She does, of course. Except that my thirst for asian V4 characters is unsatisfiable, so... :biggrin:

That is an OLD problem. :: I've bought some characters for Miki (instead of V4) more than once, heh.

Quote - I take it you are buying a comp with the figures preinstalled?

Quote - lol. I was wondering about that comment.

Hmmm. I mentioned this, because that was how I understood the question by the original poster. It wasn't "which freebies DS users should download?". It was about investment into Dawn, possibly serious.

I try to limit my daily budget to $10, but I fail more often than not. Over the last two years I spent around $10,000 on Gen4 and Genesis stuff, and my wishlist is huge still.

This particular store happens to release over a dozen new products daily. If you did a quick math of what was released for Dawn across several participating stores you'd come to a fairly significant sum.

When you need to lay a foundation for a new figure the expenditure is quite large: base and morphs, a few characters, almost all the clothing (until you've got them for most scenarios) and shoes, some "native" hair, a bunch of poses, etc. That's already several hundred dollars (the "base" bundle for Dawn is something like $45 already,, right?). And it's been just a couple of weeks since Dawn release…

I am aware of the freebies and different tools to convert earlier products for use with newer generations. I use Generation X extensively as well as PoseMaster and built-in DS tools. Unfortunately Crossdresser and Wardrobe Wizard that aproctor mentioned are not available for all users - they're PC only.

I know from my own experience how long it takes for a new figure to acquire its own world to inhabit. Take Genesis, for example. I did a few early tests as soon as DS 4 was released, but didn't render anything final until maybe a half year later. Early clothing was a bit eh… shall we say… OK, just let them rest.

For me personally Genesis "bloomed" only after release of Freak, several monsters, YT5 and Aiko sets, when I could say that I have a range of characters and stuff to do most of what I needed. So before Genesis became fully functional I had to spend at least a couple of thousands.

Don't get me wrong - I know that I could possibly have saved some of this money skipping Hiro 5 and using Hiro 3 shape for Genesis, because it was cheaper. I respect the ingenuity of people who invent free and cheap ways to solve a particular problem. In fact I use their advice all the time, because there's no such thing as "props enough". But hey - we are discussing investment in a new figure on a forum of a store that does business in this as well as providing income for the vendors.

So I was assuming that billb3 was asking about practical reasons to buy things for Dawn, not just get a free base and use converters. Otherwise all this discussion would be kind of pointless.

To answer Billb3's question:

DS users could get involved with Dawn for several reasons:

• To have a "fixed-shape" figure that is custom-made to a feminine form in their library. Certain renders might require just that extra bit of detail or features lacking from Genesis and her morphs.

• To keep with new products from a variety of vendors and have widest choice available.

Those are practical reasons (applicable to Genesis 2 figures too). The rest are political/emotional. Let me give some of these:

• To support an alternative 'house" (Important if one is mad at where "mainstream" is leading).
• To share in excitement starting afresh, from a clean slate (do not underestimate the appeal of this one).

You have to decide yourself whether those are important enough to invest several thousands of dollars.

I think that Dawn is much more exciting for Poser users than for DS users. While DS had Genesis, Poser world was stuck with Generation 4 for a very long time. It wasn't bad really - many products of stunning quality appeared during that time - and there's always fun to have widest choice of morphs, clothing, poses, props, etc. - but equally obviously many Poser users were hungry for something truly fresh (and doubted DAZ will ever produce it, DSON notwithstanding).

Also enough time passed from the introduction of V4 to consider a new very heavy investment being reasonable.

Genesis users, however, are experiencing their bit of "XP moment" - many are resisting Genesis 2 and Dawn, because their investment is still very fresh, its full potential unrealized yet, its possibilities inexhausted. For them both G2 and Dawn just came too soon.

And that's entirely reasonable thinking too.

If you look at software market (which has much more experience with generation changes), you'll notice that "compatibility breaks" do not happen more than once in a decade or even two. Arguably the original Genesis had enough of a novelty and functionality to work as a Windows NT/OS X platform shift. But Genesis 2 or Dawn? I doubt it.

A lot depends on when you made your start in this little 3D world of ours. Those, who started with MilWoman or Vic 2 were not responsive to generation 3 lure and made fun of "trillions" of morph files in the runtime needed to use them. They switched to V4 readily though, while many of Gen 3 people couldn't understand how people could buy anything that "ugly". 

If you're among the one's who started with Genesis and now are feeling somewhat left out of all the excitement around Genesis 2 or Dawn - don't worry. Your moment will come with Genesis 3 (or Dawn 2). Then the guys who are currently overexcited about Dawn or Genesis 2 will rant about not seeing reason to splurge on another new figure and you will be able to offer them a free download to test it out. :laugh:

That's how it works, I guess...

Thank you, Stacey!!! :)

You are correct, Jetsmart. In my example I tried to show where I would place my files before saving them with relative paths. :) Sorry for the confusion.

Hi,

Generally DS products are installed outside Runtime folder with (almost) the single exception of textures. Your structure looks sound. If I have a folder "My DS Library" for all the DS and Poser stuff, then I would place the DS version of Books into:

"My DS Library | Props | Kutter | Books"

and textures to

"My DS Library | Runtime | Textures | Kutter | Books"

As Richard said if you set up these things within DS using an active library, then the saved paths should be relative, i.e. your disk letters and names will be subsituted on client system automatically. I am Mac user, I won't survive if products would have hard references to disk letter, but I'm using hundreds of DS and Poser products without problem. :)

Oh, nice to discover this thread. I am DS user and I also bought Books. :) Can't say I was disappointed to find that I had to do my own work to get it into my scenes - I can only blame myself for not reading all the print that is on the product page. But on the other hand - who does? Most people buying at DAZ store expect things to work in DS, Rendo purchases "should" work in Poser (DS with adjustments), etc. That's a sort of rule of thumb. Therefore it is wise to include information to the contrary in the product name itself (e.g. "My Doodad (Vue only)").

Kutter, you'd be a hero if you did a freebie add-on to load Books into Poser/DS. :) And maybe added files for loading into Poser/DS in the future products. One click solution market is arguably larger than DIY :) Also, the pros that would use your models in other apps are smart enough to know that they could just grab OBJ/MTL and ignore the specific Poser/DS "chaff". :)

That's just my two cents from user's perspective. Looking forward to your new products!

I am absolutely fascinated by the stuff etujedi posted recently. The hands! Awesome!

I must admit I am rarely happy with the hands when posing people in my scenes. They should be so expressive and yet - every time I try to make some natural pose like petting a kitten, it looks if the hand is trying to swat a fly on the head of poor animal. 

Eventually we might have dynamic collision, dynamic deformers and automatic muscle tension morphs, but until that time Dawn's hands are the best I have seen. Itching to try them. :)

Hello,

I learned about Dawn somewhat later than most enthusiasts, I see. :) Add my voice to those very interested to see her released.

I'm also a DS|Genesis user (don't hurt me!). After the latest sorry events over at DAZ a huge niche opened for a versatile "real genesis 2" character, but I'll be happy to have another lady too - especially as she'll be supported by so many wonderful talents. 

Can't wait for the Hive site to launch! :)

I really don't know about the interface (mine stays the same unless I modify it), but I can understand your trouble with new stuff showing up - I dealt with it too...

What you have to do is look inside folders. Click on the Content Library tab and check out directories above (DAZ Studio Formats and Poser Formats). The things you installed should be there. 

If you find these folders complicated and hard to remember, then you can put product references into a Categories (below folders). To do this:

1. Click a small menu button on the top right corner of Content Library tab.

2. Select "Scan Known directories for files". They will be market in blue.

3. Go through every blue directory, click on blue framed product pictures and categorize by right clicking on them and choosing "categorize".

The first couple of times this might seem a bit complicated, but later it will be second nature to you

Well, yes the Young Teens Head & Body Morphs are no longer available from DAZ store. This is exactly why I spent $150 to buy their Vaults - just to have core figures and morphs, that many newer products depend on.

You can still use Olivia's texture on some other character, and if you really need, you can approximate her look using their body/head morphs and promo pictures as a reference. In your situation I'd try using her texture on Stephanie 3P and get to work on face and figure. But the result won't be ideal, of course...

Yes, I submitted it two days ago (#75710), including order number and PayPal transaction number. But there probably are many more people in queue before me. 

Sorry to hear people have to work overtime. But it happens during big launches. 

Thanks for suggestion! I did it many times as well as checked thouroughly my e-mail, including spam folders. Nothing.

But this time I'm not alone in this predicament - it seems many people who paid for purchase with PayPal did not receive serials. People in US could call their tech support and get serial by phone, but I'm in Europe, and for me it would be too expensive.

I hoped I would receive my serial before their weekend barbecues (there were some 36 hours to do this), but it was not to be.

But eventually I will get the serial and then... :laugh:

You can always use Rendoinstaller by Totte. (http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/details.php?item_id=62435)

It has some issues with DS specific content if said content is placed outside runtime folder, but for most files here at the Renderosity Marketplace it works reasonably well.

But I'm placing every single file by hand anyway...  :laugh: