DavidGB opened this issue on Jul 04, 2008 ยท 10 posts
DavidGB posted Fri, 04 July 2008 at 8:45 AM
I think BAR-CODE's suggestion about putting a 'works in D|S' symbol on products is a good idea to start from, but hasn't been thought through enough.
Unfortunately it is the case that most products here don't just work or not work in D|S. In most cases it is a question of how much of the product works and/or how much extra work you have to do on it.
Question: most clothing, props, figures and character packs here work from the point of view of the figure/prop loading up, with the right maps applied and functiional - but the actual material settings are lousy in D|S and need tweaking. In a simplistic work/not system - does that get the sticker or not? If it doesn't, many users who just trust the sticker will miss out on vast quantities of useful D|S content they could actually use. If it does ... Ok, so maybe it has a Poser light set as part of it too, and Poser lightsets are cack in D|S, so does that lose it the sticker or not? Just how much of a product needs to work in D|S and needing how little work on it to get the sticker?
It is just too simplistic to have a works/doesn't work indicator.
Really, D|S only users should just learn (and there should be a clear FAQ explaining) what Poser features work, what work with effort, what don't at all, so they can look at a product description and immediately be able to see not IF it will work in D|S, but HOW MUCH of it will work in D|S, and with how much effort ... and if they think that's still worth the price. That's how I shop - barring the odd product with a very badly written Poser format file, I can see from what it is how much of it will work in D|S with how much work on my part.
But if there's going to be a marker system, then I would respectfully suggest that it needs to be rather more than a simple yes/no marker.
Something like a five star system ... except stars are already taken by the reviews. So - a five 'D' system, maybe. Something like:
DDDDD = made for D|S; or contains full D|S versions of everything as well as Poser versions (D|S material scripts, D|S lights etc); or has the same functionality as in Poser, like, say, a product that is an obj for import into any program.
DDDD = Main functionality of the product works in D|S, but aspects need some basic standard tweaking in places. E.g. clothing, props, hair or a character set that just needs the materials settings tweaking, and maybe has a Poser light set as a minor part of the product that won't be much use in D|S..
DDD = Main functionality of the product needs tweaking in D|S. E.g. texture set for clothing, where the material settings all need basic standard adjusting. (Same issue as in DDDD, but here it's the main function of the product, not just one aspect of it.)
DD = The main function doesn't work in D|S, but has some useable elements, but needs a lot of basic work to get use of them. E.g. a Poser shader pack that doesn't work, but there are some useful specular/displacement maps in there that can be applied by hand in D|S.
D = Doesn't work at all in D|S as is. Contains useful product, but needs considerable D|S expertise to get any use out of any part of it, like rewriting the Poser files to make them D|S compatible.
P = You're a D|S only user? Nothing to see, here. Move along. (Dynamic cloth, dynamic hair, Python scripts, sets of P6/7 shaders)