I'm really thinking seriously about installing DS4.5 on my machine, but have a  question before I go ahead.

While I'm sure installing 4.5 will over-write my existing 4.0 version (not so concerned about that), but will it affect my DS3A version I have installed on the same machine?

I still use DS3A a lot and don't want to loose it's functionally.  Right now I am able to use either 3 or 4 on my machine, but newer Genesis content at Daz seems to be coming out in the 4.5 (.duf) format.  I heard good things about speed improvements and stability issues, but don't want to mess up my DS3A install.

I am on a Mac running OS X .7 (Lion) if that matters.

I'd love to hear from people with a similar setup if possible.

Appreciate any tips, thoughts, suggestions...

-AniMajik

There is no problem installing 3.0 and 4.5 together. One doesn't affect the other and they work separately, sharing the content you already have without incompatibility issues.

Thanks marciushess, that puts my mind at ease!

-AniMajik

You welcome.

Well on my win7 machine I "uninstalled Daz 4.5"...Daz4 worked perfect but the format was changed...Personally I do not recommend it. My WinXP mach both Daz3 and 4.5 run perfect....

Quote - Well on my win7 machine I "uninstalled Daz 4.5"...Daz4 worked perfect but the format was changed...Personally I do not recommend it. My WinXP mach both Daz3 and 4.5 run perfect....

What are the issues with the format that you had?  I assume you're talking about the new .duf format?

-AniMajik

Depends on a lot of things of course.  In my experience that's no problem, I use both, 4.5 and 3.0 with Win7 Ultimate for a long time without problems. But, as a said, depends on a lot of factors. At first sight there's no problem.

Anyway, if you install both and have any problem, you can unistall one without damage the other. Actually DS 4.5 is a lot better than 3.0. 'Course that a lot of things to fix and improve, but without any doubt is much better than the old version. So if I have to choose one, would be 4.5 without question.

Quote - > Quote - Well on my win7 machine I "uninstalled Daz 4.5"...Daz4 worked perfect but the format was changed...Personally I do not recommend it. My WinXP mach both Daz3 and 4.5 run perfect....

 

What are the issues with the format that you had?  I assume you're talking about the new .duf format?

-AniMajik

I was saving characters, scenes to my desktop, where I have a work in progress folder.  When I went to reopen kept getting errors cannot locate certain files. I was advised to move my content folder someplace else and list location in preferf. I did and same problem. Wasn't worth the aggravation so I uninstalled..

I don't have any problems with 4.0 and 3.0 - in fact I have actually rendered using both at the same time on one machine.  My main concern was the new version would affect 3.0A (which you clarified for me)

-AniMajik

Quote - > Quote - > Quote - Well on my win7 machine I "uninstalled Daz 4.5"...Daz4 worked perfect but the format was changed...Personally I do not recommend it. My WinXP mach both Daz3 and 4.5 run perfect....

 

What are the issues with the format that you had?  I assume you're talking about the new .duf format?

-AniMajik

 

I was saving characters, scenes to my desktop, where I have a work in progress folder.  When I went to reopen kept getting errors cannot locate certain files. I was advised to move my content folder someplace else and list location in preferf. I did and same problem. Wasn't worth the aggravation so I uninstalled..

That is a pain! I can understand why you did.

I'm going to do a lot of tests first before I use it in production.  I mainly do animation (image seqs) rather than stills. I also re-open the same scene files frequently and that could be a major issue for me.  Thanks for the heads-up!

-AniMajik

The onlu problem that se, is the scenes saved in DS4.5 cannot open on 3.0, but scenes saved on 3.0 you can open on 4.5 without problem.

Something was wrong as I couldnt even open my saved Daz3 files completely.

DS save the scenes based where the files are at that moment. So if some file isn't in the same place where saved before, DS won't open it.

I just gave up..All my existing saved scenes/characters/props just wouldn't open properly. After Deleting 4.5 everything worked....Not important..Done deal and I'm happy...I still have 4.5 installed on my WinXP32 bit mach..

DS 4.5 is a big fat pile of crap. I just had to come over here and say that, because being a DAZ corporate forum, I have no idea how censorious they will become over me taking a dump on it.

But that's what it deserves.  It's a four-flusher.  They not only didn't fix the Property Editor - they made it worse!  I didn't think that was possible, but they did.  It used to be buggy and crash DS on a CONSTANT (by that I mean, CONSTANT) basis, but at least it saved properly.  With 4.5 I'm finding that after a crash, my previous save didn't take. 

Basically, software for Sisyphus.

I had the problems loading saves mentioned by others, too.  Then there's the fact that DS's ballyhooed "tiny saves" are actually twice the size of the old saves.

The only improvement I can find is that the speed and smoothness of auto-fit and smoothing groups have been improved, and morphs are indeed retained after auto-fit.

The supposed faster viewport speed never showed up.  Numerous new problems did, however.

No thanks.  I usually don't get into these rants over software, finding the truth to be somewhere between the naysayers and the boosters, but this one's just crap AFAIC.

Uninstalling now and reinstalling 4.0.3.9, with fingers crossed.

Wow..Least someone agrees with me....Thanks guy!!

Well, I went ahead and installed it on one of my machines. (I have 3.0A and 4.0Pro  on my 2nd machine anyway as a fall-back)

The install of 4.5 went fairly smoothly, and I don't experience any of the issues @vitachick and @JQP seemed to have, but to be fair, I haven't had time to put it through all the paces.

It does save a lot quicker, and I had no problem opening a saved file from my desktop. (I'm on a Mac, so maybe the save/load works better on my platform in this version? - I don't know?)

I don't think this update was for bug fixes, it was so the new poser importer would be compatible.  They're hoping to expand Genesis to the Poser market.  All the new figures for Genesis seem to be coming out in that format now.

I'm hoping ( big :) ) some of those bug fixes you guys are experiencing will be forthcoming soon (not Daz soon!)

The install didn't touch my 3.0A install on that computer and I'm glad of that, since I use that 99% of the time for animation on both computers.

Thanks for all the input and advice guys!

-AniMajik

I really really wanted to like 4.5 and have it work for me.  4.0.3.9 has a lot of warts.  But 4.5 just isn't ready.

Another annoyance, I just saw on another thread how if you have saves with figures with visibility turned off, you can't turn it back on if you load them in 4.5.  Well, saving with invisible figures is standard practice for me.  I was wondering what was up with that.  I like to put multiple hairs on figures, drop them into a null, and turn their visibility off.  Clothes too.

Really, the problem is that we can't install multiple versions of DS (except in an unsupported way, by having a 32-bit version of one release, and a 64-bit version of another).  It's really a bad combination, what with DS not having any documentation, and with DAZ going with the "rapid dev" model and playing it pretty fast and loose with the updates and quality control.

I guess I'm going to have to wait at least until 4.5 is out of beta (maybe I should wait for "gamma" or something, because DAZ's betas feel like pre-alphas to me.

One thing I don't like about Daz is not being able to render on screen. Render in another window but the exsisting window doesnt change..What good is that?  I still torture myself but prefer Daz3. Simple no problems..Don't understand the new format either...Why not just have everything go to Daz/Studio/Content...(Daz3 or Daz4 folder) Simple??? Now in order to get Dson Importer you have to have 4.5...

One thing I found about 4.5 is the 3d Bridge only works with Adobe Photoshop Extended 6.Since I have a nearly $3000 investment in Adobe CS4 Creative production suite I do not have the funds to upgrade.(Another $1500) At least I thought it would be compatible with the CS4 suite like the previous version.I have gone back to 4.03 because of this reason. Cheers  

I use Adobe Production Suite 3 and 5.5 (separate installs on each on my machines). I don't use the 3D Bride anyway, so not an issue with me. I mostly inport into AE.

I hear you about the amount $$ that you have to lay out for these, but they are essential. And it's not just the apps themselves, but all the plugin you usually have upgrade as well! (I have a lot of those for PS and AE)

Sometimes it's not always best to install the latest, greatest version. If you have a workflow that works, stick with it!  I only wanted 4.5 because all of the newer models are in the DSON format (mostly the 3DU and Smay Genesis toons).  I know that Daz has the new DSON importer for Poser, but I dread the thought of going back to Poser again!

At least I still have DS3A to fall back on until Daz works out the quirks.