That sounds good to me too.

Thanks prixat.

With cycles, the programmers could modify the code to fit their needs. Which is the advantage of open source.

With nVidia iRay, they could not.

I just wish Superfly made sense to me. I'd like to support it in my products, but the best I can do is to make sure my materials don't render black in Superfly.

prixat posted at 10:01AM Fri, 28 June 2019 - #4355100

SatiraCapriccio posted at 1:26PM Fri, 28 June 2019 - #4355082

So, why cycles rather than iRay or another render engine? Is it because people know cycles because they use blender to model ... being free. Or is it because Poser developed Superfly based on cycles?

It's possibly because of the very thing being discussed above. The decision to have a 'unified material' could be one of the things that required a renderer that allowed chopping and changing as needed. Iray in contrast is only licensed as a sealed box, the internals of the renderer remain completely under nVidia's control.

I assure you, I know full well DAZ Studio is one program and Poser is another. I haven't touched DS since DS4 came out, and even then, it was only for testing. While I started out using DS, because it was free, once I knew creating art with 3d models was something I enjoyed and wanted to continue to do, I purchased Poser. I stopped shopping DAZ products when DAZ stopped supporting Poser. I've never regretted that decision. Especially not once HiveWire came out with Dawn, Dusk, Luna, and their fabulous line of animals.

I'm not suggesting Poser use any DS technology. I'm not at all interested in Poser becoming a DS clone. I also don't believe it is the responsibility of Poser programmers to incorporate Genesis technology in Poser. If people want to use Genesis in Poser, they need to hound DAZ. (Just don't hold your breath)

iRay isn't DAZ technology. Nor is DAZ the only company that has integrated iRay. Allegorithmic also integrated iRay in Substance Designer and Painter. A new Poser programming team might well feel integrating the nVidia iRay SDK is better than working further with the open source cycles. Maybe they will stick with Superfly or go with a different fork of cycles. Maybe they will decide an even better solution is a Poser to KeyShot Bridge.

I'm actually content with Firefly (I can hear you all shuddering!) But I do heavy postwork because I'm more drawn to watercolors and illustrations rather than photography. I'm just not all that into photorealistic.

I know why some are adamant about Genesis as it's been rather clear for quite some time that some believe only DAZ is capable of creating decent figures, despite evidence to the contrary. I also know why some people believe only DAZ is the place to go for content ... any content. Their marketing department could probably convince people that liver tastes better than steak. I also get why some people think both the Hair room and Cloth room should be ditched because they aren't exactly the easiest to learn to use. But I've no idea why the fascination with cycles. I was just trying to understand why people are so adamant cycles is the only route Poser should go.

Of course, as I mentioned previously, I don't get Superfly. Contrary to those who use Blender, it makes no sense to me, and I don't find it easy to learn to use ... at all. But I'm not advocating Superfly be ditched. For that matter, I'm not all that unhappy with either the Poser Cloth or Hair rooms. They just need some love, not ditched.

MD simulations were so freaking easy, and at least in MD2, it was easy to pause and pin the mesh. Pinning the mesh became less user friendly with the next couple of versions and converting tri to quad never really worked all that well once it was introduced. Consequently, I eventually abandoned MD. Simulating in Poser should be just as easy as loading a figure, loading a piece of clothing, and clicking simulate. We should also be able to pause, adjust, and unpause, rather than always having to restart the simulation from Frame 1. Definitely, we should also be able to tweak the settings as needed.

I actually had better success with the Hair room in previous versions of Poser (both long and short hair), which surprises me because I don't believe it's been touched for decades. But, I'd like better styling tools in the Hair room and for full figure hair (fur) to be less cumbersome.

I'm really rather happy with the Fitting room, and seriously cannot imagine attempting to rig with the Setup room. Well, I can imagine. I've attempted to do so. It's a pain. I'm not as crazy with using the Fitting room for converting clothing from one figure to another, but I don't think DS autofit is the solution either. From what I've seen, Autofit works better on some clothing, while it fails on other clothing.

Hopefully, Renderosity will ask for feedback on specific functionality. Seemed Smith Micro started to do that at one point, but it seemed to be dropped just as quickly. Probably about the time they decided to outsource Poser development to a team with no previous experience with Poser.

Afrodite-Ohki posted at 7:42AM Fri, 28 June 2019 - #4355083

SatiraCapriccio posted at 8:04AM Fri, 28 June 2019 - #4355082

So, why cycles rather than iRay or another render engine?

Because DS is the one that uses iRay, Poser is the one that uses Cycles and DS is one program, Poser is another program entirely.

Please, we've gone through this one thousand times already.

iRay being Nvidia iRay?

So, why cycles rather than iRay or another render engine? Is it because people know cycles because they use blender to model ... being free. Or is it because Poser developed Superfly based on cycles?

Personally, I can't wrap my head around Superfly, and I've never used blender. I can't get skin that isn't washed out with Superfly, and eyes? Yeah, forget it. They are washed out even more. I've set my materials up node by node based on products that have great looking Superfly skin ... and still I get garbage. Sad, isn't it?

I'd probably be happier if Bondware/Renderosity ditched Superfly for a render engine other than cycles. Though, that's not to say I'd be able to learn it any better than I've been able to learn Superfly. Hair room ... easy peasy to me. Dynamic clothing? Piece of cake. Superfly? Kryptonite!

Deecey posted at 6:20AM Fri, 28 June 2019 - #4355037

SatiraCapriccio posted at 7:07PM Thu, 27 June 2019 - #4355034

Has DAZ incorporated cycles in DAZ Studio? Or did they implement their own version like Smith Micro. (I don't use or follow DS, so I've no idea.)

DAZ Studio uses iRay

Has DAZ incorporated cycles in DAZ Studio? Or did they implement their own version like Smith Micro. (I don't use or follow DS, so I've no idea.)

Did you report it?  At the bottom of each store page there are a collection of links.  You want Get Support under Let Us Help You.  That's at the bottom right side of the page.

Stripe appears to be the system Hivewire uses for the checkout / credit card validation process.  

Since you just got the error Thursday, and I had it a few weeks ago, but did not get it when I placed my order Wednesday, it may be a random problem, which will make it difficult to find.

Though I really hate using Paypay, that's how I got around the error a few weeks ago.

Quote - . . . I'm trying to buy all the Dawn morphs from Hivewire right now, including the mini sets, but the system keeps saying "invalid stripe" something or other.  I can't find a link to post on the forum.  It's as if they want to make damn sure I can't buy anything.  lol.  Come on, guys.  This is silly.  How can I buy your product??

Dawn uses V4 poses with very little tweaking necessary.  I keep forgetting that and am always amazed when I dig into my vast library of V4 poses and try one.

Quote - However, many people still have a significant investment in V4 poses and unless there is a tool for that...

To get back to the original question.

I will also only speak for myself, as that's the only one any of us truly can speak for.  

Yes.  Dawn is the white knight this Poser user was looking for.  She has completely replaced V4 in my runtime, and I no longer purchase V4 products.  For me, Dawn has been successful, and I have seen her release mend some of the bridges ... for those people who are interested in bridge mending.  

Neither Smith Micro nor DAZ 3D will be able to heal the breach between DS and Poser users.  The techology in both programs is too different, and it would not be healthy for either company to adopt the other's technology.  Hivewire is attempting what neither DAZ nor SM can, and for that they have my respect.

While, I'd liked to have had a Morphs ++ type package available when Dawn was released, it is not a deal breaker for me.  Nor do I believe the soon to be released Morphs and Expression packages need to be the holy grail or "revolutionary."  They simply need to be morph packs with enough bits and pieces to make it easy to customize or create our own visions of a character ... without having to learn to manipulate the mesh in Zbrush or other programs.  Although, that's really fun to do.

It's rather silly to declare Dawn a failure after three months.  By those standards, all figures released have been failures.  Though who knows, I wasn't around for the earlier Gen 1-Gen 3 figures, so maybe they were massive successes in their first three months with everyone quickly dropping their previous figure in favor of the "new and improved" figure.  However, the V4 being held up as the figure Dawn must kill to be considered a success is a 4.2 version.  Y'all remember there was a .0 and .1 before .2?

Now, since others insist on bringing Genesis into the question of Dawn's impact on the Poserverse ... 

Insisting a new figure must be a high tech, innovative mesh is ridiculous, when the Genesis mesh is not. Outside of DAZ Studio, the Genesis mesh is rather disappointing and difficult to work with. It's DS that's provides that technology, and the Genesis mesh takes advantage of that DS technology.  Just like the Dawn mesh takes advantage of the same technology.

It then comes down to subjective opinions as to which base mesh and the characters developed for that base mesh appeal most to you and fit your definition of beauty.  For some, that's V4, for others Genesis or Genesis 2, or some other figure ... including figures some consider to be the most hideous figures in the universe ... Smith Micro figures.  Yet, for some of us, that figure is Dawn.  Imagine a world where we could only drive SUVs.  How terribly restrictive that would be.  On a positive note, we wouldn't have to worry about having no choice in cars for all that long ...

Quote - I ask this here because both DAZ and Hivewire would be too biased one way or the other. It's been a little over three months since Dawn's arrival in the Poserverse and I'd like to know everyone's opinion of the impact she's had on the Poserverse?Has she succeeded in mending some fences or merely widened the gulf? Is she the white knight that Poser users were looking for, or has she just become another figure that's out there until the next one comes along?

I'm looking for honest critiques, not criticisms so let's keep personal attacks to ourselves. If someone says something you don't like, just ignore it and let the mods deal with it.

Now, this is why I far prefer to use Poser over DS and Dawn over Genesis.  It's an extremely painful process to use DS, and an even more painful process to attempt to use Genesis with DSON in Poser.  Talk about hoops!  and being limiting.  That really does describe both DS and Genesis to me.

Using Dawn in Poser is a pleasant experience for me.  Pre Dawn, I was content to use V4, but I never found it horrendously difficult to make the minor tweaks she required ... while others did.  However, I see no point in doing so now, since Dawn far exceeds my expectations.  But that too, is a subjective opinion.  

Clearly, not everyone find Dawn to their taste.  But ... not everyone likes chocolate either, and I rather find dark chocolate to be unpleasant compared to milk, and white to be not chocolate.  While others consider milk chocolate to be dull compared to dark, and totally swear by white chocolate.  But then, you also have to consider the brand of chocolate, because chocolate from one brand can be rather tasteless compared to another brand's.

It'd be rather pretentious of me to go around evangelizing my preference for chocolate when it's just so subjective ... 

Quote - To me, it does matter what oils and crayons (products) you use, especially the canvas. (figure or software) Did you enjoy making the art or was it a painful experience? Was the figure or app a pleasant experience or was it limiting? Was it a simple process or did I have to jump through hoops to get a specific result? These factors are just as important to the user as the final result. If I drive the car, its not just about me reaching my destination (render), its about the journey there (process). Did the car give me problems? Or was the ride a smooth and pleasant one? The journey there, as well as the final destination are all part of the experience.

Thanks for the explanation.  Goth has always been rather a curiousity to me, but something I never really quite got.   But then, I've had absolutely no exposure to it outside of movies and tv, and we all know how accurate that media can be.  /cough

Quote - Okay, why did you have to have a discussion about goth style while I was asleep? LOL  

I dated a goth guy back then and I dealt with a lot of such people. What you're describing is mostly what they'd call "poseurs": those who pretend to be goths just for show.

 

There's goth lifestyle, goth fashion, goth music, goth art etc. People can choose to follow just one, or all:

The lifestyle is about respecting death and enjoying life. Carpe Noctem, he thaught me, enjoy the night. Some are introspecting and mysterious, enjoying to read (think Byron) and to philosophy about what we're to become, others like to simply enjoy. Pleasure is a goal, but not to be forcefully taken: they tend to be respectful towards others. If you see someone who claims to be a goth but wrecks a cemetery, he's a poseur, disrespecting death. If you see someone who's sad about really sad things, ok, but someone who's sad about idiotic things like my nail just got broken, he's most likely emo, those love to claim they're goths.

Goth fashion can be quite variable. There's renaissance goth (think classy vampire fashion!), fetish goth (corsets, latex and cuffs oh my!), cyber goth (decadent and technologic combined)... The thing you're saying about being as white as it gets and with black all over? Yep, most often a poseur thing.

Goth music's been mentioned, but I add to that: there's things like doom metal, which I love (like Haggard which is a basically orchestra band and sings of things like condemning the Inquisition and such), and new age (which I also love and is soft and lyrical and romantic and full of magic).

Goth art is an ode to where life meets death, it can be from a maiden's mourning over the death of her lover, to the grotesque of fetishing over horror.

Nothing wrong with "goth makeup" for Poser/DS being poseurish stuff, but if you wanna go actual goth, you don't need to limit yourself so much, be creative. Give me a moment, I'm gonna pull some references :)

Thanks for verifying there will be sales end dates.

I was thinking rather of allowing the customer to flag a product as having been purchased.  I've always wanted to be able to flag a product as Not Interested (or ... NEVER show this product to me ever again!).

I keep a spreadsheet of all purchases at all stores, and I check that before making any purchases.  So, it's not a must have.  But, I liked the idea of being able to have the store exclude all products I've purchased or wasn't interested in purchasing.

I have faith Hivewire can figure out how to allow us to flag products as purchased or not interested since they were able to add sales end dates

Quote - There will be probably be several maintenance closures daily over the next week as they find and fix issues that didn't show up in the store during beta testing.I think the "I've have bought" suggestion is a good one though I think it may be hard to implement based on what I know of the store software.  They’d probably have to manually flag each product in customer’s purchase list which is very time consuming.

 

And yes... there are "sale ends" dates on the product pages.

Since y'all broke Hivewire before I was able to get there, are we able to flag products as "I have already bought" when we purchased the product elsewhere?

Quote - I like the "I have already bought" option and how you can take those items out of the list. All the best.

Great Uncle LROG

I am impressed by the Hivewire store (based on the video) since it's broken :(  

It's got features I've wanted for like ... forever.  Like ... excluding already purchased products and customizable wishlists.  Makes me think Magento might actually be able to provide a functional store geared toward customer's needs.  The points system sounds rather cool.  Too bad I only have one birthday a year.  Could senior citizens get double birthday points?  There's gotta be something good about being over half a century old.  (None of these bands/groups even existed when I was a teen!  But we did have the Beatles.  and everything came from the Beatles )

I didn't notice, but will there be sale end dates?

Oh, I like that visual!

Quote - I fear when I hear "Goths" I think "visigoths" and "ostrigoths".  Must be the mideaval recreationist in me.  This conversation has given me a completely irreverent (to both sides) image of a deathly pale Dawn in dramatic black and red make up wealding a Zweihander dressed in early period germanic armor.

Hmm ... I've been overweight all my life.  Maybe I ate my twin in utero, and I really am two people, not one.  

There haven't been a lot of twins in my family, but there have been some.  Maybe that's why all my paternal relatives have struggled with weight too. They all ate their twins (or triplets in some cases).

Ok.  That's just creepy as you say.

Quote - As for being twins in one body...wow -- well, my mother's generation was supposed to have twins but she didn't.  Ok, now I'm creeped out.  I ate my twin!  My poor twin...

The Poser and Poser Pro version numbering confuses me everytime. It's Poser 8 and Poser 2010, Poser 9 and Poser Pro 2012, then Poser 10 and Poser Pro 2014?

Quote - PP10 doesn't have weight mapping at all ;). Poser 9 lacks the weight mapping tools needed to create content. You'd need PP2012 for that.Laurie

I looked at the Poser 9 price because of Etujedi's post where Hivewire is suggesting at least Poser 9 for converting from DAZ to Poser.  Wouldn't the weight mapping tools be needed for converting from DS to Poser?  

Quote - HiveWire 3D's products created in house will support both Poser and DS. Tutorials will be provided to convert from one program to the other. For the people that want to do this conversion, having at least Poser9 and DAZ Studio 4.5 is a requirement, if only for testing. We encourage content creators to make products work in both programs but understand it is a choice based on investment vs return. All options are being explored, including ones suggested in this thread, to help ease in the conversion process.