SereneNight's Sci-Fi Fun Thread 2

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Comments

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,245

    I'm also finding that very obvious mistakes, like missing files, are not caught before release into the store. QA and product quality seem to have slipped dramatically, I submitted 6 help requests about issues with the products I got in my Scar 8 Pro Bundle purchase. None of those help requests got fixed within the 30 day window, so I uninstalled and returned the whole order, including all the freebies. I agree with zombietaggerung. If customers keep broken products, Daz has no incentive to spend any effort (i.e.money) on fixing them or preventing that kind of error in the future.

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651
    edited August 2020

    I agree. And if I didn't like this product so much, now that I fixed it, I would return it.  I have concluded the trouble ticket system is mostly just there to make the customer feel they've done something.

     

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  • nonesuch00nonesuch00 Posts: 18,131
    edited August 2020

    I am displeased. Why isn't Stuff at DAZ Store being better tested? This is the second HDRI set with a weird file structure. You'd think HDRI's at least would be easy to test. Do  I have to fix everything? If so, my consultant fee is 30 an hour. It may not seem like much, but my time is valuable too. 

    We used to have to install & setup a machine just to test products so we would find bugs like you just found. It was hours and even days and weeks of work. We never, ever did QA level testing with a product except if it was packaged and installed the same way a customer would download and install it either.

    The testing before that time was supposed to have been done by the developer and if the developer didn't do that because the way the QA had to run their tests it would catch the bugs the developer didn't. Also, eventually packaging and final compilation of the products was taken completely away from the developers and we were tasked with writing instructions that a lay person secretary without even any computer science or information technoglogy training could do that worked for the Configuation Management department to check, compile, link, package, and checkin the products. Writing those instructions error free and completely with no steps skipped was such a hassle and they would not let nothing through until those written instructions were correct even though with a little experience they knew usually what to do. 

    Nowadays, they don't even have to go through that much work. They have a VMWare or similar virtual machine Virtual OS Image at the ready with DAZ 3D and just the DAZ Starter Essentials / DAZ Genesis through Genesis 8 Essentials installed and then they test their new product and look at the required products that product needs and install those prerequistites and than install the new product and then they have to methodically test every preset, new morph dial, and subD settings to see if that all works. It's a lot of work. For an HRDI though there'd be much less work needed to be done.

    When the testing was through they'd shutdown the virtual machine without saving the changes they made to test so a the "New OS / DAZ Studio Image" would be ready for the next new product. Still a lot of work but you're not new installing an OS and DAZ Studio & the DAZ essentials content everytime you have to test a new product. 

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  • vwranglervwrangler Posts: 4,889

    I agree. And if I didn't like this product so much, now that I fixed it, I would return it.  I have concluded the trouble ticket system is mostly just there to make the customer feel they've done something.

    I'd suggest filing the ticket anyway, both to document the issue and to see if/when they fix it from their end. Especially if it doesn't matter to you because you fixed it yourself, it might be instructive. For what it's worth, I've got another product by the same vendor, and it's not throwing errors, but the scaling on the HDRI settings is wildly different from item to item -- one will be scaled so that it makes sense to put a character in that scene, and another will be scaled so that what you see is a very close detail of a picture frame in what should be a full room scene.

    As far as tech support goes, I've been getting wildly different responses from different issues, and I can't tell what the difference is.

    There was an issue with Davac that wound up literally fixing itself with a Studio upgrade (and an accidental one, at that -- I didn't plan to install .114 at all, given the issues that have been reported), but which Support started working with me on very quickly, and they kept working and updating me. It was absolutely unlike anything that's happened with them in the past couple of years, apart from very quick and easy stuff. (Given how Support has worked lately, it was like they'd been taken over by hyperefficient Martians.)

    Meanwhile, back in what seems to be actually normal these days: Yvanovich Bun hair is not getting addressed -- I suspect that Daz simply isn't communicating with the vendor/can't get them to respond, and/or can't figure out what the issue is (and it is a weird issue) -- and the only reason that Ice Skating Princess was fixed is because Hypertaf released Fury, posted in the forum, and that gave me a way to contact them directly. And it was an INCREDIBLY easy fix, once they knew about it. And then, once Hypertaf submitted the fix, it took another month for it to work its way through QA to DIM.

    Daz seems to be having issues at both ends of the process. QA isn't finding some incredibly obvious errors, and is frequently taking a long time to address them in the first place, or to fix them (if they ever get fixed) in the second place. It's so bad that it really stands out when you get what should be fairly normal service.

    Nowadays, they don't even have to go through that much work. They have a VMWare or similar virtual machine Virtual OS Image at the ready with DAZ 3D and just the DAZ Starter Essentials / DAZ Genesis through Genesis 8 Essentials installed and then they test their new product and look at the required products that product needs and install those prerequistites and than install the new product and then they have to methodically test every preset, new morph dial, and subD settings to see if that all works. It's a lot of work. For an HRDI though there'd be much less work needed to be done.

    When the testing was through they'd shutdown the virtual machine without saving the changes they made to test so a the "New OS / DAZ Studio Image" would be ready for the next new product. Still a lot of work but you're not new installing an OS and DAZ Studio & the DAZ essentials content everytime you have to test a new product. 

    I will admit, one thing that puzzles/annoys me is: I understand why they have a clean machine, and each product gets installed, tested (... apparently) in isolation to make sure that it works as intended, and then removed. What I don't understand is why they don't have another system -- and granted, it would need to be a monster -- that has almost everything installed. All the duplicate formulas and other errors that we keep running into, they would then see and be able -- eventually -- to track it down on their end. (That said, another thing I don't understand is why Studio doesn't automatically report both/all products that conflict, when it runs into them. You'd think that tech support, early on, would have said, "Developers. You know ... having Studio report all parts of a conflict would be really helpful for us.")

    I do not understand how this company works these days, no I do not.

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651

    I still have a ticket for Yvanovich hair that is over a year old. I suspect that hair will be repaired when Gen 9 is released, if then.

    This is the second HDRI set I've had to correct by this PA. I did submit a ticket. (Okay twist my arm), but I just find that proces tiresome. This is an easily repeatable error, that should've been found in testing. Therefor I can conclude that the packaging phase must be the issue. 

  • vwranglervwrangler Posts: 4,889

    I still have a ticket for Yvanovich hair that is over a year old. I suspect that hair will be repaired when Gen 9 is released, if then.

    At the moment, I plan to bump the ticket again at the end of the month, on its nine-month anniversary. And I may point out that it is beyond irresponsible (and terrible business practice) that a product known to have severe problems, which they have not addressed for whatever reason, is still available for sale in the store. Having a product known to be broken and which you cannot/will not support is simply wrong. (I dare say that either returns on that product are truly astonishing, or it's just old enough that it's out-of-sight/out-of-mind, and hasn't sold a single copy after the first month or so.

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,245

    If you have an open ticket on a product that doesn't get fixed, CS told me you can return it for a refund, even though the 30 days are up. Your useless 9 month old product sounds like a good candidate. I just asked for a refund yesterday on something that hasn't been fixed after several months. Send them a message and get your money back. 

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651

    I think yvanovich was part of a bundle. Can you return a bundle bit?

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651
    edited August 2020

    Does anyone else have this set? https://www.daz3d.com/sbibb-wonder-and-curiosity-poses-and-expressions-for-genesis-8

    It seems another product with problems

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  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,245

    I don't have that pose product, but the results look like what happens when you use a pose for the wrong generation. 

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651
    edited August 2020

    Out of curiousity I tried it on gen 3 male and it didn't work either. There are about 6 poses I could see with significant flaws. Another ticket was submitted.

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  • vwranglervwrangler Posts: 4,889
    barbult said:

    If you have an open ticket on a product that doesn't get fixed, CS told me you can return it for a refund, even though the 30 days are up. Your useless 9 month old product sounds like a good candidate. I just asked for a refund yesterday on something that hasn't been fixed after several months. Send them a message and get your money back. 

     

    I think yvanovich was part of a bundle. Can you return a bundle bit?

    Looking at my order, it looks like it was part of something for PC Anniversary month, for me, and there's just no way to pull all that insane pricing apart easily, so I think I'm stuck with it.

     

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,245
    I doubt if you can return part of a bundle, but I've never tried.
  • SBibbSBibb Posts: 599

    Does anyone else have this set? https://www.daz3d.com/sbibb-wonder-and-curiosity-poses-and-expressions-for-genesis-8

    It seems another product with problems

    Sorry you're having trouble with the pose. Can you test applying the pose again, but make sure to select "Leave Limits On?"

    I did a quick check with that pose and I got that same weird angling when I allowed the limits to be turned off.

    It's an unfortunate quirk with that set because I didn't know about how to prevent the limits from going over, and the issue wasn't brought up to me at the time. (I had other sets with this issue, so I got used to automatically selecting the leave limits on option.

    It was brought up with a later set and I've been trying to make sure that the rest of the sets don't have that option unless the limits actually need to be turned off. I may need to see if Daz can add a note to the description mentioning to leave the limits on, or if there's a way I could batch edit the files so that it doesn't try to exceed the limits.

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651
    edited August 2020

    Oh, I turned limits on for the figure and off before complaining.. .The issue happens whether limits were on or off. There was no info that limits should be on, in the product nor a warning this was needed... But I always test both ways. It doesn't seem to matter...

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  • SBibbSBibb Posts: 599

    I remember running into this issue the first time it was brought up with a later set, and I found the dialogue popup was an option you had to select.

    For me, it always pops up the warning as to whether to turn on or off limits.

     

    If  you go to Edit --> Preferences -->"Content" Tab

    Underneath it should be a Pose Shaping/Preset Loading Option:

    Click "Show the Presets Exceeds Limits dialogue."

    That should allow a popup to appear when you select that pose (or any with exceeded limits), and you can then tell it to "Leave Limits On."

    That should give you the correct posing.

     

    I'll have a screenshot in a moment.

  • SBibbSBibb Posts: 599
    edited August 2020

    All right, here's the screenshot. Hopefully that will let you get to the dialogue box. :-)

     

    If it still doesn't work, let me know.

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  • SBibbSBibb Posts: 599
    edited August 2020

    EDIT: Double-post, sorry about that.

    Post edited by SBibb on
  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651
    edited August 2020

    Great! Thanks. That does appear to work. How odd that It doesn't turn limits on, when I ask it to do so... though.

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  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,245

    @SBibb  since you have learned more about how to build poses now, will you correct the products with the problems? The product Serene Night referenced was only released a few months ago. Leaving the products in this state will certainly cause problems for users and discourage future purchases of your products. Your PA reputation is a valuable thing worth protecting.

  • SBibbSBibb Posts: 599

    Great! Thanks. That does appear to work. How odd that It doesn't turn limits on, when I ask it to do so... though.

    Awesome. I'm glad that's working for you. That should help out with a few other pose sets that have similar problems. :-)

    barbult said:

    @SBibb  since you have learned more about how to build poses now, will you correct the products with the problems? The product Serene Night referenced was only released a few months ago. Leaving the products in this state will certainly cause problems for users and discourage future purchases of your products. Your PA reputation is a valuable thing worth protecting.

    I should be able to get the set corrected, yes. :-)

    I'll need to finish the current couple products I'm working on that have an impending deadline, but after that I'll go back and see about making edits to this one.

    (As a rough timeline, of the two projects I need to get done first, one I expect to complete this weekend, and the other I need to have done by the end of this coming week, so I should be able to get the corrections shortly done after that, if not on the side during this week. Then it would just be a matter of waiting for those corrections to go through PASS.)

    Would you like me to contact you once I've submitted the updates?

    Though Wonders technically has the fix described above, you do have to dig a bit to find that fix if the dialogue option was turned off, which is definitely not the most intuitive.

    I'll see what I can do about getting the poses fixed so that even if the dialogue pops up, it shouldn't look any different (or it will be there because it was intended, or is minor enough to not cause issues).

    I also took a look, and it seems like Wonder and Curiousity should be the only set affected at large by the issue, since it was pointed out to me in the Dreadful Pirate Poses set. (I did a quick check there, and anytime the limits dialogue popped up, it was either a minor adjustment or not visible. I did find one issue with a hand that appears to have snuck through if limits are turned off in the Pirates set, so I should probably make a correction for that one, too, though everything else looks to be all right or as intended.)

    If you do run into problems with any of my other sets, let me know and I'll see what I can do. :-)

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651
    edited August 2020

    The Parisian Loft HDRI. 

    I really like this set. It includes an option to have furniture or no furniture. The no furniture option is very cool, and provides a somewhat etheral dream-like quality to these pretty empty rooms.What I typically do with my HDRI is include the lights that come with https://www.daz3d.com/epic-skydomes-mystical-island-cave-16k-hdri 

    If you have the second set, it includes three lights , which always seem to look good with Boyd. They are very strong, so you can adjust or turn them off. They must be unparented, since by default they are parented to other things. I use these to add rim lighting. 

     

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  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,245

    Thank you for planning to update the sets. You do not need to notify me. DIM takes care of any update notifications.

  • HylasHylas Posts: 4,988

     

     

    What outfit is this?

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651
    edited August 2020

    Owen visits the base's physical therapist. Boyd watches anxiously

    The massage stool and pose comes from Zeddicus's Massage Equipment and Poses

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  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651
    edited August 2020

    Eli HD for Holt 8 is a realistic male figure, with fair skin, tats, and horrific scar option ala Jonah Hex.  He has several tat options, and the usual eye options. Including an option for a receding hairline. The only issue I see is his nails are grayish , which I find distracting. Overall, he looks good. Very realistic. 

     

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  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651
    edited August 2020

    Coming to your favorite dating app, this charming fellow is Summer Camp Killer by Josh Crocket. He is a fully articulated character, with HD, and two skins normal and transparent. This is transparent option. 

    Because of the length of the arms, and the shape of his hips, poses might be slightly challenging. I opted to downsize his upper arms slightly using the Show hidden Properties and x-scaling his arms to 74 percent. It helped not have that weird spaghetti arm thing happening.  I also scaled his right thigh longer so both feet touched the ground, as this pose made one foot float. 

    He has a weird looking navel, and some flat unformed looking nipples. Perhaps that... For the best.  ?

    Anyway, I like him. I'm going to have to have him show up in rural virginia... Really soon. 

    For Added fun, I gave him Crypto Skin

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  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651
    edited August 2020

    The discharge room is a room where people can flee to escape danger. There are chairs, lockers, and some sort... Of... Piloting mechanism joystick  (this chair is for lefties only).  Unfortunately, scaling on these chairs is very awkward. Even Owen who average daz male height...  is sort of cramped. But the chair itself is kind of tall. I don't know. It is both big and small at the same time!  The location of the joystick mean you will have to lean forward to use it, and given the way the chair is designed you seem likely to be ejected out, when the chair moves. I'm not sure... I understand.

    The set renders nicely, but this needs to be fit to scale. It looks odd to me. 

     

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  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651
    edited August 2020

    CC Jack looks pretty good. I wasn't going to buy more Holt 8 stuff, but I like this figure, and he has lots of options. This one is definitely worth picking up.

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