I'm not talking about importing and exporting. Poser's native file format is still CR2. I'm not talking about importing and exporting in the way that we do it now. I'm talking about the issues that come with that import export when you're converting to Poser's native format. Poser has import/export but it's nowhere near perfect. I'm talking about adopting it as a native file format INSTEAD of importing/exporting, replacing the CR2 as the standard file format --something akin to what DAZ did when they converted to .duf from it's old format.

I would have only one suggestion for Bondware going forward when it comes to Poser. I really think that if they want to not only compete with DAZ but in some ways surpass them is to adopt FBX or Collada as the file format going forward. I suggest a more open operating environment in the sense that those standards make all sorts of possibilities. Adopting FBX as the standard file format going forward would expand the Poser market to an unprecedented degree. Imagine not having to worry about converting this or that --just being able to import it and go! Some of my greatest frustrations as a hobbyist is that I spend a lot more time converting this or that when I should be animating and rendering. I kept up with Poser to 2014 but I set it aside because it didn't fit what I wanted to do anymore. There is one more thing that really made me let go of Poser and it was the dial size in the viewscreen. I'm getting older now and my eyes aren't what they used to be. Because you can't resize the interface elements, I would end up getting headaches trying to work in it. I'm not opposed to going back to Poser but I don't want to step back into the frustrations of the past 10 years.

There is one other thing you may want to check. A lot of times, we assume that because everything functioned yesterday, that whatever software change happened must have affected it. But there is another possibility you may want to check. USB controllers do go bad just like every other component on your computer. It may just be coincidental that it happened at the time that you did your update. Or the USB controller on the device in question may be the problem --neither is out of the realm of the possible. Eliminate those possibilities by checking your device in a different computer. You didn't say whether or not the device is an external hard drive or a USB Flash drive or what, so I'm just speaking generally, but the biggest mistake you can make is assuming there's nothing wrong with your hardware --be it the motherboard or the device in question. I just finished restoring the corrupt partition of a flash drive today that was working on friday, but when the guy tried it yesterday morning it wouldn't show any of his files nor the partition. It's better to be thorough and consider every option and not just jump to the conclusion that an update canned your USB ports.

Thanks, Boni. I'll certainly keep that in mind going forward. The Demo was very convincing and it's helping me wrap my mind around things. At the end of the day I want to be spend more time animating and less time looking for tools to go back and forth for clothing animations. Just out of curiosity, the program you're talking about --does it work with conforming clothing or are you bringing the clothing in as a welded mesh OBJ or something like that?

Well, that's just it. Iclone's cloth simulations are pretty darn good --but there are drawbacks to using Iclone and so I'm trying to wrap my head around whether or not switching to Poser is going to be worth it. Basically, with Iclone it's easy to do all of the physics effects with the physics toolbox and then you have all the particle effects like rain and stuff. It's just that the character animation aspect of Iclone is killing me because you have to keep switching back and forth on the stupid puppet controller and you can't directly access the bones in the face and you can't load morphs without having to fake the system out. A lot of things I can do without, but I'd really like to be able to control the facial performances so that I don't get the wooden looking speak. However, I do not want to go back to conforming clothing for things like dresses and the like if I can help it.

The control points of Poser 11 solve that issue nicely with Genesis 3 being able to be imported in now. So I'm faced with the option of whether or not I need to look at something else to do the clothing animations and import them or seeing if cloth animation in Poser is usable. When It boils down to it, I would rather have the ability to use physics for things like capes and ropes with the character performances. If I have to Give up my speedtrees and weather --I'm fine with that. I might just buy the export license for the trees and then do the character animations in Poser and if it boils down to it, do the garment animations in Marvelous Designer --but I'd like to know what my options are.

If you want to advocate it, that's fine --I just don't share your assessment of what's going on, and my experience tells me that this is the jumping off point with DAZ studio. It won't be long before the only content allowed to be sold will be encrypted, and what then? At that point they've got you by the short hairs and they can do pretty much anything they want. Since the content's already encrypted, you're one "harmless" update away from being held hostage. Then if they decide to make you pay a subscription fee to export their content, or a per use export fee --what are you going to do then? Or if heaven forbid, DAZ was to go out of business a year or two down the road, what happened to all your content? We just had that happen at work where a vendor of a certain Safety program software shut off it's registration server so there was no way you could re-install the software. When we called them about this -we were encouraged to purchase their "new" software which was three times more expensive and did the exact same thing.When I heard that, we immediately told them that we would no longer be giving them our business and that was that. This is the same thing --you're set up so that you're dependent on DAZ3D and then --like every good pusher will tell you --you jack the price up. Sorry, but I'm not going to stick my head in that noose.

I tend to agree with Dreamcutter and EricVM. This move makes it harder to work in other applications under the auspices of saying they're providing you with enhanced features. That's a first step. Then the next step is limiting the number of computers you can use your own content on. Then they make it so your old content won't work in DAZ Studio and voila! you're in that walled garden and you're wondering how you got there. They never do big changes like that in one shot --most of the time they make one change here and there hoping that you won't notice what's happening. I'm not purchasing any Encrypted content, and I'm actually to the point where I have a few more purchases of older content I like before saying goodbye to the DAZ marketplace. I love the figures, but I don't care for being restricted either by content or platform. The moment they do away with manual downloads or DIM, will be the moment I stop shopping at DAZ completely.

dreamcutter posted at 4:58AM Tue, 26 January 2016 - #4251242

Recommend you redact your ORDER NUMBER from that image and repost!

Not to worry, dreamcutter. If you want to see the price on the NVidia Website, you have to add the item to your cart. The order number in that picture isn't valid. It was just an example to show the cost of Iray.

Call me crazy, but I think you're barking up the wrong tree here. Honestly, I believe that there are better alternatives to Rigging In DAZ, depending on your budget. Daz's rigging tools are less than stellar, in my opinion. They're not horrid in my opinion, but they're needlessly complicated for no reason. If you're not planning to use them in DAZ3D, then you're going to be better off using something like Blender which has far more support for SL than Daz. If you have access to Modo Indie, or you might consider something like Maya LT - You're going to have far better results. I don't know why you're choosing DAZ for the task --maybe because it's free and that's fine. But apps like Blender are also free. You can also get Akeytsu which is available in beta right now for free and $49 dollars for indie. And don't forget 3dxchange for Iclone 6 as some more robust alternatives to DAZ Studio when it comes to rigging for Second life.

Male_M3dia, You have your opinion and I have mine, and what I see tells me the direction that they're going is not the direction that I want to go. I made the decision and I'm sure you'll make whatever purchase decision you want to make, just like I did with Poser. I've never used smart content and working on this for 4.9 tells me that they have prioritized DRM and features useless to me over improvements I have seen develop in other softwares who are less apt to hold on to outdated methods. That is the DAZ priority --it's not mine. So I'm transitioning to environments that provide the animation tools and components that I deem necessary. That's the wonderful thing about the free market. If you want to hold onto DAZ, then that's fine --I choose to move on. The funny thing is, the only thing this whole thing has done is galvanize my resolve to do it.

I'm not afraid of anything. I look at the situation and I evaluate the impact on me and what I'm doing and I make a decision based on what I observe. I did the same thing when I switched from Poser to DAZ studio. I went through two or three versions with Poser and when I saw that they had no interest in addressing things that were important to me and what I wanted to do, I went back and tried DAZ Studio again. I do not rely on brand loyalty. I'm a one person shop and I have to do everything myself so to me, the content was king. Now the writing on the wall says that DAZ is going that same route --they roll out Genesis 3 without any Path to Carrara, nor any anouncement Carrara support is coming. We've been asking for particles and dynamics for years now, and they have ignored it in every iteration, while trying to tout DAZ as being animation friendly. Their sales practices have even become suspicious --to that I point out the release of Nineve 6 and Ysabeau 6 right before releasing Genesis 3 and Victoria 7 --with no advance warning. Particularly, I note that they broke the backwards compatibility to ensure that users could not use old textures nor easily convert them so as to force users to purchase new texture sets. They could have sat down with the Genesis 2 mesh and applied the new bone system, allowing users to continue using their old content but they made the conscious choice to break continuity.

All this time, they've ignored developing their own documentation, while dedicating themselves to Morph3d without addressing concerns and making improvements that would benefit their core user base. Because they're going after the semi-professional and indie market, they're ignoring the hobbyists like we're lepers. This is just the final nail in the coffin, and it's sad because I really do like their models. While none of these things individually would cause me to seek other sources, taken together it's a sign that I should move on and look for something more versatile and more responsive.

I bought Iclone 6 pro as soon as I found out that they had added dynamic cloth, speed trees, perception neuron mocap and Indigo Render. I tested it and what they're doing addresses 90 percent of the things that I've been after. If they ever decide to update the native render to like a licensed version of Unreal Engine--there's no way I'd ever go back to DAZ studio for anything because they're giving me the tools to animate-which is what I do as my hobby. The only thing that DAZ has going for it is Iray Render. But now that I'm a Beta Tester for Maya Iray --I'll pay for it when it comes out in full version which means there's absolutely nothing to keep me working in DAZ studio.

DRM isn't the only reason, it's just the last in a string of reasons why I'm moving away from working in DAZ studio.

LaurieA posted at 1:20PM Wed, 02 December 2015 - #4242022

Wow, I only needed to read maybe 4 posts to get the new DRM system and people still think their stuff is all gonna be in the cloud? Reread please. The stuff still downloads to your computer. You got control of your own content on your own hard drive...the only way the cloud enters into it is keeping your stuff there for you to DOWNLOAD. Same as we've had for years now. Seems the actual DRM part of the equation is pretty transpartent too....log into Daz servers once...maybe it checks once in awhile. What program nowdays doesn't do that? Photoshop until they went all cloud based checked EVERY time ya opened it. A lot of software does. Did everyone stop using Photoshop? That was a rhetorical question btw...we all know the answer to that one ;).

I don't have a problem with artists trying to protect their creations or a company protecting its assets...uphill battle that it is. Seems that people are having a huge problem with any DRM at all...which I find strange. I rebelled against what SM did to GameDev, but it was only the implementation of it, not the fact that they were trying to protect their assets. It's only when it starts to become a clusterf**k for the customers that I have a problem with it. If Daz can keep it pretty transparent, what's the huge problem?

Laurie

I've read the writeups from DAZ as well and my understanding of what this brings based on my experience with things DRM related. It's my experience when companies start doing stuff like this, that other changes for the worse usually follow. We have no idea of the "unintended" consequences of DRM from a technical standpoint no matter how many assurances you get from DAZ to the contrary. The usual line is that there's no impact whatsoever, or that it won't affect you. But then reality sets in along with the error messages, or the people who have activated their id on a new machine or lose it when their old machine gets struck by lightning, or when people who work on multiple computers can't get their work done because they're limited by DRM imposed limitations. I work typically on no less than four computers on a daily basis with access to several more. Let's say that you have small operation of ten computers or so and let's say the limitation of DRM is five computers? Do you purchase the exact same license again? Why should you? You purchased the product didn't you? Why should you have to purchase it again?

After they implement something like this, is usually when the "adjustments" to your licensing start to show up. Since it's DRM, you have no choice but to accept whatever's imposed on you. That doesn't even begin to cover the technical aspects of "unintended consequences" Then you're dealing with things like mis-input data on a product id or your digital id get's corrupted or version conflicts because someone was asleep at the switch when they roll out a new version. It adds another level of "things that can go wrong" when it comes to working in DAZ studio. This stuff plagues even companies like Microsoft companies all the time. You get error messages like "You cannot play a Windows Media DRM protected file or a Zune DRM protected file on a computer that is preconfigured with Windows 7" see KB976590. Or if you retstore your computer from a backup image and find that your DRM content is now inaccessible because their security reads that as an attempt to circumvent DRM. No, my experience tells me that I don't want to deal with DRM.

I don't want encrypted files. Like most people who work at this stuff, we like to be able to tinker and improve things or retask old assets but who's to say that six months after DRM comes out they make it so you can't edit DUF files with DRM applied to them? And what happens when DRM says you now no longer can export DRM items to other applications without paying an "Export Fee?" Even if DAZ came out today and said that will never happen, it's not worth the bits and bytes it takes to publish it. We all know that is subject to change without notice. Don't believe me? Have you seen the new Apple pencil? Or have you tried to purchase Reallusion products on DAZ?

Or think of this... Some PA decides take DAZ to court over royalties or something like that and suddenly all the stuff you've purchased from them is no longer available for some reason? I have even experienced this with Amazon.com when I got some free books because one of the kindle books I purchased suddenly disappeared from my library. They had to pay it out as a result of the class action lawsuit because of that.

I choose as a consumer not to deal with it. With the way things are now, I have choices which did not exist years ago, so I don't have to.

I've read through more pages than I can count on this, and I have to say this. As a consumer, I believe that my time purchasing DAZ products is slowly coming to an end. I will not participate in DRM related purchases. I've been at odds with DAZ for years because they keep rolling out crap that no one's interested in and ignoring all of the things that we've been asking for as users. To me there were a thousand other things more important than DRM, which is nothing more than pissing in the wind because for all your efforts, there are literally thousands of hackers that are more skilled and less scrupulous. DRM will be cracked within hours and they'll be right back where they started -only the cost of this colossal failure will be passed onto the consumer.

It's caused me to rethink a lot of my strategies when it comes to animating and rendering. I wanted the models and for the most part, I have about 99 percent of the models that I need to do the things that I want to do. I have never liked the DUF format as a tech guy because it was so poorly thought out. Rendering in DAZ is certainly easy, now there are other options that are just as easy and offer features that DAZ refuses to implement. I've spent the last few months investigating Modo, Cinema 4D, Iclone, and now Maya LT and I'm convinced that just about the only thing DAZ has to offer is the models themselves. The lack of proper rigging tools, dynamics, particles, and literally abandoning Carrara when they should have been retooling it to take over for DAZ studio entirely have caused me to look elsewhere. With Modo Indie priced at $299 or the full version right at a thousand dollars --800 around this time of year when they do the sale, or Maya LT with Stingray at 30 dollars a month, do I really have to put up with DRM?

This weekend I started experimenting with the FBX export to Maya and Motion Builder and I have also started evaulating at MODO with the Automatic Character Rigging setup for converting my favorite DAZ models to a rigging system that is animator friendly. I'm even looking at using Akeytsu with Unreal Engine 4. I don't like cloud based operations and I despise DRM content so Genesis 3 is probably the end of the line for my figure purchasing from DAZ. I can spend more time taking the models I already own and converting them for use elsewhere and get a whole lot of mileage out of systems that give me the tools I've been asking for. I love your models, but I'm not going to jump on the Cloud/DRM bandwagon.

Quote - Academic Software is not licensed for commercial use.

You can get MudBox or PhotoShop for lunch money ,$10.00 a month.

Heck ,now ya can get AutoDesk for a night at the bar.

I think you're not understanding what I was referring to. I own a full commercial license of Modo. I've owned the acedemic license since for two years. When you have paid for the academic license for two years you are allowed upgrade to the full version for substantially less than buying the full version out right. In the end it saves me quite a bit of money which brings me back to my original statement --"Academic Software Rocks!"

And to your other points. I'm not interested in mudbox. I have Zbrush and 3D Coat which more than works fine for my needs. I also own the full version of Photoshop CS6. I don't believe in renting software because what happens when they decide to stop renting it? I've seen it happen far too many times to be burned by that. I'd rather spend the money up front and have it in my possesion because all it takes if for one CEO to retire or be replaced and Boom! all of a sudden your rental software is no longer supported and you get may get an upgrade price if you're lucky, but most times you come out behind after renting it for a few years.

I don't mind spending money for the software I want. To me, it's just like those guys that buy Harleys or classic cars. Being part of the faculty just allows me to get better prices on software --which is probably the only reason why I keep working for the school. If you've got the perks, use them. Hell a lot of times I tell people that ask me about this stuff that if you want to get into it, sign up for a class at your local college so you can save yourself hundreds of dollars when it comes to buying software.

I'm going to back to working on the morphs this weekend. I had to upgrade from my old steady Silo to Modo --there just weren't enough tools to make for continuing to use it. I got pretty proficient in it, but it's time to put on my big boy pants --otherwise they're fine. I really needed stitch and sew from Modo's toolset to make sense of the UV Maps, so I'm learning to do that as I work through the geometry. Some of the shoes seem ok with just simple materials, but you can end up with some artifacts because of the way Poser handles it's shaders. 

I'm hoping to have them, the loafers and sandals ready to go by the end of this month/beginning of next month. It just depends on how fast I can pick up the Modo Toolset and how it differs from Silo  --Academic Software discounts ROCK!