Attached Link: http://www.daz3d.com/i/3d/free-3d-software-overview

nice! thanx :D

hahaha You beat me to it :) Having Hexagon is cool :) I can now try and model something :)

What is the catch or reason they are giving away the store?  Any ideas?

Hexagon has a great process to generate very clean 3d .obj's letters and numbers that can be exported and used in Bryce.

I have no idea what they're up to but I'm very happy to get the Bryce Pro for free. I've been kicking myself every since I passed it up (when it was on sale) for the PLE versions license. 

I have an older version of Hexagon that I've opened & closed a few times but never really did anything with. Maybe I'll give this newer version a try.

Over the years, I've developed a philosophy; if it's free, download it, and archive it, because it may not come again...;) My poor DSL line is going to melt tonight...;)

Great!  I have an earlier version of Hexagon and love it.  Glad to have an update!  Also the DAZStudio Pro will do some things that aren't included in regular DAZStudio.  Nice!

There's some great tuts for Hexagon here:

http://www.geekatplay.com/hexagontutorials/begining.php

I think it's great their offering Bryce Pro free as it gives users access to these features not available in the standard version:

• 4 new lights
• True Ambience optimization
• Influence (Include/Exclude)
• IBL: light from inside
• IBL: Cast shadows - softness, and intensity
• IBL: Specular map
• IBL: Background DOF
• IBL: HDRI transaprency
• IBL: Export Image
• IBL: Tone map
• Materials lab: Displacement maps
• Rendering: True Ambience
• Instance Lab

Thanks for the heads-up!

Corrie

wow.. 

thanks.. it feels like christmas. but why free???? 

I downloaded Bryce 7 Pro and it's working - however the materials 17meg file does not exe - sense we only get 4 tries to download can somebody tell what and how many mats are in that file?

TIA

If I counted right, there are 26 materials in that file.

Is it not installing at all or giving an error message somewhere. Mine quit when it got to the part about uninstalling a previous version of Bryce. I redid it & checked the no, don't uninstall, box & it worked Ok then.

A word to the wise.. or dummies in my case..  I always copy my mats and skies to another file location when upgrading. I will then compare the old and the newly downloaded folders and move any missing files to Bryce.  It is a precaution not to overwrite those files and lose tons.

That's what I do, too!
Better safe than sorry. :-)

Corrie

skiwillgee.. That's something I learned the hard way. Now every program has it's own separate content folder & I manually move things to where they belong.

SFRealm - If you run out of tries to download, just let DAZ know and they will reset them for you.  They are very good about that.  :)

Folks are able to access DAZ?  I briefly got half a page to come up, but after that it always timed out.  I suspect they're getting slammed by the stampede. :(

Quote - If I counted right, there are 26 materials in that file.

Is it not installing at all or giving an error message somewhere. Mine quit when it got to the part about uninstalling a previous version of Bryce. I redid it & checked the no, don't uninstall, box & it worked Ok then.

I click on the materials exe file it brings up run as an adminstrater I click it to run the file then nothing.

I checked Bryce mats and I have 41 but I think these are the default ones that come with the program - not sure about that.

Quote - SFRealm - If you run out of tries to download, just let DAZ know and they will reset them for you.  They are very good about that.  :)

Thanks for the heads up on that

Quote - For anyone who hasn't seen the DAZ announcement.. There's a free download for Bryce Pro, Hexagon, & DAZ Studio Pro..

Thanks Ravyn, I'm not sure if any of these are different to what I've already got or not but they let me order them all - so they might be.

I suspect that if the currently latest version of BrycePro7 is now free then they just might be about to launch Bryce Pro8 - or BrycePro 7.5 or something - if so then it's a pity cos I won't be able to buy anything just now... but I'm crossing my fingers I will be able to by the time it's available... (hoping hard.)

I think the reason it's free is that they are hoping that the people who get it free will buy content for it.

DAZ really does not sell much of their programs I think. That's why they stoped developing Bryce. Bryce users buys less content than DAZ Studio users.

The base version of DS has always been free.  Hexagon was once sold as a $1.99 PC member item.  I think as an upgrade Bryce7Pro cost me like $10.  Even Cararra 8 only cost me like $50.  How many folks actually paid money for base figures like Vickie and Mike?  I don't think it's a matter of developement.  I'm pretty sure DAZ's sales stratogy has always been to give away or sell items for practically nothing so you'll buy the addons and content.  Seems to have always worked pretty well on me.  God knows how many times I've downloaded the weekly freebie and then bought the item(s) it went with. :lol:

As a former Bryce and Hexagon user, I'm left wondering if this is a double edged sword. Giving away software that previously sold for over $400 devalues it and sets the expectation that if you hold out long enough the software will be given away.

It was problems with stability and feature stagnation that drove me away from Bryce and Hexagon. If the sofware is just a loss leader for content, there is less incentive in improving the features and quality of the software as it doesn't generate healthy revenue in its own right.

DAZ has been very good lately about downloads book keeping. A couple months ago I went in to reset something else from the 7 pro purchase and found the 50 Spectacular Marble presets for Bryce. Mine had gotten corrupted. Gorilla, Dragon, etc. from way back in Poser 5 days were still there.

As to why free, why now? I hope this means a Bryce 8 soon. Truespace made everything free when they went out of business. The website is gone but CNet still has the final version for download. The other alternative is a Carerra hybrid they are going to fold pieces of Bryce and Hexagon into. Giving the base and selling the add-ons is also a good angle.

Whatever the reason it's very nice and generous.

Thanks DAZ!

A Note to Vista (sufferer...uhm..users)! Vista protects you from downloading these harmful EXE files with improper certificates by going through the entire download process then deleting the files if you don't run them immediately! I just tried to get the Bryce content and gorilla and they both never appeared on my USB drive.

To get these files, download to a place with lower security settings (Desktop, or Games) where write protection is turned off. Once on your machine they can be moved to another directory or drive.

Quote - DAZ has been very good lately about downloads book keeping. A couple months ago I went in to reset something else from the 7 pro purchase and found the 50 Spectacular Marble presets for Bryce. Mine had gotten corrupted. Gorilla, Dragon, etc. from way back in Poser 5 days were still there.

Everything I ever ordered from Daz is still in my purchase history and available for download reset (except CDs of course).

Sorry to be so late pulling into this discussion

As regards the reasoning behind the free offer from SAZ3S, here is the Official response from DAZ_BHowell, DAZ_Product Mangement.

"Our reasoning in making the suite available for free is simple; increase the number of people using our software and broaden the base of potential customers and content creators. "

And BTW, anyone who is taking advantage of this free offer and who finds that the download is lacking a suffix should just right click to add .exe to the downloaded file. Our servers have been so hammered with the number of people taking advantage of the free software that DAZ3D has had to farm some downloads out to other servers, and these downloads seem to be missing the .exe suffix.

Quote - DAZ has been very good lately about downloads book keeping. A couple months ago I went in to reset something else from the 7 pro purchase and found the 50 Spectacular Marble presets for Bryce. Mine had gotten corrupted. Gorilla, Dragon, etc. from way back in Poser 5 days were still there.

As to why free, why now? I hope this means a Bryce 8 soon. Truespace made everything free when they went out of business. The website is gone but CNet still has the final version for download. The other alternative is a Carerra hybrid they are going to fold pieces of Bryce and Hexagon into. Giving the base and selling the add-ons is also a good angle.

Whatever the reason it's very nice and generous.

Thanks DAZ!

I just downloaded TrueSpace7.6, any idea how to get hold of the manual for it?

I downloaded everything when Microsoft bought them out. The Truespace manual is in a file called ts76pdf.exe I got it but it may not be on this machine. It's gonna take about 2 hours to search all 2.8Tb unindexed. Don't click on any of the warez or torrent links. They're just viruses waiting to happen.

It's okay electroglyph, someone at United 3D Artists gave me a download link for it - for a load of other stuff too.

I just thought it would be fun to compare what my current Theater model looks like in Bryce and in TrueSpace. But it's been so long since I played with TrueSpace of any version, that I forgot how to import an object.

Thus the need for a manual.

But thanks for the offer, I appreciate it.

Now, I just need to figure out how my baddie is going to try and set one of his friends up as the killer... ggg