Quote - Has anyone mentioned product promo images yet?

There has been an increasing lack of Poser renders in in product promos at DAZ, they are either limited or absent. Now, I've not had too much of a beef with that, because I've figured that DAZ want to sell us Studio, so limiting the promos to Studio renders makes some business sense. That may be inconvenient for me (and has delayed some of my purchases until I've seen the products in Poser galleries) but it is fair enough. No beef.

BUT if you want to say that you value Poser users, then show it. If you want us to shop from you as Poser users, rather than potential Studio users, then let us see what you're selling in the software we mean to use in. Otherwise, we feel like a side market - which is fine but not what you're saying here.

Of course, many of your PAs do make and include Poser renders and I promise you, that really does help their sales from me. But take a look at the DAZ originals. Take a look at the recent crop of PC products - some aren't marked as Studio renders but they aren't marked as Poser either and they look just like the Studio ones, so I assume they are just that. What do they look like in Poser?

I cannot speak for our Art Director, he makes the call on all the promo art. but with his demanding schedule I can assure you that he is simply trying to optimize his workflow. It may not make sense or him to maintain an operational Poser install for that purpose when most of his time is spent in Studio.  I dont even know if he even uses Poser.

I will tell you that from my perspective I love to see Poser renders in our galleries and forum threads. I say "Gimme more!"

Quote - quoted from Rob Whisenant:

Quote - Work on the Cr2 Exporter continues. The next iteration includes fixes for a few bugs and exposes the exporter to the DAZ Script API, similarly to the OBJ exporter. This means that a script can be written to improve the process by dramatically reducing the number of manual steps and consolidating any options that are still needed into a single dialog. Writing that script is the next thing in the queue [for the exporter]. Following that will be the documentation, as it is likely to change significantly. Said script will not be in the next build... it will have to follow. No, I don't have a date for when the public will get the next build or the script. There is a [private] testing cycle that is scheduled to start tomorrow. Feedback from that batch of tests will influence the release schedule.

See, that's a good answer regarding improving the conversion process.  Not optimal (it isn't standalone and requires D|S to be done) but it's a big step forward.

How about importing content that has been rigged and weighted in Poser, to DAZ|Studio?  I haven't heard any talk about that at all, I'm sure a lot of people would benefit from it.

Rob is great. Any info I have about the exporter comes from him so thanks for posting that from our forums.

Your suggesstion is a good one, ill pass that along.

Quote - I only have these suggestions:

 

1. Keep a versioning system for your products. Sometimes they are updated and there is no way of knowing if the current available version is newer than the one downloaded just a few weeks earlier. This may be important if a serious bug has been fixed. If a versioning system is too complicated then at least show the date of the last update for each product. I know that the cart is sometimes updated with a new product update but it is not always done for all the updated items.

This is a feature we willbe addressing 

1. The ability to easily create custom dynamic clothing in DAZ Sutdio is needed.

I cant say we will be able to do this, we do have Carrara after all and it wont be the big brother of Studio if Studio steals all its tricks... but seriously,  it is on the grand list of desireable functionality for DS. We wont be adding a whole lot of giant new features like this for a while anyway, we are trying to lock down a few other things like Docs, installation, the store and New user experience. 

1. DAZ Studio needs full documentation. For a paid application, this is really lacking. Forum posts are not a replacement for a proper manual and the docs site is still mostly a placeholder. 

I have commented on this several times now. Its a high priority.

 

Thanks for your attention,

Thanks for being a cool cucumber. If we could always have conversations like this I would love the forums :D

 

FlyerX

Quote - > Quote - > Quote - I'd say a couple of things:

1.  Oh, you noticed we were missing?  Way too little, way too late.

2.  You might want to wave the white flag without coming in here and labeling people "well meaning" liars.

 

I wouldn't say you are "missing" we still enjoy a very good level of business and it can't be all from people who only use DS.

I didn't call anyone a liar. But honestly thinking you know an answer does not actually mean you know the factual answer. There are a few DAZ friendly faces here that try their best to help out.  But they do not have all the inside knowledge and answers that a true employee like myself will have. That's all I meant.

 

So the head of DAZ marketing came here to be a "good-natured source of information"  If it wasn't affecting DAZ's bottom line, you wouldn't be here and we both know it.

---I am not the head of marketing, I am the head of Content Management, a Product Evangelist and the head of Content beta-testing. My being here really has little to do with our "bottom line" as you put it. I have regularly browsed these forums as a part of my job and I grew weary of the misinformation, so I thought I would help provide accurate information. I actually started doing this under my own inititive and without official orders telling me to do it. Im not here to convince you to frequent our store and im not really here to "convince" you of anything else. Im just here saying: "Hey... we dont have to fight lets talk."

From my viewpoint, Genesis is causing everyone to re-look their relationship with DAZ.  I know I have.  And my buying habits have adjusted accordingly.  And I am sure Rosity & RNDA have sent DAZ thank-you notes.

---Im not sure our sales figures or anyone else's will back up your theory. There is undoubtably uncertainty amongst the Poser Faithful and we would obviously like everyone to remain customers, and there is no question that the Poser community having more compatibility would increase our revenue.  But this "Rift" between us is being un-naturally perpetuated by invested elements on both sides and i weary of it.

My reevaluation includes the company's attitude toward me, the customer.  Your company is from my perspective, very contemptuous of it's customers.  You can be that way if you are Apple.  DAZ isn't Apple.  You have no reality distortion field.

I am buying less & less at DAZ & I want you to understand why, and possibly take it to a staff meeting.  Probably not, because god knows, DAZ doesn't make mistakes.

It isn't Genesis.  For me, that was just the straw that broke the camel's back.

When I talk about being contemptuous of your customers, let me show you a pattern of conduct......

1a.  "We are working on the installers..."  Please.  Just stop.  DAZ has been telling customers that since at least 2005 that I am PERSONALLY aware of.  We both know that the company has no intention of changing the installer philosophy or fixing the old installers, so just stop already.  That is pretty contemptuous.

---I cant make you trust what I say in this short contact we have here. All I can tell you is that we are under new management and we are taking things like this very seriously now. The whole of the Engineering and Web teams are dedicating all resources at the moment to a complete overhaul of our store and creating a new download and install experience. We have a new team of employees writing metadata and updating product installers in preparation for the new system. Product managers and department heads are doubling up on their normal jobs to tackle documentation, education and New user experience. There is a hell of a lot going on here and its stuff that has needed to be done for a VERY long time. You dont have to believe... but it is true, nonetheless.

1b.  When someone from customer support tells me to buy a PC when I gripe about OS9 installers doesn't build any good will.  Just sayin'.....

If you use installers, why, oh why, can't you use one that FOLLOWS THE OS USER GUIDELINES that Apple & MicroSoft set.

---You are preaching to the choir. I have personally had problems with Mac installers and I work here. There is no excuse for why we didn't get to it earlier,  Its just a massive undertaking.  As I mentioned, above, we have an actual team of new workers doing only this.

Just for the record, we did use recommended installers, but with the change first from OS9 to OSX and then the more recent change to Lion, those standards simply changed. We were not the only software company affected by it, I have a stack of software that I cant use anymore.

2a.  DS4 - Why do you ask for feedback if you don't use any of it. Your beta folks told you they hated the new UI.  Did you make any changes? Nope. 

That is pretty contempuous.

---Not all the beta users "hated it" Many raved about it. I was still a civilian (non-employee) when I was first exposed to it and I loved it immediately. Your information is inaccurate.  As a DAZ 3D Manager who happens to be in charge of half of our beta testing I can tell you that we could not possibly take Beta feedback any more seriously. The problem is that not every issue that is discovered can be fixed, or at least not within the limits of the development timeline. Our issue has always been that we try to put too many features in and we get excited when we can offer more and more functionality.... this has often left us with a lot of stuff that only worked at 90% when we could have had less stuff that worked at 100%. This is one of the first issues identified and addressed by the new management and we have been doing our best to catch up for a good while now. We still have a long road ahead but its improving.

2b.  Documentation.  How is that Carrera 8 manual coming? Or the Bryce manual, Or the Hexagon manual.  Do you see a pattern here?  My reason for ignoring DS4 isn't the crappy UI, that is an added bonus; it is the fact that my time is valuable, and I don't have time to waste figuring things out through trial and error. 

---No argument from me or anyone else here. We know we need docs and we are actually writing them as our highest priority. I wasn't here for the promise of Carrara Docs so I cant speak to that... but I can speak to the current effort. You can monitor the docs as they are constructed daily at Http://docs.daz3d.com. Actually, they may not visibly change every day because a lot of it isn't visible to everyone while its worked on... but they are being worked on

No documentation = contempt.

---Actually, No Documentation = poor prioritization and lack of resources.... but we are on it.

2c.  Software as perpetual beta.  Go buy a copy of "The Mythical Man Month"  Make your software manager read it.  Adjust software development accordingly.  Avoid "cool".  Cool is bad.  Your programmers aren't that good.  Really, they aren't.  Reliablity is good.  DAZ should try it sometime. 

---He actually has that book... not kidding. Cool isnt bad. Cool is cool. Where would we be without cool? Cool and reliable are not mutually exclusive. DS4 is without doubt the LEAST buggy and most stable version of studio we have ever released. It is a provable fact. We have less bugs as a percentage of installed base than ever before in our history.

Releasing a half-finished product = contempt.

---Calling our product half finished is not very nice either... its at least 75% finished.  In all seriousness, DAZ Studio will never be "finished" we will continue to improve it whenever we can. If we can add something useful or fix a flaw, we will not hesitate to update the software. We are not in love with our distribution process and we are trying to fix it, but we will keep working to refine the platform.

As a side-note, nothing screams amature quite like releasing software without documentation.  Kinda difficult to incorporate it into work-flows without it.

Moving on to content.....

---Great. I am the Manager of Content. I will likely have much more complete information on this topic.

3a.  Making us wait 18 months or so for M4 after the release of V4.  Contempt.

---Why do you think that? Do we not have the freedom to create and sell what we please? Its a little harsh to call that contempt. We just released V5, what if we never make M5?, how is it not the choice of a business to make what it wishes? Is it contempt if McDonalds doesn't serve Lasagna? I am more than willing to cop to issues we suffer from at DAZ 3D, but you lost me on that one. 

3b.  After releasing M4 - No clothing content, but one of the first items was a tutu.  Really?  A tutu.  That wasn't funny.  That was giving the users the finger.  Someone should have been fired over that.

---There were people who found that funny... I wasn't around for this so I cant speak to why it was what it was, but I can tell you that M4 was well received, sold well, and a lot of people have that tutu. Ive seen it on the Genesis Freak a lot more often than I care to.

4.  Ask some old-timers about the swine-flu sales pitch.  Another idea that should have gotten someone fired.  Again, contempt.

--I heard about this. What can I say, people make mistakes. we aren't robots. I cant respond or defend as I really dont have all the facts on it, though.

Now for a quick dash over to the forums.....

5a.  Some of the biggest S&*$ stirrers on the DAZ forums have userids start with DAZ.  Sorry, but it had to be said.  They will start a thread and do a hit & run.

A suggestion.  Don't let anyone with a DAZ id respond to a heated thread without running it through a supervisor first.  A little sanity check wouldn't hurt.

5b.  Grow a thicker skin.  DAZ is supposed to be a business.  Whining about "negativity" makes DAZ sound like an emo teeanager that has been told to take out the trash.  Brick-bats come with the territory, & if DAZ can't handle it, perhaps the forums aren't a place for anyone with a DAZ at the beginning of their userid.  Notice that the only SM person that haunts forums is your counterpart - Mr. Cooper.  Everyone else stays far, far away.  Probably because they are busy making sure that their product is interoperatable with other 3d products & has documentation.  Just sayin'......

---The forums at DAZ 3D are different than these forums because this is a community marketplace... there is no responsible corporate entity. Do you really think SM employees aren't here? im sure they are but as this isn't "their" forum they dont identify. We go to the forums often to communicate with customers, see what people are saying and interact. Many of us do it on our own time at home to boot. Its not that DAZ 3D cant take the heat anyway... its that we dont believe most of our users want to deal with it.  We are acting on the behalf of the average joe who just wants to find out the best shader setting for the bumper of his 57 chevy and not get tied up in a tangled mass of Ugly.

5c.  Fanbois - Threat or menance?

Then there are your fanbois.  I would highly recommend that you get your PAs some customer service training.  As a minimum, "How to win friends & influcence enemies".  You have PAs whose attitudes on the forums cost you sales.  If they sell on DAZ, they reflect you.  Whether you like it or not.  So talk to them already.

---First off... can we stop spelling it with an "i" Ive always hated that.... but I digress. The PAs are not employees they have all the rights on our forums that anyone else does and we have no extra control over them just because they decided to submit a product. If they cause a ruckus, they will be asked to stop just like anyone else... unless its Stonemason... he can do whatever he wants. ;)

Now lets look at the website.  AAGGGHH!!! MY EYES!!!!!

6a.    If your customers tell you it causes migraines, YOU MIGHT WANT TO LOOK INTO IT. Telling paying customers "too bad" doesn't get them to come by more often.  Again, what was that word again?  Oh yeah, contempt.

---Eh... this is subjective. The old website had three color schemes and the forum still does, so you can pick one you like best in your personal options. The newer web design cant be changed... but what is it exactly that is garrish or Migrane inducing? It looks like a pretty standard web experience to me. The front page is too new to have options just yet, but we are replacing the entire store so perhaps the new one will be more agreeable to you.

If it is the color white you dont like, I can only suggest that you turn down the brightness on your monitor as there is a lot of white on the net. Actually now that I look at the page more closely... its a light gray. Maybe if you were more specific about what is hurting your eyes I could better respond. I am not aware of this customer migrane issue you mention and this is the first I have heard of it.

6b.  Artzone.  Enuff said.....

---ArtZone never panned out to what it was meant to be.  We own that.  There are new people with new ideas to replace it and I have faith that what grows from its ashes will be even better than the original concept.

And now a cautionary tale....

Once apon a time there was an gaming company called GDW.  In addition to many fine wargames, they made a Role Playing Game called TRAVELLER.  It was very, very successful. 

---I loved Traveller. I still play it on rare occasions when im around my high school cronies or at convention.

In the fullness of time, the people that worked at GDW moved away from the Traveller game system to a different gaming system that was based off another RPG they sold, Twilight 2000.  They decided that it would be easier for GDW to convert the Twilight 2000 rules set to Traveller.  That way, they would only have to maintain one set of rules.  The ungrateful customers would have none of it however.  They felt that if they wanted to play Twilight 2000, they would.  Well, GDW ignored their customers and released Traveller: The New Era.  They "vaulted" the old product & henceforth there would only be TNE.  Shortly thereafter GDW went out of business because, quite frankly TNE was a piece of crap (I was there - It is always bad when the product was referred to as the "New Error" - It is still called that by the way.)

20 years on people still play Classic Traveller, MegaTraveller, and a host of other game systems.  The TNE version.  Still dead.

Just sayin'.....

That example is not the best one for our situation. This is no more appropriate of an example... but there was also a company called Apple who dared do things different and was told for its entire existence that it had better get with the program and do things the IBM way or the Microsoft way or it was going to wither away to nothing. Its most unsuccessful period was when it tried to conform to the beige box paradigm. It wasn't until Jobs came back and dared strike out on a new direction that the company found its calling. People thought he and his new computers were bonkers. Now they certainly had their giant warts.... no floppy drive, weird mice, candy colors... but by god they were COOL. Yeah, I said it. COOL. Even as late as a year and a half ago people were calling them the stupidest company ever... nobody wanted an ipad. "LOL... iPad what a dumb name... sounds like a feminine product". "Apple is gonna bite it bigtime on this one"

We know how that turned out. Now, i am far from saying that we are Apple. I personally would call anyone else doing that a Blasphemer... so apologies. My point is that we can all find cautionary tales or examples to buff up our points of view.

The facts are that DAZ 3D is not a room full of fools flailing wildly in the dark and hoping to hit something. We are purposefully engaging in the business of advancing the technology even if we have to go it alone. We have the hope of hopes that we can improve things in this arena to make things better for all digital artists. Honestly, from most quarters, the feedback has been really, really great overall. The one blemish is that some of you love your Poser so much that you feel the need to defend it and fight on its behalf.

Im saying... you really dont. 

We love Poser we want Poser users in our community. We are saddened and sickend by the notion that we have to even to say that. We dont want to ban people and censor posts. We dont want to have to deal with ugliness, who does? 

I am more than happy to engage you or anyone else in rational and civilized discussion but you have to admit you were unnecessarily snarky here. Cant we can do better? I am sure you have your scars from dealing with things in the past, but DAZ 3D is OBVIOUSLY moving in a new direction and things are changing for the better. This isnt Team Edward Vs Team Jacob. This isnt Religion, Politics or the big game on Sunday. We just want to make some friggin cool art. 

 

Quote - I am a DAZ fanboi, and I hate the installers.  The following is as suggestion I wrote, but never posted at DAZ forums, sometime ago.  Since things have change abit from the time it was writen I had to make a few quick edits.  I hope I haven't messed up its original intentions.

    Since this thread has brought up the installers I thought I might post an idea I've had for some time for improving them.  Make a custom zip utility that would still require the customer to agree to the EULA, which it would be embedded in the zip so it could be easy changed for different products, before proceeding.  Once pass the license part it could ran in two modes, Wizard and Advance.  In Advance it would work like any other zip utility so the customer would need to know what they are doing.  Wizard mode would be for newbies, just like the EULA would be embedded into the zip instruction and help files would be embedded too.  These files would guide the user through the install process.  The instruction file would probably be a simple script command file to instruct the program where to place the files based on an analysis of the user's sytem.  The help file would contain helpful tips or warnings that are presented to the user as the script file is executed.  Preferably the script commands needs to be in a simple form and not like programming.  You may now tell me why this won't work or is a terrible idea.

Massive lists of purchased content, mutliple downloads, multiple installers, uncertain updates, uhgghhh.

I have thousands of dollars worth of content from Rendo, DAZ and many dead outlets. A full terrabyte of installers. I know the horror of the DL and install. Its really no better with zip files... well maybe a little better if you could drop them all at once and batch them... but you cant because zip creators are no more consistent than installer creators.

What we want to do is implement something you wont have to think about. It will know if there is an update and do it. It will auto install where it needs to go or, theoretically wherever you have told it to put things.

If you have or have seen an iphone, ipad or ipod and have used the app store, you cant really tell me that the way its implemented isnt elegant. you click, it works. you know when its been updated and can choose or not choose to install. but its painless.

We have not even finished fleshing out potential ideas yet, so its a bit premature to get into this too heavilly, but ill throw a couple of my own ideas out there... what if a badge appeared on the icon of a piece of content in your runtime that indicated it had been updated. Lets say all you had to do is right click and tell it to install and it would. Done. Or maybe, in the same scenario, you actually wanted it put somewhere else you could right click and select custom install, either to pre-defined alternate locations or to one you would type in on the spot. two clicks... maybe a path typed... DONE. 

Maybe you want your machine off the grid and dont want Studio to call home occasionally to see if there are updates.  Well perhaps you could connect when you choose to or could simply log into the store and see if any updates are waiting.

Maybe you could download everything in one batch... a Backup DL or something.

There are tons of ideas we can come up with. I refuse to believe that either installers or zip files are the best possible way to do it. I know better. Comfortable? Maybe, traditional? Maybe... a good user experience for new customers? Absolutely not.

Im sure you could get used to walking on rocks in your bare feet if you did it for long enough, but lush carpet would still undoubtably feel better. 

This is not anything close to the final say on the matter, and once again, I would like to encourage you to all feel free to offer ideas.  Ive already written down the one about using zip files though ;)

Quote - Ok, hopefully I'm not reiterating anything for the umteenth time - while I've been a member of both the Renderosity and Daz forums for several years I normally don't bother commenting since I have little time to.  What follows are a few points that have been floating around in my head as I've done my best to go though all of the responces over the last 6 pages.

In regards to the Genesis issue -

In a way it feels that Poser users at Daz are being shuffled asside like those of us who liked Hexagon (ok maybe this is an exaduration). Why can't a version for both platfroms be made? Just code one for Poser and one for DS Genesis - VOILA - no problems; users for both are happy. Yes this is more work BUT it doubles availabity and one would think profits. It can't be that hard since all content at its core is simply a mesh designed in 3D Max, ZBrush, Hex, etc.

---Its very easy to think that it would be that easy. Genesis took over two years to create, and though its no longer unknown ground, it would take us literally 6-8 months or more to create a totally new weightmapped figure to work natively Poser to our quality standards.... and that is just a base. It would have no clothing or morphs... and then what? We do not have the staff to support two production pipelines. We really are just a small business. It may surprise you to know that there are only 6 people making our content. If we can take Genesis into that environment... then it will have all the power and cross figure compatibility that Platform commands and that would be special.

The other thing is possibly we've become too dependant on Daz's characters. Maybe its time for Victoria to pass the torch? Recently there have been a number of V4 morph sets made available here in the Renderosity store that address the joint issues brought up in the past. It could be V5 is essentally redundant for anyone not using DS.

---I belive that we continue to make compelling content and I hope we will have the chance to overcome this compatibility issue so we can move ahead.

We seem to be comming to a point where its likely we'll eventually split into two camps like PC vs MAC - both having their ardent followers and defenders. To be honest this may have been eventual with the introduction of Daz Studio V1.

---We can get along if we decide to. I really dont know why people think there is a feud. It is my contention that this was caused entirely by folks being defensive of what their personal preferences for art creation are. that is a silly basis for a form of argument (nice twist on Holy Grail if I dare say so).

While Daz isn't obligated to support the Poser platform I do dislike the apparent removal of choice (both in content format and the installer issue if I understand it). As a person who has recently renewed his DAZ membership I'm a bit ticked off about this. I have to wonder if I'm going to have to just use my monthly credit for the sake of using it or getting content that I really want.  If Renderosity wants to gain all the members Daz may loose over the chainges they're making, a blanket discount, credit system, and/or maybe exclusive freebies would sway my choice when my renewal comes up.

On the differences between PS & DS -

Personally - Poser all the way for the interface and capabilities. The drawback is that it has never really handled cross character compatability very well.  I have yet to make wardrobe wizzard work as advertised without a lot of tweeking.

---You see, I was the other way. I didnt care for the Poser interface and that is why i started using Studio all those years ago. Everyone has their own preferences though.  I once met a man who didnt like Birthday Cake... OUTRAGEOUS!

Genesis is what I've always wanted to see in Poser - except I'd want it to be backwards compatable with all the content I already have (ok maybe asking too much but a guy can wish can't he?). 

---Genesis is backward compatible... that is one of the main selling points of it. Right now it is very compatible with Gen 4 and we are adding Gen 3 support after the first of the year. Genesis can wear clothing and textures you have owned for ages that look terrible on the original content... it now can look amazing on the Genesis morph of your choice. You can also use female and male only items on any gender you choose and every shape suddenly has a big wardrobe, even the kids and trolls can wear it all.

The problem I have with DS is that the interface is poorly planned. Its like the programmers did it this way so they would look as different as possable from Poser which has resulted in something that is NOT intuitive and feels @$$ backwards. I mean really - no manual and consistant changes without documentation (at least the last time I checked) is not a way to instill confidence in a product.

---With all due respect, it was not poorly planned. It was meticulously planned... by good people who knew that if they worked hard, they could make studio more elegant and easier to use.

The fact is that nothing you are used to using can change to any great degree and remain intuitive to you because you have preset notions of how it should work. The true test of how intuitive anything is is how well a neophyte can use it. In this area there are still hurdles we would like to overcome, but DS4 is undoubtably eaiser for new users... and we have had many users who, after working in DS4 for long enough to get used to it, ended up enjoying it more than they thought they might. It may not be immediately obvious if you have only seen a few screenshots or casually played around, but there are a several Interface options available, not to mention customizable settings, moveable widgits, changeable colors, dockable tabs and more. We cant and wouldnt make it look like Poser but honestly it really is not a bad interface. its just different.

Converters or Plugin? To be honest I have yet to see a converter work as easily as advertised. To be worth it Daz and SmithMicro really need to work together on a seamless plugin (if this can even be done in the first place).

---DAZ 3D and SM ARE working on it and have been for some time. its just honestly not an easy task.

I still think seperate Daz and Poser fomats would be the simplest way to go. Daz may not see this as feasable - I don't see why not since some of the content designers here are starting to do this now.

---As I said before, it really isnt feasable for us and even if we did try to make something, it would be hard to maintain support for two separate lines and it would take a long time to get to a release. We feel the best path forward is to keep working on Genesis compatibility and we hope we can talk you into being supportive and patient while we work

Well that's my ramble. If it come to the point where there is a split - so be it - its been fun Daz.

Quote - > Quote - The fact is that we have made some advances that will improve the experience quite a bit, but they will not be useable until SM issues the upcoming service release that will enable them.  

Like what?  I don't see why you're being cagey about this, considering your stated goal was to dispel misinformation.  Your answer doesn't make any sense.  How could you get Genesis converted in the first place but have issues with any other rig?

Rob told me what they were, but I have forgotten enough of what he said that I do not want to repeat it for fear of mis-stating it.

Quote - Randal.. did you get a chance to check out Antonia~WM while you are here.. pretty badass, no?

As a matter of personal taste, I do not care for her looks, and though she beds quite well, I do not necessarily agree that she bends better than Genesis... but I really admire the grass roots community effort to get her made.  That is very admirable, unprecedented and a feat to be commended.

Quote - DAZ_Rand,

the problem with you saying Daz is looking at a,b or c is that we have had this in the past and a,b or c never eventuates.

---Its a new day and we are under new management

Studio 4 does not run on my system and noone at Daz has any suggestions about why.

---Did you file a detailed bug report or call customer service? If so then I would advise you to try again. The team is busy but they want to help. I cant help without more information in any case.

There seems to be no detailed user manual, and that has been the case for several versions of studio.

---We freely admit that this is a big problem. We have stopped work on a lot of stuff and retasked to getting education and documentation imperatives finished before going further on some other things. You can find new documentation efforts at http://docs.daz3d.com  As of now they are incomplete, but we are adding more to them every day.

I have not found a specification of the system that Daz studio 4 requires. 

---http://www.daz3d.com/i/products/daz_studio/tech_specs?

I have a number of custom CR2 files that Daz 3 will not load.  So at the end of my day Daz studio is not an option for my paid work.

---I cant comment on your custom files. I wouldn't have the first idea about what would keep them from opening. Have you tried in DS4?

Going back a few years Daz put up pictures of creature morphs for M4 that I am as yet unaware were ever released.

---The Creature Creator Morphs? If so, they were... Long ago. I will not post the link but you can find them if you look.

 

Its this sort of information from Daz that makes me uncomfortable when dealing with my clients about future projects.

---Nobody can tell you what programs to use, you have to work where you are comfortable. I can tell you that a great many people can and do work every day in DS here are some professional user stories. http://www.daz3d.com/i/3d/new_user?home_btn=start

I bought the Daz millenium horse for one job and had to scrap it because of the horrible distorted legs.  Still no fix that I am aware of. 

---I would be happy to look at an example. I have seen quite a few GORGEOUS renders of the Millenium Horse and I cant imagine what you mean without a reference.

Now with genesis its buy M4 and V4 and freak again to get decent bending but only in Daz studio. Why not a simple weight map for the V4, M4 and freak that I have paid for.?

---Because you aren't buying them again, you are buying the ability to mix those classic shapes infinitely with Genesis. If you do not think that is compelling, you have never seen a Freak/Child/Gorilla/Lizard

Daz dropped artzone so I may lose what I had posted there, no warning that I saw.

---The info is still on the servers, what are you missing? Art Zone is a failed concept and we want to create a more functional and effective Social Space for our customers and visitors. We are currently laying the infrastructure for it and Developing ideas for how it will work.

I can no longer get a reset on my downloads because I have to do them from another machine...

---You should be able to reset your Downloads on any machine. Its Browser based.

...and Daz now will only reset 1 item and tells me it may take a few days to get that done.

Then I have two days I believe to grab it before it expires again.  In fact the reset happened the same day and I would have missed the download. 

Note: only dialup is available in my area and download speeds are typically 2.1 kbps or about 2 mb in an hour. To download anything I need to travel 10 miles to another site with dsl.  It will take me another 3 months by my reckoning to recover about 6 files that I need reset.  I was sure I used to be able to ask for multiple resets in the past. I seem to have missed a Daz announcement of this change as well.

---This is inaccurate, you can reset everything in your account and it will reset within minutes. After they have been reset, download files in 'Available Downloads' last for five days or four download attempts, whichever comes first.You are allowed 3 resets per product per 3 month period.

have a nice day.

---If you continue to have trouble, I will personally help you with the resetting of your products and I will do my best to make sure that you get them when you need them.

 

Quote - Better communication with SM earlier on might have been helpful...

We actually reached out to tell SM what our plans were a year before DS4 came out. We knew we wanted to change the game and thought they might want to be aware of our plans.

Quote - > Quote - > Quote - > Quote - Beyond that we are looking into native content solutions for other file formats but this is still not anything I would feel like I can tell you about.

If you can't say much about it, it would be a better idea to not say anything about it at all.

All that does is leave the door wide open for disinformation.

It does seem strange that you came to another site to patch up what started somewhere else. That is where most of the (dis)information came from to begin with.

But that just how I see it. Others my see it differently.

I dont see how saying that we are looking into options for supporting other file formats is an oportunity for disinformation. it is what it is. I dont want to give details that may not pan out or tell you about notions we have had that we might change our minds about.

And for the record, I came here to be a good-natured source of information that you could be reasonably sure was accurate rather than a fair amount of heresay, conjecture and theory that is sometimes mistaken for facts.

This post told me everything I needed to know, Randall, about V5's functionality in Poser. You were clear and concise and full of incredibly useful key information, for which I am grateful.

Thanks again.

hmmm... there was no V5 info in there. 

As I posted just above, we have been steadily moving forward on compatibility.  There have been some interesting developments in the Poser community on our behalf with python scripting that could improve the Genesis experience in Poser as well.

If I could say one thing and have it be the only thing you would hear it would be... Give us some time to work on this. Its not easy and we are making it happen as fast as it can happen. Its our goal to have Genesis completely native in Poser so that we can all go back to being a happy community of artists again. 

We are posting all information about the CR2 export and our progress as it beomes available. You may have to wait a bit... but I hope that it will be worth it in the end.

As it stands, Genesis will open in Poser and as demonstrated by many renders on our site, you can get nice results with it. Its not optimal but hopefully that will come in time.

Quote - > Quote - What exactly is the issue with exporting any weight-mapped content besides Genesis?  You can export the weightmapping of one figure, why not anything else?  That doesn't make any sense at all. e: I mean, outside of the obvious business reason

 I said i would look into it :D

Well I saw you say you'd look into creating a fit for V4 for that specific item, I'm asking about the general problem of not being able to get anything else converted to Poser format.  If you can get Genesis itself out, I can't imagine a technical reason why any other figure would be different.  I wouldn't expect any fitting morphs dynamically created by Autofit to be written out, but other than that ...  what's the problem?

The fact is that we have made some advances that will improve the experience quite a bit, but they will not be useable until SM issues the upcoming service release that will enable them. 

Quote - > Quote - The V5 ponytail uses DS weightmapping and therefore, only works at the moment in DS. So there was no logic in making it fit on V4.

What exactly is the issue with exporting any weight-mapped content besides Genesis?  You can export the weightmapping of one figure, why not anything else?  That doesn't make any sense at all.

e: I mean, outside of the obvious business reason

I said i would look into it :D

Quote - Tough bunch, isn't it Randall? LOL We are a rowdy group ;).

Laurie

Nah... ya'll are luvable

Quote - > Quote - Beyond that we are looking into native content solutions for other file formats but this is still not anything I would feel like I can tell you about.

If you can't say much about it, it would be a better idea to not say anything about it at all.

All that does is leave the door wide open for disinformation.

It does seem strange that you came to another site to patch up what started somewhere else. That is where most of the (dis)information came from to begin with.

But that just how I see it. Others my see it differently.

I dont see how saying that we are looking into options for supporting other file formats is an oportunity for disinformation. it is what it is. I dont want to give details that may not pan out or tell you about notions we have had that we might change our minds about.

And for the record, I came here to be a good-natured source of information that you could be reasonably sure was accurate rather than a fair amount of heresay, conjecture and theory that is sometimes mistaken for facts.