switch to Iray preview, they do show up. Now for the GREAT news. The vendor went out of the way to list everything in Surfaces. VERY detailed. So a small annoyance having to switch to Iray preview before you can select some of the harder to see items in the viewport, but wow, everything is separate in material zones.

    Again, Luminar is on sale in a bundle only until January 6th. I added those lovely sunrays on the right with Luminar. Easy to do, just click, drag, decide the length of the rays and how intense.


     

    River Bend by Toyen Luminar.jpg
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    Post edited by Novica on
  • Novica said:

    River Bend

    Keep an eye out for Toyen in the Blink Sales. If they are in it, I recommend River Bend.

    What I am not particularly fond of- in Scene, there is only one item, which is the entire scene. Everything is one big group.

    In the scene, some of the smaller individual items don't show up well with the normal view. For example, those white flowers.  However, if you switch to Iray preview, they do show up. Now for the GREAT news. The vendor went out of the way to list everything in Surfaces. VERY detailed. So a small annoyance having to switch to Iray preview before you can select some of the harder to see items in the viewport, but wow, everything is separate in material zones.

    Again, Luminar is on sale in a bundle only until January 6th. I added those lovely sunrays on the right with Luminar. Easy to do, just click, drag, decide the length of the rays and how intense.


     

    Nice 

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited January 2021

    Here's another Toyen. The sky is by Luminar.

    Lake Muirne   (note the URL leaves the e off the end, as it has an accent over it.)

    The sky is by Luminar, I believe it's included in the bundle but does not come with the Luminar itself. This is shot using one of the product's cameras, I moved the camera slightly. It seems to have haze built in. Is that the Bloom Filter Threshold in the Render Settings>Filtering section? Bloom Filter Enable is on. 

    I did notice the auto headlamp was on with that camera, after the fact. I can't remember- does that affect the render's lighting? Mine is always turned off.

    Lake Muirne 2.jpg
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    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895

    Customer Support says the Songbird Remix Near and Far Bundle (without the Woodpeckers, which is supposed to be in it) has no support anymore. The product has been disabled, so in summary, nothing they can do. Just wanted to let you know Daz won't provide that product.   So if you contact Ken with screenshots of your Product Library, he can help you. It may take a bit as he's got to get settled in to Rendo. 

  • ElieElie Posts: 9

    Just for you to know I lost access to the forums! (but not the store) under my usual account name so I made this alternate one.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895

    You what??!!!!!  Oh goodness, that has SO got to be fixed ASAP. 

  • Novica said:

    You what??!!!!!  Oh goodness, that has SO got to be fixed ASAP. 

    They are working on it  

  • Yeah, and I'm another victim - keeping my fingers crossed smiley

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited January 2021

    Did you folks get your forum accounts back?

    Been playing around with the Character Mixer. for All Genesis Figures  This was 65% realism.  I chose 8-10 random morphs  You'll really have to click and open in new windows to see the difference. I tried some others with that amount and will post those too. I would use more morphs and less realism to see a bigger difference.

    You've got Chamani original
    Chamani with Delaney, Leony, P3D Jessie and others. 
    Chamani RY Felina, Dezzi, Georgia and others
    Shown with dForce Low Bang Hair (G8)

    This is Chamani with She-SWOLE, QX Gale, and P3D Caroline.

    chamani ORG.png
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    chamani Delaney Leony P3d Jessie.png
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    chamani RY Felina Dezzi Georgia.png
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    chamani SheSwole QX Gale P3D Caroline.png
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    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited January 2021

    Character Mixer. for All Genesis Figures

    Have you folks found a good formula, such as number of morphs and percentage of realism? 

    This is Gilia.HD (G8F)   I don't particularly care for the nose indentation. 
    With Neiva, Shizuka, Estell, and others
    With Rhonwen, P3D Duffy, and DD Summer (and others) 

    Gilia ORIG.png
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    Gilia Neiva Shizuka Estell.png
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    Gilia Rhonwen P3D Duffy DD Summer.png
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    Post edited by Novica on
  • xmasrosexmasrose Posts: 1,404

    Thank you @Novica. Just found out it is back to normal! Finally, after more than more 13 days.

  • HylasHylas Posts: 5,026

    I too had been locked out of the forum for about a week indecision It appears to be back to normal now.

  • xmasrosexmasrose Posts: 1,404
    edited January 2021

    In case you'd be interested I uploaded a freebie at Share CG (and Rendo but it has to be approved there).

    It's a nightgown and nightcap I made.

    20_promo nightgown+nightcap.jpg
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    Post edited by xmasrose on
  • xmasrose (aka tulipe) said:

    In case you'd be interested I uploaded a freebie at Share CG (and Rendo but it has to be approved there).

    It's a nightgown and nightcap I made.

    Thanks 

  • FishtalesFishtales Posts: 6,131

    Bear Pickings

    Not a lot to eat in early spring.

    Ultrascenery Oaks, Ultrascatter Frosted Bush and Flower Heads, DA Let it Snow, AM Brown Bear with Fibre Hair and Catalyzer Cubs.

    2021-01-13 19:00:31.507 Total Rendering Time: 2 hours 59.70 seconds

    Click on image for full size.

     

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895

    @fishtales  Nice render!  @xmasrose I'm impressed. You made that? Wow!

    BTW in case you all haven't surfed that "update" thread for Genesis 8 figure, this post mentioned Victoria 8.1 in a newly released product. 

    I'm not investing in clothing and hair much anymore, still focusing on sets. I LOVE the Fugazi stuff released this past week. I'd rather get something at 30-50% off which is nicely made and unusual, or SO realistic- than buy more stuff I've already got.  Whenever Genesis 9 ever rolls around, it's a hard pass. Genesis 8 has been out SO long, I have enough to last me a life time. 

    I did want to mention here too that the 600 products in my Product Library which had black swirlies are fixed. So if you had that problem, it may be fixed (as others had mentioned in the Commons thread about store issues.)  So kudos to the tech team for solving that, at least. 

     

     

  • xmasrosexmasrose Posts: 1,404
    edited January 2021

    Thank you @Novica. blush

    Yes I made it in MD. It is only dForce for now.

    Unfortunately ShareCG rejected it after a few hours. I don't understand why. I uploaded it at Rendo so hopefully they'll approve it.

    ShareCG rejected it by errorsurprise  And it is up at Rendo now.

    Great render @Fishtales

    Post edited by xmasrose on
  • genarisgenaris Posts: 329

    Does Daz even want to sell any products these days?!!  They're so schizophrenic about how they try to move the merch here.  For 3 months, they continued their race to the bottom mentality of commoditizing products by brutally discounting and giving-away g8 bundles and other "enticements" willy-nilly and days and weeks full of 1.99, 2.99 & 3.99 items and stacking sales where you could see 85% and better discounts on items.  Now, in comparison, in January, they've had sales where you had to buy 2 or even 3 DEBs and you'd get... a shiny dime! (10% off.)      More recently they've been running flash sales, but for only 50%, with the chance to go 60% by buying ANY NR.  That's not terrible, but these flash sales, unlike many, many others, require use of a CODE to even work, meaning that PC+ members can not use a PC or PA Coupon to stack on the deal.  Also, these flashes EXCLUDE the current featured PA catalogs, so all the stuff you can choose from to buy in these flash cpn sales are starting at the FULL PRICE (except the 30% discount on DazOrig items if you're PC+) so basically, it's, at best, 60% with no hope of a stack to get better deal.  NOW, TODAY, gee.... yet another flash/coupn sale, but this is even weaker tea still: 50%, period.  Not even the option to buy any NR and go up to 60%.   The upside of crappy sales and lots of uninspiring products is, I bought a nice 37% GC at the tail end of the holiday sales push and haven't had any compelling reason to spend it up. so, heYy, silver lining, right?!  

    PS: will we live long enough to see the gallery return? Anyone have any info about that?
        ~Gen

  • NathNath Posts: 2,827

    I'm saving bunches, I know that much... But it's fine, most of my January budget went to the Hivewire closing sale. There's very little that I need NOW, and I'm even rendering older stuff instead of ogling the new and shiny. Not that there's all that much that's tempting: I've pretty much reached the point where I really don't need more female characters and clothes, and I have all the modern interiors, kitchens and hotel rooms I need.

    And yeah, the return of the gallery would be nice, but I'm not holding my breath for it.

  • genarisgenaris Posts: 329

    @Nath -Yeah, I am in sort of the same space: I have sooo much content, so when a new X, Y or Z item debuts, unless it is really, really distinctive and better-executed and/or with more versatility or features than the dozens of X, Y or Z I already have, I'm just not interested.    Gallery... I think Daz shouldn't be so slow about it; I suspect the gallery helps make the site more "sticky" for users, generally, but I think that the gallery probably helps expose people to products being used which then leads to people wanting and buying said products. After all, as Hannibal Lector schooled Clarice Starling: "What do we covet? We covet what we see."   LOL.  I know I sure miss it because when I was on the fence about buy/don't buy a product, hitting the (ATI) link to see gallery images using the item often gave me a better sense of the item that helped me decide. 
      ~Gen

  • nonesuch00nonesuch00 Posts: 18,163

    Somebody's having shopping withdrawal. laugh

    I think good sales come back towards the end of February. I'm literally shopped out though. There are a few G8 Pro Bundles I want for the clothing but not seriously enough to buy them except at huge discounts since auto-fit of earlier clothing of the same genre and such work well enough to satisfy me, even then I have a list of Interactive Licenses for a some sets I've purchased in the past I'd rather but before the pro bundles.

    I am curious as to this 'substantial upgrade' coming to Genesis 8 though.

  • NathNath Posts: 2,827

    Gallery pictures have convinced me to wishlist/buy items in the past, and there's a lot of creativity in there from a whole lot of people that would be a shame to lose.

     

  • HylasHylas Posts: 5,026

    For there to be periods with good prices (and Decembre 2020 was definitely such a period) there need to be periods with higher prices. If everything was 80% off all the time, that'd just become the new normal, and we'd all start complaining about how we never get anything at 99% off.

    In any case, the 50% offer yesterday stacked with other discounts and was really not bad at all. I got me a neat HDRI from my wishlist.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895

    Hey folks!

    I had just assumed there was a lull in posting- I wasn't getting any notifications at all suddenly on this thread. First time that's ever happened. So if you have some threads marked as favorites, be sure and check to see if they are still marked. This happened about the same time folks were booted off the forums. They just booted me off my favorite thread LOL (a bit biased.) 

    Anyway, just wanted to post a thank you to @northof45 and @richardhaseltine for trying to assist with my stupid Postgre SQL problem.  I had used different external drives and one was pretty full, so I moved the studio to a different one (took hours) and voila, I am back!  So pretty sure it was a storage issue. (And that would affect DIM installs too.) 

    So....your opinions on G8.1  ?   I'm not jumping in to Victoria 8.1. It's not that I don't think she's an improvement, I just don't intend to spend any money on a new gal at the moment. 

    I'm also fully behind those of you who are annoyed at the gallery being down for so long. Totally agree it helps sell products. Guess they are relying on the forum members to do that (with the plug in showing gallery and forum links. Now just the forums have content.) 

  • RGcincyRGcincy Posts: 2,835

    January doldrums. I've had the issue of non-notification on some threads, seems kind of random. I'm also not jumping onto G8.1. I'm still on DS4.12 and don't do many closeups of faces so I can wait until the dust settles. Happy 2021 by the way!

  • NathNath Posts: 2,827

    After sitting on the fence for a few days, I did succumb to V8.1. She does have an interesting face.

    Other than that, I've been playing around with using existing characters on G8.1F and applying the PBR shader. This is something that emerged from trying out the Evenstar character from the other site with PBR settings and dialled in to G8.1F.

    I'm not writing the Lord of the Rings in space fanfic that it accidentally illlustrates, though LOL

     

    Borrowing Glorfindel's bike.jpg
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This discussion has been closed.