Hey folks... Rob here.

Just wanted to let you in on a few things.

First... IT IS LIVE (as if you hadn't already noticed)! And should be showing up in your accounts already. This applies to Platinum Club Members, as well as DAZ Published Artists. Please be patient though, we are working as fast as we can to get it to you. Some Published Artists may not see it in their accounts until some time tomorrow... as access to this download is a bit out of the normal procedures.

Second, this is an ALPHA... there WILL be bugs, but the engineering team has been working long and hard to squash as many as possible... But alas, we are human. We have been living, nay... BREATHING DAZ|Studio for quite some months now. And though we are far from done, most of the DAZ staff will be taking a few days to wind down and spend time with our families for the Christmas Holiday... A much needed and well deserved break.

You will likely notice, once you check your account, that the download is approximately 40Mb. This is because it includes a bit of content. Not all subsequent builds will be this large, the majority of the size is from content. We've included content (D|S native and Poser 4 native) to help you, help us, test. As a reminder, we do not specifically support Poser 5 content... only in as much as it is compatiable with Poser 4.

A draft of the documentation is included in the installer. It is by no means complete... largely because DAZ|Studio is still evolving. We will be updating the docs along with D|S as new builds are distributed... so don't fret. I know many people don't like to read tech manuals, but I hope we can get as many of you as possible to have a read of what is there... I think it makes for a good read, but don't let my bias sway you ;). Your feedback is key in making sure we provide adequate documentation.

Mac folks. WE HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN YOU. We've spent the entire day (slowing the PC release, no less) chasing a bug on the Mac build, (and for you skeptical folks, Cris Palomino -one of your fellow Mac enthusiasts- has been visiting the last few days and can verify this for you). Unfortunately there are some incompatibilities between builds on OSX 10.2 and OSX 10.3 that need to be resolved still. Over the holiday we will be doing all we can to eliminate that bug...

With that said... it is now 18:20 (or there about) and Rob (and the rest of the elves) have left the... office?! ;)

-Rob Whisenant
Design & Engineering
DAZ Productions, Inc. [daz3d.com]

Thank you and congratulations on the release ... and Merry Christmas!

Hi Rob W, Thanks and best wishes to you in the upcoming year. Keep up the excellent content. A renewed Platinum member, -Brian aka DefaultGuy

Thanks Rob, I look forward to seeing it in action. In the meantime, I failed 3 times trying to download it and used up all of my attempts... what are the chances of getting my download count reset? Thanks, - Keith User Name: Spanki spanki@cablenet-va.com

Sorry to hear about the Jaguar/Panther snafu holding up the Mac version. Unfortunately, it's gonna be a similar problem when Leopard (10.4) comes out. Not only is there a yearly OS tax required of Apple users, but each incremental upgrade seems to break much hardware and software. Maybe if they didn't outsource the coding to Beijing or Seoul, we wouldn't be in this situation.

Thanks for the Mac update!

With Poser 6 in the pipeline DAZ seems to be playing a second rate game of catch up. Poser 5 for all its little quirks still has - a comprehensive material room, face room, setup room and the firefly renderer. It all seems like a case of corporate squabbling between Curious Labs and DAZ. However, please keep up the good work with Studio because it may make future, or present, releases of Poser more competitively priced.

rolls eyes at becco_UK

Dodger says that he has a compiler (Visual Studio 6 w. C++ and VB and Java) and since his D|S keeps just crashing he'd happily do a build on this here machine. :)

Version numbers have little to do with one program being better than another. Painter 8 was out long before Photoshop CS (their version 8). While Painter and Photoshop do similar things they are also different from their approach and each does certain things better or in a different manner. It doesn't make one superior, in fact, they work quite well together. Having different 3D programs provides impetus to create better with competition and remaining abreast of technology. It also affords Users the ability to choose a program with works more to their liking. Cris