Actually I really can't say. I had no issues with cr2s in C8.5. But then I didn't need CMS running to use genesis or autofit ether, so who knows what else DAZ may have jiggered up for the release.

So do you have CMS installed and running? Seriously, DAZ has made it abundently clear they don't want you using genesis in carrara with out CMS.

If I had C8.5 I'd run through your steps to see what I get. But at this point in time, considering what DAZ did to the release, DAZ would have to pay me to use it.having to use CMS puts me righ off buying it. I refuse to buy C8.5 any any price till this issue is fixed.

Now if everything worked the way it should you'd just load G1, drop the pants on, autofit, if you have the mil4 morphs, morph G1 to K4, then export the pants object prefit and ready to go on K4 after rigging in poser. If you can't do it that way it is simply because DAZ doesn't want you to. But it seems DAZ is out to stop you from doing just what you are trying to do. Useing autofit as a clothing convert for other figuires.

In the beta we could turn off the protected topoligy to work weightmapped figures in the modeling room, did DAZ remove that in the release version?

None the less it is quite apparent DAZ has crippled carrara features in order to protect their content from...... fixing?

Sorry, I wish I could help but I have no intention of getting C8.5 till DAZ removes the nessety of CMS and drops it to a reasonable price.

Sorry this just leads me back around to wondering where the uproar is from DAZ trying to force carraraests to use CMS. Which as far as I am concerned has to much potential to be used as DRM. It's just that having to have CMS running to use content sounds far too much like having to have DRM running to listen to music or watch a movie.

If you are going to accuse me of stealing, I'm going to become a theif.

ADHD makes me live on a tangent

jig·ger1

ˈjigər/

verbinformal

past tense: jiggered; past participle: jiggered

rearrange or tamper with.

The Irish way to say doomed for death.

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/29929/ Not sure why that would need more then a "yes" and a "how to" because if it comes with .obj then the bryce files are irrelavent.

Yes, just import the object; .obj. You will probably have to retexture, but that is easy enough, when done just save to your carrara browser.

You might want to go to my documents/daz3d/carrara8/my presets and make a "my scenes" folder to save to. I have "my presets" in my "figures" folder where I do all my work. But I don't like folders burried that deep.

"my presets" is broke down to various folders. Say if I have a big on going project with a lot of texture and effects maps, I make a folder in "my presets" for that project. Like "old west", "Jacksparks", "Swamp S". So basically woking on a project it's Figures/my presets/jacksparks, not my documents/daz3d/carrara8/my presets/my scenes/jacksparks.

Quote - Here's a question for you ManStan

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/29870/

haven't had a chance to explore the answers but I bet you know the answer

I will NEVER touch Genesis in Carrara. What a total mess!

Sorry, Andrew. Just had to throw that in here.

OK, Stan. Back to work. :)

Quote - I will NEVER touch Genesis in Carrara. What a total mess!

Thanks! You just made my day! The Genesis added value to Carrara is nearly zero!

I'll argue that point. Genesis is the inevetable next step in premade figures. Weightmapping has been around for quite a while, it is a step above because of the posing of figures, no straw elbows and such. Figures just look much better posed.

The problem comes from the issues with autofit, the aparent nesseity in the release version of carrara needing CMS to use Genesis, and DAZ's abandoning of genesis once they released it. Most that use genesis agree G2F is much better, addressing several issues with genesis. The only bad part of that is a PA, not DAZ had to give people an update to a better genesis.

Now I like the concept of genesis, yes it's nice to be able to use genesis in carrara. Is it an added value? Sorry, I am not paying some one for the right to buy their latest content. It amounts to having to pay to shop at walmart.

As it stands after going back to C8.1 from the C8.5 beta, it's not genesis I miss. After 2 years of doing the beta, genesis never really made it in to my work flow. I just couldn't depend on it or autofit. More often then not due to posing issues and illfiting clothes I'd have to drop G1 from my scene and work the mil4 figures in.

So no, an undeveloped/fixed genesis and a bugy autofit adds no value to C8.5 for me. I think DAZ banked far too much on that being C8.5s selling point.

Of coarse DAZ's inept maketing staff didn't help in the least. Hell, I know damned little about marketing but could have done a better job.

None the less Genesis/autofit has it's strong points as in one set of clothes can be a uniform for a small army of vastly different shaped genesisi. But that is only when these "features" work the way they should.

Don't get me wrong ManleyStanley. Genesis is certainly a remarkable software achievement. All the accolades and praises it received are proof positive to that.

But being a great software achievement is one thing, and improving significantly user's workflow another. Genesis's workflow improvement in Carrara is, from where I am standing, negligible when taking into account the 3 years time it took to implement it.

Look at this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkWBRuJlQhA.

It's an Aiko 3 walk cycle. The movements are very natural and very believable, and it's only a gen3 model. You can find dozens upon dozens of gen 4 animations that ate very good and very believable too.

My point: Carrara does not need a better mesh to produce better poses and better animations, it needs better posing and better animation tools.

Now look at this render I did with a demo version of Shade 12 a year or so ago. Warning: The image contains full frontal nudity but it's within RO's TOS.

http://s1089.photobucket.com/user/dr_bernie/media/Demo%20Shade/PharaohTempleShade_zps070e0f15.jpg.html

I spent a couple of days getting used to Shade's quirky, but manageable, interface, then I opened a Poser .pz3 scene and I tweaked the shaders highlights and ambient and and SSS parameters, added just 1 light and rendered.

Look at how accurate and clean the render is. Look at how natural the skin is. It took me only a couple of hours of texture tweaking in Shade to get this result. Had I spent a day or so adding multi-layer textures, the result would have been outright spectacular, probably breathtaking.

My point: Carrara does not need higher resolution textures. Gen 4 textures are excellent as they are, as demonstrated by the Shade render. What Carrara needs is to process light more accurately, i.e. Carrara needs a better renderer, to bring-out the details of already excellent gen 4 textures.

Now how long would it have taken to improve Carrara's posing and animation tools, and implement a renderer like Shade's? You tell me, but certainly not 3 years.

thanks Stan, I knew you would know :)

Problem: I don't want to use Genesis, but I want to use Genesis clothes cause that's the main things as far as clothes dfaz is putting out.

So I can use xdresser to convert if I manage to export a cr2 from daz studio, but I don't use daz studio ... so I thought I would use Car 8.5 and see what I got and immediately ran into problems...

I ended up installing studio so I could get the cms, then was told by a helpful person that DIm would install cms anyways, then it installed my practice cloths on my c drive

then they worked fine in Carrara

and it wasn't by accident after asking that I found a little greyed out button that let me change the installation directory with DIM they have hidden it very well I think ... so I have reinstalled one item of clothing to see what will happen - havn't had a chance to look yet

the export CR2 thing didn't work from studio because styudio didn't automagically find the original directories and the tutorial video just assumes it will and gives you no idea of what directoried they are supposed to actually contain ....

not insurmountable but I need to look for motre tuts on it or just ask I guess'

the cross dresser min tut suggests it is simple but alas it is not

links http://www.evilinnocence.com/using-crossdresser-with-genesis/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDYEvSb7jQs

I like the idea of ask Dr Stan thread :)

Quote - > Quote - Here's a question for you ManStan

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/29870/

haven't had a chance to explore the answers but I bet you know the answer

I will NEVER touch Genesis in Carrara. What a total mess!

Sorry, Andrew. Just had to throw that in here.

OK, Stan. Back to work. :)

ha ha don't blame you, I needed some cheapo peasant clothes and some roman centurian stuff etc so managed to grab some at a reasonable price, but ity's just a matter of translating them to M4 :) or k4

Which was unnessary in the beta.

dr_bernie no it's not a matter of mesh but weightmapping. As I've said repeatedly, DAZ could have weightmapped the mil 4 figures for carrara, but they wouldn't have worked in Studio. So it never happened.

Quote - Which was unnessary in the beta.

dr_bernie no it's not a matter of mesh but weightmapping. As I've said repeatedly, DAZ could have weightmapped the mil 4 figures for carrara, but they wouldn't have worked in Studio. So it never happened.

Weightmapped V4/M4 (A sort of Victoria 4.5 or Michael 4.5) in Carrara would have been more than enough for me.

Quote - > Quote - Which was unnessary in the beta.

dr_bernie no it's not a matter of mesh but weightmapping. As I've said repeatedly, DAZ could have weightmapped the mil 4 figures for carrara, but they wouldn't have worked in Studio. So it never happened.

Weightmapped V4/M4 (A sort of Victoria 4.5 or Michael 4.5) in Carrara would have been more than enough for me.

What stops us from doing this, I wonder? I'm not being flip because all I know about weightmapping is a Dimensiontheory tutorial video I watched once (translation: I really know nothing) but since Carrara does have weightmap tools, and since I have V4 and M4, I can't help wondering if maybe I couldn't just go ahead and make a weightmapped V4/M4?

I've worked with it a bit but don't seem to get it. I can load M4 and paint the weightmap on him, but it doesn't seem to do anything when posing so I assume I did something wrong.

The fun part is carrara is set to save or load a .cwm, or carrara weight map. I can only assume since nothing has ever been done with it, it doesn't work; and not just for me. So if it worked, if you could make and save out a .cwm, and load one, someone would have done mil4 weightmaps by now.

Weight mapping in carrara is something I can't find much info on and confuses me fast.

Agree. The lack of info on weight mapping in Carrara is a problem.

I can't help wondering if maybe it could be puzzled out. I'm going to have to look into it when I get a chance. Would be great to have a weightmapped V4 and M4 just for Carrara.

There are some interesting features listed for weight painting, like bulge. It seems you should be able to make muscles bulge/flex with movement, but I have never gotten it to work. I tried to work with the weight painting early on in carrara, but it just doesn't seem to work right on DAZ figures. I did a Trex, boned/rigged/set joints and weight mapped. It worked great. But it was a single mesh with 1 shader zone over the body.

It seems there are quite a few features in carrara that just don't work with DAZ/Poser figures. And with genesis even fewer still. It seems DAZ making DAZ figures more compatable with carrara, means fewer carrara features actually work on them.

Quote - There are some interesting features listed for weight painting, like bulge. It seems you should be able to make muscles bulge/flex with movement, but I have never gotten it to work. I tried to work with the weight painting early on in carrara, but it just doesn't seem to work right on DAZ figures. I did a Trex, boned/rigged/set joints and weight mapped. It worked great. But it was a single mesh with 1 shader zone over the body.

It seems there are quite a few features in carrara that just don't work with DAZ/Poser figures. And with genesis even fewer still. It seems DAZ making DAZ figures more compatable with carrara, means fewer carrara features actually work on them.

Maybe a more detailed instruction book would help us out.

hint Daz hint

I've played with weight mapping in Poser. Bulge would indeed give you bulging muscles if you wanted it to (if it works the same as in Poser).

Could someone tell sparrowhawk that yes, DAZ has protected anything genesis/triax from being manipulated/worked on in carrara. http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/30320/

DAZ wants you to use Studio with genesis not carrara. So if you want to work on anything genesis/triax it has to be done in studio.

Apparently DAZ doesn't want you working on the figure you just paid for the privelage to use.

More proof carraraests are the second class citizens of the DAZ sociaty.

What gets me is this is the same crap we complained about for the 2 years of the beta. Yet DAZ has done absolutly nothing to fix it. So this has to be the way DAZ wants it, like haveing to have CMS to use genesis. It's not a bug, or a goof, DAZ wants to force carraraests to use CMS.

Quote - Could someone tell sparrowhawk that yes, DAZ has protected anything genesis/triax from being manipulated/worked on in carrara. http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/30320/

I passed on the info to Sparrowhawke for you.

Thanks. I ran in to all sorts of issues just trying to make fit morphs for the ill fitting autofit clothes, and never could.

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/29136/

No you can not make games with carrara, you can make game elements. To make a game you will need a freeware game engine, I recomend Unity because it seems to be the most common used one, even bigger name games use it to cut costs.

NOTE:

Carrara can decimate as well so no need to do it in studio.

DAZ figures tend to be too high polly for most games, although mil1 figures may work well.

Most game figures have the clothes as part of the figure, in other words figures in games usually have no body under the clothes. I'd suggest Makehuman and modeling the clothes on the figure, using the figure mesh. This and rigging is fairly easy to do in carrara.

Start simple and make sure you have the work flow down from carrara to your game engine before starting anything complex.

Dead fronteer is a garage game made by a guy and a couple of freinds. It is the best zombie horror survivle game on line, so yes you can ;)

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/30391/

Uninstall mimic.

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/30578/

This does little good if the hair still disappears on poseing genesis; which has been my experiance for anything but cr2 hair; meaning gone through autofit.

Hi Stan, you really are a font of knowledge :)

Quote - Hi Stan, you really are a font of knowledge :)

!

Ooooo. I've never seen one of those. :)

Quite agree. Stan is the Man when it comes to the ins and outs of Carrara.

Man, every time I read the DAZ carrara forum it's just a bit more depressing. 80% of it is this is for sale and "yea DAZ for the best thing since sliced bread".

That is if there is any new posts at all. I get this feeling the majority of people that use carrara never got C8.5. Is DAZ aware of this?

Quote - That is if there is any new posts at all. I get this feeling the majority of people that use carrara never got C8.5. Is DAZ aware of this?

The other question is do they really care? It's obvious that 8.5 was not worth the years long wait. It's my guess that they only worked on it when they had a spare moment. Judging by all the niggling little problems still in the software, I'd guess that they only released it because they were tired of fooling with it.

That's all just a guess, mind you. I know Genesis is their 'thing' but I wish they'd get their collective heads out and look around. There's more to the 3D scene than Genesis.

I don't ever think I will get to use 8.5 except maybe for loading up a figure and stealing it's obj file to rig in poser and bring back into 8.1

just don't have enough time to fiddle with something that doesn't run like a finished application

Quote - Man, every time I read the DAZ carrara forum it's just a bit more depressing. 80% of it is this is for sale and "yea DAZ for the best thing since sliced bread".

That is if there is any new posts at all. I get this feeling the majority of people that use carrara never got C8.5. Is DAZ aware of this?

Yeah, I haven't been to the Daz forum in awhile. I used to be on there everyday.

Now, I come here most times.

The PC club sale mostly sucks too. Almost everything is Genesis only.

I guess they really want to force that down our throats. Wouldn't be so bad if Genesis and autofit worked right in C8.5.

Quote - > Quote - Man, every time I read the DAZ carrara forum it's just a bit more depressing. 80% of it is this is for sale and "yea DAZ for the best thing since sliced bread".

That is if there is any new posts at all. I get this feeling the majority of people that use carrara never got C8.5. Is DAZ aware of this?

Yeah, I haven't been to the Daz forum in awhile. I used to be on there everyday.

Now, I come here most times.

The PC club sale mostly sucks too. Almost everything is Genesis only.

I guess they really want to force that down our throats. Wouldn't be so bad if Genesis and autofit worked right in C8.5.

Yep. Agree on all counts.

Quote - The other question is do they really care? It's obvious that 8.5 was not worth the years long wait. It's my guess that they only worked on it when they had a spare moment. Judging by all the niggling little problems still in the software, I'd guess that they only released it because they were tired of fooling with it.

I agree. And I think it's more than just a guess. It's most likely a fact.

8.5 was released with probably so many known screw-ups that Daz shut down the Mantis bug tracker just prior to the release so the place doesn't get flooded with bug reports a month or two after the release.

You know it's bad when the release version is bugyer then the beta ;)

The worst part is DAZ's apparent indiference. Like they just don't care. And it's not just carrara. DAZ has done nothing with Studio for quite a while; which is bad because the optitex dynamic clothing doesn't work worth a flip in Studio 4.5{6?}.

Add to that that DAZ has done nothing with Bryce or Hex in years and you wonder.

Look at Hivewire3d and the Dawn character. They and their suporters are showing just what a concerned developer and suportive community can do for a figure. In fact the feel at hivewire is very much like DAZ felt years ago.

It seems DAZ inc lost it's soul when it was bought out. Now we have people that are clueless how to run anything other then a content brokerage. And it plainly shows. Developement of anything at DAZ got swept under the rug when they took over.

Lets look at C9, where is the beta? We did the C8.5 beta for two years yet it doesn't look like C9 will be getting any sort of open beta. What this proves to me is DAZ doesn't care about the bugs, or how it will run on any more then in house comps.

Like the price on C8.5 DAZ is keeping C9 under tight wraps till release; and for the same reason. DAZ is already well aware we aren't going to like it, and they don't care. They are going to slap us in the face with yet another half finished, bugy, not worth the price, with no new features carrara, then expect us to pay full purches price with a bunch of smoke and mirrors discounts yet again.

It's called development suicide, and happens in games quite often. When carrara dies DAZ will have no one to blame but themselves. Of coarse it will some how be my fault, or should I say DAZ will blame the lack of sales and having to mothballing carrara on the nay sayers.

What the new DAZ doesn't realize is us nay sayers are probably the group that is most concerned about the health and well being of carrara.

Agree, Stan.

My guess is that 9 is just going to be 8.5 with some new paint and plaster stuck on to make it look new and shiny.

They don't want us talking about it. DAZ probably hopes we'll forget about the release date for 9 that they themselves announced. And heaven forbid they should make any promises about upcoming features or improvements...they might have to keep them.

In the good old days, we'd get someone official popping into the forums on occassion grinning and winking about some new feature coming to Carrara. Now, we get nothing. No one pops in much at all. I mean look at the 8.5 launch. There was a DAZ presence in the beginning, but as criticism and bugs popped up that presence was less and less until finally it trickled to nothing. That left the users to sort out the problems on their own.

With 8.5 as measure, the release of 9 would have to be pretty amazing for me jump. Also, using 8.5 as an example, I doubt that I will be happy with the price. I hope I'm wrong.

Actually the void creating from marketing has dropped to nill. DAZ used to have someone running marketing that knew how to sell a product, I don't know what to think now. Seems their sales manager knows little about marketing stratagy.

Any one remember the month of hype before V4 came out? For G2F it was a few days; maybe a week, of example renders in 1 thread.

Maybe this goes back to all the hype and hoopla before genesis and Studio 4 came out, followed by a practically apocalyptic response in the forums when people found out they were going to get charged for it, a lot of the everyday tools cost more, plus bugs galore.

Hell I leaked optitex clothing testing photos when DAZ was creating the void for it. By the time Studio finally came out with the optitex dynamic clothing people were clamoring for it.

Oh, I remember all the hype that used to DAZ. It was fun. The anticipation would mount daily. It was fun. It was exciting to get up and head to the forums and see what had happened since you went to bed the night before.

All the hype, the forum craziness in advance of just about any new release or sale really generated the desire to have whatever was being talked about. And more often than not DAZ delivered. Now, not so much.

Stan & Books

I agree with most of what you guys are saying.

I guess the only question is why hype something you know is broken? Daz had to know how messed up C8.5 was going to be. Daz knew the response to G2F was going to be lackluster, especially from Carraraists, because G1 didn't work right.

Autofit has never seemed to do what it's supposed to, and as best I can tell, Genesis is useless without it.

In the old days, Daz released something, like V4, and we were all excited because we knew we could pick it up, install and get started. Genesis changed all that.

Now Daz has the attitude that somehow WE are messed up because their buggy software and content doesn't work right and that "some people will always be unhappy."

Also, we don't get Daz people showing up in the forums because they would come in the forums, confuse the hell out of everyone and frustrated customers would beat them to a pulp. I guess nobody wanted to go into the forums with the BS answers DAZ told them to run with and then take a beating.

Tsarist, you are so right.

I guess that explains why there was no real advertising for the 8.5 rollout. They didn't want tons of people buying the software because they knew it was broken going out.

Makes me even more skeptical about the release of 9. We'll see.

Learning to use effectively a 3D app, whether it's Carrara or 3DSMax, requires lots of involved learning and practice.

A 3D app isn't like a car that if you don't like it you just selll it and buy somethig else. It would be utterly irresponsible for a 3D app software company to tell its customers: 'If you don't like our products, go use use someone else's app'.

What I am witnessing is that Daz took over an excellent RDS that could almost rival Lightwave, and over the years has let it fall behind to the point of extinction.

Daz has spent a huge amount of time designing their CMS with Smart Content which is of no practical use from where I am standing. Actually when I buy Daz content I don't even install the DS part, I only install the Poser files. IMO Poser's content manager is far better and far more useful, and Daz should have just shamelessly copied it.

And for the umpteenth time, that fast mipmap nonsense that Daz spent months to program in Carrara to speed-up the renderer is so laughable that I would really expect Daz to quietly remove it from the C9 release, because it really is a proof of utter mismanagement.

And, again for the umpteenth time, Daz should implement the Embree technology inside Carrara so at least upgrading to C9 is worth the price.

For Daz Carrara's product manager information, Embree is not some sort of cheese, It's a set of fast raytracing routines developed by Intel as part of their core graphic technologies, and is already implemented in C4D R15 and VRay.

http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/embree-photo-realistic-ray-tracing-kernels

This is Embree's impact on C4D R15 render speed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJd-WEtkg-Q

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/30995/

The problem is you are looking for HDRI files that wont show up in the carrara browser, simple as that. Carrara's browser does not show HDRIs. You browser to them when you go to load them to your scene in the HDRI menu. scene/background/HDRI.

Quote - http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/30995/

The problem is you are looking for HDRI files that wont show up in the carrara browser, simple as that. Carrara's browser does not show HDRIs. You browser to them when you go to load them to your scene in the HDRI menu. scene/background/HDRI.

They are setup as presets, so they do show in the browser. Of course, that all depends on where they are installed.

Any Carrara content I get is loaded into the main directory. That way the presets work. If you load them into another directory, the presets don't work correctly. Well, at least for me.

ncamp

HDRI as a preset? That seems rather ludacris.

But if you are using DIM; which is named quite rightly, and something doesn't get installed where it should, the issue is with DIM. Best check default loading folder, may be my dicuments/daz3d/my daz 3d library, or what ever DAZ may be calling it this month.

More then likely it should have been installed where I don't install any carrara content but is the defalut place DAZ has set up; maybe, documents/daz3d/carrara 8{5}. I have a "my presets" in my figures folder where all my content is, all the scenes I work on are there. As far as I know the only "presets" that have to be in the right spot for carrara is the wizard presets.

I'm on windows 8 so it may be my documents in W7.

Would some one tell Bill I don't own a tablet so would like the computer version of this tablet app.

Yes, I am trying to do the W8.1 update but it is downloading through their store so is trickel downloading and in 3 days I have yet to get it.

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/32102/

Well duh. C8.5 is all about genesis compatability or should I say .duf compatability.

I know I'm banned from the forum but I see people asking questions and finding things I pointed out early on and through out my testing of C8.5. Were all those posts deleted with my ban?

I mean just what file format do they think genesis is in? That is what C8.5 was all about, being able to use the new Studio .duf. .duf is how I got those worthless dynaimc clothing animation from Studio 4 to C8.5.

Sad part is C8.5 has been out for a while and people are just starting to ask about it's main new feature. And this is the best selling version of carrara to date? Ya, right.

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/32117/

And once you spend all that time getting the hair to fit watch it go bye bye when you pose the figure. I spent far too much time fitting "wigs" to genesi just to have them vanish the minuet I apply a pose.

I can only guess most everyone is using genesis content on genesis.

Reading the DAZ foums I have to wonder what all these people that bought C8.5 are doing with it. They sure don't seem to be using genesis or autofit.

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/32819/

Some oone should tell him if he installs that last version of C8.1 he is going to have to reset the textures in most of hias scenes.

Quote - http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/32819/

Some oone should tell him if he installs that last version of C8.1 he is going to have to reset the textures in most of hias scenes.

Stan

What does the last version of C8.1 do to textures?

How does one reset textures?

Thanks

Quote - Stan

What does the last version of C8.1 do to textures?

How does one reset textures?

Thanks

I don't know how you reset textures, probably through a Fenric plugin?

But I can tell you this much: C8.5 uses a 'Good Ole Times' texture map filtering mode called fast mipmap, instead of the 'Sampling' filtering mode in all previous versions of Carrara.

The fast mipmap filtering mode was used in the 1990's to speed-up real-time display for game engines.

There was 2 'theories' as to why the fast mipmap filtering mode was introduced: 1) To facilitate sculpting of hi-def meshes OR 2) to speed-up Carrara's ailing renderer.

I personally subscribe to the second theory. And that is why I keep repeating that Daz is a totally incompetent company, when it comes to software.

No company CEO or product manager taking the slightest pride in their products, would use such a crude and laughable solution in a pro level 3D app costing $549.-

The time it took them to implement fast mipmap only to have people laugh at them, they could have put it to much better use integrating Embree into C8.5 renderer, for far superior results.

When I installed the last version of C8.1; an update that came out some time after they C8.5 beta; C8.1.1.12, quite often scenes will load with chanels useing textures set to blank; which is an imposable setting that doesn't actually exist. You have to reset them all to sampling sumond or gausnian. It doesn't happen with every scene or every shader that uses textures, so I'm not sure what causes it.

I doubt Feneric's plugin can do that, but I am not at all sure.

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/32978/

akulla3D I'd be willing to bet you use DIM. Stop using it and install to an unprotected folder. W8 wont let you write to the protected content folder in the carrara folder in the windows programs folder; yes that was a lot of assuming as not alot of info was given.

"Yes, Michael 5 works perfectly. I was able to change his skin. Moreover I was able to add props.

I was eben able to animate some blood-particles on his skin. (yay!)" patrickgobels

I have to wonder just how much work you have done with M5 in carrara; considering just how badly genesis and autofit work. A naked genesis works well too, it's when you try to put hair and clothes on him the fun starts.

Quote - I've worked with it a bit but don't seem to get it. I can load M4 and paint the weightmap on him, but it doesn't seem to do anything when posing so I assume I did something wrong.

The fun part is carrara is set to save or load a .cwm, or carrara weight map. I can only assume since nothing has ever been done with it, it doesn't work; and not just for me. So if it worked, if you could make and save out a .cwm, and load one, someone would have done mil4 weightmaps by now.

Weight mapping in carrara is something I can't find much info on and confuses me fast.

Ironically, if I recall correctly, you can only save weight maps in Carrara for Poser style figures with Poser style rigging.

You can't save the maps for Carrara rigged objects which seems really dumb. The best work around is to makes sure the rig is just as you want it, meaning it's scaled correctly and lines up with the mesh you're attaching it to. Do all that before attaching the rig. Then weight paint, saving often. If it's particularly involved, then save different iterations so that you can jump back to a previou state if needed.

I've noticed that joint influences can be keyframed, so be aware of that when weight painting. Nothing worse to find than a stray, nested keyframe hiding somewhere that screwed a render! On the plus side, keframeable influences have save my bacon once or twice.

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/31728/

Silver Back DAZ screwed us big time on this one. After 2 years of being promised we would get C8.5 at a "nominal" fee, it is quite apparent DAZ lied to us for 2 years.

C8.5 has always been $142.50 for me since release, a far, far from nominal fee. Now if I wanted to pay for the Pclub I could get it for $85.50, still not a nominal fee.

Just proof DAZ lies and you can't take them at their word.

My price point is $50, I refuse to pay more then that for it, and that is at the top edge of "nominal".

My latest prediction is, there wont be an upgrade path from C8.1 to C9 if you didn't get C8.5, and the ungrade cost for C9 from C8.5 will be pushing $400. If you didn't get C8.5 you will peobably belooking at $600-$800 for C9.

And what am I up to now? 12 for 15?

I do beleve I wrote some place DAZ is over pricing carrara so they can claim it as a bad investment on their taxes. They get a tax brake and we get screwed.

Compared to hobbyists/semi-pro 3D apps such as Cheetah3D and Shade, Carrara is way overpriced.

A fair value for Carrara Pro is, in my opinion, $79.- non-discounted list price.

BTW Shade Professional is now priced at $249.- (Link) At this price you get a solid full-fledged general purpose 3D app with very good modeling tools, support for Poser contents through Poser Fusion and a breathtaking renderer almost as good as VRay.

I would also like to make it clear that my gripe is not with Carrara, which is (or was) a very well-thought 3D app in its own right. My issue is with a totally inept company called Daz3D which has been unable to add any significant value to Carrara - or Hexagon and Bryce for that matter - over several years of ownership.

OK, Stan. I've got a question.

I've not really ever used Carrara's rigging for anything more than just goofing off. I'm working on a project that is non humanoid and will require rigging. My question is will Carrara's rigging save with no problems? I don't want to have to rerig the thing each time I open the project.

I've read problems with Carrara's weight maps not saving(?) correctly or at all, and I didn't want to settle down to do a job if I would just end up with a fail.

Also (I guess I have two questions) do I need to group the model a specific way (like in Poser) or can I just import the model and rig?

Thanks. :)

I haven't done it in C8, but in 5, 6, and 7 there was no issues with saving. I did a few makehuman figures just to practice boneing/rigging.

Quote - I haven't done it in C8, but in 5, 6, and 7 there was no issues with saving. I did a few makehuman figures just to practice boneing/rigging.

So, it's just basically create rigging, attach skeleton and I'm good to go, right?

select joint type and set constraints. But yup, that is it.

Quote - select joint type and set constraints. But yup, that is it.

Thanks. Forgot about joint type and constraints.

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/33558/

Oh I and a few others have plenty to say about how genesis and G2 in C8.5. Too bad you will never see any of it on the DAZ forum, because you know what happens to those posts.

Dartanbeck could you please drop it down a notch? "I haven’t had a lot of experience with the latest Genesis. But the time that I did spend with it has completely blown me away - being the absolute most amazing human model I’ve ever rendered". That is just fanatically over the top. I mean a couple of big steps up from fanboy.

"I’ll be adding more to this very soon. At least the ball is rolling, and I want you to feel free to report, ask, whatever Genesis in Carrara related".

OK, when is DAZ going to fix all the out standing, unaddressed bugs in genesis? You know the ones it was released with and in over 2 years DAZ has done nothing about?

Of coasre G2F works better then genesis, G2F isn't by DAZ. G2F addresses most of the issues with genesis, that DAZ should have fixed with in a month of releasing genesis.

Whoa! I couldn't finish reading Dart's post/cheerleading. Where did all that pent up Genesis love come from? It was actually a bit creepy to read. Was Dart hired as a public relations god by DAZ when we weren't looking?

Well, a bit over the top, that was. (But that's the beauty of him, isn't it?)

Quote - Whoa! I couldn't finish reading Dart's post/cheerleading. Where did all that pent up Genesis love come from? It was actually a bit creepy to read. Was Dart hired as a public relations god by DAZ when we weren't looking?

Well, a bit over the top, that was. (But that's the beauty of him, isn't it?)

This guy is the worst thing that ever happened to Carrara. He only scares away customers.

I think I will switch to Cinema 4D. The full-blown version will cost me $3,700.-, but at this price I will get to talk to some of the world's most prominent artists, not to some noob who fell-back on Carrara because he couldn't figure-out 3DS Max or Maya.

Quote - This guy is the worst thing that ever happened to Carrara. He only scares away customers. I think I will switch to Cinema 4D. The full-blown version will cost me $3,700.-, but at this price I will get to talk to some of the world's most prominent artists, not to some noob who fell-back on Carrara because he couldn't figure-out 3DS Max or Maya.

Woa, uncalled for. He can be a bit over the top, head in the clouds, optimistic. But he is no more over the top most of the time then I am under it ;) I beleive in balance, ying and yang, good and evil, life is the constent stresses between the two.

The only real problem is there is no one to balance him out on the DAZ forum. Kites fly best with the right amount of drag ;)

Quote - > Quote - Whoa! I couldn't finish reading Dart's post/cheerleading. Where did all that pent up Genesis love come from? It was actually a bit creepy to read. Was Dart hired as a public relations god by DAZ when we weren't looking?

Well, a bit over the top, that was. (But that's the beauty of him, isn't it?)

This guy is the worst thing that ever happened to Carrara. He only scares away customers.

I think I will switch to Cinema 4D. The full-blown version will cost me $3,700.-, but at this price I will get to talk to some of the world's most prominent artists, not to some noob who fell-back on Carrara because he couldn't figure-out 3DS Max or Maya.

Very uncalled for. Really, will this person affect your day??

You don't like the software and some do, let it go. You don't like the guy, let it go.

Each person have there own mentality and you always have some that you will butt head with, but there is a limit.

Just ignore and continue with your stuff.

[ Denis ]

I think I may have been misunderstood. My post was meant to be a bit tongue in cheek. Apparently, it didn't come across that way. Dart's a great guy, but he is a bit over the top sometimes and his train of thought does tend to jump from place to place at times. Just attempting a bit of humor. Guess next time I'll just chuckle to myself and let it go at that.

Also, I've never bashed Carrara. I love the software and use it all the time. I'd hate to think that anything I've said makes you think I don't like the software. I wouldn't be here if i didn't care.

I guess I'll have to censor myself a bit more from now on. Sorry, guys.

Quote - Very uncalled for. Really, will this person affect your day??

You don't like the software and some do, let it go. You don't like the guy, let it go.

Each person have there own mentality and you always have some that you will butt head with, but there is a limit.

Just ignore and continue with your stuff.

I didn't say I don't like Carrara, In fact I like Carrara a lot. I think Eovia did a brilliant job at designing RDS/Carrara.

What I don't like, and I have repeated it many times elsewhere, is that Daz3D acquired Carrara about 6 years ago and since then it has not been able to add any significant value to it.

Carrara is a lot bigger than Daz can handle. Daz3D is obviously a joke for a software company. They have way overestimated their abilities by taking on a moderately complex 3D app like Carrara.

When that inept software company hires as its mouthpiece an inexperienced noob who gets blown-away by just about anything he sees, then I have serious regrets about the time I spent learning Carrara.

What's wrong with calling him an inexperienced noob anyway? You want me to call him a second Leonardo? Or a second Toulouse Lautrec? He IS a noob and everything he says or does smells immaturity. With him as cheerleader, Carrara loses the little credibility or respectability it used to have.

Quote - I didn't say I don't like Carrara, In fact I like Carrara a lot. I think Eovia did a brilliant job at designing RDS/Carrara.

Agree.

Quote - What I don't like, and I have repeated it many times elsewhere, is that Daz3D acquired Carrara about 6 years ago and since then it has not been able to add any significant value to it.

Disaree. They may not have added any big new features; that aren't content related. But over the years DAZ has done some good things with carrara; not all of which is nagated by bad things. As in for every light icon tweak we get a moved to a less convenient spot feature control.

Look at it this way, if DAZ hadden't bought it it would have been another lost to the anilas of time app.

Quote - Carrara is a lot bigger than Daz can handle. Daz3D is obviously a joke for a software company. They have way overestimated their abilities by taking on a moderately complex 3D app like Carrara.

But DAZ didn't used to be, Poser may have set the standard but DAZ took it and ran with it. Then DAZ got bought out and has went down hill fast since.

Quote - When that inept software company hires as its mouthpiece an inexperienced noob who gets blown-away by just about anything he sees, then I have serious regrets about the time I spent learning Carrara.

He's nether a noob or been hired by DAZ; other then being a carrara PA. And you have contributed what to the carrara communiyt?

Quote - What's wrong with calling him an inexperienced noob anyway? You want me to call him a second Leonardo? Or a second Toulouse Lautrec? He IS a noob and everything he says or does smells immaturity. With him as cheerleader, Carrara loses the little credibility or respectability it used to have.

No he is just another; although possably a bit more ambitious and excited, carrara user.

So this "noob" creates carrara content, and with your vast experiance you have done what? I'll agree he gets a bit over the top sometimes, but there is no reason to run him down for that.

I have been at this a long time; 16+ years. I can do every thing from make HRDIs to full blown Howiesc sceens. But I have no confedence in my work. He is making carrara content, and even though it's nothing I would buy; I can do the same things, at least he has enough confidence in his work to put it out there. Also remember he was a cheerleader from the get go, long before he became a DAZ PA.

You know dr_bernie,

I agree to what ManleyStanley just said in the post above.

Let it go, the guy not a noob but to be honest, show me a location i can see your job you done with CArrara?

I don't always agree with Daz decision or update they do on Carrara, hell i don't even agree with the latest update of Cinema 4D, i own the Prime version and they decided that embree has started with the Broadcast version, for me just to get that option, i need to update my version, cost $795.

Call him just another person using a software, at the moment each time he makes a post your gears grinds. You know if i become a Maxon PA for Cinema 4D, are you going to do the same?

In the end, from my point of view, the only thing i can say, IGNORE him.

That guy seem to get your blood boild of something, for what? being a PA for Carrara, because he love the software so much, you don't.

And you won't like me then, because when i read your post compare to his post about Carrara, you are more the one that would shy peoples away from the software, You loved the software when it was in others hands, not in Daz hand.

[ Denis ]

Quote - > Quote - Whoa! I couldn't finish reading Dart's post/cheerleading. Where did all that pent up Genesis love come from? It was actually a bit creepy to read. Was Dart hired as a public relations god by DAZ when we weren't looking?

Well, a bit over the top, that was. (But that's the beauty of him, isn't it?)

This guy is the worst thing that ever happened to Carrara. He only scares away customers.

I think I will switch to Cinema 4D. The full-blown version will cost me $3,700.-, but at this price I will get to talk to some of the world's most prominent artists, not to some noob who fell-back on Carrara because he couldn't figure-out 3DS Max or Maya.

Doc

While Dart is a bit over the top, he DOES really care about the software and the community. He's just a little more enthusiastic than most.

He's no noob. He has done some pretty nice sets as a PA. I own his Starry Sky and plan on buying his two animation sets.

He's also one of the only PAs who include NLAs in their animation sets.

I'm not going to question your contribution to the community, because many of us contribute in different ways. Some in products, some in information and training, etc.

Let's just keep the conversation classy. We enjoy pretty good freedom over here. Half the threads we have here would have been closed down at the Daz site as soon as they opened.

Dart is one of our own, and so are YOU.

Back to this same thread http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/33558/

One person had the never to point out 1 issue with genesis and autofit in C8.5. One person pointing out an issue that effects everyone. And after that long cheerleading speal about how well G2F works in carrara only one person was brave enough to say other wise. That is just pathetic.

This leads me to suspect a few things, ether people that bought C8.5 have given up complaining about how badly genesis, G2F, and autofit work in it. Or DAZ mods are just deleting any and all complaints. Or C8.5 didn't sell anywhere nearly as well as DAZ claims. Or all of the above. I'm going for all of the above.

I persoanlly am sick of reading the one sided propaganda in the DAZ carrara forum. Now wonder so many people have abandoned it. There were more posts made about the C8.5 beta in a week then have been started about C8.5 since release.

If carrara dies it's because DAZ killed it. Not because of complaints, not because of lack of suport by the community, but because DAZ wanted it dead. Makes for a nice little tax write off for the people running DAZ now.

Not sure which is worse, the forum mods pulling posts or DAZ completely ignoring the issues with C8.5.

The thread you mentioned was started on 12-05-2013, and after 8 days has only 3 responses, not counting the OP's posts.

This only shows the utterly low level of interest Carrara users have for Genesis.

When you want to design a successful 3D app, you hire some real pros to use it and you base your developments on their advices.

Putting in charge an inexperienced noob who only scares away customers isn't the right way to promote a 3D app.

But then again what do I care? I am already the proud owner of C4D Broadcast edition. It is Embree enabled, it is used by some of the most proeminent production studios in the world, it has Poser content support through Poser Fusion and Interposer Pro, and its superb user interface is a dream to worlk with.

I would have put-up with Carrara's slow rate of development, but putting-up with a noob who thinks he's interesting? No thanks, just not my cup of tea.

BTW if C4D is above your spending limits, you should very very seriously consider Shade in its 3 versions (Basic, Standard and Pro). Its UI isn't all that bad, it has Poser content support through Poser Fusion and its superb path tracer is well worth the price of the entire package.

Well then I guess you don't need to worry about carrara, carrara supporters, or carrara cheerleaders.

When I had the chance to get a full line CG app it came down to Carrara and C4D. I went for carrara because it had a terrain and a plant generater and I was working with Terragen at the time.

But regardless of what DAZ does with carrara I simply can not afford to replace it and doubt I will find anything that actually can; for less then $1K.

Seriously how much did you spend on all that dr bernie?

None the less genesis is the next generation of figures. And it was about time, people have been using weightmapped figures in CG aps for quite a few years before DAZ released their premade one. And I know I sound like a broken record but till some one gets up and fixes it, that record is going to skip.

Where DAZ screwed up was releasing genesis/autofit too soon in order to get it out there before some contest, then never did another thing with ether. Over 2 years and genesis has never had an update to fix the issues and nether has autofit. At this point I have no belief DAZ is capable of fixing anything. They release it and we are stuck with some buggy piece of schlock DAZ wants to over charge us for. Then try to get cheerleaders to convince us it the best thing since sliced bread. And just to be sure they have the forum mods pull every post that says other wise in order to fool people in to buying in to the schlock.

Yes, I want to pay $550 for a CG app just to find out the "free content" that comes with it, doesn't work well enough in it to use in it. And to top that off I am overly encouraged to use buggy software to download/install it. And install some DRM to actual use it; the "free content".

Still after all this time what is the number one most often reported issue? "I can't find my content". Which is actually ludicress considering all the far more importent issues with C8.5 then some buggy download/install app that inevatably installs content to the wrong place. Of coarse it is hard to see your content doesn't work as advertised when you can't find it.

The Prime version of C4D at $995.- should be within the reach for most of us.

The C4D Studio version at $3,695 is quite expensive. But if you look at the demo reels on youtube, you will see that Carrara can't even do 1/100 of what C4D can.

Besides, wouldn't you rather spend $995 to $3,695 for C4D and have numerous professional opportunities open-up before you, or spend $549.- for a Carrara that nobody knows about?

Do this experiment: Go to some CG site and start talking about Carrara. Either they don't know what Carrara is, or they know and they will laugh at you as if you were some schmuck wasting their time.

I have already done this experiment and I am talking from experience.

Regarding the cheerleaderism, when the cheerleader is a failed art student who couldn't get past Maya 101, and now is showing his ineptitude by getting blown-away by everything that Daz cooks, then I say to myself that this situation is ridiculous and unbearable. So it's time to trash Carrara.

There are many alternatives to Carrara, besides C4D.

First there is Shade, which has support for Poser contents, modeling tools far more advaced than Carrara, and a superb renderer that very closely rivals VRay.

Then There is Lightwave which currently runs for $995.- and has support for Poser contents through Poser Fusion.

And of course there is Modo which is rapidly becoming the 'Reference 3D App', the one 3D app against which everything else is being measured.

If you need landscape modeling, there is Vue. Its Frontier version has direct support for Daz/Poser contents and can render hyper-realistic atmospheres a lot faster than Carrara can.

With such superb, and quite affordable, alternatives who needs Carrara anyway? Let the cheerleader-fanboy-failed-art-student be its only customer, for all I care.

We have vastly different opinions on what is affordable. My jeep needs $400 worth of work done to it, my jeep is far more importent than anything on this comp, I can't afford to have it fixed.

And I really don't consider bringing in a static model I can't actually work with in the app as "compatable". If that were the case all apps are poser compatable, just save out as a .obj.

Please by all means drop carrara and move on.

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/34135/

Because you are opening the .obj not importing it to the scene.

That thread has been up for hours and no one has told him the simple solution. Is there anyone left on the DAZ carrara forum that isn't a cheerleader or a newbie?

Quote - And I really don't consider bringing in a static model I can't actually work with in the app as "compatable". If that were the case all apps are poser compatable, just save out as a .obj.

PoserFusion plugin for Shade, 3dsMax, Maya, Lightwave, or Cinema4d works to import more than just a static figure or prop.

Quote: "Integrate either static or animated Poser figures with Vertex Weight Map rigging and dynamics that are fully textured and posable, with full morph targets for facial expression and body sculpting morphs."

Won't work with Genesis as far as I know, since the Genesis integration to Poser is a hack in itself, but for native Poser figures or props, including Daz products up to generation 4, it works very well. It translates dynamic cloth and hair from Poser too. I used it in 3dsmax for years, back when it was known as BodyStudio. You have to do all the animating and posing in Poser first though, then PoserFusion works as a bridge to translate the animation to any of those platforms.

I think there's another plugin for Cinema4D that works even better. Kuroyumes' InterPoser, which will import and host your entire Poser library system inside the C4D architecture, just as it is in Poser, allowing you a workflow that is very much like the Daz Studio integration in Carrara was supposed to be.

Tools : 3dsmax 2015, Daz Studio 4.6, PoserPro 2012, Blender v2.74

System: Pentium QuadCore i7, under Win 8, GeForce GTX 780 / 2GB GPU.

But you are still talking 6X the cost of Carrara to replace it.

Here's a problem I hadn't heard of associated with Carrara 8.5.

I couldn't get the link to work at 3d dojo so here's the post by user WX_IVAN:

"When I set up all the figures I plan to use in Carrara, I was exporting them out of Daz 3 as a collada file, then import them into Carrara and do what i have to do to get them working right there. I found out later in an article that Carrara 8.5 will acdept Daz 4's .duf files without having to export them and import them into Carrara. Well, as I rendered a few scenes, I had a mixture of collada imported and .duf figures in my scene. Mimic worked just fine with the collada imported figure, but not with the .duf figure. I thought at first that maybe it was because I didin't configure the figure from D4 correctly, so I changed the config to genesis. It still didin't work. I stopped using all of the .duf figures and switched to the imports with no further trouble."

Just thought I'd share.

dr_bernie wrote: "But then again what do I care? I am already the proud owner of C4D Broadcast edition. It is Embree enabled, it is used by some of the most proeminent production studios in the world, it has Poser content support through Poser Fusion and Interposer Pro, and its superb user interface is a dream to worlk with."

Congratulations! I'm sure you will enjoy it a great deal. I have an old version of C4D XL (Studio now), I really like the modeler, it has some very useful tools. BodyPaint is very impressive as well. When I changed jobs and no longer had a use for C4D that I got paid for, I just couldn't justify the upgrade cost for a hobby.

Looking forward to seeing some jaw dropping, Class A renders in your gallery!

__________________________________________________________

My Rendo Gallery ........ My DAZ3D Gallery ........... My DA Gallery ......

Thanks DustRider.

Putting C4D's apparatus in motion is somewhat challenging, but well worth the effort considering that it opens doors for you that Carrara never will.

With the current cheerleaderism by a failed art student who couldn't get past Maya 101, Carrara has become more of a joke than a respectable 3D app. Daz will have to do a lot of damage control to convince potential buyers that Carrara is worth the $250.- they are charging for it.

Dude you really need to quit with this BS, you have succeded in losing any respect for you I had. Please take your act to the C4D forum.

Quote - With the current cheerleaderism by a failed art student who couldn't get past Maya 101, Carrara has become more of a joke than a respectable 3D app. Daz will have to do a lot of damage control to convince potential buyers that Carrara is worth the $250.- they are charging for it.

That part is purely pathetic...

[ Denis ]

manleystanley wrote: "Seriously how much did you spend on all that dr bernie?"

The Broadcast version is $1695 ($1595 for a qualitying side grade). The upgrades for the Broadcast version are pretty pricey as well, $595 for a single version upgrade (or you can save some $$ by purchasing an annual sevice agreement for $400 per year and get the upgrades for "free"). The upgrades for C4D Pime are less, $395 for the version upgrade (more $$ if you miss a version upgrade or two), or you can get the service agreement for $250 per year.

Unfortunately, C4D Prime is missing many af the features that are available in Carrara, as are some of the more expensive versions. If your interested, you can see the feature camparison between the various versions here: http://www.maxon.net/en/products/general-information/general-information/product-comparison.html

If you want/need caustics, and subpoly displacement, you will need C4D Vizualize ($2,295)

If you want/need any of the following features, you'll need the full C4D Studio ($3,695): sculpting, dynamics/physics animation (other than basic particles), and hair simulation and rendering.

You definitely get a full featured (depending on version), very worakble, stable, and professional product with C4D. But it also carries a true pro price tag. If you need it for professional work, then it is definitely worth every penny. But, for me, and probably for most hobby/3D enthusiasts, it's just a bit too costly to justify.

__________________________________________________________

My Rendo Gallery ........ My DAZ3D Gallery ........... My DA Gallery ......

I own the Prime version of C4D and yes, i like Carrara for some options that i don't have with my C4D version, like you mention, Caustic is one of them.

[ Denis ]

The primary things I look for when evaluating a software application like Carrara to the likes of something like the C4D Prime, or maybe Lightwave, isn't just the main 1 to 1 features that make the bullet lists of every sales page, but sometimes the value can be determined in the level of control and depth of the minor features the package offers. Hypothetically speaking, in my case, I pay a great deal of attention to the modelling features of a software, and does it have a complete and time-saving workflow in that regard. For instance, does it offer things like a knife tool, rapid edge loop creation, edge constraints, comprehensive tools for beveling, or retopology. Will it save me time doing the common things I do every day in 3D, or will I sacrifice that level of control for something like a bullet point feature that is put in there to appeal to a mass audience? Can the navigation controls be assigned to hotkeys for more fluid scene viewing? Is anything at all assignable to hotkeys for faster workflow? Or am I giving up that level of efficiency for something like strand-based hair, which I'll probably only use now and then, but looks really great in the ads?

I'm not saying that's the difference here, but sometimes those are the things people forget to consider when they buy into an application. Is the application going to improve your workflow for the common things, or will you sacrifice speed and efficiency for a better looking Vicky render?

Tools : 3dsmax 2015, Daz Studio 4.6, PoserPro 2012, Blender v2.74

System: Pentium QuadCore i7, under Win 8, GeForce GTX 780 / 2GB GPU.

I fell in love with carrara practically the minute I opened it. I've always struggled a bit with the UI of apps but with carrara is seemed to be teaching me to use it just using it.

I tried C4D and knew the UI was going to be a bit of a struggle. Maya, well I opened the demo, looked at the UI, closed it and uninstalled it. Same with houdini, and you know my stories about Blender. Lightwave wasn't bad, but the demo kept glitching on me so I steered clear.

Thing is, and as has been said, this is a hobby for me. Sure if I had the tallent an ambition to go pro I would probably step up to C4D. But would there be a need to step up if everything in carrara worked as it should?

I mean carrara has a lot of prolike features, it's just they ether don't work as well as we'd like or don't do what we expect. Carrara could go a long way just with some intence bug hunting, and updating/tweaking of the existing features.

Quote - I mean carrara has a lot of prolike features, it's just they ether don't work as well as we'd like or don't do what we expect. Carrara could go a long way just with some intence bug hunting, and updating/tweaking of the existing features.

I could agree with this. The time I spent in the application wasn't all bad, and I saw a great deal of potential with it, but that potential seemed wasted on big, sweeping, glamorous features, rather than attention to detail.

The way I see it, as is the case with most lowcost to mid-level 3D applicaitons, the parent companies have little experience dealing with professional users, and tend to stretch too wide, and not dig deep enough, in the development of tools. Most pro-level applications are run by companies that have many years of experience catering to advanced users and the software is developed with a lot of attention to workflow detail, and customization of tools. Everything from navigation, to scene measurement and snapping tools, are thought out with high level of control in mind, and provide a depth most mid-range applications lack. While Carrara may allow beginners and intermediate users the power to create things quickly, advanced users and experienced power users could quickly become frustrated with the lack of refinement, and fine control. I think this is where the investment in a more expensive package is worth it, if you can afford it.

Tools : 3dsmax 2015, Daz Studio 4.6, PoserPro 2012, Blender v2.74

System: Pentium QuadCore i7, under Win 8, GeForce GTX 780 / 2GB GPU.

That's the thing though. After doing the beta for so long I really expected much, much more from C8.5. I just find it imposable to believe the crew that worked on C8.5 is the same one that gave us a 64bit carrara. In 2 years the only thing that changed in the beta was the light icons and DUF compatibility. After all that time the release version of C8.5 didn't work as well as the last beta release, that was released what, 8 months before the final release. In 8 months time all they accomplished was making DAZ's DR.. I mean CMS mandatory?

To me a .5 release is to finish unfinished or flawed features. Tweaks and polish to existing features, possibly the intro of new yet still in beta features. C8.5 did have some of that but it seems most of that 2 years was spent shoehorning a buggy autofit in to carrara to work with a buggy figure; genesis. Which I have said has added no value to carrara. Maybe if autofit and genesis worked as well as advertised or as well as the cheerleaders say it does, my opinion might be different.

Carrara should be the stepping stone app between entry level apps like Studio and Poser, and advanced apps like C4D and 3DS. But right now it feels like a weak, wobbly step that could collapse at any time.

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/34423/

Then save out as a DUF to finish staging in carrara. The biggest pluss in C8.5. Too bad DAZ screwed dynaimc clothing in Studio4.5. And, as usually for DAZ, is too stupid to actually fix it.

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/34423/

Same one. convert the animation to studio key frames, run the sim, then freeze the animation.

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/34470/

Actually this is an old issue we have had with carrara for quite a while, the second characters clothes will "fit to" the first version of the character in the scene on opening/import. You will have to unfit then refit the clothes in carrara.

I haven't worked with the release version of C8.5; not going to as long as I need DAZ DRM to use it, but you only have oone advantage to staging your figure in Studio to transfer to Carrara, autofit works slightly; and I mean slightly, better in studio. Other wise you are making a lot of unnessary steps and wasting time.

Another example of DAZ not even being able to fix simple issues, we have had this same issue since C6.

Here's another question for you Stan.

I used Ivy Generator (the stand alone program, not Fenric's plugin-never have been able to get that to work for me). I used the Ivy Generator to generate some ivy growth on a model I was working on in Silo. I imported the ivy into Silo and then exported the entire model out in obj format. I opened the model in Carrara for texturing. All the material zones I assigned in Silo show up in Carrara as they should, but I can't for the life of me get the leaves of the ivy to render. I even imported an ivy on its own with nothing else in the scene and still no leaves at render time.

I can assign a solid color or just about any other shader to the leaves and they show up, but if I assign the standard ivy texure from ivy generator nothing renders. I've even tried using other leaf textures and still nothing. The ivy vines render just fine with its default texture or any other texture or shader, but not the leaves.

I know there must be a simple solution, but it's escaping me at the moment.

Help!

Been a while since I used the ivy generator. I'll check to see if there is a new build because this is an old one, but I'm not sure if the png for the leaves is bad; or carrara just can't read them, or if it's because the leaves are not UVmapped. Ether way I can't get a texture map or an alpha map to work.

I'll do some more checking/testing but I know this used to work quite well.

Well this is going to take someone britter then me. I can't open a .cpp to do anything with it, like fix the UVs. And the way it looks to fix it you will have to reUVmap every individual leaf.

Could have sworn this used to work great, but this hasn't had an update in 6 years so the issue may be W8.

It did used to work. I don't have Win8, so for the life of me, I can't figure out what's going wrong. I'll keep trying. If I stumble across anything, I'll post it here.

I know when I first got ivy generator I made severl sets of leaves for it and used it in quite a few scenes, but I beleve that was on windows XP. I can't recall if I used in on W7, but it is apparent it doesn't work on W8. Could be that sence it uses C++ something about C++ has changed. It hasn't actually had an update in 7 years.

I can open the cpp file with note pad, kind of looks like a .x file. But for some reason windows 8 can't read it right. But there is hope, or should I say Fenric?

** This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
** under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
** Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
** option) any later version.

I'll do some surfing to see if I might find an updated version someplace.

If this is the Ivy Generator by Thomas Luft, then the output of the alpha maps for the leaves is in PNG? Is Carrara handling the alpha on PNG maps correctly? Indeed it could be screwed up UV coordinates, but the leaves are just mapped with a simple planar UV map. There were cases of other packages not handling the PNG alpha channels for the leaves correctly, and users had to create their own alpha maps in another format for the leaves to show up in renders. Keep in mind, the leaves this generator creates are simply single-sided planes. So a double-sided material is best, if Carrara supports that, so they render on both sides. Try creating your own alpha map based on the ones generated by the generator, and save them as a different file format, like just bmp or jpg even. Doesn't matter if there's transparency information contained in the file, a simple black and white map of any kind can be used as opacity map in most standard 3d applications.

Tools : 3dsmax 2015, Daz Studio 4.6, PoserPro 2012, Blender v2.74

System: Pentium QuadCore i7, under Win 8, GeForce GTX 780 / 2GB GPU.

Ok here is a bit of a solution; if you have Hex, open the .obj in Hex, cut the leaves out and delete them by the shader domain. Then use the surface replicator to put new leaves on the vines.

I found a suposed 2012 version, but it works no better.

It's not the png textures I replaced them and found the leaves aren't actually UVmapped, or mapped in a way carrara can read it.

Yes, Bryce had some trouble with Ivy Generator's leaves. I remember that.

Stan, the leaves not being UVmapped in a way Carrara can understand makes sense. I tried to load different leaf textures to replace the originals and still got nothing. If I'm going to use ivy generator, I guess I'll have to replace the leaves.

I tried Fenrics ivy generator plugin again, but I'm still having issues. I have to add the textures manually (not a huge problem) but for some reason, no matter how much light I shine on the ivy it will not render as anything more than a dully lit object. Confusing.

Anyway...Thanks, guys.

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/32811/

Oh for the love of Mike stop with the drag and dropping. It might be the best way to get props in to a scene but not dress a character. DragNdrop and double clicking do not load clothes the same way. You actaully end up with more poke through dargNdroping then you do selecting the figure and double clicking the clothes, as well as saving you self a few extra steps.

Note: If the DAZ mods weren't such zealots this info would be on the DAZ carrara forum not deleted every timeit is posted. the over moderation of the DAZ forum is why no one actually knows about well known issues; well know as in actually reading carrara forums not affiliated with DAZ.

> Quote - http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/32811/ > > > > Oh for the love of Mike stop with the drag and dropping. It might be the best way to get props in to a scene but not dress a character. DragNdrop and double clicking do not load clothes the same way. You actaully end up with more poke through dargNdroping then you do selecting the figure and double clicking the clothes, as well as saving you self a few extra steps. > > Note: If the DAZ mods weren't such zealots this info would be on the DAZ carrara forum not deleted every timeit is posted. the over moderation of the DAZ forum is why no one actually knows about well known issues; well know as in actually reading carrara forums not affiliated with DAZ.

Sorry Stan, but I'm not seeing that in 8.5. Left figure had the clothing dragged into the scene and fitted to the first Genesis character, the Right figure I double clicked to load the clothing as you suggested.

As far as I can see, the poke through is identical.

ncamp

In the beta there was a big diference. None the less drag and drop adds steps.

Doesn't matter to me because I am done with this. Tired of trying to make carrara work because DAZ doesn't care to produce a quality product or abide by it's promeses.

Basically I love carrara, but am sick of DAZ.

question for manstan et al

how do I make a smart prop in carrara ,?

that is one that loads onto a figure's hand in the directory and also has its hot point xyz on said figures hand's hotpoint?

tanks in advance

Quote - question for manstan et al

how do I make a smart prop in carrara ,?

that is one that loads onto a figure's hand in the directory and also has its hot point xyz on said figures hand's hotpoint?

tanks in advance

Interested in this as well.

I saw something about doing in poser and then editing the cr2 (??) file, but that would be cheating cause it's not carrara :)

oh it's here :)

https://support.smithmicro.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2033

Quote - oh it's here :)

https://support.smithmicro.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2033

Hm. Cheating looks pretty easy. :)

ha ha :) yes, you think it would be easy :)

all those smart props floating round the universe - how many free swords can daz give me for being in the pc club for example?

ah we have one hundred and 8 tools to help you smash a skull, 75 to slice an arm, 45 shelds, 27 fancy pointy rings ,

knew it had to be easy :)

Quote - ha ha :) yes, you think it would be easy :)

all those smart props floating round the universe - how many free swords can daz give me for being in the pc club for example?

ah we have one hundred and 8 tools to help you smash a skull, 75 to slice an arm, 45 shelds, 27 fancy pointy rings ,

knew it had to be easy :)

Forum: Carrara

Subject: The Ask Dr Stan Thread: