I was wondering if someone could tell me the difference between DAZ Studio and Poser. I mean, what are the general pros and cons?

The main thing I'm worried about is that I have over 17gigs of Poser stuff in my Runtime, and that I won't be able to import anything. I heard the lighting was better in DS, but I dunno.

Any opinions? I mean, I figure I may as well download it if it's free, but I'd like some outside opinions first.

please use the search sob this gets asked over and over again cries

...Regardless of whether or not someone has asked it before, I would like to know. So it is reasonable for me to ask.

Thank you ever so much for your helpful reply, jeez...

You can point DS to your Poser runtime.

Your Poser lights are useless in DS
Some of your materials may be useless.
mc6s that you access from the material room would need to be converted, but MAT poses are fine.
You can't use Python scripts.
Or your Poser dynamic clothes.
You need a free plugin to inject PMD morphs.

Maybe forgot something

By the way threads with this name will probably become flame wars. So be ready

Quote - You can point DS to your Poser runtime.

Your Poser lights are useless in DS
Some of your materials may be useless.
mc6s that you access from the material room would need to be converted, but MAT poses are fine.
You can't use Python scripts.
Or your Poser dynamic clothes.
You need a free plugin to inject PMD morphs.

Maybe forgot something

I can still use my Runtime?! dances around I'm really happy about that. I don't use Poser materials, I just use texture maps. So that shouldn't be a problem, right? Nor do I use dynamic clothing.
Speaking of which, how is the dynamics system with DS instead of Poser?

And regarding the flame war comment, I'm not trying to get into anything with anybody, I just want some help. I mean...if I didn't need help, I wouldn't post. So if they want to flame me, fine, whatever, but it's not very HELPFUL, which is something this community is known for.

DS dynamics are basically not done yet... You can do simulations (in some cases without animations!) in the 32 bit version with a relatively small collection of V4 clothes. No one (but DAZ and OptiTex) is able to make clothes yet, and there is no support for Mac or 64 bit DS at this time. It's on the to-do list.

The quality of the simulations is pretty decent though

Flames wouldn't be at you but at people trying to answer you.

I know Fabiana has released some dynamic clothing, so I wager I won't be able to use that even if I did have the money to get it, LOL!

So really, there would be no harm in downloading it, then? It won't screw up anything with my Runtime or try to convert files, will it? It'll just tell me they aren't compatible, yes?

Regarding materials, DS just ignores the parts of the .pz2s that it can't use.

It converts things like .objs, but it doesn't save them to where they were, it saves them to a data folder that isn't visible within DS.

edit
that is to say, when you load something, it gets converted if necessary, but you'll never see that.

I can't think of anything that it would do to your runtime if you installed it

Awesome. I'm really happy about that. I've heard amazing things about the lighting system and I really want to try out the lights from callad that was put in FreeStuff. Callad's work is just amazing anyway.

How does it work with rendering bump maps in relation to Poser?

Quote -
How does it work with rendering bump maps in relation to Poser?

About the same.

I'm really anxious to try it. I heard it isn't as memory-intensive as Poser, which would help in render time greatly, I wager.

Just experiment with the free version of D/S First to test your poser content before spending any money.

Cheers

Pfft, oh yeah, free for the win. I'm not spending my money on anything that I'm not completely sure of, lol

Just be aware that there are particular features available in Poser that would need to be purchased for D/S.

Quote - I know Fabiana has released some dynamic clothing, so I wager I won't be able to use that even if I did have the money to get it, LOL!

So really, there would be no harm in downloading it, then? It won't screw up anything with my Runtime or try to convert files, will it? It'll just tell me they aren't compatible, yes?

I could be wrong, but if the clothing was created for Poser, then it won't be compatible with that of Daz Studio as dynamic cloth.

In comparison, just about any conforming cloth can be run through Poser's dynamic cloth simulation, which is particularly useful for long skirts and dresses.

Yeah, I'm aware of that. i mostly am getting it for the memory relief, honestly.

Quote - Just be aware that there are particular features available in Poser that would need to be purchased for D/S.

There are also features available in DAZ Studio that aren't available in Poser at all.

Coldrake

I actually just last night tried DAZ and I am pretty impressed. I can't answer your question about comparing the two.

LukeA

get both.

problem solved.

Quote - get both.
problem solved.

BING!!!!! that is the correct answer. (if you can get DS to work)

D|S always seemed more memory intensive on my machine, at least, if I try to run any "extra" stuff that makes D|S comparable to poser.

Some people say that D|S gives them smoother, softer renders (you have to turn pixel samples way up in Poser render settings for the same effect).

I could never get decent lighting in D|S without something like dreamlight's products for it.

I like the cartoon rendering option in D|S. SO much easier than toon shaders in Poser.

I also like that you can change the rendering bucket pattern/direction in D|S. Sometimes I just like to start a render at the bottom, you know? lol

D|S gets more expensive than Poser is, if you want the same functionality (i.e. rigging, complex materials, magnets/d-formers, complex lighting, dynamic cloth simulation, etc.) 

Poser's cloth room kicks ass, you can run any obj file through simulation. D|S's cloth simulation is very, very limited. They haven't released anything for it since its initial release. However, from what I've seen of the D|S cloth simulation it is very nice, better than what you can get with Poser.

Poser is friendly with Vue, and D|S is friendly with Bryce--I love Vue. So that's a point for Poser. ;-) Although Bryce is very useful, and admittedly much cheaper than Vue, and I do use it every now and then.

Poser has a multitude of very cool python scripts available for it. D|S has some useful plugins, but nothing comparable, just because of the lack of support.

D|S has a better library set up, though a friend of mine says that Poser 8's libraries have improved toward the folder tree setup too.

D|S always seems to be buggy, and they're always updating to a higher version number. And patches? We don't need no stinking patches! You have to download the entire program over again, uninstall the old version, and reinstall every time. I have dial-up, and D|S is a huge download, so I don't update very often I still have ver. 2.3. The problem with that is--NO, absolutely NO files made by anyone with an even slightly higher version of D|S will work in previous versions. And since most people who make content for D|S use the encrypted file types, you can't open them up and alter them to work for another version of D|S. Also a problem if there's a mistake in it, and it, say, points to a missing or incorrect file path. So, if you decide to go with D|S, be prepared to update it, often.

A lot of poser MAT files use Poser's material nodes, and while they will still load in D|S, they will load incorrectly. Sometimes very incorrectly. If materials are not very simple or D|S specific, you will have to do alot of tweaking to make them look right.

In summation: If you don't need the kind of functionality that poser offers, then D|S is a good, free substitute. Be warned, however, that DAZ seems to be commercializing it, and it may not stay free.

I keep D|S on my machine for D|S specific content, toon rendering, and making my products D|S compatible.

A couple points of information

Magnet functionality doesn't cost anything.
Technically you don't have to buy anything to use dynamic cloth, you just miss out on some options.
They have released additional clothes since the debut (but they don't make a lot of noise about it)

I'm not sure what the criticism of DS's lights could be if you feel that Dreamlight products fix it. They only use standard lights.

You will probably pay for AO though.

What I meant about d-formers was the d-form plugin you need to make them.

What I said about the lighting was meant to indicate that I'm just not good with them, so I couldn't get good results--someone said that the lighting in D|S was better.

Sorry if I've come off badly. I'm no good at organizing or expressing thoughts in a coherent manner. :-S

I haven't heard of this d-form plugin...

Wow--it's sort of...gone from DAZ. Maybe they've integrated it (I should probably shut up, since I don't have the newest version of D|S).

oh I see... Didn't know about that.

Quote - In summation: If you don't need the kind of functionality that poser offers, then D|S is a good, free substitute. Be warned, however, that DAZ seems to be commercializing it, and it may not stay free.

Haven't been around for quite a while, have you? ;) There is a free version and a paid version of DAZ Studio 3.

Quote - D|S gets more expensive than Poser is, if you want the same functionality (i.e. rigging, complex materials, magnets/d-formers, complex lighting, dynamic cloth simulation, etc.)

Not since DAZ Studio 3 Advanced came out. It has complex materials comparable to Poser, AO, IBL, HDRI, Global Illumination, Indirect Lighting, Translucency, LOD, Sub-D, Area lights, Volumetrics, Caustics and Sub-surface scattering just to name a few.

Quote - Poser has a multitude of very cool python scripts available for it. D|S has some useful plugins, but nothing comparable, just because of the lack of support.

Check out the DAZ Studio Freepozitory.

Quote - D|S always seems to be buggy, and they're always updating to a higher version number. And patches? We don't need no stinking patches!

I think there have only been 2 updates since DS3A came out several months ago.

Yup, d-formers are integrated into the program, have been for a long time. :)

You should download the free version of DAZ Studio 3 and check it out. It's come a loooooooong way since version 2.3 :)

Coldrake

Quote - You should download the free version of DAZ Studio 3 and check it out. It's come a loooooooong way since version 2.3 :)

I've actually tried. Can't get the thing to complete. :-( I like D|S, I just can't get it to like me.

Quote - I was wondering if someone could tell me the difference between DAZ Studio and Poser. I mean, what are the general pros and cons?

The main thing I'm worried about is that I have over 17gigs of Poser stuff in my Runtime, and that I won't be able to import anything. I heard the lighting was better in DS, but I dunno.

Any opinions? I mean, I figure I may as well download it if it's free, but I'd like some outside opinions first.

If I was starting out now, I would go with Daz3d.
Daz3d is a free program that supports the most famous poser figures around.
Poser is a relatively expensive program that comes up with ugly figures and crashes often.

Poser comes with all kinds of junk that is fundamentally unstable, while daz comes with  basic functions that are very stable, and which you can upgrade later.

I've seen many daz renders that are just as professional as poser renders.
I believe personally that Daz3d is the future.

Daz Studio has not been that stable for me, but it is free. I will keep trying it, before I purchase D3 Advanced.

I have D:S Advanced, but I hardly ever use it; most of my characters and scenes were made using Poser's material shaders and lights so importing them into DS is a non-starter. That, coupled with the lack of python script support which I use a lot, mean DS gathers a lot of dust on my hard drive.
I don't see anything majorly wrong with it; but it doesn't work well for me. Stability wise, I would say it's worse than Poser, but  that's not really saying much (PPro has been the best stability wise thus far of all the version I've used).

I usually recommend newbies to start off with DS just because it's free, but to move up to Poser because of the better support and advanced features (IMHO). Poser is still the standard and I don't see that changing anytime soon.