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Subject: The Ask Dr Stan Thread:


headwax. ( ) posted Thu, 03 October 2013 at 1:12 AM · edited Sun, 06 October 2024 at 6:31 PM

Here's a question for you ManStan

 

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/29870/

 

haven't had a chance to explore the answers but I bet you know the answer


manleystanley ( ) posted Thu, 03 October 2013 at 9:44 AM

Actually I really can't say. I had no issues with cr2s in C8.5. But then I didn't need CMS running to use genesis or autofit ether, so who knows what else DAZ may have jiggered up for the release.

So do you have CMS installed and running? Seriously, DAZ has made it abundently clear they don't want you using genesis in carrara with out CMS. 

If I had C8.5 I'd run through your steps to see what I get. But at this point in time, considering what DAZ did to the release, DAZ would have to pay me to use it.having to use CMS puts me righ off buying it. I refuse to buy C8.5 any any price till this issue is fixed.

Now if everything worked the way it should you'd just load G1, drop the pants on, autofit, if you have the mil4 morphs, morph G1 to K4, then export the pants object prefit and ready to go on K4 after rigging in poser. If you can't do it that way it is simply because DAZ doesn't want you to. But it seems DAZ is out to stop you from doing just what you are trying to do. Useing autofit as a clothing convert for other figuires.

In the beta we could turn off the protected topoligy to work weightmapped figures in the modeling room, did DAZ remove that in the release version?

None the less it is quite apparent DAZ has crippled carrara features in order to protect their content from...... fixing?

Sorry, I wish I could help but I have no intention of getting C8.5 till DAZ removes the nessety of CMS and drops it to a reasonable price.

Sorry this just leads me back around to wondering where the uproar is from DAZ trying to force carraraests to use CMS. Which as far as I am concerned has to much potential to be used as DRM. It's just that having to have CMS running to use content sounds far too much like having to have DRM running to listen to music or watch a movie. 

If you are going to accuse me of stealing, I'm going to become a theif.

ADHD makes me live on a tangent

 

jig·ger1

ˈjigər/

verbinformal

past tense: jiggered; past participle: jiggered

1.

rearrange or tamper with.

The Irish way to say doomed for death.


manleystanley ( ) posted Thu, 03 October 2013 at 10:01 AM

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/29929/ Not sure why that would need more then a "yes" and a "how to" because if it comes with .obj then the bryce files are irrelavent.

Yes, just import the object; .obj. You will probably have to retexture, but that is easy enough, when done just save to your carrara browser.

You might want to go to my documents/daz3d/carrara8/my presets and make a "my scenes" folder to save to. I have "my presets" in my "figures" folder where I do all my work. But I don't like folders burried that deep.

"my presets" is broke down to various folders. Say if I have a big on going project with a lot of texture and effects maps, I make a folder in "my presets" for that project. Like "old west", "Jacksparks", "Swamp S".  So basically woking on a project it's Figures/my presets/jacksparks, not my documents/daz3d/carrara8/my presets/my scenes/jacksparks.


booksbydavid ( ) posted Thu, 03 October 2013 at 11:43 AM

Quote - Here's a question for you ManStan

 

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/29870/

 

haven't had a chance to explore the answers but I bet you know the answer

I will NEVER touch Genesis in Carrara. What a total mess!

Sorry, Andrew. Just had to throw that in here.

OK, Stan. Back to work. :)


dr_bernie ( ) posted Thu, 03 October 2013 at 11:53 AM · edited Thu, 03 October 2013 at 11:56 AM

Quote - I will NEVER touch Genesis in Carrara. What a total mess!

 

Thanks! You just made my day! The Genesis added value to Carrara is nearly zero!


manleystanley ( ) posted Thu, 03 October 2013 at 1:09 PM

I'll argue that point. Genesis is the inevetable next step in premade figures. Weightmapping has been around for quite a while, it is a step above because of the posing of figures, no straw elbows and such. Figures just look much better posed.

The problem comes from the issues with autofit, the aparent nesseity in the release version of carrara needing CMS to use Genesis, and DAZ's abandoning of genesis once they released it. Most that use genesis agree G2F is much better, addressing several issues with genesis. The only bad part of that is a PA, not DAZ had to give people an update to a better genesis.

Now I like the concept of genesis, yes it's nice to be able to use genesis in carrara. Is it an added value? Sorry, I am not paying some one for the right to buy their latest content. It amounts to having to pay to shop at walmart.

As it stands after going back to C8.1 from the C8.5 beta, it's not genesis I miss. After 2 years of doing the beta, genesis never really made it in to my work flow. I just couldn't depend on it or autofit. More often then not due to posing issues and illfiting clothes I'd have to drop G1 from my scene and work the mil4 figures in.

So no, an undeveloped/fixed genesis and a bugy autofit adds no value to C8.5 for me. I think DAZ banked far too much on that being C8.5s selling point.

Of coarse DAZ's inept maketing staff didn't help in the least. Hell, I know damned little about marketing but could have done a better job.

None the less Genesis/autofit has it's strong points as in one set of clothes can be a uniform for a small army of vastly different shaped genesisi. But that is only when these "features" work the way they should.


dr_bernie ( ) posted Thu, 03 October 2013 at 4:25 PM

Don't get me wrong ManleyStanley. Genesis is certainly a remarkable software achievement. All the accolades and praises it received are proof positive to that.

But being a great software achievement is one thing, and improving significantly user's workflow another. Genesis's workflow improvement in Carrara is, from where I am standing, negligible when taking into account the 3 years time it took to implement it.

Look at this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkWBRuJlQhA.

It's an Aiko 3 walk cycle. The movements are very natural and very believable, and it's only a gen3 model. You can find dozens upon dozens of gen 4 animations that ate very good and very believable too.

My point: Carrara does not need a better mesh to produce better poses and better animations, it needs better posing and better animation tools.

Now look at this render I did with a demo version of Shade 12 a year or so ago. Warning: The image contains full frontal nudity but it's within RO's TOS.

http://s1089.photobucket.com/user/dr_bernie/media/Demo%20Shade/PharaohTempleShade_zps070e0f15.jpg.html

I spent a couple of days getting used to Shade's quirky, but manageable, interface, then I opened a Poser .pz3 scene and I tweaked the shaders highlights and ambient and and SSS parameters, added just 1 light and rendered.

Look at how accurate and clean the render is. Look at how natural the skin is. It took me only a couple of hours of texture tweaking in Shade to get this result. Had I spent a day or so adding multi-layer textures, the result would have been outright spectacular, probably breathtaking.

My point: Carrara does not need higher resolution textures. Gen 4 textures are excellent as they are, as demonstrated by the Shade render. What Carrara needs is to process light more accurately, i.e. Carrara needs a better renderer, to bring-out the details of already excellent gen 4 textures.

Now how long would it have taken to improve Carrara's posing and animation tools, and implement a renderer like Shade's? You tell me, but certainly not 3 years.


headwax. ( ) posted Thu, 03 October 2013 at 10:02 PM

thanks Stan, I knew you would know :)

 

Problem: I don't want to use Genesis, but I want to use Genesis clothes cause that's the main things as far as clothes dfaz is putting out.

 

So I can use xdresser to convert if I manage to export a cr2 from daz studio, but I don't use daz studio ... so I thought I would use Car 8.5 and see what I got and immediately ran into problems...

 

I ended up installing studio so I could get the cms, then was told by a helpful person that DIm would install cms anyways, then it installed my practice cloths on my c drive

then they worked fine in Carrara

and it wasn't by accident after asking that I found a little greyed out button that let me change the installation directory with DIM they have hidden it very well I think  ... so I have reinstalled one item of clothing to see what will happen - havn't had a chance to look yet

 

the export CR2 thing didn't work from studio because styudio didn't automagically find the original directories and the tutorial video just assumes it will and gives you no idea of what directoried they are supposed to actually contain ....

 

not insurmountable but I need to look for motre tuts on it or just ask I guess'

the cross dresser min tut suggests it is simple but alas it is not

 

 

links http://www.evilinnocence.com/using-crossdresser-with-genesis/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDYEvSb7jQs

 

I like the idea of ask Dr Stan thread :)

 

 

 


headwax. ( ) posted Thu, 03 October 2013 at 10:04 PM

Quote - > Quote - Here's a question for you ManStan

 

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/29870/

 

haven't had a chance to explore the answers but I bet you know the answer

I will NEVER touch Genesis in Carrara. What a total mess!

Sorry, Andrew. Just had to throw that in here.

OK, Stan. Back to work. :)

 

ha ha don't blame you, I needed some cheapo peasant clothes and some roman centurian stuff etc so managed to grab some at a reasonable price, but ity's just a matter of translating them to M4 :) or k4


manleystanley ( ) posted Thu, 03 October 2013 at 10:43 PM

Which was unnessary in the beta.

dr_bernie no it's not a matter of mesh but weightmapping. As I've said repeatedly, DAZ could have weightmapped the mil 4 figures for carrara, but they wouldn't have worked in Studio. So it never happened.

 


dr_bernie ( ) posted Fri, 04 October 2013 at 12:55 PM

Quote - Which was unnessary in the beta.

dr_bernie no it's not a matter of mesh but weightmapping. As I've said repeatedly, DAZ could have weightmapped the mil 4 figures for carrara, but they wouldn't have worked in Studio. So it never happened.

Weightmapped V4/M4 (A sort of Victoria 4.5 or Michael 4.5) in Carrara would have been more than enough for me.

 


jonstark ( ) posted Fri, 04 October 2013 at 5:03 PM

Quote - > Quote - Which was unnessary in the beta.

dr_bernie no it's not a matter of mesh but weightmapping. As I've said repeatedly, DAZ could have weightmapped the mil 4 figures for carrara, but they wouldn't have worked in Studio. So it never happened.

Weightmapped V4/M4 (A sort of Victoria 4.5 or Michael 4.5) in Carrara would have been more than enough for me.

 

 

What stops us from doing this, I wonder?  I'm not being flip because all I know about weightmapping is a Dimensiontheory tutorial video I watched once (translation: I really know nothing) but since Carrara does have weightmap tools, and since I have V4 and M4, I can't help wondering if maybe I couldn't just go ahead and make a weightmapped V4/M4?


manleystanley ( ) posted Fri, 04 October 2013 at 10:28 PM

I've worked with it a bit but don't seem to get it. I can load M4 and paint the weightmap on him, but it doesn't seem to do anything when posing so I assume I did something wrong.

The fun part is carrara is set to save or load a .cwm, or carrara weight map. I can only assume since nothing has ever been done with it, it doesn't work; and not just for me. So if it worked, if you could make and save out a .cwm, and load one, someone would have done mil4 weightmaps by now.

Weight mapping in carrara is something I can't find much info on and confuses me fast.


booksbydavid ( ) posted Sat, 05 October 2013 at 5:58 PM

Agree. The lack of info on weight mapping in Carrara is a problem.


jonstark ( ) posted Sat, 05 October 2013 at 9:23 PM

I can't help wondering if maybe it could be puzzled out.  I'm going to have to look into it when I get a chance.  Would be great to have a weightmapped V4 and M4 just for Carrara.


manleystanley ( ) posted Sun, 06 October 2013 at 9:23 AM

There are some interesting features listed for weight painting, like bulge. It seems you should be able to make muscles bulge/flex with movement, but I have never gotten it to work. I tried to work with the weight painting early on in carrara, but it just doesn't seem to work right on DAZ figures. I did a Trex, boned/rigged/set joints and weight mapped. It worked great. But it was a single mesh with 1 shader zone over the body.

It seems there are quite a few features in carrara that just don't work with DAZ/Poser figures. And with genesis even fewer still. It seems DAZ making DAZ figures more compatable with carrara, means fewer carrara features actually work on them.


tsarist ( ) posted Sun, 06 October 2013 at 1:04 PM

Quote - There are some interesting features listed for weight painting, like bulge. It seems you should be able to make muscles bulge/flex with movement, but I have never gotten it to work. I tried to work with the weight painting early on in carrara, but it just doesn't seem to work right on DAZ figures. I did a Trex, boned/rigged/set joints and weight mapped. It worked great. But it was a single mesh with 1 shader zone over the body.

It seems there are quite a few features in carrara that just don't work with DAZ/Poser figures. And with genesis even fewer still. It seems DAZ making DAZ figures more compatable with carrara, means fewer carrara features actually work on them.

Maybe a more detailed instruction book would help us out.

hint Daz hint


booksbydavid ( ) posted Sun, 06 October 2013 at 9:17 PM

I've played with weight mapping in Poser. Bulge would indeed give you bulging muscles if you wanted it to (if it works the same as in Poser).


manleystanley ( ) posted Thu, 10 October 2013 at 8:40 AM · edited Thu, 10 October 2013 at 8:42 AM

Could someone tell sparrowhawk that yes, DAZ has protected anything genesis/triax from being manipulated/worked on in carrara. http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/30320/

DAZ wants you to use Studio with genesis not carrara. So if you want to work on anything genesis/triax it has to be done in studio.

Apparently DAZ doesn't want you working on the figure you just paid for the privelage to use.

More proof carraraests are the second class citizens of the DAZ sociaty.

What gets me is this is the same crap we complained about for the 2 years of the beta. Yet DAZ has done absolutly nothing to fix it. So this has to be the way DAZ wants it, like haveing to have CMS to use genesis. It's not a bug, or a goof, DAZ wants to force carraraests to use CMS.


booksbydavid ( ) posted Thu, 10 October 2013 at 12:22 PM

Quote - Could someone tell sparrowhawk that yes, DAZ has protected anything genesis/triax from being manipulated/worked on in carrara. http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/30320/

I passed on the info to Sparrowhawke for you.


manleystanley ( ) posted Fri, 11 October 2013 at 10:03 AM · edited Fri, 11 October 2013 at 10:05 AM

Thanks. I ran in to all sorts of issues just trying to make fit morphs for the ill fitting autofit clothes, and never could.

 

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/29136/

No you can not make games with carrara, you can make game elements. To make a game you will need a freeware game engine, I recomend Unity because it seems to be the most common used one, even bigger name games use it to cut costs.

NOTE:

Carrara can decimate as well so no need to do it in studio.

DAZ figures tend to be too high polly for most games, although mil1 figures may work well.

Most game figures have the clothes as part of the figure, in other words figures in games usually have no body under the clothes. I'd suggest Makehuman and modeling the clothes on the figure, using the figure mesh. This and rigging is fairly easy to do in carrara.

Start simple and make sure you have the work flow down from carrara to your game engine before starting anything complex.

Dead fronteer is a garage game made by a guy and a couple of freinds. It is the best zombie horror survivle game on line, so yes you can ;)


manleystanley ( ) posted Sat, 12 October 2013 at 2:14 PM

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/30391/

Uninstall mimic.


manleystanley ( ) posted Tue, 15 October 2013 at 3:14 PM

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/30578/

This does little good if the hair still disappears on poseing genesis; which has been my experiance for anything but cr2 hair; meaning gone through autofit.


headwax. ( ) posted Tue, 15 October 2013 at 8:54 PM

Hi Stan, you really are a font of knowledge :)

!


booksbydavid ( ) posted Tue, 15 October 2013 at 11:08 PM

Quote - Hi Stan, you really are a font of knowledge :)

!

Ooooo. I've never seen one of those. :)

Quite agree. Stan is the Man when it comes to the ins and outs of Carrara.


manleystanley ( ) posted Thu, 17 October 2013 at 4:32 PM

Man, every time I read the DAZ carrara forum it's just a bit more depressing. 80% of it is this is for sale and "yea DAZ for the best thing since sliced bread".

That is if there is any new posts at all. I get this feeling the majority of people that use carrara never got C8.5. Is DAZ aware of this?


booksbydavid ( ) posted Thu, 17 October 2013 at 9:06 PM

Quote - That is if there is any new posts at all. I get this feeling the majority of people that use carrara never got C8.5. Is DAZ aware of this?

The other question is do they really care? It's obvious that 8.5 was not worth the years long wait. It's my guess that they only worked on it when they had a spare moment. Judging by all the niggling little problems still in the software, I'd guess that they only released it because they were tired of fooling with it.

That's all just a guess, mind you. I know Genesis is their 'thing' but I wish they'd get their collective heads out and look around. There's more to the 3D scene than Genesis.


headwax. ( ) posted Fri, 18 October 2013 at 12:20 AM

I don't ever think I will get to use 8.5 except maybe for loading up a figure and stealing it's obj file to rig in poser and bring back into 8.1

just don't have enough time to fiddle with something that doesn't run like a finished application

 

 

 

 

 


tsarist ( ) posted Sat, 19 October 2013 at 12:53 PM · edited Sat, 19 October 2013 at 12:53 PM

Quote - Man, every time I read the DAZ carrara forum it's just a bit more depressing. 80% of it is this is for sale and "yea DAZ for the best thing since sliced bread".

That is if there is any new posts at all. I get this feeling the majority of people that use carrara never got C8.5. Is DAZ aware of this?

Yeah, I haven't been to the Daz forum in awhile. I used to be on there everyday.

Now, I come here most times.

The PC club sale mostly sucks too. Almost everything is Genesis only.

I guess they really want to force that down our throats. Wouldn't be so bad if Genesis and autofit worked right in C8.5.


booksbydavid ( ) posted Sat, 19 October 2013 at 12:59 PM

Quote - > Quote - Man, every time I read the DAZ carrara forum it's just a bit more depressing. 80% of it is this is for sale and "yea DAZ for the best thing since sliced bread".

That is if there is any new posts at all. I get this feeling the majority of people that use carrara never got C8.5. Is DAZ aware of this?

Yeah, I haven't been to the Daz forum in awhile. I used to be on there everyday.

Now, I come here most times.

The PC club sale mostly sucks too. Almost everything is Genesis only.

I guess they really want to force that down our throats. Wouldn't be so bad if Genesis and autofit worked right in C8.5.

Yep. Agree on all counts.


dr_bernie ( ) posted Sat, 19 October 2013 at 10:30 PM · edited Sat, 19 October 2013 at 10:32 PM

Quote - The other question is do they really care? It's obvious that 8.5 was not worth the years long wait. It's my guess that they only worked on it when they had a spare moment. Judging by all the niggling little problems still in the software, I'd guess that they only released it because they were tired of fooling with it.

I agree. And I think it's more than just a guess. It's most likely a fact.

8.5 was released with probably so many known screw-ups that Daz shut down the Mantis bug tracker just prior to the release so the place doesn't get flooded with bug reports a month or two after the release.

 


manleystanley ( ) posted Sun, 20 October 2013 at 8:46 AM · edited Sun, 20 October 2013 at 8:49 AM

You know it's bad when the release version is bugyer then the beta ;)

The worst part is DAZ's apparent indiference. Like they just don't care. And it's not just carrara. DAZ has done nothing with Studio for quite a while; which is bad because the optitex dynamic clothing doesn't work worth a flip in Studio 4.5{6?}.

Add to that that DAZ has done nothing with Bryce or Hex in years and you wonder.

Look at Hivewire3d and the Dawn character. They and their suporters are showing just what a concerned developer and suportive community can do for a figure. In fact the feel at hivewire is very much like DAZ felt years ago.

It seems DAZ inc lost it's soul when it was bought out. Now we have people that are clueless how to run anything other then a content brokerage. And it plainly shows. Developement of anything at DAZ got swept under the rug when they took over.

Lets look at C9, where is the beta? We did the C8.5 beta for two years yet it doesn't look like C9 will be getting any sort of open beta. What this proves to me is DAZ doesn't care about the bugs, or how it will run on any more then in house comps.

Like the price on C8.5 DAZ is keeping C9 under tight wraps till release; and for the same reason. DAZ is already well aware we aren't going to like it, and they don't care. They are going to slap us in the face with yet another half finished, bugy, not worth the price, with no new features carrara, then expect us to pay full purches price with a bunch of smoke and mirrors discounts yet again.

It's called development suicide, and happens in games quite often. When carrara dies DAZ will have no one to blame but themselves. Of coarse it will some how be my fault, or should I say DAZ will blame the lack of sales and having to mothballing carrara on the nay sayers.

What the new DAZ doesn't realize is us nay sayers are probably the group that is most concerned about the health and well being of carrara.


booksbydavid ( ) posted Sun, 20 October 2013 at 11:21 AM

Agree, Stan.

My guess is that 9 is just going to be 8.5 with some new paint and plaster stuck on to make it look new and shiny.

They don't want us talking about it. DAZ probably hopes we'll forget about the release date for 9 that they themselves announced. And heaven forbid they should make any promises about upcoming features or improvements...they might have to keep them.

In the good old days, we'd get someone official popping into the forums on occassion grinning and winking about some new feature coming to Carrara. Now, we get nothing. No one pops in much at all. I mean look at the 8.5 launch. There was a DAZ presence in the beginning, but as criticism and bugs popped up that presence was less and less until finally it trickled to nothing. That left the users to sort out the problems on their own.

With 8.5 as measure, the release of 9 would have to be pretty amazing for me jump. Also, using 8.5 as an example, I doubt that I will be happy with the price. I hope I'm wrong.


manleystanley ( ) posted Sun, 20 October 2013 at 11:56 AM · edited Sun, 20 October 2013 at 11:59 AM

Actually the void creating from marketing has dropped to nill. DAZ used to have someone running marketing that knew how to sell a product, I don't know what to think now. Seems their sales manager knows little about marketing stratagy. 
 
Any one remember the month of hype before V4 came out?  For G2F it was a few days; maybe a week, of example renders in 1 thread. 
 
Maybe this goes back to all the hype and hoopla before genesis and Studio 4 came out, followed by a practically apocalyptic response in the forums when people found out they were going to get charged for it, a lot of the everyday tools cost more, plus bugs galore. 
 
Hell I leaked optitex clothing testing photos when DAZ was creating the void for it. By the time Studio finally came out with the optitex dynamic clothing people were clamoring for it.


booksbydavid ( ) posted Sun, 20 October 2013 at 12:09 PM

Oh, I remember all the hype that used to DAZ. It was fun. The anticipation would mount daily. It was fun. It was exciting to get up and head to the forums and see what had happened since you went to bed the night before.

All the hype, the forum craziness in advance of just about any new release or sale really generated the desire to have whatever was being talked about. And more often than not DAZ delivered. Now, not so much.


tsarist ( ) posted Sun, 20 October 2013 at 8:46 PM

Stan & Books

I agree with most of what you guys are saying.

I guess the only question is why hype something you know is broken? Daz had to know how messed up C8.5 was going to be. Daz knew the response to G2F was going to be lackluster, especially from Carraraists, because G1 didn't work right. 

Autofit has never seemed to do what it's supposed to, and as best I can tell, Genesis is useless without it.

In the old days, Daz released something, like V4, and we were all excited because we knew we could pick it up, install and get started. Genesis changed all that.

Now Daz has the attitude that somehow WE are messed up because their buggy software and content doesn't work right and that "some people will always be unhappy."

Also, we don't get Daz people showing up in the forums because they would come in the forums, confuse the hell out of everyone and frustrated customers would beat them to a pulp. I guess nobody wanted to go into the forums with the BS answers DAZ told them to run with and then take a beating.


booksbydavid ( ) posted Sun, 20 October 2013 at 9:41 PM

Tsarist, you are so right.

I guess that explains why there was no real advertising for the 8.5 rollout. They didn't want tons of people buying the software because they knew it was broken going out.

Makes me even more skeptical about the release of 9. We'll see.


dr_bernie ( ) posted Sun, 20 October 2013 at 10:11 PM

Learning to use effectively a 3D app, whether it's Carrara or 3DSMax, requires lots of involved learning and practice.

A 3D app isn't like a car that if you don't like it you just selll it and buy somethig else. It would be utterly irresponsible for a 3D app software company to tell its customers: 'If you don't like our products, go use use someone else's app'.

What I am witnessing is that Daz took over an excellent RDS that could almost rival Lightwave, and over the years has let it fall behind to the point of extinction.

Daz has spent a huge amount of time designing their CMS with Smart Content which is of no practical use from where I am standing. Actually when I buy Daz content I don't even install the DS part, I only install the Poser files. IMO Poser's content manager is far better and far more useful, and Daz should have just shamelessly copied it.

And for the umpteenth time, that fast mipmap nonsense that Daz spent months to program in Carrara to speed-up the renderer is so laughable that I would really expect Daz to quietly remove it from the C9 release, because it really is a proof of utter mismanagement.

And, again for the umpteenth time, Daz should implement the Embree technology inside Carrara so at least upgrading to C9 is worth the price.

For Daz Carrara's product manager information, Embree is not some sort of cheese, It's a set of fast raytracing routines developed by Intel as part of their core graphic technologies, and is already implemented in C4D R15 and VRay.

http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/embree-photo-realistic-ray-tracing-kernels

This is Embree's impact on C4D R15 render speed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJd-WEtkg-Q

 

 

 


manleystanley ( ) posted Tue, 22 October 2013 at 8:49 AM

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/30995/

The problem is you are looking for HDRI files that wont show up in the carrara browser, simple as that. Carrara's browser does not show HDRIs. You browser to them when you go to load them to your scene in the HDRI menu. scene/background/HDRI.


ncamp ( ) posted Tue, 22 October 2013 at 9:10 AM

Quote - http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/30995/

The problem is you are looking for HDRI files that wont show up in the carrara browser, simple as that. Carrara's browser does not show HDRIs. You browser to them when you go to load them to your scene in the HDRI menu. scene/background/HDRI.

They are setup as presets, so they do show in the browser.  Of course, that all depends on where they are installed.

Any Carrara content I get is loaded into the main directory.  That way the presets work.  If you load them into another directory, the presets don't work correctly.  Well, at least for me.

ncamp


manleystanley ( ) posted Wed, 23 October 2013 at 9:06 AM

HDRI as a preset? That seems rather ludacris.

But if you are using DIM; which is named quite rightly, and something doesn't get installed where it should, the issue is with DIM. Best check default loading folder, may be my dicuments/daz3d/my daz 3d library, or what ever DAZ may be calling it this month.

More then likely it should have been installed where I don't install any carrara content but is the defalut place DAZ has set up; maybe, documents/daz3d/carrara 8{5}. I have a "my presets" in my figures folder where all my content is, all the scenes I work on are there. As far as I know the only "presets" that have to be in the right spot for carrara is the wizard presets.

I'm on windows 8 so it may be my documents in W7.

Would some one tell Bill I don't own a tablet so would like the computer version of this tablet app.

Yes, I am trying to do the W8.1 update but it is downloading through their store so is trickel downloading and in 3 days I have yet to get it.


manleystanley ( ) posted Sat, 09 November 2013 at 8:10 AM · edited Sat, 09 November 2013 at 8:15 AM

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/32102/

Well duh. C8.5 is all about genesis compatability or should I say .duf compatability.

I know I'm banned from the forum but I see people asking questions and finding things I pointed out early on and through out my testing of C8.5. Were all those posts deleted with my ban?

I mean just what file format do they think genesis is in? That is what C8.5 was all about, being able to use the new Studio .duf. .duf is how I got those worthless dynaimc clothing animation from Studio 4 to C8.5.

Sad part is C8.5 has been out for a while and people are just starting to ask about it's main new feature. And this is the best selling version of carrara to date? Ya, right.

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/32117/

And once you spend all that time getting the hair to fit watch it go bye bye when you pose the figure. I spent far too much time fitting "wigs" to genesi just to have them vanish the minuet I apply a pose.

I can only guess most everyone is using genesis content on genesis.

Reading the DAZ foums I have to wonder what all these people that bought C8.5 are doing with it. They sure don't seem to be using genesis or autofit.


manleystanley ( ) posted Sat, 23 November 2013 at 8:15 AM

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/32819/

Some oone should tell him if he installs that last version of C8.1 he is going to have to reset the textures in most of hias scenes.


tsarist ( ) posted Sat, 23 November 2013 at 7:53 PM

Quote - http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/32819/

Some oone should tell him if he installs that last version of C8.1 he is going to have to reset the textures in most of hias scenes.

 

Stan

What does the last version of C8.1 do to textures?

How does one reset textures?

Thanks


dr_bernie ( ) posted Sat, 23 November 2013 at 8:49 PM · edited Sat, 23 November 2013 at 8:52 PM

Quote -   Stan

What does the last version of C8.1 do to textures?

How does one reset textures?

Thanks

I don't know how you reset textures, probably through a Fenric plugin?

But I can tell you this much: C8.5 uses a 'Good Ole Times' texture map filtering mode called fast mipmap, instead of the 'Sampling' filtering mode in all previous versions of Carrara.

The fast mipmap filtering mode was used in the 1990's to speed-up real-time display for game engines.

There was 2 'theories' as to why the fast mipmap filtering mode was introduced: 1) To facilitate sculpting of hi-def meshes OR 2) to speed-up Carrara's ailing renderer.

I personally subscribe to the second theory. And that is why I keep repeating that Daz is a totally incompetent company, when it comes to software.

No company CEO or product manager taking the slightest pride in their products, would use such a crude and laughable solution in a pro level 3D app costing $549.-

The time it took them to implement fast mipmap only to have people laugh at them, they could have put it to much better use integrating Embree into C8.5 renderer, for far superior results.

 


manleystanley ( ) posted Sun, 24 November 2013 at 8:00 AM

When I installed the last version of C8.1; an update that came out some time after they C8.5 beta; C8.1.1.12, quite often scenes will load with chanels useing textures set to blank; which is an imposable setting that doesn't actually exist. You have to reset them all to sampling sumond or gausnian. It doesn't happen with every scene or every shader that uses textures, so I'm not sure what causes it.

I doubt Feneric's plugin can do that, but I am not at all sure.


manleystanley ( ) posted Wed, 27 November 2013 at 9:26 AM

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/32978/

akulla3D I'd be willing to bet you use DIM. Stop using it and install to an unprotected folder. W8 wont let you write to the protected content folder in the carrara folder in the windows programs folder; yes that was a lot of assuming as not alot of info was given. 

"Yes, Michael 5 works perfectly. I was able to change his skin. Moreover I was able to add props.

I was eben able to animate some blood-particles on his skin. (yay!)" patrickgobels

I have to wonder just how much work you have done with M5 in carrara; considering just how badly genesis and autofit work. A naked genesis works well too, it's when you try to put hair and clothes on him the fun starts.

 


evilproducer ( ) posted Thu, 28 November 2013 at 9:41 PM

Quote - I've worked with it a bit but don't seem to get it. I can load M4 and paint the weightmap on him, but it doesn't seem to do anything when posing so I assume I did something wrong.

The fun part is carrara is set to save or load a .cwm, or carrara weight map. I can only assume since nothing has ever been done with it, it doesn't work; and not just for me. So if it worked, if you could make and save out a .cwm, and load one, someone would have done mil4 weightmaps by now.

Weight mapping in carrara is something I can't find much info on and confuses me fast.

Ironically, if I recall correctly, you can only save weight maps in Carrara for Poser style figures with Poser style rigging.

You can't save the maps for Carrara rigged objects which seems really dumb. The best work around is to makes sure the rig is just as you want it, meaning it's scaled correctly and lines up with the mesh you're attaching it to. Do all that before attaching the rig. Then weight paint, saving  often. If it's particularly involved, then save different iterations so that you can jump back to a previou state if needed.

 

I've noticed that joint influences can be keyframed, so be aware of that when weight painting. Nothing worse to find than a stray, nested keyframe hiding somewhere that screwed a render! On the plus side, keframeable influences have save my bacon once or twice.


manleystanley ( ) posted Sat, 30 November 2013 at 8:42 AM

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/31728/

Silver Back  DAZ screwed us big time on this one. After 2 years of being promised we would get C8.5 at a "nominal" fee, it is quite apparent DAZ lied to us for 2 years.

C8.5 has always been $142.50 for me since release, a far, far from nominal fee. Now if I wanted to pay for the Pclub I could get it for $85.50, still not a nominal fee.

Just proof DAZ lies and you can't take them at their word.

My price point is $50, I refuse to pay more then that for it, and that is at the top edge of "nominal".

My latest prediction is, there wont be an upgrade path from C8.1 to C9 if you didn't get C8.5, and the ungrade cost for C9 from C8.5 will be pushing $400. If you didn't get C8.5 you will peobably belooking at $600-$800 for C9.

And what am I up to now? 12 for 15?

I do beleve I wrote some place DAZ is over pricing carrara so they can claim it as a bad investment on their taxes. They get a tax brake and we get screwed.


dr_bernie ( ) posted Sat, 30 November 2013 at 8:52 PM

Compared to hobbyists/semi-pro 3D apps such as Cheetah3D and Shade, Carrara is way overpriced.

A fair value for Carrara Pro is, in my opinion, $79.- non-discounted list price.

BTW Shade Professional is now priced at $249.- (Link) At this price you get a solid full-fledged general purpose 3D app with very good modeling tools, support for Poser contents through Poser Fusion and a breathtaking renderer almost as good as VRay.

I would also like to make it clear that my gripe is not with Carrara, which is (or was) a very well-thought 3D app in its own right. My issue is with a totally inept company called Daz3D which has been unable to add any significant value to Carrara - or Hexagon and Bryce for that matter - over several years of ownership.

 


booksbydavid ( ) posted Tue, 03 December 2013 at 11:26 AM

OK, Stan. I've got a question.

I've not really ever used Carrara's rigging for anything more than just goofing off. I'm working on a project that is non humanoid and will require rigging. My question is will Carrara's rigging save with no problems? I don't want to have to rerig the thing each time I open the project.

I've read problems with Carrara's weight maps not saving(?) correctly or at all, and I didn't want to settle down to do a job if I would just end up with a fail.

Also (I guess I have two questions) do I need to group the model a specific way (like in Poser) or can I just import the model and rig?

Thanks. :)


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