Novica & Forum Members Tips & Product Reviews Pt 11
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I picked up Leviathan's Trendy Comfort Outfit and am trying it now. I don't go for something quickly, but my experience with Leviathan has been excellent. Many of the pieces are simple, but attetion to detail is high. The dForce outfits just seem to fall right with little or no adjustment.
Thank you to all the vendors for the 3.99 items. Very thoughtful. @mely3D @Imaginary3d @LeoLee @gypsyangel @ARTCollab @ARTCollaborations
I was totally stoked about the Gypsyangel character for that price.
Agreed. Mariah was the only item I've purchased, (not including freebies,) in over a week.
Snap! I got that too
I actually needed something DO to use up my PC+ coupon - I picked up some of RiverSoft's back catalogue a couple of days ago with the $6 off $18 one. I had trouble spending the coupons this month (usually they're gone by the end of the first week) but I've bought so little this month except two Pro Bundles where I couldn't use them because of the freebies eating up the coupon. Normally there are lots of other opportunities but this month has been a bit dry on "good" sales.
I haven't used either of my coupons this month and it looks like I may not. Will be the first time in three years I haven't used them both. I would have used them on the Daz Originals that were PC+ for the day but they weren't elegible because they were techinically pc+ for that day. So I just didn't buy any lol. Its weird but strangely freeing to not be sucked into the store every day. I did pick up the V4 to g8 converter and the Dforce magnet items but I think I have only made 5 or 6 small purchases this month. And I am quite happy about that lol.
My Platinum Club expired 24th of January and I didn't feel the need to renew it so I missed out on the $3.99 deal. Figures. For me, no Platinum Club means no puchases, except possible the 4 remaining 3DU Toon Animals (Toon Ostrich, Toon Vulture, Toon Dodo Bird, and Toon Baboon) I haven't bought that are the same style as At the Zoo/At the Farm Bundles but not included as part of them.
Seems weird not being in the PC+ for the 1st time since March 2016 and I spend lots of money in that almost 3 years. I guess I'll join up again when Genesis 9 has Toon Pro Bundles I want or 3DU releases a new toon critter, if only for a month (or I guess 3 months).
I've only used the Daz Original PC+ coupon this month, and unless $18-worth of must-have bargains show up in the next couple of days it looks like it's staying that way. It might be the first time I've ever not used both coupons.
No regrets, though. I've been spending like crazy on sales from the PA sale in August(?) through to Christmas, so it's nice to give the wallet a rest. A chance to prepare for March Madness (let's hope it's significantly madder than it was in 2018!).
Yes, MM last year wasn't quite as exciting as previous years, so let's hope for something really good this year.
I spent a small fortune on PA sale / PC Anniversary / Christmas run-up too, so this month has felt a bit like a rest.
Question for everyone. I install everything with DIM. I have zero interest in instally via connect or using Smart Content. In the last several months I have noticed empy entries in my runtime. Not just empty in my custom catgories but in the main files. DIM says these files are installed (and they were, they just recently started to randomly not show up). All of these files show at the bottom of the product list in daz studio under the alphabetic letter they belong to. They all show up as connect files. Most of the time, I can go into DIM, uninstall, then re install and they show up again. Several of them outright refuse to show up when installed with DIM, no matter how many times I install and uninstall. Keep in mind, these are all files I have had installed with Dim before and worked just fine previously. I'm actually kind of pissed that its trying to force me to install them with connect. I've pretty much gotten the run around via DAZ. And I'm not talking a couple files here. Its a couple hundred items.
@icedragonart Sonja, can you give some examples so we can check ours too, and see if it's a common problem with those specific files?
creature creator genesis 2 hd, wear them all g3f and m, wyvern, wyvern 2, streets of asia 2 .simple fabric iray shaders, sea dragon, plane easy atmosphere, polar bear by Am, night life v4, genesis 8 male body morphs, genesis 8 female head morphs, grassy ground mega pack, iray light manager pro. to name just a very few. I could go on all night.
Because of problems with the database I mostly only use root directories. I move content manually and don’t use product view at all. I now have a far better understanding of where stuff is and the mistakes that are getting made with file locations because of this. It takes some getting used to to reorganize at the root level, but I now no longer have issues with messed up database. Because I don’t bother with those any longer.
Well for example the Wear Them All prpducts are 'hidden' in that they are fitting clones I believe only and you'll only notice they are installed by the increased number of 'Autofit' dialogue choices you are given.
And for all the DAZ Originals Genesis through Genesis 8 head and body morph and expressions products they have no user available preset icons just sliders in the Parameter or Shaping tabs.
And so on probably for most products you mention.
Yes I am aware of that. That's not the problem unfortunately, I've had to go in and uninstal and reinstall from DIM because they just went missing, I was getting error messages from items that use those. Once I re install those messages go away. But like I said, that's a very small sampling of items, there are well over a hundred items that are missing and its across all categories, not just morph, but characters, clothing, environents, shaders and lights.
I don't even know where to look for that kind of stuff. I have a bit of a fear of messing with things as I've screwed up my installation once or twice. It was not fun...Even less fun than the issue I am having now lol.
Yeah, you can definitely mess things up if you don’t know what you are doing, but for me the benefits outweigh the cons. For example now my environments and props folder are properly organized because I move stuff around manually. So for example vehicles are in their proper place all the bathrooms are in one folder, the negative of course is product view no longer works,but it was lame anyway because who wants to see textures and figures all lumped together.
Hello Dazzers! :) No one here has mentioned this, but I assume others got the email about taking a Daz3d dForce survey. I just completed the survey and was surprised/so very not surprised to find that the "survey" was very, very narrow, and had no provisions for comments, and simply put, no room for the nuances of reality that impinge on dForce buying/using calculations. There were very few questions, (like ? 5? -I forgot to make a note how many) and no comment box.
Examples: For clothes with poses/rigging and dforce, will you dForce (this Q is paraphrased here, but captures the gist): Answer choices: very likely; likely; neither likely nor unlikely; unlikely; very unlikely
...likely that you'll buy clothes that support dForce? Answer choices: very likely; likely; neither likely nor unlikely; unlikely; very unlikely
The problem with these super reductive questions/answers is, there is no other choice, no option to clarify things that matter, such as: Whether I dForce a clothing item isn't really on a "very likely; likely; neither likely nor unlikely; unlikely; very unlikely" spectrum so much. (Speaking for myself only) There's a HUGE difference in the dForce arena between MALE and FEMALE clothing which is not something the survey considers. So, will I dForce clothes or not? If it is a male item, and is an item like pants, and the figure is standing, and the rigged/conforming etc pants are working just fine, then NO, why would I futz with dForce?! With a few exceptions, then, my response to the question as it was written would probably be most truthful as "UNLIKELY," since I generally USE MALE figures and clothes and very, very seldom use female figures. Cumulatively my answers might suggest to a survey-studier that I'm anti-dForce or at least, just not that into dForce, but that's really not the reality.
Will I buy clothes that support dForce? Well-- when clothing is attractive, well made, the price is appropriate and I want the clothing, then... I will want the clothing. ;) If it is dForce on top of the first considerations, that's okay too, if it is a clothing item that needs or at least benefits from simulation and is not priced with a dForce "tariff". But the bottom line in a buy decision (speaking for myself, only) is conditioned on many things, not simply dForce support. Here at least the "neither likely nor unlikely" could be understood to mean "dForce ain't the Decider" to the survey-studiers . Will I dForce or use the poses/rigging.... well, it depends on the clothes, the pose and other particulars. An outfit that supports dForce and has 3 items, might need NO dForce to look swell, or it might need 1 piece dForce, and the other 2 posed, in order to work with a given character and pose, for one obvious example of how these decisions can play out--but where can I communicate that in these answer choices? Is that likely, or unlikely? Or "neither likely nor unlikely!?"
A very TROUBLING question in the scanty survey was one that asked HOW LIKELY to buy clothing that SUPPORTED dFORCE but was NOT RIGGED in the traditional way. For me this was VERY UNLIKELY, and I hope that others will similarly rebuff such an idea. Being reliant on unstable and tempermental simulation that has so many constraints and considerations as the only means of using clothing would be flat out unacceptable to me at this point. In a generation or 2 of development that might be entirely okay, but for me, not now, not this year, probably not next year.
I frankly dislike much of the dForce clothing in the store, and abandoning traditional rigging would also serve, I suspect, to increase the the very thing I hate about lots of dForce clothing items: the tendency to let dForce carry the product while things like details and construction nuance slip by. So many dForce clothing items look like they were cut with scissors out of raw fabric or paper; there's no sense of the thickness of actual fabrics, and no sense of welting, seams, plackets, or even HEMS along the edges of the fabric--while some outfits at least put faux stitches in the textures, some don't have any such details in the model or the maps. Sure, that is okay if the figure is far enough from camera, or will be presented in a stylized, abstracted way. But for all the talk of how much realism iray provides us now, with dForce and iray, we should be able to have close up portraits with clothes that show the thickness of the fabric and binding around a character's neck, for instance; shirts don't just consist of a sheet of raw fabric with some buttons stuck on the front, there's things like, you know, hems, plackets, seams, welting, binding etc. For me, dForce is not a magic buy button that can carry unsatisfying product across the finish line.
I AM EXCITED by dForce, despite the above kvetching. It is very amazing and a big plus to have such power in Daz Studio, and the many ways that clever users are stretching the boundaries of what dForce can do--and be used for--are inspiring. But I'm still not ready to be put in the position of having to rely on it or stop buying new clothing items. So far, I've never had a figure, clothing or daz studio explode or crash while dressing via the good old conforming/parenting methods in my years of DS-ing, and that sort of "it just works" is not something I want to give up in favor of playing russian roulette with every piece of clothing. Although, put like that... there's an argument for simply having my characters stay naked. :)
What about you guys... have any thoughts on dForce and or the survey?
~Gen
I woould suggest giving Daz feedback since these are user-to-user forums. Use the contact us link at the bottom of any page.
I haven't seen any survey on dForce. I think your comments are very fair, I use dForce a lot (typically not on clothing) but it's not entirely stable even with dForce ready clothing I have used.
I didn't get a survey either.
No survey for me either. Maybe it's not aimed at people who are already buying this stuff? I do actually know how to work with unrigged Dforceables, from some experiments with dforcing Poser dynamics, and I've flirted with buying some unrigged Dforce products on rendo, but they were on sale for $5-7 at the time. I certainly wouldn't pay the kind of money Daz charges for new releases for an unrigged DForce product.
I would imagine that the survey was a random sample, within some specific group.
I did get the survey. I also said I would not buy dforce unrigged clothing, because I have and hated it.
I purchased a sweatsuit at another store which is dforce only. It requires dforce to simulate, and it takes forever to pose your character wearing it because it requires simulating to even get an idea how it will look. Simulation on my machine takes at least 15 minutes if it doesn’t error out. Which is half the time.
in general while I think dforce as a tool. I prefer conforming clothing. Conforming men’s wear just looks better to me and dforce is more expensive and tends to look less realistic plus it ads time to my limited time using Daz and the exults are kinda meh.
I have bought dForce items, so I would assume the survey did not exclusively target non-dForce buyers, but who knows what factors did play into survey invitations. Spending patterns or thresholds? I do know I mostly buy items for males, rarely female items, and there are fewer dForce items for males than females, and many of the male dForce outfits aren't appealing to me, so admittedly my dForce wardrobe is relatively small at present compared to the *large* assortment of regular clothing I've bought. I'm just surprised that others did not get the invitation-- I expected that this would be something worth surveying the entire "active" customer base about; at least, say, ALL platinum club people, who by virtue of being subscribed to an ongoing service, could be considered people who are actively engaged with Daz and potentially worth quizzing about dForce and such decisions Daz might be taking regarding dForce going forward.
~Gen
Thanks, @RGcincy ... YOU are actually one of the people I had in mind when I wrote in that post: " ...It is very amazing and a big plus to have such power in Daz Studio, and the many ways that clever users are stretching the boundaries of what dForce can do--and be used for--are inspiring." : )
~Gen
I actually own the majority of men's otufits for Gen8 Male. So I am a heavy consumer of dforce and non-dforce clothing. Overall, I prefer the non-dforce men's clothing. It has more detail.
I did get the survey and likewise answered it would be an unlikely purchase if the clothing wasn't rigged the traditional way too. I actually wrote the question down, it said, "if no conventional rigging support..."
And I thought- "UGH. No way would I buy it."
Thanks to the survey coupon I just paid 95 cents for Lee 8
Got a $11 GC with the coupon (yes, it is valid on GCs), then bought Lee 8 using the DAZ O Platinum coupon, and I still have $1.27 left on the GC.
And yeah, unrigged dforce clothing would probably not be something I'd buy.
Does Daz share the reults of surveys with PAs or are they usually internal? I can't imagine many people who have use dForce happy with removing adjustments. In general I think there's been a decrease in quality in more than a few dForce sets .. the Make me a dress set for example.
I've never been asked to take a survey - the gift card would be nice:-)
How did you get the coupon? Is it a purple banner or did you get it by email? I haven't gotten it yet unless it's a banner.