Is the anything that 4.9 can do that 4.8 can't???? I am not talking about their encryption system but actual new or better things in 4.9 Are there any??

I'm going to move this to the Daz Studio forum since you're more likely to get the answer there.

Both Iray and 3Delight were updated and that includes bug fixes.

The big two Iray got two major fixes (1) how SSS is calculated and (2) prevents crashes with certain content.

wheatpenny posted at 1:01PM Fri, 22 January 2016 - #4250644

I'm going to move this to the Daz Studio forum since you're more likely to get the answer there.

I thought I was already in the Daz Studio forum??????

No, it was in the Community Center forum.

wheatpenny posted at 1:55PM Fri, 22 January 2016 - #4250650

No, it was in the Community Center forum.

That's odd as I posted it in "Welcome to the DAZ|Studio Forum"... somehow it got shifted. Oh well, the internet gremlins are a strange folk......

I stopped using 3Delight the day after Iray appeared, so I can't testify to any improvements there. But Iray seems much more stable to me, maybe even slightly quicker. It can handle significantly more figures in a scene (roughly 2or 3 in 4.8 to 7 or 8 in 4.9) and using Iray to preview in the viewport is much more responsive. In fact the whole program seems more stable. In 4.8, GenX2 would usually crash when loading a figure into it for the first time, that doesn't happen with 4.9. Another advantage is that the database is significantly quicker when showing content, Even massive directories take only a second instead of several.

It's also worth bearing in mind, as there is a lot of confusion and mis-information about this, but you don't have to use Daz Connect or even see it. You can carry on with DIM or manual installs just like with 4.8. There is no need to sign in or send them any details. It will all work perfectly well in offline mode and that's what I'm using.

lwaves posted at 2:53PM Fri, 22 January 2016 - #4250669

I stopped using 3Delight the day after Iray appeared, so I can't testify to any improvements there. But Iray seems much more stable to me, maybe even slightly quicker. It can handle significantly more figures in a scene (roughly 2or 3 in 4.8 to 7 or 8 in 4.9) and using Iray to preview in the viewport is much more responsive. In fact the whole program seems more stable. In 4.8, GenX2 would usually crash when loading a figure into it for the first time, that doesn't happen with 4.9. Another advantage is that the database is significantly quicker when showing content, Even massive directories take only a second instead of several.

It's also worth bearing in mind, as there is a lot of confusion and mis-information about this, but you don't have to use Daz Connect or even see it. You can carry on with DIM or manual installs just like with 4.8. There is no need to sign in or send them any details. It will all work perfectly well in offline mode and that's what I'm using.

Thank you for your help.... You have cleared up my confusion over Daz Connect as well the new features. I am a convert from Poser to Daz as the available models are so fantastic. (The free program doesn't hurt either.....)

drafter69 posted at 2:56PM Fri, 22 January 2016 - #4250660

wheatpenny posted at 1:55PM Fri, 22 January 2016 - #4250650

No, it was in the Community Center forum.

I discovered what I have been doing wrong. Even though you are in the Daz Forum when you click on Add A New Thread I discovered you still need to tell it the forum you are posting to.... I guess I assumed that since I was already in the Daz Forum that the post would be in that forum. I think it's an odd system but As they say.... live and learn

lwaves posted at 5:28PM Fri, 22 January 2016 - #4250669

I stopped using 3Delight the day after Iray appeared, so I can't testify to any improvements there. But Iray seems much more stable to me, maybe even slightly quicker. It can handle significantly more figures in a scene (roughly 2or 3 in 4.8 to 7 or 8 in 4.9) and using Iray to preview in the viewport is much more responsive. In fact the whole program seems more stable. In 4.8, GenX2 would usually crash when loading a figure into it for the first time, that doesn't happen with 4.9. Another advantage is that the database is significantly quicker when showing content, Even massive directories take only a second instead of several.

It's also worth bearing in mind, as there is a lot of confusion and mis-information about this, but you don't have to use Daz Connect or even see it. You can carry on with DIM or manual installs just like with 4.8. There is no need to sign in or send them any details. It will all work perfectly well in offline mode and that's what I'm using.

Interesting. One of my concerns was the encryption - I edit all the textures for my characters, as well as displacement maps. Can I still do this?

I just installed 4.8 a few days ago, and just got Victoria 7 Pro bundle. I've been contemplating V7 for a while now, and I was stoked to see her on sale 87% off! Only $17.90 for the Pro bundle! I now own V7.

I've only played around with D|S a few days now, I could go to 4.9 or should I stick to 4.8? Sounds like with the SSS bug improvements & library speed up it may be worth it. I don't have a library built yet, so it sounds like it may be better to start learning V7 & Iray with the Iray crashing & SSS bug fixes.

Big question... If I install 4.9 and don't like the changes, can I remove it and install the with 4.8 installer I still have on my HDD?

Gator762 posted at 2:37PM Sat, 23 January 2016 - #4250689

lwaves posted at 5:28PM Fri, 22 January 2016 - #4250669

I stopped using 3Delight the day after Iray appeared, so I can't testify to any improvements there. But Iray seems much more stable to me, maybe even slightly quicker. It can handle significantly more figures in a scene (roughly 2or 3 in 4.8 to 7 or 8 in 4.9) and using Iray to preview in the viewport is much more responsive. In fact the whole program seems more stable. In 4.8, GenX2 would usually crash when loading a figure into it for the first time, that doesn't happen with 4.9. Another advantage is that the database is significantly quicker when showing content, Even massive directories take only a second instead of several.

It's also worth bearing in mind, as there is a lot of confusion and mis-information about this, but you don't have to use Daz Connect or even see it. You can carry on with DIM or manual installs just like with 4.8. There is no need to sign in or send them any details. It will all work perfectly well in offline mode and that's what I'm using.

Interesting. One of my concerns was the encryption - I edit all the textures for my characters, as well as displacement maps. Can I still do this?

I just installed 4.8 a few days ago, and just got Victoria 7 Pro bundle. I've been contemplating V7 for a while now, and I was stoked to see her on sale 87% off! Only $17.90 for the Pro bundle! I now own V7.

I've only played around with D|S a few days now, I could go to 4.9 or should I stick to 4.8? Sounds like with the SSS bug improvements & library speed up it may be worth it. I don't have a library built yet, so it sounds like it may be better to start learning V7 & Iray with the Iray crashing & SSS bug fixes.

I have upgraded to 4.9 and I must say I'm enjoying the new version. Especially some of the Daz Connect features.

The only files that are encrypted are the .duf product files, texture files will remain available to edit as you have been. Also not all Daz Connect products are encrypted just ones that state that they are Daz Encrypted.

You should be fine to dial back if you feel the need, but having installed 4.9 it's hard to see a reason you would need to.

If you want to update but aren't 100% you'll stay, make a backup of 4.8 before you do (more importantly, back up those installers that you got with DIM or however you installed them...including the plugins) Once you install 4.9, unless you manually ensure otherwise, your old install is overwritten.

Do be aware, some characters sold at DAZ look like crap in 4.9 because of the big change in IRAY. I have 3 or 4 G3F characters that look awful. I've tried the fixes that they mention in the forums (various changes to the shaders), but it doesn't help. So, I am still using 4.8 and will do so until the ones I use are updated. I'm finding connect doesn't work with my two computer setup (1 for creating scenes, and 1 for rendering them) so I am mostly happy with 4.8, except the rare occasion where IRAY crashes DS. I don't plan to buy any connect only content until DAZ makes it easier to share connect content over a local network (right now, you have to install the content on each machine, which is a hassle I don't want to mess with).

Do be aware, some characters sold at DAZ look like crap in 4.9 because of the big change in IRAY. I have 3 or 4 G3F characters that look awful.

On the figures mats issue, there should be updates being rolled out for the figures with new Mat presets that have settings for both 4.8 and 4.9 IRAY which should help with the issue. It's an unfortunate side effect of corrections been made to the IRAY render engine which does bring some significant improvements as well as hurdles.

In general it is early days for Daz Connect, hopefully as people can highlight their individual issues, as you have done here. There can be solutions found that can help mitigate the issues and find individual solutions. I see you have raised the issue with Rawb so hopefully he is working on something to help with networking content.

Razor42 posted at 9:45PM Tue, 26 January 2016 - #4251417

Do be aware, some characters sold at DAZ look like crap in 4.9 because of the big change in IRAY. I have 3 or 4 G3F characters that look awful.

On the figures mats issue, there should be updates being rolled out for the figures with new Mat presets that have settings for both 4.8 and 4.9 IRAY which should help with the issue. It's an unfortunate side effect of corrections been made to the IRAY render engine which does bring some significant improvements as well as hurdles.

In general it is early days for Daz Connect, hopefully as people can highlight their individual issues, as you have done here. There can be solutions found that can help mitigate the issues and find individual solutions. I see you have raised the issue with Rawb so hopefully he is working on something to help with networking content.

My frustration, as far as connect goes, is that they were aware of users like me. I'm not sure if they were rushed out the door because of a management decision or if they just see folks like us as a small enough group not to matter that much. But, since they chose a renderer that doesn't work well on Macs, I'm stuck using a crappy windows computer (that cost more than my main mac, but has a decent nvidia card and an awful OS...windows 10) to use their software. They could at least try to avoid making using their software more painful! ;)

As for IRAY 4.8 vs 4.9 differences, attached is a picture containing Selina, a character sold at DAZ as she is ATM (I have yet to receive an update for her). Far left is 4.8 with the fixes posted in the forums, middle is as she looks loaded without modifications and the far right is what she looks like in 4.8 (the camera in the two versions isn't the same...I just loaded her and sort of zoomed in sort of the same amount...lol). I realize that this isn't really a DAZ issue...but, management SHOULD have waited to release the software only after these products were ready to release as well. If I didn't know why she looked like this, I would have immediately thought this was false advertisement and immediately asked for a refund. I mean, that is practically grayscale as it is. No color at all! This is not the only one I have found that is equally bad.

Even changing the reflectance tint, she still doesn't look quite as nice as she does in 4.8, but she doesn't look like she's dead. I guess that's an improvement:) I haven't spent the time to play with the settings to figure out what really needs to be done and I probably wont, since I have a nice...functional 4.8 to use. If I end up wanting to use her along side some products (that are available in the DAZ store ATM) that crash 4.8, I'll either pester the help desk there, or put the effort in making her look good. I expect that the products I purchase work out of the box...and, IMHO, as sold at DAZ, this product and many others simply do not work right.

Oddly, my G2X stuff still looks fine in 4.9 (stuff being 3delight shaders converted by scripts as well as a couple of characters that came with iray shaders). Maybe those converted shaders are too generic to take full advantage of IRAY or maybe the authors knew about the weirdness between the two and planned a decent middle ground...I don't know. I haven't compared them to see if they actually look better in 4.9, it's possible, but Selina was the first character I tried in 4.9 and I was appalled. I LOVE silver's work, and this was my favorite G3F character, so it seemed like a good choice to test with. I don't blame Silver for this, but I do think DAZ made a big mistake releasing 4.9 before updating all of the content sold for IRAY before release.