Quote - I am certainly sorry for your troubles. The only thing I can possibly say is that it is not a good business model for us to try to support every aging computer platform. Try playing one of the latest games on an older system... ouch!  We certainly do care about you but there will be limits we must draw when it comes to system requirements and invariably there will be a certain percentage of people who fall below the minimum. I wish it wasn’t so.

...so basically we are "written off" because those of us on limited budgets don't have the disposable income to buy a big ticket item like a new computer every couple of years.

I have been with Daz since 2007, agreeably not as long as others, but was excited that with Studio, I found a CG application that not only didn’t require a super computer or high performance CAD workstation, but also "talked to me" in a language I could understand.  Studio2.3 was probably the last really decent version of the application even given the memory leaks it suffered from.

I would have been be content to just continue on with 2.3 but when technical and soon afterwards vendor support ended following the rollout of 3.0 (along with promises that the persistent memory issues in prevoius versions would be resolved) I felt I had no other choice but to upgrade.  However, the memory leak and bloating issues were still there and actually became worse with a couple subsequent "patches". I'm not the only one who noticed this either.

In addition, the new 3Delight render engine, which was hyped to be better and faster was neither (granted, due in part to my system's specs as I was and still am working in 32 bit).  I also noticed an increase in the frequency of application crashes during the render process compared with 2.3 which is where the frustration began to rise. Scenes of a complexity level similar to ones I did even as far back as ver 1.7 would simply refuse to render in ver. 3.

Instead of addressing the core issues (which many of us brought up in the forums and through support tickets), updates, particularly in the months prior to the release of ver. 4, began to focus on the addition of new features rather than fixes, and Studio 3 began to appear as if it was becoming nothing more than a test-bed for the next version (which already had it's own development track).  To me this was a waste of development resources for it did nothing to improve the performance and quality of the (then) current core programme.  What we were left with in the end was a still broken 3.x with a couple new "shinies" that still suffered from memory management issues which plagued it since its release two and a half years ago.

However once again, we no longer have any recourse as technical (and apparently vendor) support for 3.x has been discontinued with the rollout of 4.0.

...so it begins anew, but this time without some of us like myself who have been involved for some time now (since ver 1.5) and been faithful supporters of Daz3D.

Without Daz Studio I never would have found a new way to continue in my art.  At the time 250$ for Poser5 was more than I could afford, especially not knowing what I was getting into at the time. While some in other camps "poo-pooed" (I can say that here can't I?) Studio's dependence on plugins, I found it a more affordable way to become involved as I could do so a step or two at a time instead of having to come up with a large lump sum up front. It also allowed me to tailor the application to my personal needs and style without paying for features I didn't need. True, in the long run it ends up costing more but when you are on a limited budget it's often an easier route to take.

3Advanced and it's successors, 4 basic (which will no longer be free after the intro offer expires) 4A and 4Pro have broken that nice mould. Heck, I rarely if ever use many of the "built in" features of 3A as I only do still pics and my system cannot handle the excess memory load some of the built in features like UberEnvironment and the HSS impose.

As I mentioned over in the Daz forums, I agree that Genesis is a major stride forward not just because of the improved joint bending and weight mapping but because it also can combine character morphs in a way the Figure Mixer in 3.x couldn't, and do it so more efficiently.  Given time and practise, I feel almost anything could be possible with it, which for me, included developing characters for an SF story in graphic novel format which has been shelved for years. However that is all moot as the technical stakes have been raised beyond the limit of my means.

...this is the "thank you" I get for all the support I have given Daz3D over the last four years, not only with my hard earned cash, but discussion on other forums and in person with others.

...oh and I don't do computer games as I'd rather be spending my time (and money) doing something more productive and meaningful, like 3D CG.

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...forsaken daughter is watching you.

[Intel Xeon 5660 Hyperthreading 6 core CPU, 24GB GSkill Ripjaws 1333 DDR3 Tri Channel RAM, Nvidia Titan-X GPU with 12GB GDDR5 & 3072 cores, 1 x AData 240 GB SSD (boot) + 1 x 2TB HDD, EGVA 850 G5 PSU Antec P-193 with more fans than Justin Bieber.]