I used to use Hexagon as my modeler, it was decent, but had some serious and practically unavoidable bugs in the types of modeling I do, and no indication they'd ever do even maintenance development. I switched to Blender a few years ago, and I don't ever intend to pay for modeling software again.

I get some indication that, despite raising new content prices and rolling out new figures to encourage purchases (don't give me that "woke" garbage, G9 was meant to try to get wallets open by encouraging adoption by artists and hobbyists needing new content would have to move up anyway, and objectively certain cosmetic things are much worse on G9), that revenues are still faltering, hence testing the idea of rentware. Many software companies have seen much greater profits after their moves to rentware (Adobe makes more money these days as a result of Creative Cloud), and they hope to cash in on the idea. They might have enough lockin to manage to stabilize revenues; I'm not sure in the long term whether the rest of the lockin they would need is there.

darken666 posted at 10:06 PM Sat, 19 October 2024 - #4490552

RHaseltine posted at 5:24 PM Sun, 13 October 2024 - #4490292

DarkElegance posted at 4:13 PM Sun, 13 October 2024 - #4490286

Removal of posts, ignored by support and having their concerns twisted around...

Very few posts have had to be removed, none for objecting to Premier per se.

Gaslight much?

Fact, certainly compared to some other contentious issues.

DarkElegance posted at 4:13 PM Sun, 13 October 2024 - #4490286

Removal of posts, ignored by support and having their concerns twisted around...

Very few posts have had to be removed, none for objecting to Premier per se.

@DarkElegance

I'm not saying you shouldn't have frustrations, nor even complaints I'm only asking is this the appropriate forum to be airing your grievances?  Is what's happening here in any way constructive?

Support can be a delicate balancing act with many factors involved, some issues can be solved easily while others tend to be much more involved. Anyway, doesn't Daz 3d offer a 30 money back guarantee on all items? You could also try the forums which tend to offer a lot of help when it comes to isolating issues, which could see a patch pushed through to correct a problem. I've noticed what does tend to be fixed is an item that many people have found issue with as oppose to a single issue reported by 1 user which is sometimes hard to pin down in support. Having sold here at renderosity I have experienced how 1 user with a product issue, that may not even relate to the specific product itself, can soak up a whole bundle of hours. The amount of hours I spent here explaining the installation process for DS products to users who picked up an item on sale for a few dollars and couldn't "Get it to work" is insane. So forgive me if I'm a little sympathetic to Daz 3D's position with support. I also have my share of frustrations with the industry from aspects of AI implementations to piracy, but that's an entirely different subject.

I'm not defending poor support, nor trying to admonish you at all. I am just tired of seeing this forum used as a vent when someone has a had a bad Daz 3D experience and feels this is their way at getting back, decrying the evil of the empire apparent. I used to enjoy coming here and offering support to users of Daz Studio. TBH not really anymore, I don't really have the time nor the patience to read vents and rants from a very vocal small amount of peeps, most of them just wanting a pot shot at Daz 3D to try to even some score. So the result is I just don't visit here much, and it's probably the same with many others. So all you end up with is less people to offer help or support.

Do you really think Daz 3D staff are poring over this forums saying "Good Point... Somebody take a note of this"?

But hey feel free to have it, Rottenham just blocked me and carried right on.😏 

And wow, the gaslighting from the DAZ moderator as though we can't see the forums and see just how bad things were before DAZ grudgingly listened to customers (to head off a boycott)

Maybe they need another boycott like they got back when they first tried Encrypted stuff

It's a pity Daz clearly learned nothing from that mess. As they're back to having moderators sanitize the forums rather than listening to customers. 

You've clearly forgotten what happened when they released Connect and the encrypted products. The possibility of Connect leading to subscription content was brought up then, but was moderated out, you may have forgotten since moderators like yourself were busy deleting any posts that mentioned the possibility. Also DAZ only agreed to the compromise after a lot of backlash, and they were practically forced into it because they had no intention of listening to customers till they spoke with their wallets. It wasn't swift or painless. 

Do you think we're stupid? Obviously there was a subscription element in Connect, because that's exactly what they're using it for. 

darken666 posted at 4:26 PM Fri, 18 October 2024 - #4490483

Seriously, hobbyist or professional user, who the heck would want content that can't be backed up, and might not be there if you need to revisit an old scene?

---

Adobe is facing the same issue, and with a very demanding and much larger group of users. I wonder how Adobe handles backups.

It's a good question. Anybody know?

And you just know the people pushing Premier don't know a thing about the program or how content is used. They just think "ooh, constant stream of money".

Seriously, hobbyist or professional user, who the heck would want content that can't be backed up, and might not be there if you need to revisit an old scene? Rental content is the most idiotic idea DAZ has pushed on us so far. And that includes the NFT stupidity.

And imagine when someone has subscribed for a long time and suddenly has an issue that causes their subscription payment to not go through. "oops, your subscription was inactive for five minutes while you fixed a credit card issue with your bank. You've lost all the subscription content. Tough luck."  Even if a support ticket fixes it eventually, who knows how long it'd be gone? Their support hasn't exactly been very responsive or helpful lately.

Really, we get it, Daz is going full Adobe and they're trying to do it slowly in hopes of not pushing customers into leaving en masse. They've got moderators trying to make it sound like everything's business as usual, pay no attention to the encroaching subscription features and content. Enjoy the happy cartoons, it's the last free update you'll ever get. Remove all criticism so it looks like everyone is happy with Premier and wants more stuff locked down in the subscription. 

At this point I wouldn't put it past them to have a timebomb coded in 4.23 if not earlier versions so if you don't update each time there's a new release your program starts falling apart and when it eventually becomes subscription only, anyone who doesn't keep really old versions of Studio on hand will end up either subscribing or not being able to use their content anymore.

They tried moving to subscription content when they released the Connect DRM, but the backlash was too much then. Now they're trying again.

RHaseltine posted at 3:40 PM Fri, 18 October 2024 - #4490475

darken666 posted at 3:33 PM Fri, 18 October 2024 - #4490473

RHaseltine posted at 3:25 PM Fri, 18 October 2024 - #4490472

darken666 posted at 4:17 PM Thu, 17 October 2024 - #4490431

RHaseltine posted at 3:51 PM Thu, 17 October 2024 - #4490430

There was a survey, the usual Survey Monkey thing sent out to a range of customers, and it did ask what people would like in an enhanced subscription service (I can't recall the wording, or how it was presented - possibly one of those arrange options in order of preference things). It was certainly discussed by the participants on the forums (and possibly here too).

So a loaded survey sent to a limited sample, designed to get the result that would let marketing do what they likely would have done anyway.

I can't recall the wording to comment on the first, but a fair number of regular customers did comment on it so I doubt it was greatly limited.

So you do expect us to believe that the survey indicated that everyone would be happy to see subscription content that they would never own and would have to pay rent for?

Because I find that very hard to believe. But then it's not like the actual results would be made public, so marketing could say they turned out any way they wanted.

If I can't recall the wording I can't recall the exact questions - so no, I  am not saying that (nor do I know what the answers to the survey were).  All I am doing is pointing out that your previous claim/speculation is certainly not wholly accurate:

> There's some claims there was a survey and customers actually asked for Premier. Makes me question how that survey was done and how loaded were the questions? Since it clearly wasn't all customers, how did Daz/Tafi pick who got a survey? You don't need a degree in statistics to tell you that you would get a different answer from a sampling of the top spenders than you might get from those who aren't buying hundreds of dollars worth of content every month.

If it were sent out to the top 5 or 10% of the biggest spenders, it's still not going to get the same answers as if it were sent to those with more modest spending habits.

RHaseltine posted at 3:25 PM Fri, 18 October 2024 - #4490472

darken666 posted at 4:17 PM Thu, 17 October 2024 - #4490431

RHaseltine posted at 3:51 PM Thu, 17 October 2024 - #4490430

There was a survey, the usual Survey Monkey thing sent out to a range of customers, and it did ask what people would like in an enhanced subscription service (I can't recall the wording, or how it was presented - possibly one of those arrange options in order of preference things). It was certainly discussed by the participants on the forums (and possibly here too).

So a loaded survey sent to a limited sample, designed to get the result that would let marketing do what they likely would have done anyway.

I can't recall the wording to comment on the first, but a fair number of regular customers did comment on it so I doubt it was greatly limited.

Because I find that very hard to believe. But then it's not like the actual results would be made public, so marketing could say they turned out any way they wanted.

Turning off the ads when bringing up the new scene dialog box, apparently. But who knows what else they've put the paywall on. They're being pretty evasive about it.