Daz Studio Pro BETA - version 4.9.0.21!
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Not. I mean, it's not easy to find. I just opened a ticket two days ago to ask for an updated, easily understandable pdf-manual for new users for Daz 4.8. Most of the time if I need to know something I have to search for an eternity. Lots of DAZ help-sites are dated, don't show pictures and such. More often that not the forum is my rescue.
But every good software should come with an equally good manual. No Youtube videos, I'm not a native English speaker, I read and write English passable, but speaking and hearing is a totally different thing.
Cancelled that manual request now, as it seams that we will get 4.9 before anybody even attempts to produce such a manual for 4.8.
Ok, I will admit that I quit reading EVERY post at page 11 or 12, it looked like a lot of rehashing the same subjects. I may be rehashing a subject that has been asked or I may not be remembering correctly, my brain is a bit on overload from 11 pages of this thread.
My question: With this new method of downlading, it looks like it is focused on the Smart Content as a way of telling the computer what to download. No problem with that. What I do question is this - will all Studio products be in the Smart Content? Right now I believe that I have some items that are not listed there but that I can find in my Content Library since I do, kind of, remember what the names are when I need to. There are also products that are no longer available in the store that I have purchased through DAZ. Will those also be available via this new method?
The reason Ii ask this is I tend to use one of my computers to test the new versions (or Beta) with a fresh install of everything. Just wipe it all (DAZ Studio and content) since it is not my main work horse.
NO, I do not like DRM, but I do understand the reason for it and am willing to give it a test drive before making a decision regarding boycotting the new products or not (probably not). I do not like the cloud and avoid it whenever I can. But it has been stated that I will be able to have complete backups of my purchases and I am fine with that. I will not have to be connected to the internet to create, and that is GREAT!
So based on what I have read, I only have the above question regarding older or discontinued content before I start testing or deliberating. I apologize again if I am reasking questions, but 18 pages to read is a few too many.
What's to stop people from loading encrypted content into a scene, then using File > Export to get and OBJ, then using File > Import to bring that OBJ back into DS, and then using the Transfer Utility to transfer everything from the encrypted content to the new OBJ, and then saving the new item with figure/prop asset, and then dumping that on warez sites.
"sits back and waits for the sky to fall
"
Just because I want to use the smart content database features doesn't mean it's "dumbed down". I have the skillset to make my own cataloging system, and have done so on several of my linux systems.(let me know if you would like to see my gentoo install details :) ) Smart Content is just the most efficient way to do it in Studio.I don't want to have to maintain what would in essence be a source repository. Databases were invented for a reason.
If shuffling files/folders around your windows install means that much, why aren't you just using filesystem symlinks anyway, instead of moving gigabytes of data around the filesystem ?
Ditching DIM , which has beome a needless layer of complexity, and intigrating the downloader into Studio is just better design IMO.
First time posting in what seems like forever.
I have only recently *though about* using studio for Stonemason's new products since he shifted away from Poser. Exporting sucks and handling objs and adding the textures sucks even more. So, here I was thinking, I would use studio just for his goodies. Anything above V4 still has not got my attention to use studio exclusively.
After reading this and the possible future download only "feature", I'll pass.
So long and thanks for all the fish.
No sky falling. Sorry to disappoint. :)
What's the ETA on the FINAL release, any idea? I don't do betas any more so just wondering!
Show me a survey of customers which shows an overwhelming demand for DRM's on DAZ3D products and I'll shut my mouth. Somehow, I don't think you can meet my request.
So you are equating a simple written instruction for where content installed to a complete manual?
Open Install Manager, check a product. under details, show file list. Shows clearly and completely where things are installed.
Go to the product readme, for most products, in particular the ones that don't start with zz on the readme, and there is a nice file list of where things are installed.
Using sim links? That would be insane lol. We are not talking about just shifting stuff around to a new drive. Say I buy a dress called "night dress". Said dress is in content/people/genesis3/clothes/vendor name/dress
I have a library just containing genesis 3 female items. I unpack the dress to a temporary library, I get rid of the people and genesis 3 folders, as they are not needed in my system. In the end it goes in clothes/dresses/night dress, and I make sure all addons end up in a material folder within that. I make sure it works properly, then I zip it back up, upload that to my online backup, and the hard drive I use for backup(redundancy is king), then cut and paste it into the genesis 3 female library. I do that with every single item I buy, so that we can find things. I am looking for a dress, I know where they all are. I am looking for some shoes, I know where they all are.Looking for a fat girl, I know where they all are, looking for a monster, I know where they all are ETC ETC
Not what I said. You are starting with a false premise.
That's pretty much what I was going to say.
In the few years that I've used Daz, I've never seen a survey. So perhaps it's time to release one to gather info on how people feel about the changes that are being brought in (especially with the DRM). I can't say anything about the forum, as I've only really started in the past few months.
No wonder people can't find the stuff, it is a problem that obviously DAZ created itself by allowing the different naming convention of folders, a quick look at my DSON People directory shows Genesis 2 Female stuff in the following folders:-
... and you wonder why I move stuff around like its 1995?
I felt it is the first issue your customers meet when use daz studio ^^; how to install ds, and serch contents.
but most of user who have bought your contents again and again, simply hope If DAZ can organize documents
for us about all tool option of ds. and improvement about each tool. (many request,, so many request,,)
eg,, I can not believe, why daz can not offer clear guide about all save option still?
if you said you offered them, why still user ask about which will be saved by which option etc?
=======================================
But I feel now,, maybe new user hope more easy install easy play, then maybe this cloud idea
help them to play with daz studio,, Though I feel,, they maybe tired soon about DAZ studio too.
because they can not learn how they can play on daz studio, and daz content,as they like,
without buying another content again and again with real money.
But I like yours actually, (ALL you modelator vender, programmer? were kind enough for me too,, and have taught me many about 3d )
then I hope daz success ^^ but if you need my view about this challenge, definetely
hey I deposit 285 $ in daz shop,, I was looking forward to get many items from daz shop,, in this year,, and next year,,
but now I feel,, it seems good time to learn more deep other aprication, which actually offer make content by my self. (of course it never be Carrara sorry. )
I think your erstwhile silent majority are speaking out here.
By & large, what they are asking for is the retention of the flexibility that up to present we have had, but is now in severe danger of being compromised.
Most, if not all long term users have their own preferred way of working.
Personally, I always do a manual install because, like many, I have my own custom file heirarchy & like to keep a tight, well organised Runtime.
Some merchants have theirs too, whilst others do not have any fixed organisation at all! (Random Vanity folders? )
There are some items within packs I do not like, so I do not install them.
I do not need or want to access the web via Daz Studio because of that.
Downloading zip files via my internet browser is fine for me.
Losing any of the above mentioned options is a total deal breaker for me.
Though in this case you don't now nor have you ever worked on those files on that server. It stores them till you pick them up or after you pull them and "put them back" on it.
I just wanted to echo this... goes for me too. Perfectly said, I have nothing to add your honor.
I would be on board with making it optional... except, that defeats the purpose methinks (at least, in this case)
And sure... there is no foolproof solution. But everything that helps, Im all for. I know its hard for folks... I dont even use smart content lol so it will confuse me too. But you know what... Ill learn it and get used to it. My only other option would be to ragequit something I love... and thats not much of an option.
Nope. You have to log into DIM with your information and be "online" to use it so that is exactly the same. The recognition is something that the end user will be oblivious to so it isn't really a change. If you couldn't get on line then you wouldn't have been able to download from the store or DIM either so again no change. The products are on your computer so you the only time you have to be connected is to get the product which is same as it ever was. And nothing at all has changed for the non DIM users because they will still be getting the file from the site. Which they always had to log into and had to be online to connect with.
Not to gang up on you, Spooky, but it was the lack of documentation that made me and my studio abandon DAZ Studio as a serious app for our comic stories. If there was "Documentation, which is clear, easy to read and easy to find..." It certainly evaded multiple searches and (not kidding here) hours of exporing the so-called Documentation center. Most of the info was out of date, had bad image refs (the ol' question mark were the image was to be) and was either non-existent for the topic I thought I was following or a "WIP" that lived up to the name. You may have said "Documentation is not the answer" -- I think that's true for the way DAZ's documentation is seemingly haphazard and pretty much worthless as it is now. Documentation IS an answer if it's up to date and accurate.
Not what I said. I was speaking, I thought rather clearly, about where content is downloaded to. This is clearly documented and easy to find.
DAZ Studio documentation is here: http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/start and is a work in progress, with more getting added all the time.
DRM wouldn't be a bad thing. Except it doesn't work.
The way they are saying it works, the key for that user gets downloaded and stored locally (so it can also be backed up.) The files that are encrypted get downloaded. This means any hacker/cracker who gets a file can (with a little effort) find a way to make an external program that you provide a keyfile, and a directory of content (also not hard to isolate, just copy out after an install of a single product and sort by file date), and decrypt the content to new files. Then zip them up, and boom......plain old DIM file ready for the warez crowd to share freely.
In other words, all this is going to do is slow down the process slightly at first. Once they have the program, they can share it, and anyone who downloads stuff can do the same. In a few minutes. And all the benefit of the DRM comes crashing down. And we are right back where we started, EXCEPT....the legitimate users can't easily edit their DUF files anymore.
So it doesn't really help the content creators (the music industry figured this out.....most of the movie industry did too, and the ebook people too) so what is the benefit?
And why? Over 99% of those who download software/content illegitimately will NOT buy it if they can't get it free. So you aren't losing sales. All you are doing is frustrating legitimate customers who want un-encrypted data they can work with and customize freely.
Again, why?
Just a question about the Smart Content changes: Does this mean that, if the filtering option is OFF, that Smart Content will now display products that are not compatible with a figure? IE. Shows Gen1 clothing if I have G2F selected in my scene?
If that's indeed the case, that's a massive improvement considering that my previous workflow has always involved switching between content library and smart content constantly.
My second question and it was answered kind of vaguely in the FAQ: up to which generation has the old DAZ content been updated to Smart Content-compatible? All of Gen1 perhaps? Or perhaps even as far back as V4?
Yes
Smart Content data is being worked on. I am not going to attempt to predict how far back, how soon, or how complete the work will be done.
There is one source of 'information' that has not been mentioned..... US!!
How many of us, the customers that buy products, post support tickets and post in these threads were ASKED about Daz Connect!? Data Encryption!? DIM!? CMS!? Was anyone ever asked what solutions to their issues they would have liked!? Going by the replies here, and indeed in previous beta threads, it seems that not many, if any, of us were!
If you make changes based on what WE actually want and we are kept in the loop at every stage of the development then that is fine. What is NOT fine is when we're made to be guinea pigs for 'bright ideas' that we were not consulted about and never asked for. If you get support tickets regarding issues with these 'bright ideas' we don't always want them improved or fixed, more often than not we'd far rather they were dropped in favour of what we know does work and doesn't need fixing or improving. The content library may have wanted fixing and improving (Though not that I noticed.), what it didn't need was the implementation of the CMS. Perhaps it may still need a few tweaks (Though I don't know what.), but, what it does NOT need is the implementation of yet more 'bright ideas' in order to do that The bitrock installers were fine and zips were fine, as far as I could see there were no improvements needed there, and yet you saw fit to implement the DIM. Stop complicating simple things! Just improve and fix things that WE actually ASK for!
So what is the answer to that? Just give it to them. No, they wont buy it whether this is in place or not. But they shouldnt be able to use it, either. At least this would make it very difficult for them to use. If theyre gonna steal my work, they should have to work for it. And if they have to go thru some convoluted process, they may decide its not worth it. I think its silly to assume that pirates' primary goal is to crack everything -- the more difficult, the more enticing. That could be true in some cases, but for the majority... their end game is to gank the content without paying for it. And with the most amount of ease they can muster.
I don't kid myself that such things makes piracy go away. Im not sure that anything could. But if it stops a lot... then, Im still all for it.
Im not really sure tho, how this makes more work for the EU. From what Ive read, its aimed at making the experience more easy and streamlined. I havent downloaded the beta yet, so I guess we'll have to see. But DAZ is pretty good at thinking of everything.... including making things easier and what impact it would have on customers. I trust they've kept that in mind with all this.
I agree with Cartoon Mike, documentation is a laugh. As each version came out, documentation fell behind. Most of the tutorials are out of date and lack the images there were suppose to have. I also noticed that finding a readme so I can access the file list is only available for newer products. Ever attempt to find the readme for anything generation 3 or 4? The readme that comes with the file, either zip or exe and now dim leads to nowhere and searching Daz documention comes up blank. These things only work for new products as the older one's get left on the sidelines. You're updating and releasing new versions faster then you can get the manuals out, which by the way should be released with the product, not something that comes later...maybe. I have no problem with video's, so long as they are not sped up and the person speaking is clearly heard, which is not always the case, sorry if I can't understand mumbling or have to listen through music to hear the words.
Now as to why I am posting. I use, at the moment, Daz 4.8 and , just to be safe cause crap happens, also have 4.7, 4.6, 4.5, 3.0 Pro as well as a few version 2 models, as well as all the content that came with them. So considering I have all these versions and there are times I have to downgrade depending on the computer I am using at the time, will any of these new products work with anything older then 4.9 ?
Secondly, I am losing the internet in about 2 weeks, so connecting to the net in order to have a program or content function properly is out of the question. I will have access to the College for downloading stuff but for some reason the library won't allow me to even access the forums much less the shop. Getting to the college is going to be a problem now that winter is coming and I am in my 50's with no vehicle. I do not want to have to download anything from here, go home and install and try to use it, only to find out I can't because I am not connected to the internet and the DRM is saying NO NO NO...that adds up to no more purchases.
I want to make content, I want as large a customer service base as I can get. How is that going to be possible when you are clearly working towards being Daz only and not only eventually leave out Poser, but you are also leaving out your own products of Carrara and Bryce. Ever heard the term shooting yourself in the foot, think it applies here. Yes I know older products will still be usable, however, not everyone wants to use only older products, some actually use both old and new. Are those who don't upgrade, don't have Daz or just Daz and/or don't have internet no longer going to be a concern of yours?
Oh and as for your concern for the cloud and how it's suppose to be safe and we shouldn't worry..bet they told the President that before they got hacked, same with Target and five other very big name companies all using cloud. I mean, if the President is not even safe on the cloud, how can you guarantee your customers will be.
As long as DRM related products and software need the internet in order to work..yes I know it only needs to be once, even that will be a problem, then you are going to lose many customers.
Oh hey, before I go, still not going to upgrade Hexagon 2.5 and get rid of all those bugs cause you own that program and people keep going elsewhere cause you are not doing any work on it, unless you are unconcerned with lose revenue.
I'll say this one more time, since DAZ has closed all the other treads that are critical of DRM.
DAZ PEOPLE! Stop pretending that "SMARTER SMART CONTENT" somehow requires the application of DRM!! I like smart content. I wish smart content were smarter. Always connected metadata and incremental downloads are a cool idea. NONE OF THAT REQUIRES DRM!
One other thing, I want to debunk the "copies get made right after release" comment I keep seeing. Sure, many, many, many copies get made, but they are not lost sales, so what do you care? Do you somehow think that the people that illegally copy digital wares are somehow going to magically become paying customers? It's not going to happen, in fact, unless I miss the mood of this forum, this move is going to cost you customers. Further, it'll likely cost you customers in the long run. See, those people, the nasty "pirates" that we all hate, some of them (mostly college students according to the surveys) are only exposed to your products through their illegal use. That's called free advertising, and again, not a lost sale, because they couldn't make the purchase if they wanted to. Don't believe me? Obviously not. The data is out there if you make the effort.
There's one more group of "pirates" that I want to cover. The criminal gangs that copy all sorts of digital wares to use as click bait on their sites, are not going to start purchasing either. They purchase it once with a stolen credit card or a hacked PayPal account. They'll move on to something else that maintains their profit margin, the college students will be sad, and you still won't be a single customer richer.
You will, however, spend a great deal of time and resources trying to regain your current paying customers good will and future business.
Lastly, DAZ could have had their cake and eaten it too if they'd just left off the encryption. The professional "pirates" wouldn't have wanted to do the work necessary to re-package what they downloaded through DAZ Connect, but you'd have many fewer customers upset with the way you are treating them.
And before I go. That "manage your content like it's still 1995" was incredibly condescending and should have elicited an immediate apology. But I guess we all know at this point what DAZ thinks of their customers.
What a pro active and busy little theif they would be. If nothing it would take the easy out of easy money. Keep in mind most of those creeps are so lazy they don't just steal our products they steal our promos and text as well. Nor do I expect most of them to be up to the job of doing what your suggesting. I suspect that thier skill with the program is low and not a main focus of their "business model".
Yes, I felt that too.
What I find more troubling though is the apparent ambivalence shown to all the indignant rage quitting being posted here.
The company line is being stoically held regardless, it would appear.