SydneyInPeril posted at 8:40 AM Sat, 12 October 2024 - #4490221

Rottenham posted at 5:00 AM Sat, 12 October 2024 - #4490218

SydneyInPeril posted at 8:54 PM Fri, 11 October 2024 - #4490212

Note that I deliberately killed DAZStudio's ability to phone home on my system when I found out about the generative image engine thing.

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Remote servers have been acknowledged to be a security risk from the start. That's the reason they were renamed to "the Cloud." Personally, I avoid them. As for "AI," it is a term generally used to mean "way cool."

Yeah, the generative image engine thing is especially annoying; I really won't even use one as a tool in a workflow as pretty much all of them have been developed with questionable ethics, even if they've been switching over to "We've licensed the content, albeit from art sites that switched their user terms to opt-out sublicensing agreements that allowed them to feed us that data". Plus, given the speed it can be effectively automated for posting that generated content, it rapidly becomes Ouroboros, eating it's own content, and a resulting rapid example of the dangers of inbreeding.

As noted above, the only images used to train the Daz LoRA are the promo images it owns for its own content.

So now I'm to the point that I have to decide between:
1) Keep using my slowly outdating DAZStudio install. I'm actually finding this not terribly appealing in the long term, in part because I'm determined to leave the closed source OS ecosystem in the next five years.

Why no use the current version? Unles you sign up for Premier and wish to use the plug-ins or the exclusive content (of which there is currently one item) nothing has changed, beyond feature additions and bug fixes.

2) Buy a new version of Poser and basically abandon all the Genesis content I've purchased licenses to. I've switched back and forth a few times, but I've been doing DAZ exclusively since the one credit card payment processor breach here at Renderosity over 10 years ago. Plus, I'd like to leave the closed source OS ecosystem in the next five years.
3) Buy iClone and completely abandon the content I've purchased licenses to. This is really an unappealing option to me on a lot of levels. Plus, I'd like to leave the closed source OS ecosystem in the next five years.
4) Move to Blender full time, convert what I can to it as I need it, and just force myself to make it work. This works the most with the way I've been moving; I really want to be off the closed source OS ecosystems in the next five years, I already have it installed, and I can if I'm motivated enough convert pretty much everything I might use over the next few years.
5) Go back to "pen and paper", albeit using the sketch pad screen I happen to already have and haven't used as much as I should.

Either way? Odds are pretty good that I'm pretty much done buying licenses for 3D content at all (unless it comes specifically for an open source software), especially if I'm making a choice to abandon content I've purchased licenses for, which is unfortunate for everybody involved. I haven't even downloaded the added free content DAZ put on my account, because I just can't even give them any indication that I'm using their product anymore.